OWCMercury Elite Pro eSATA/FW800/FW400/USB3.1 (8TB)

My computer was misbehaving in very peculiar ways…I thought it was done. But rather than jump into a major replacement expense, I tried the 4 TB model. My problems were solved and my budget was protected.Wonderful drive. Highest rating.

These are so hard to come by and I've purchased two of these over the last year. I use them as hidden eSATA drives that are installed no where near the DVR's.They work as intended with zero issues.2024 update: Still working

When I came across this enclosure, I was looking for a Mac-friendly (FireWire 800) enclosure that supported larger 3-4 TB hard drives. There aren't many out there from established brands such as OWC, but FireWire 800 has always been a difficult to find connection anywhere aside from very Mac-specific products. Glad I found this one, though; it was effortless to set up, looks great next to my MacBook Pro, and all 4 TB were ready for use immediately after plugging in. Some folks may need to reformat their hard drives based on the previous state/use of the drive. I did not.For those of you wondering (as I did before purchasing), I am using Mac OS 10.9.0 on a late 2011 15-inch MacBook Pro (2.5 GHz QC i7), running everything through FireWire 800. Let it be known that this drive also daisy-chains other FireWire drives quite nicely trough the second FireWire 800 port.Finally, while I won't likely use the included USB 3.0 or eSATA ports any time soon, they're good future-proofing in case I eventually upgrade my Mac. Also, the blue LED on the front is incredibly bright, and acts like more of a nightlight than an "on" indicator at night. Just FYI. Not a real issue, but it's quite noticeable in a dark room.

After years of digital collecting as we all do, I needed a larger drive to back up my three single 1Tb SSDs - this was the answer and OWC is the best company to deal with!My drive failed after using for a period of time, but with a single call to OWC Support, they were cooperative, supportive, and walked me through their return process. Within a week, I had a new replacement, and have been using it for more than a year now without issue.THANK YOU OWC.

I've been using Mac's since the last shipped with OS 9 before OS X began. I really like external hard drives connected via FireWire 800, now to a Thunderbolt adapter. It has become difficult lately to find enclosures with FW800. This OWC Mercury Elite has two FW800 ports which allow me to connect to computer and other FW800 external enclosures so I can access my photos. I have a 4TB hard drive in the first of these OWC Mercury Elites that I purchased. It was as easy to install the HD as it has been with other enclosures I've used. No problems thus far with the computer recognizing the drive. The HD doesn't rattle around inside the enclosure. The enclosure seems adequately manufactured. Time will tell about its sturdiness and longevity. This review is being written after purchasing a second of these enclosures. I bought another to hedge against not being able to find one again when I need it.I'll come back and revise this review should that be necessary.

eSATA and FW800 functionality was fine, but USB ran into multiple issues. Drive wouldn’t stay reliably connected and wasn’t able to access S.M.A.R.T. data from Windows and Linux computers. I looked closely at the electronics and found soldering issues. (See pic) After several weeks of investigating why Windows backups to the drive would fail, I pulled the HDD and put it into a different enclosure… there, I found the drive reached over-temperature for many many hours and was now reporting bad sectors. In addition to waiting for an RMA from OWC, I might have to request one from the HDD manufacturer. Wish I had caught all this during the 30-day return window.

I own stacks. Our production company runs rows of the externals. Excellent. No mechanical failure in ten years. However, do not expect customer service. Learn how to work masses of data, multiple externals, don't make mistakes. OWC will not / cannot help you.

Correction to the following review I recently made:"Unfortunately, I didn't realize that they sent me the wrong size HD with FAR less memory space then 1 T (which is what I purchased) until over a year later when I really stated using it for major storage, and it filled up WAY to soon. Very upsetting. Makes them seem very very untrustworthy."Actually in Disk Utility on my mac, it actually showed the correct size of 1 TB for the drive, but it showed the drive being full (999.99 GB) from only about 6 GB of data actually on it. I called OWC customer service and tech support and they were VERY helpful with walking me through the process of inspecting the drive in the disk utility, backing it up, erasing it, and copying over the original 6 GB of data. The drive now properly shows 6 GB, not 999.99 GB of used data in the disk utility. I am VERY please with the customer service, and hopefully I will not have any further issues with the drive. Tech support did mention that this is not an uncommon issue with these OWC drives, but it is an extremely easy fix and they are very helpful at getting it resolved.

i was worried it may not be compatible on an old 2010 macbook with High Sierra 10.13.6 - it worked perfectly using the fire wire.

Quando l'ho comprato ho notato che al contrario di tanti altri utenti, era totalmente silenzioso. Contento, dunque. Solo che — cosa mai successa in più di 30 anni con tutti tipi di hard disk e di sistemi operativi — dopo soli 8 mesi l'app DriveDx ha rivelato degli errori molto seri a livello hardware. A tal punto che ho dovuto subito comprare un altro dello stesso modello (già che è praticamente impossibile comprare i LaCie col firewire, che avevo utilizzato da un paio di decenni). Attivata la garanzia, reso quello difettoso ad A. e ottenuto il rimborso. La cosa curiosa è che quello nuovo, infatti sì, fa rumore, comunque molto attenuato usando i piedini di silicone in dotazione. Adesso vediamo quanto durerà, forse tornerò a modificare le 3***.

Very disappointed. Have purchased many items from Amazon and OWC and this is the first time the box had been opened and items were missing. The hard drive had hundreds of files recorded on it. Only one was relevant - the owners manual. So, this drive was previously used and not new as indicated on the box and in the description online. The included cables were part of the reason that I purchased this drive. However, two of the three were not included. When the drive was hooked up to my Mac, a message came up indicating there was a problem with the drive.It’s obvious that someone messed up. On top of all of this, I can’t find a number anywhere to call and talk to a customer representative about this problem. Not good!

Worse customer support ever? Products are garbage.. no details.. you’ll find out on your own hahahah thumbs when you see