If I put four of my hard drives which already have bunch of data into this device, can I still use my hard drives without deleting any of the data? I'm just looking for something that I can connect all my HDDs with my laptop at the same time... If I put four of my hard drives which already have bunch of data into this device, can I still use my hard drives without deleting any of the data? I'm just looking for something that I can... » Read More If I put four of my hard drives which already have bunch of data into this device, can I still use my hard drives without deleting any of the data? I'm just looking for something that I can connect all my HDDs with my laptop at the same time... « Show Less
889481
I do not think so. This is the RAID version of the enclosure so it will reformat the drives to a single volume. Look at the non-RAID version and it might be able to do what you want.
69911
You'd have to mount the drives as JBOD, which this model does have as an option.
889482
Not if you configure them as a RAID, which makes a single virtual disk of all 4 hard drives.
889483
No. All existing data is lost and the drives are reformatted in creating the RAID.
533746
Yes you can, its like having two hard drives connected independently only via the same cable.
291734
I would never consider a 4 TB boot drive because I do not believe it's a great idea to keep data on the boot drive, for many valid reasons. I would also never build a system with a traditional platter HD. I installed an SD in my laptop, saw what I'd been missing, and installed one in my primary desktop. Best upgrade I ever made.I use WD Caviar Black drives for all of my data, as secondary drives. One issue with 4 TB drives is that some devices for streaming will not recognize them at all (Such as the WD TV Live).
999992
I'm not an expert on the program, but i use 2 seperate HDD's with it and it caches/works for both of them at the same time if that's what you mean. If you're asking if there is a way so it only works for the 2 HDDs and not the SSD's, I'm not sure.
1185050
Recently I added a drive with data to mine. and I was able to restore the data, Back it up and format the drive for a new use. it worked well. I was using windows 7, I am not sure of the format I believe it was NTFS.
2097578
I think it probably has something to so with the power consumption of the devices that you're connecting. If, for instance your connecting 5-7 hard drives chances are they're not going to all be recognized as they draw a great deal of power. While Ive not done it myself, Im thinking if you connected 7 USB thumb drives, that they would be recognized.
1476645
The hard drive may not have a partition created on it yet. Follow the instructions in the link below to create a simple partition on the HDD. If there is already 1 or more partitions on the HDD, it may just be unreadable. http://www.howtogeek.com/101862/how-to-manage-partitions-on-windows-without-downloading-any-other-software/
81521
i've looked for all kinds of ways to hook multiple drives up to see if the card handles different drive address but i don't have any way to hook more than one drive at a time so i can't answer the question yes or no. other than windows having a limit to the number of drives it can address, if you had some sort of sata hub, it would seem that the number of drives would be handled the same as usb devices connected through a usb hub. i did a search of amazon for some sort of sata hub and came up with this. LaCie eSATA Hub by LaCie i have no idea if this would be of any use to your situation. sorry for not having a definitive answer for u. i've looked for all kinds of ways to hook multiple drives up to see if the card handles different drive address but i don't have any way to hook more than one drive at a time so i can't answer the question yes or no. other than windows having a limit to the number of drives it can address, if you had some sort of sata hub, it would seem that the number of drives would be handled the same as usb devices connected through a usb hub. i did a search of amazon for some sort of sata hub and came up with this. LaCie eSATA Hub by LaCie i have no idea if this would be of any use to your situation.... » Read More i've looked for all kinds of ways to hook multiple drives up to see if the card handles different drive address but i don't have any way to hook more than one drive at a time so i can't answer the question yes or no. other than windows having a limit to the number of drives it can address, if you had some sort of sata hub, it would seem that the number of drives would be handled the same as usb devices connected through a usb hub. i did a search of amazon for some sort of sata hub and came up with this. LaCie eSATA Hub by LaCie i have no idea if this would be of any use to your situation. sorry for not having a definitive answer for u. « Show Less
399817
You sure can, I have four drives in actually. Good case to use for any basic build. Just be careful with large RAM, I did have to get creative with my new corsair 8gb because it was interfering with one Hard drive
2010167
Format removes everything from any drive. They only way it data could stay on the drive is if it were partitioned into more than one drive. Then you would just have to format both partitions, but this is only one.
1775463
Yes - I have several of 4TB Seagate drives as well as a number of 3TB and other sizes. I have not had any problems.
1002294
According to WD pre-sales, you can't connect it direclty to two computers simultaneously. You can connect it to one computer at a time. Hope this helps
1593493
Yes. I have had a computer had a 500GB plus a 1.5TB. And another with 2 SSDs which are relatively small volume and a 2TB HD. As long as you have the power and connectors you are free to add in as many of any size as you want.
375678
Yes you can. As a matter of fact I just did about a week ago due to the fact that 4G does not last long at all so I got another hard drive for it and it was very easy to install. It will take about 1 minute to install another hard drive. Now my son never gets off of it and has enjoyed it. Best birthday gift he has ever gotten.
1611174
My drive failed data transfers and was unusabe. It showed 256G but even 4G could be stored and retrieved before it was loosing files and crashing. Would not recomend unless you were interested in saying you have a 256G drive that you can show. Just dont use for anything you want to keep.
2227781
You are supposed to be able to do that, but I have had many problems with this unit. Even just one hard drive plugged into this didn't work properly. It would eject the external hard drive all the time. It work fine in the beginning, then suddenly stopped working.
1759299
Assuming the problem you had is not with your hard disk (it is still spinning, no head crash.) This is exactly what you need. After you connect the cable, one side to your hard drive, the other side to the USB slot on your laptop, your old hard drive will become just another drive on the laptop. You can do whatever you want with it. I even used it as another drive to back up my data.