MAIWO Dual Bay RAID Enclosure for SATA 3.5" HDD with Cooling Fan, Type-C USB 3.1 SATA Enclosure with 4 Raid Modes (1/0/JBOD/NORMAL), 48TB Capacity Expansion

It works. It has cooling, sufficient for ordinary HDDs, I recommend those with lower RPM. "Works" is an important feature, because many similar devices do not work. While the electronics is somewhat old already, a RAID1 with quite inexpensive HDDs will save you from warring about infrequent, but very unpleasant storage crashes.

I've used two MAIWO RAID enclosures before but they were for 2.5" SATA disks. They worked well. Step 1: install drives Step 2: upon power up all 3 RAID LEDs are steady indicating the default normal mode. Step 3: Set the switches for the desired RAID mode Step 4: Press and hold the reset button for 5 seconds. The appropriate RAID mode will light up and be in that RAID mode. Step 5: Format the RAID drives. Step 6: Copy data. Step 7: Set appropriate fan speeds. I don't know why so many people didn't read the manual with complaints that none of the RAID settings worked. They had to press the reset button. It's in the manual! I took off a star because of the cooling solution. It looks like the fan is just cooling the circuit board but there are grooves to stop it from pulling air from behind the case. The seal at the rear of the case is not air tight so I taped it over. I can feel air go in the front ever so slightly and if I put a thin piece of paper or plastic it will stick to the front indicating there is suction from the front. That said it won't cool the space between the 2 drives because the back of the circuit board is sealed. Air will flow around the drives but not through the 2 drives. See picturers for what I mean. As for speeds I was able to copy at 175MBps from a 10TB WD Elements USB harddrive to two 10TB HGST 7200RPM drives in RAID0 on a MAIWO . Task manager pegged both drives at 30% utilization. I also copied from 5TB toshiba x300 drives using a USB dock and the Maiwo RAID0 volume was using 100% utilization with the USB cock drive only using 30%. Transfer speeds were only 75MBps. A laser thermometer showed 80deg F on the front and sides and 84deg F on the rear fan while copying files to it. Ambient was 72deg F. I like the look of it and that it's elevated to keep it cooler. I wish it didn't use the other 2 RAID LEDs as activity LEDs but I understand the cost saving to keep everything on the circuit board side of the case.

Bought this to back up my Synology using Hyper Backup using it in JBOD mode. After running the backup job for a period of time, the Synology would report that the disk was ejected improperly and the backup failed. This happened on multiple occasions, so I took the disks out of JBOD mode and ran the drives independently, manually splitting the backup between the two drives. Got the same error. I read an article on Reddit about similar issues that were evidently caused by the different chipsets between the NAS and the drive. Using a USB hub was the solution, so I bought the same one mentioned in the article that resolved the problem, but I got the same error, and after that attempt, the NAS wouldn't even attempt to mount the drives, with or without the hub. I moved it to my Windows system and tried reformatting the disks to NTFS, but I received "fatal hardware error" messages until Disk Manager would no longer respond. I couldn't even access the disks through DISKPART. I swapped out the drives with another one, and it still wouldn't function properly. I ended up returning the unit, as I could no longer trust it for backups on any platform.

The chassis is made of metal, and has a nice feel. Strong and sturdy. The installation of the matching HDD's was pretty straight forward. The only drawbacks are not actual operational paperwork and the speed of the array after configuration as RAID1 is really slow. I placed 2 8tb how's in RAID 1 configuration and plugged the box into a USB 3.2 pirt. Average write speed from an NVME M.2 PCI4.0 SDD was only 20 mps. When using the 8tb drives directly connected to the 3.2 USB port ithout the RAID enclosure averaged a speed of 220mps. So for backups, it's going to be slow (time wise) if you have a lot of files.

Solid metal parts and built to hold drives firmly. Feet/handles on top and bottom make for convenient placement on my desk. RAID operation does require a bit of setup, but then works just fine.

I installed two 2TB SSDs in this MAIWO 2-bay USB 3.2 enclosure and configured them as a RAID 0 volume. When it’s working properly, it is very fast. I consistently see excellent read/write speeds that are close to the limits of USB 3.2, and everyday file access feels instant compared to a spinning hard drive. However, I did experience a few occasions where the enclosure appeared to fall back to USB 2.0 speeds (around 480 Mbps). In those cases, the only fix was power cycling the enclosure. It doesn’t happen all the time, but it’s concerning when it does. Physically, the enclosure feels extremely lightweight — almost paper light. The plastic shell is thin, and the internal control board does not feel particularly sturdy. This is not a heavy, overbuilt enclosure like higher-end OWC units. It works, but it does not inspire confidence in long-term durability. The fan does its job, but it is audible in a quiet room. It’s not loud or annoying, but you will hear it — especially if you’re used to quieter premium enclosures. Setting up RAID 0 was also a bit tricky. You really need to follow the instructions exactly, or you’ll run into issues. I ended up double-checking the process and using external guidance to make sure it was configured correctly. Once set up, it works well — but it’s not completely beginner-friendly. I even installed macOS Tahoe on the RAID volume as a test, and it boots and runs fast with no issues. Performance-wise, this enclosure delivers. That said, after recently experiencing a failure with a MAIWO 4-bay enclosure, I do have concerns about the long-term lifespan of MAIWO products. This 2-bay unit is fast and functional, but given how light and plasticky it feels, I question how it will hold up with heavy or continuous use. Bottom line: Excellent speed and good value for SSD RAID use, but build quality and occasional USB speed drops raise concerns about durability. Great performance, just don’t expect premium construction or long-term peace of mind.

I have two 16TB drives in this little enclosure and run it with an Intel NUC5 Core-i5 running Linux Server. I replaced a large tower case with this setup, which does the job fine, fits in less than half a shoebox and is almost completely silent. I couldn't be more pleased.

I could not get RAID 1 to work. When set to RAID 1, only one disc was recognized by Disk Manager (the other showed as an unallocated volume). After I created 2 simple volumes and put it into the NORMAL mode, both discs mounted. After I made another I attempt to build a RAID 1, only 1 would mount and the other appeared as an unallocated volume. I tried setting the DIP switches with both power on and off, and pressing the reset button for at least 10 seconds after powering up. Connection was USBC. Disappointing. It is otherwise a sturdy, stylish enclosure.