At this point I am leaning toward simply replacing the old drives and using the OWC enclosures I already own. I've done some reading at DriveDX support regarding enclosure compatibility but there are no specific recommendations, just general information. The difference in cost is also substantial. I'm not interested in a 4-bay enclosure since I want the added security that individual enclosures offer against failure and I definitely do not need nor want a RAID. I assume that it also means the enclosure is SMART-capable. He told me that it supports SMART but it sounded like that was a function of the included SoftRAID software that comes with the enclosure.
Drivedx install smart pro#
The OWC guy did offer to sell me an OWC Elite Pro Quad enclosure with a 30-day return (at their expense) if it doesn't meet my expectations. (He asked tech support about the individual enclosures.) Furthermore, the latest Mercury Elite Pro build also does not support detailed SMART reporting. To my surprise, the support person told me that it is the enclosures that are the culprits.
It indicates that the drives are OK but I don't think that I can really trust the veracity of the info.Īnyway, I contacted OWC support and asked whether it was the enclosures or the admittedly ancient drives that is limiting the SMART data. Unfortunately, the OWC enclosures are not capable of transmitting SMART data except for a "vendor specific" health indicator. (External enclosures require installing a special driver.) Yesterday installed DriveDX and I am impressed with the amount of information it provides regarding internal and external drive status. That probably why they have lasted so long. The other for a SuperDuper! bootable clone.
one is used for a daily Time Machine backup. The drives are only intermittently mounted for backups e.g. I own two OWC Mercury Elite Pro enclosures running Samsung drives.