OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Mini Portable RAIDs

Other World Computing has expanded its storage solution line with the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual mini bus powered portable hardware RAID storage solution.

Featuring 14 pre-configured models with hardware RAID-1 ‘mirrored’ redundancy for ‘live activity’ data protection; or RAID-0 ‘stripe’ for maximum data transfer speed, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual mini contains two 2.5" hard drives or OWC Mercury SSDs for up to 2.0TB of capacity, a quad interface of FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, an eSATA connections for Plug and Play data transfer speeds up to 300MB/s with Mac and PC computers.

Big Capacity In Easy To Transport Design
Measuring the approximate size of a portable CD player – 5.6" (D) x 6.1" (W) x 1.1" (H) – the bus powered (no AC adapter needed) Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual mini’s flat side by side two drive design enables it to fit into laptop, photography, and other gear carrying bags and without adding any bulk. With 14 models offering two 2.5" SATA hard drives with up to 2.0TB of capacity or two OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSDs with up to 800GB of capacity, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual mini delivers big storage performance in an under two pound, fanless solution.

Convenient Yet Flexible Hardware RAID Settings
The Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual mini comes factory set for Plug and Play use in one of two RAID levels: RAID-1 for writing the same information in real-time to two matched 2.5" SATA drives up to 1.0TB for ‘live activity’ data redundancy; or RAID-0 for ‘striping’ data up to 2.0TB across both drives for the highest speed backup. Users that desire a change to either RAID level setting, including the SPAN option, can do via switch selectors.

Compatible With New And Legacy Macs And PCs
With a quad interface of two FireWire 800, one FireWire 400, one USB 2.0, and one eSATA ports and connecting cables included, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual mini doesn’t require complicated set-up and is ready for Plug and Play use with legacy Macs, the latest 2010 Mac models, and PCs. It provides data transfer speeds up to 300MB/s and can be moved between different systems utilizing its supported interfaces with  interoperability for data backup performance and flexibility.

The Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual mini is available from OWC in 14 pre-configured hard drive and Solid State Drive (SSD) models with up to 2.0TB of storage capacity starting at $179.99 MSRP and are compatible with Apple OS 8.6 and later including all versions of Apple OS X and Windows 98SE or later operating systems. Solutions come ready for Plug and Play with interface connecting cables, a $100 retail value disk utility software bundle, and a three year complete solution warranty.

"Since its introduction over a decade ago, the Mercury Elite line of external drives has offered unique, flexible, and high performance solutions," said Larry O’Connor, Founder and CEO, Other World Computing. "This new, side by side drive design is going to have great appeal for users needing portable RAID storage and backup performance."

"The Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual mini is exactly what we’ve been looking for to handle our demanding, in-the-field data storage and back up needs," said Matt Breneman, Co-Owner of Bull Stock Media. "As the official photographers and stock agency for the Professional Bull Riders Inc., we require a slim profile drive that packs easily in our gear bags, yet delivers big capacity backed by RAID-1 assurance. This new drive from OWC is the perfect solution."