It's A Digital Disease!

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/s4lt3d_h4sh on 2025-02-17 13:01:55.

Hey fellow datahoarders!

I recently picked up a Sans Digital TR8U-B (the 8-bay USB DAS), but it’s not being recognized on any PC I connect it to—Windows, Linux, nothing sees it at all. I’ve tried different cables, ports, machines, you name it. It’s looking like the internal controller board is probably dead (picture of the board for reference)

Rather than scrapping the enclosure, I’m thinking of buying an M.2 USB-C enclosure (like this https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006917952495.html) and pairing it with an M.2-to-SATA adapter to hook up the original backplane. I’m basically aiming to bypass the dead board and repurpose the chassis for SATA drives.

Has anyone here done a similar retrofit or have any suggestions on the best approach (or different hardware options) to get this working as a standalone DAS again? Any tips or pitfalls I should watch out for?

Thanks in advance for any advice