Applying the innovative storage design concept from the original Storage Tower, the Mini Storage Tower features increased portability and almost half the size and weight of it's predecessor. The Mini Storage Tower stores up to 4 standard 3 1/2" or four 2.5" Mobile Racks, and comes with a low noise cooling fan and stylishly designed with a swinging front panel for easy drive access. Similar to the Storage Tower, all the hard drives inside can be connected to computer via a single USB, eSATA, Multilane cable or 4 eSATA cable with a choice of different back panel configurations.
Example of back panels with different interface connection
Using the back panel with eSATA or the latest SATA Multilane connectors, you can build yourself a high performance (up to 3 Gbits/sec using SATA II) external storage system or a terabyte storage farm, and connect it up to 6 feet away from the computer system! Any SATA hard drives inside the Mini Storage Tower can be easily converted into eSATA (the latest external SATA standard). Each drive can be connected directly to a eSATA host controller for maximum throughput in any system. For better cable management, multiple SATA hard drives inside the Mini Storage Tower can be connected to a system via one cable using a Port Multiplier or a SATA Multilane bridge model MST4ML.
A Mini Storage Tower with a built-in Hardware Port Multiplier (HPM) is the ideal external RAID storage solution for sharing data with different computers. Once the HPM is configured, the entire RAID set can be attached an eSATA port or USB port of any system. Click here for a Port Multiplier Tutorial
Need to connect Terabytes external storage or multiple drives to your system via the convenience and speed of the USB 2.0? The Mini Storage Tower with the built-in JBOD USB adapter is the perfect answer. You can connect up to 4 IDE hard drives (or SATA hard drives using the Addonics SATA-IDE converter) inside the Mini Storage Tower to your system with one single USB cable. The 4 drives can be set up to appear to your system as 1 large drive, 2 drives or as 4 individual drives.
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Illustration of Mini Storage Tower
(click on image for larger view)
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Mini Storage Tower with examples of various configuration possibilities
When combined with the Jupiter Mobile Rack, the Mini Storage Tower is capable of becoming a multiple bay(up to 4) hot swappable* removable drive system for 2 1/2" IDE or Serial ATA hard drives through the ubiquitous USB 2.0/1.1 or high speed eSATA interface. For the security conscious, Ruby Cipher Drive Cartridge System or Jupiter Cipher Mobile Rack can be added to provide bullet proof hardware security to protect the data.
A list of devices which can be installed in the Mini Storage Tower
To ensure efficient cooling of all the storage devices inside the enclosure, the Mini Storage Tower includes a high CFM cooling fan and vented front panel for a well ventilated interior with superior air flow. The case cover which extends over the top and side panels can also be easily removed to provide easy access for storage device installation and cable connection.
Mini Storage Tower LED Configurations
- Great for variety of storage applications - external RAID storage, Video storage, Server storage
- 4 standard 3 1/2" drive bays with build-in mounting brackets
- Available in Acrylic white and Acrylic black
- Back panels with the following connection choices or a combination:
- 5x1 eSATA Hardware Port Multiplier-XA Enclosure Version (AD5HPMRXA-E) to connect up to 4 SATA/SATA II/SATA III hard drives to computer via any eSATA port. Can be configured as RAID 1, 0, 10, 5, 3, BIG, or Clone mode. (RAID setting is configured through onboard jumpers or included Windows software)
- 4x1 eSATA/USB Hardware Port Multiplier (AD4SR5HPMU-E) to connect up to 4 SATA/SATA II/SATA III hard drives to computer via any eSATA or USB port. Can be configured as RAID 1, 0, 10, 5, 5+S, BIG2 or BIG4 (RAID setting is configured through an onboard rotary switch, no software is needed)
- 5x1 eSATA Hardware Port Multiplier (AD5SAHPM-EA) to connect up to 5 SATA/SATA II/SATA III hard drives to computer via any eSATA port or with USB 2.0 port (requires optional eSATA to USB 2.0 adapter, AAU2ESA). Can be configured as RAID 1, 0, 1+0, JBOD or as individual drives**. (requires a PM compatible SATA controller for the initial RAID configuration)
- 5X1 eSATA Port Multiplier (AD5SARPM-E) to connect up to 4 SATA/SATA II/SATA III hard drives to computer as via 1 eSATA port (requires a PM compatible SATA controller). Can be configured as RAID 1, 0, 1+0, RAID 5, JBOD or as individual drives**.
- Multilane bridge (AD4SAML) for the latest SATA Multilane connection to connect up to 4 SATA/SATA II hard drives to system via 1 Infiniband Multilane cable
- JBOD USB (AD4IDEU2) to connect up to 4 IDE hard drives as JBOD (1 large combined drive or 2 large combined drives), or 4 individual drives to computer via 1 USB 2.0/1.1 port
- 4 eSATA connectors for connecting 4 hard drives to system via 4 individual eSATA cables.
- Light weight and sturdy metal frame construction
- Compact size
- Swing open front panel for convenient access to disk drive.
- Ventilated front panel for efficient air flow.
- Low noise high CFM ball bearing cooling fan
- 150W 110/220 power supply
- Power and drive access LEDs (drive access LED available only on model with Port Multiplier or JBOD USB controller)
- Individual storage device can be hot swapped* when installed with 2.5" SATA Mobile Rack solutions
* For eSATA connection, hot swap feature depends on the controller. All Addonics SATA controllers support the hot swap feature. The Mini Storage Tower can be powered down and restarted to swap out hard drive without rebooting the system.
**Independent drive configuration is only supported with controllers with Silicon Image SIL3124 or SIL3132 chip set.
IDE and SATA hard drive can be mixed in the Mini Storage Tower. IDE hard drives can be changed to SATA interface with the addition of IDE - SATA converter. SATA hard drives can be changed to IDE interface with the addition of SATA - IDE converter.
