If you’ve read Hivelogic over the last few years, you already know that I’m a backup fiend. My setup has changed a bit since I wrote that article, but the emphasis is still the same: I really like redundancy when it comes to backing up my data.
I use a Drobo for Time Machine and media backup. I store my photo and video libraries on a LaCie 2TB 2big Quadra with RAID mirroring. And I backup the LaCie and my MacBook Pro’s drives using SuperDuper! to external drives. Yes, you read that right … I backup my RAID drive, mainly because it’s used as primary storage, and as a rule, all primary storage should have a backup.
Why so much redundancy? I’ve spent many years around computer hardware and I’ve seen just about every kind of failure you can imagine. Drives are almost always the first thing to go. And with the cost of hard drives dropping every day, it makes sense to have good backups with multiple copies.
But external drives are expensive — in many cases far more expensive than an internal version of the same size drive. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to use the cheaper, internal drives as external storage, with the added ability to rotate them out and create a better, more reliable backup solution?
Enter the Voyager Q
The NewerTech Voyager Drive Dock Quad Interface ($99 at Other World Computing) is one of the latest generation of SATA I/II hard drive docks, and in my opinion, the best looking and easiest to use. The Voyager Q sports every interface available (USB2, eSATA, FireWire 800, and FireWire 400), so you can use it easily with just about any machine, unlike most of the other available drive docks (like the Thermaltake BlacX and the Vantek, which support only USB). I’ve got a handful of machines and don’t know what machine I’ll have several years from now, so having multiple inputs means I’ll be able to connect the Voyager Q to pretty much any machine I’ll have in the future. Having both FireWire and USB ports has the added benefit of being bootable by both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs as well. Handy if you clone your boot drive in case of an internal-drive failure.
Unlike a lot of other drive docks on the market, the Voyager Q actually looks like it belongs on your desk instead of in a workshop or lab. It’s made from high quality black plastic, with a silver inset where you insert the drives. The four rubber feet are industrial strength and factory-attached so they won’t come off when you slide the Voyager Q across your desk. The included cables, one for each port, are also high quality. There’s a hinged flap that folds down when you insert a 3.5-inch drive, so things look nice and neat when you don’t have a drive inserted.
There are two FireWire 800 ports as well, which means you can daisy-chain the Voyager Q to your other FireWire devices easily. My drive-chain currently includes the LaCie, the Voyager Q, a Drobo, and terminates into an M-Audio Firewire Solo recording interface which I use for podcasting. Each device works perfectly this way, and I have only one cable to plug in to the MacBook Pro for access to all of those devices when I’m docking up.
It Just Works
How do you use the Voyager Q? Just plug it in using the interface of your choice, insert a 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch drive into the top (they can only go in one way), and the drive mounts automatically. You can now partition, format, and access the drive just like you would with any normal external drive. Of course you can access the drive using any port you’d like as well. This is really handy if you happen to have used up all of your FireWire ports — just plug the drive into an available USB slot, and you’re all set.
The Voyager Q also lets you hot-swap drives. Just pull the drive out or use the eject level on the front of the device (make sure you’ve ejected or unmounted the drive in your operating system of choice before you eject it).
Fast, Quiet, and Cool
I’m a big believer in ambient noise, so I’m not fanatical about devices being silent. While that’s true, I don’t care for noisy devices, either. Without any mechanical parts, the Voyager Q itself doesn’t make a sound. There are no fans to make noise, no bearings to wear out. The only noise you’ll hear is the sound of the hard drives you use spinning up when you dock them, or clicking quietly when you access them. There’s really not much of a need for a fan, either, because most of the hard drive is exposed to the air of the room itself, which does wonders to reduce and eliminate heat, assuming the room itself isn’t very warm.
Drives that have become too hot to touch in other enclosures, even ones with great fans like Weibetechs and Drobos don’t even get warm when you use them with the Voyager Q, and less heat means a longer lifetime for a hard drive.
Final Thoughts
The NewerTech Voyager Q is exactly what I was looking for. Easy to use, multiple interfaces, compact size, industrial strength construction, and quiet operation. At $99, it’s not the cheapest device out there, but it’s made well and sports every interface I’ll need for the forceable future.
And thanks to the Voyager Q, I even have a new offsite backup solution. I just make a clone of my data onto a spare drive, and drop it off to a friend over lunch once a week, and he does the same, with two drives in rotation. In a worst case scenario, I always have at most a one-week-old backup available at any time. Sure, you could do the same thing with a safety deposit box, but Tex-Mex is better when shared.
Update (7 March 2009)
I’ve written a follow-up to this article answering a handful of the questions I’ve received via email and in the comments below.
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.
RSS
Tyler Hunt
02 March 2009 at 11:32 am
If you have both Firewire 800 and 400 devices, would you simply place the 800 devices first in the chain?
Dan Benjamin
02 March 2009 at 11:34 am
@Tyler - great question! So long as you put the slower devices later in the chain, things seem to work perfectly. I have a handy cable that has a FireWire 800 interface on one end and a FireWire 400 on the other, which I use to make the transition, although I believe you could just use the normal FireWire 400 port on the Voyager Q to handle that for you (but I haven’t tried it).
