Cavalry Storage CADA-SA2 Series 2 TB USB / eSATA 2-bay RAID Personal Disk Array CADA002SA2-B – Includes eSATA Kit
- USB 2.0 (USB 1.1 backwards compatible) and eSATA interface
- Plug and play for Windows 2000 and newer (pre-formatted to NTFS), preconfigured to RAID 1 (mirrored, total usable capacity is halved in RAID 1)
- Configurable to RAID 0, 0+1 and 1
- Unit Includes – One (1) year manufacturer’s warranty, two (2) 1 TB 3.5-inch hard drives installed in a dual bay enclosure with built-in fan, USB cable, eSATA cable, eSATA bracket, AC adapter, Resources CD and Quick Start Guide
- System Requirements – Available USB port or eSATA port, Windows 98SE / Me / 2000 / XP / Vista
Product Description
The CADA-SA2-Black Series offers an unbeatable combination of RAID data protection, 3.0Gbit/sec eSATA speed and a vast storage capacity of 2 TB (1 TB mirrored). This dual-bay disk array features swappable hard disks and a built-in RAID controller. The unit arrives preconfigured in RAID 1 to protect your important data – if one drive fails, replace it with an identical drive and the data will automatically rebuild. Leave it in RAID 1 mode for automatic background rebuilding and optimum security for your files, or configure to RAID 0 for increased data reading and writing speeds. Factory default is RAID 1 GUI mode, but also supports RAID levels 0, 1 and 0+1(safe 33/safe 50). Its SATA interface provides a faster boot process and quicker loading of programs and data. Ideal for saving hefty files, video, music, protecting databases or working directly on the drive, it delivers high-capacity performance and data security. The unit is factory pre-configured in RA… More >>
Cavalry Storage CADA-SA2 Series 2 TB USB / eSATA 2-bay RAID Personal Disk Array CADA002SA2-B – Includes eSATA Kit
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5 comments
T. Neal on December 1, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Setup is a little painful because they provided incorrect/insufficient documentation for the product (even on their website). Luckily I was able to contact customer service and she walked me through the setup (this included dis-assembling the drive array). Long story short, I have a nice 2TB RAID config, but can only get it working correctly with USB.
Ernesto Sabogal Gomez on December 1, 2009 at 3:56 pm
I was kind of worry after buying this disk because although I had read some reviews it wasn’t after I bought it that the bad reviews appeared.
Documentation
No paper documentation, only a CD but really it is very bad.
Installation
Some reviews talk about hours of doing this correctly. When it arrived: shutdown computer, plug in power to the disk, plug esata cable to disk – computer, turn on disk, turn on computer, during POST the message of new drive recognized, into windows, into disk manager, format just in case, done. Five minutes. I am using Windows 7 RC x64.
This disk arrived RAID 1 as I needed so no problem or messing around changing to RAID 0 or RAID 0+1.
Performance
I used Everest to benchmark the disk.
Linear Read Middle: 74MB/s
Buffered Read: 101.8MB/s
Average read access: 12.98ms
Just for comparing, the results with my internal WD Velociraptor 300GB:
Linear read middle: 103.1MB/s
Buffered read: 245.8MB/s
Average read access: 6.87ms
Real performance:
I transfer a folder with +4400 files, 13.3GB from internal drive to this unit in 4:32, gives a rough 48.9MB/s
A second transfer with +28000 files, 92.9GB in 25:15, 61.3MB/s.
Not bad, in the “normal” range.
kkfredde on December 1, 2009 at 4:31 pm
It was difficult to install, directions have alot to be desired. Drive is shipped with the drives unplugged from the socket, this requires the disassembly of the unit. Drive is also shipped raid “1,” wanted raid “0.” After 1 day of toying with the drive I got it to work. If you are uncomfortable with taking apart the unit and building a Raid array you might want to opt for a single drive thats plug and play. So far no problems with the drive. I do like the esata option, much faster read/write times compared to USB. I build high-end gaming machines, so I am used to building multi-array systems.
Norm W. Donaldson on December 1, 2009 at 7:27 pm
The documentation for this procuct is incomplete and required direct contact with the maunufacturer. That being said, once up & running it is an excellent value.
Kaymee Photography on December 1, 2009 at 9:38 pm
I purchased this model because of the price and options, specifically being able to plug it in to an eSATA port. After getting everything setup (more below), the drive has worked wonderfully. With the included WD drives, the drive verify and storage is very nice. It works great as a backup system.
Now the problems. Setup was a bear! Given the fact that documentation is non-existent out of the box, I had to “rebuild” the drives twice, at over 12 hours EACH! The drive is supposed to be PnP, and maybe it is, but there were no clear instructions on setting it up. I plugged it in and it didn’t work. I played with my eSATA connection and couldn’t get it to work. I plugged it in to a USB and it worked fine so no drive issue. I then plugged in the included eSATA port and then couldn’t figure out how to “format” the drives, so the 2nd rebuilding began. Finally, I found instructions online and after skipping 3-4 pages, found where to setup the software to make it work.
Without that setup fiasco, this product would be rated higher. It has worked fine for me since.