DataWhale 2 Bay RAID System
The DataWhale 2 Bay RAID system comes in a very attractive packaging. The box comes with an easy to carry handle coupled with detailed description of the unit.
The box gives detailed images of the unit along with detailed specifications to give the buyer a good background of what’s on offer before a purchase. Opening up the box you see the well packed DataWhale drive enclosure along with the box containing the power adapter and cables.
The package consists of the following components.
- 1 x Data Whale Drive bay unit
- 1 x Power Adapter with cables
- 1 x eSATA Data cable
- 1 x USB Data Cable
- User Manual and screws
The eSATA cable included with the package is of very high quality and it’s very nice to see Onnto Corporation keeping up high standards on their products.
Looking at the rear of the unit you find two latches which can be pulled up in order to release each drive bay out of the DataWhale to install the drives.
The rear panel consists of all the connectors for the unit, namely the power, USB, and eSATA connectors. Also there’s a power switch and a DIP switch (Also called the Mode Switch in the manual) which allows you to choose which RAID type you want to use. The DataWhale 2 Bay RAID system supports JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks), RAID SPAN, RAID STRIPPING and RAID MIRRORING. If you’re looking for a simple explanation for these RAID types click on this link.
Right next to the DIP switch is a small reset button which cannot be seen clearly in this picture, however it’s there. Each time you change the type of RAID system used, you need to press the RESET Switch so that the RAID controller recognizes the change. To keep the drives cool, there’s also an exhaust fan, which is very quiet.
Going to the front of the DataWhale system, there are 2 LED lights for each drive bay and a single LED at the top centre of the unit. The outer casing of the DataWhale unit is made of Aluminum and the two drive bays are made of plastic. Overall it’s a very well built system and kudos on ONNTO Corporation for their efforts.