Ryan Schwartz
02 March 2009 at 12:05 pm
Sounds like a great idea, Dan. How are you storing your external drives when they’re not in use? Do you have some sort of cases for them, or do they just live in static bags in a fire safe?
John Bjerke
02 March 2009 at 1:15 pm
Any problems with frequently handling exposed internal drives? How do you store the ones that are not in use?
Don
02 March 2009 at 1:59 pm
I keep the little plastic lunch tray-like boxes that come with OEM drives as my storage for such exposed drives. Using common sense, i haven’t killed any of them yet using my non-name brand dock that’s similar, but no Firewire (boo).
Michael J.
02 March 2009 at 3:01 pm
This looks good for internal drive protection.
http://www.caselogic.com/compact_portable_hard_drive_case/product_detail/index.cfm?modelid=80400
jimothy
02 March 2009 at 3:22 pm
Is dust a problem with bare drive docks like this?
Cat
02 March 2009 at 3:31 pm
Works only with SATA drives. IDE/PATA drives need not apply. A shame.
emg
02 March 2009 at 3:39 pm
If you don’t need portability, this one works pretty well and doesn’t take up desk space:
http://is.gd/ltyf-
And for storage, this is the most practical I’ve found:
http://is.gd/ltw7-
I didn’t buy their pink foam though, I use the antistatic bags and the black foam that comes in the case.
Patrick Malley
02 March 2009 at 3:46 pm
You backup to this and your Drobo? SuperDuper for both, I assume? Why not just swap a Drobo disk? Will it not work this way?
Dave Lehman
02 March 2009 at 4:36 pm
Any recommendations on hard drive brands to use and/or avoid?
Bone
02 March 2009 at 4:39 pm
This sounds great. Good to hear it passes muster.
I have one question. Are you using an external in the Voyager to back up the LaCie raid?
Please explain that specific scenario - hardware/software used and the plan you follow for that drive. I have the same LaCie, for the same purpose as yours, and I would like some idea about backing up that drive.
Thanks!
- Bone
Lew Kopp
02 March 2009 at 5:03 pm
I have the original Voyager dock (which looks very much like the BlacX one but still has all the ports) and I think these cases are the best buy available for storage of bare drives.
http://www.wiebetech.com/products/cases.php
Works out to $5.50 each in a 10 pack.
Jonathan
02 March 2009 at 5:46 pm
At 1/3 the price (and 3x the ugliness), this one is also worth considering:
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=EN391-S2HC&cm_mmc=geekmail-_-daily_html-_-17dec08_pcamgal-_-pcamgalproduct
I have used it for a few months with no problems. I just put the bare drives in an anti-static wrapper and bring them to my office, where they sit in my desk drawer. I don’t lock the drawer, but I do store sensitive data in encrypted disk images (which are then backed up like regular files).
nex
02 March 2009 at 6:04 pm
so it has every kind of interface for connecting it to your computer, but what kind of interfaces does it support on the other side? will it accept IDE drives as well as SATA drives? let’s look that up ... nope: “2.5” & 3.5” SATA I/II drive connector.” well, that’s not perfect if you still have older drives around that you’re still using, but it’s good enough.
i’m just hoping that more devices of this kind will keep coming out and that prices will go down. i wouldn’t use half of that thing’s features (only got 3.5” drives, my computer doesn’t have eSATA, nor Fw800), so 100 bucks is too much for me. i’d buy it if it had two drive slots you could use concurrently, and supported RAID 1 with hot-swapping. i know i’m asking for a lot there, but to me this is just an external hard drive enclosure that is oversized and unwieldy for the sake of making swapping out disks a little easier. considering that you’d need to swap disks a lot less if you just got three normal enclosures for the same price, that’s not quite the killer feature to me. (granted, those cheaper enclosures wouldn’t have as many different external interfaces, but they could have one or two of your favourite ones.)
Andrew
02 March 2009 at 6:20 pm
Like Patrick, I’m a little confused. What exactly is the role of the Drobo other than hosting Time Machine backups? Is it also Time Machining the LaCie?
jason
02 March 2009 at 7:31 pm
I assume that this is based on the connection firewall sata usb but do the drives that run in this run constantly and do not go to sleep when in use with a MAC?
Please correct me if im wrong but isn’t the only way to get a drive to sleep after x minutes is if it is hooked up via a esata or firewire with this device? USB2 will not sleep?
Also the Vantek can support all the same connections esta firewire usb 2 ect for half the cost and looks good
NexStar Hard Drive Dock
NST-D100UFS
http://www.vantecusa.com/front/product/pro_list/70
Ken Liu
02 March 2009 at 8:44 pm
I don’t get it. Surely you could find two identical generic empty SATA enclosures for less than $50 each? This is much cheaper than buying those overpriced external drives.
If you are going to rotate your drives off-site once a week, then it would make sense to protect the drives from damage while in transport. I think you would want to reduce the risk of damage (such as from static electricity) caused by handling bare drives all the time. Don’t you want to protect your backups from loss as well?
