Drive Bays

When there is a problem, the device sends out an acoustic warning signal, though it also beeps when turning the switch. It's possible to permanently turn off the signal; in our view, that may reduce the utility of this feature, since the user might not realize that the alarm has been turned off. The drive bays can be locked, and this has no effect on the ARAID 2000's operation. Without testing, however, it's difficult to see whether the lock is actually engaged or disengaged. Pulling out the drive trays requires a bit of force, and grabbing the tray is, in fact, the biggest problem. There is no real handle, just the protruding curved part on the front for the user to grab.

An integrated fan on the back of the case ensures that the drives are cooled sufficiently. Unfortunately, it is quite noisy, and always seems to be "in your face." That may not be a problem in a server room, but it limits possible use in the desktop realm.

Users have the option of operating a RAID 0 instead of disk mirroring. This worked without problems during our short test, but the performance was anything but ideal. However, according to Accordance, this is not a key feature of the ARAID 2000 - remember that RAID 0 incorporates no data redundancy, and therefore provides no protection for your data. Disk mirroring is the main area in which the ARAID 2000 is used.