MAIWO 4 Bay Hard Drive Enclosure with USB-C & 10 Gbps Speed, 4-Bay DAS Design for 3.5” SATA HDDs with 2 Cooling Fans, USB3.1 HDD Enclosure Daisy Chain Expansion, DAS(NO RAID)

This enclosure replaces an Akitio Thunder3 Quad enclosure that was not working with my mac. This Maiwo enclosure works with Windows and macOS. No additional drivers needed.

((UPDATE: When using a proper cable (Thunderbolt 4) the unit CAN be used in the back ports of your Mac mini M4 AND the HDMI works with no issues.)) This device is an absolute bargain. It features four hard drive bays and is an ideal enclosure for backup drives. The exterior is made of aluminum, while the interior is plastic. However, it’s not suitable for everyone. I’m using it with a 2024 Mac mini Pro. When connected to the Thunderbolt 5 ports on the back, it doesn’t function. It works perfectly with the USB ports on the front of the machine. I couldn’t get the HDMI port to work, but since I don’t need it, I’m not using it. CAUTION: all the pieces are slightly rough around the edges, and some of the edges are razor-sharp. You could easily get cut.

Buyer beware! Read the reviews on this, they are accurate. Purchased this April 4th. Died tonight, two months later. Seems to be a power issue. Nothing wrong with the power block the best I can see. The indicator light is illuminating anyway. But for whatever reason when I flip the power to On, the power LED basically turns of for a fraction of a second then turns off and nothing happens beyond that. No start up, no fan movement, no additional lights turn off. In short this thing is a total brick. I wanted to love this thing. Functionally it was great for the last two months. Had no issues installing my HHDs. Speeds where alright. Seemed like a win at the price until tonight. I checked the manufacturers website and the instructions given to combat an outage were futile. I'll attempt to reconcile this with there customer service department but from what I've read it sounds like its an uphill battle to find a resolution that doesn't involve buying another unit. I hate wasting my hard earned money and that sadly is how I feel tonight. Such a shame.

First off, the external drives system is very easy to set up and to get started. Comes with all tools needed except readable instructions unless you happen to have a microscope. That or a telephoto eyes! The instructions were useless they were made so small... 1 star dinged for that.Next, in the description it was stated you could use 'software raid' with this enclosure which was what I was interested in because I wanted to get away from the hardware raid that often becomes glitchy with the OS unless the drivers are updated regularly. Well... 1 star ding for no software raid support. Tried every which way possible other than basic disk type structures (single drives only, no spanned / stripped or anything of the sort in raid configuration)The fans are relatively quiet, though I wish there was a dust cover or an easy way to attach one to the front to keep dust out. Being the case is aluminum, magnetic won't stick and there are no screw slots. Still, a plus star here.When installing the drives, it was fairly easy. Loosely tighten the screws so the drives still slide then screw the tray in place. Nowslide the drive into place and hold it firmly in place to the sata port while you tighten down the screws. Repeat for the second drive on that tray if one is there. +1 star for ease.Lastly, the ease of using the window management window to format through... +1. Again, if only spandisk would work here or. Basic software raid like they claim.3 star total. I wish I could give more. It really is deserving of it. It is very sell made and solid! Well thought out and great construction. Even with the issues I am happy with it.

The drive bays were solid, had all the necessary screws, and while it wasn't flawless to install, you get what you pay for, and it delivers on what it advertises for everything I've tested. it only lost 2 stars because it arrived without the necessary power adapter brick to power the damn thing. i tried to contact the company, but they stopped responding, so i eventually just ordered my own with overnight shipping.UPDATE: the seller reached out and remedied the missing power supply issue, refunded the price we paid for the new power adapter to our original payment method! lovely customer service, highly recommend!

Case is solid aluminum which is great however Drive trays and SATA interface are plastic resulting in bad fit. HDMI output also not working. Instruction sheet unreadable. Power supply not working.

Love this thing - super solidly built, and not *crazy* loud (but the small fans on the back could use some work). Easy to. setup and does exactly what I need. Running 4x6tb drives out of it, and they run totally fine. If you're looking for RAID or something fancier, this isn't going to get you there (unless you want SWD RAID) but for JBOD it's great.

The chassis is solid aluminum.You can toggle each drive on and off by the switch on the back and you can daisy chain multiple enclosures.Biggest complaint is that the drives aren't hot swappable. So you have to undo 6 screws on the bottom and 5 screws to undo the drive holders (2 drives on each holder) and then the 4 screws holding in each drive.So in my case I had to put in 2 drives. I used 8 Screws for the drives, 5 screws for the 2 bay holder. and 6 screws to fasten the enclosure to the chassis.Now if I wanted to add another drive I have to do the same in reverse. But for the other drive bay.But hopefully the drives that are in there won't need to be moved around.