I have two identical generic FW400 enclosures that I use for rotating off site - they cost about $40 each, but have internal power supplies (no brick) and came with very nice padded carrying cases with a strap.
Daniel Markam
02 March 2009 at 9:47 pm
I guess I am wondering along with Ken as to why you don’t use aftermarket enclosures. I picked up two for around $12 each off of NewEgg. They work just brilliantly, are sturdy aluminum and are powered off of the USB port. I would be interested in the merits of the system you are using versus the setup I mentioned.
Also, and in another note: SuperDuper? Super duper. Now that, I am in complete agreement and understanding.
Grover
03 March 2009 at 10:24 am
For those of you looking for a place to put the drives while they aren’t in the dock, I’ve actually just been using an over the door shoe organizer bolted to the wall in a closet to store mine. Something like this…
http://bit.ly/meNGj
Looks decent and gives you great access to whichever drive you need. They’re the perfect size to store a single 3.5” drive and would work great with Lew Kopp’s drive cases I’m sure (thanks for that, I’ll be making a purchase of those later today). It’s also a great way to store your spare cables and such for easily finding them later as well.
And while I can’t swear I’ve clicked on every link in the comments, every link I have clicked on that is supposed to show a cheaper solution is a device that has USB and eSATA, but NOT Firewire. Enclosures and docks that have USB and eSATA are indeed cheap and plentiful, but this is the first one I’m aware of that supports either flavor of Firewire for that price, which is much more prevalent for Mac users than eSATA for reasons clear only to Apple.
Also while an enclosure for one or two drives does make more sense, a dock is much more convenient when you have a lot more drives. I’m backing up 2TBs onto 4 500GB drives on regular basis, and then I also use old external drives as a way to archive Final Cut projects, with the original full quality DV footage. Just tossing the drive into the dock is much simpler that hooking up USB and power to each drive one at a time.
Paul
03 March 2009 at 7:20 pm
My concern with this docking station is similar to that for the Thermaltake BlacX that being that if it uses a bridge board to support Firewire and/or USB then this will impact on its performance when using eSata. If performance (i.e. transfer speed) is an issue (and if the Voyager Q does use a bridge board) then you would be better off sticking with a pure eSata solution.
Michael J.
04 March 2009 at 8:58 pm
One problem with the Voyager electrical design is that the FW800 passthrough ports are only active when the power is on. If it’s not last in the FW chain, and you accidentally hit the front-mounted low-friction power button, your drives later in the chain will suddenly unmount. Oh well. Don’t put it first!
Ted
05 March 2009 at 9:17 pm
I just got a Voyager to back up a 30 gig/wk photo habit. It is working well on the firewire800 chain from my G4 Powerbook.
Connecting this on a firewire 400 chain caused a system freeze when I tried copying large Photoshop files between Voyager and an outboard drive. Has anyone had this experience or does it indicate a problem in my system. Cable swaps would not make the problem go away.
As the instructions recommend shutting down the Voyager before inserting or removing a drive, it should be placed at the end of the chain. Whether this precaution needs to be observed or not, I don’t know.
On the whole, I’m happy with this unit. It is very sturdy and might look to the uninitiated like a strange electric pencil sharpener.
Here is another solution for storing raw 3.5 inch drives when not in Voyager:
http://usb.brando.com.hk/prod_detail.php?prod_id=00638
I’ve ordered two of these, but I haven’t received them yet. It looks as if they come unassembled. On another board someone spoke abpout finding plastic pencil cases at .25/ea that just fit. The source was Staples.
Craig
06 March 2009 at 10:57 am
Dan great article, I am in the middle of putting together a solution and want to share a solution to rotating BU’s that I worked out with Dave from SuperDuper.
**********
Dave,
Got a question, I want to buy one of the SATA docks like this one,
http://www.newertech.com/products/voyagerq.php
put it on my server and daily swap in and out an A and B drive so I have the previous two days backups onsite. On the weekend I would like to put in a weekend A and B and rotate them in and out so I have the previous two weekends backed up and always have one offsite. We have discussed this in the past and you said even if I named all the scripts and drives the same it goes by the drive ID so it would not work. Is there a way to do this?
Craig,
SuperDuper doesn’t lock a drive choice to its name. Rather, we use its
low-level UUID, to avoid problems when users rename drives (or have two drives named the same). So, by default, this won’t work.
However, you can use a tool that we provide to set the UUIDs for the drives you want to rotate the same. They need not be named the same.
To do so, use the little program called SDDiskTool that’s inside the SuperDuper bundle. It’s in SuperDuper!.app/Contents/MacOS/SDDiskTool. You’d use:
./SDDiskTool -g /Volumes/some-disk-name
to get the UUID. Then, to set it, you’d use:
sudo ./SDDiskTool -s the-UUID /Volumes/some-other-disk-name
So, pick the one you want to be the original, and set all the other UUIDs to be the same. Then, no matter
which one you have attached, we’ll write to it.
The SuperDuper! bundle is the application itself. You Control+Click on it and then “Show Application Contents” to get into the bundle. But you’d have to do this in Terminal to get it to work.
—
Dave Nanian
Shirt Pocket