G-Speed Shuttle XL ThunderBolt 3 support for 4Kn SAS drives?
Here’s what I found regarding the compatibility of the **[G‑Technology G‑SPEED Shuttle XL Thunderbolt 3]()** (8-bay Thunderbolt 3 transportable RAID enclosure) with 4Kn SAS drives:
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### ✅ What the official specs say
* According to the official product page, the Shuttle XL Thunderbolt 3 supports “Enterprise-class hard drives” at 7200 rpm. ([Western Digital][1])
* The documentation does *not* explicitly mention support for SAS vs SATA, nor does it explicitly mention 4Kn sector size drives.
* A user forum query on the manufacturer’s site (for the parent company) asked directly:
> “Does the backplane inside of any of the G-Speed Shuttle XL enclosures physically accept SAS drives, such as the Ultrastar HC520 4Kn SAS Drive …?” ([Western Digital][2])
> That post suggests the question is unresolved publicly.
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### 🧐 Key technical considerations
* **4Kn drives**: These drives use 4,096-byte sectors instead of the older 512-byte (or 512e) format. Many enclosures / controllers require firmware / driver support for 4Kn.
* **SAS vs SATA**: SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) uses a different interface than SATA. If the Shuttle XL uses a SATA backplane, SAS drives may not be supported (or only in limited compatibility mode).
* **Backplane / module**: The Shuttle XL uses removable disk modules (“removable disk modules” in the spec) and the standard configuration uses “Enterprise-class 7200 RPM hard drives”. ([creativestorageworks.com][3])
* If the backplane is designed for SATA drives only / or supports SATA-only hot-swap modules, then SAS drives might not be fully supported (or at all).
* Even if SAS drives can be physically connected, the firmware/controller in the enclosure might not support 4Kn sector size, and that could cause issues (e.g., non-recognition, performance problems, mismatched sectors, RAID rebuild failures).
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### 🔍 My assessment
Given the above, here’s my view:
* I **cannot guarantee** that the Shuttle XL TB3 supports 4Kn SAS drives out of the box. There is **no official specification** listing “SAS” or “4Kn” explicitly in the documentation I found.
* The user forum indicates that someone asked this question and apparently did *not* receive a definitive answer publicly (or at least one I found). ([Western Digital][2])
* If the backplane is SATA-only (which many such “transportable RAID boxes” are), then SAS drives will not function, or will function only in limited compatibility mode (if at all).
* If you attempt to use a 4Kn SAS drive, you may face: the enclosure/controller refusing to initialise the drive, or even if it shows up, the sector format mismatch may cause performance/format issues.
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### 🛠 What to do / check, if you intend to try
If you are planning to use 4Kn SAS drives in this enclosure, I’d recommend the following checklist:
1. **Check the drive module backplane**: Remove one module (if possible) and inspect whether it’s labelled SATA or SAS. Check whether drive modules in third-party forums have successfully used SAS drives in this same model.
2. **Firmware/driver update**: Check for any firmware updates for the Shuttle XL that mention SAS support or 4Kn support. The support page shows generic downloads but does not highlight 4Kn. ([Western Digital][4])
3. **Test with a known 4Kn SATA drive**: If you have a 4Kn SATA drive (rather than SAS), test it in the enclosure to see if the sector size is recognised. That will at least test 4Kn sector size support (minus the SAS interface).
4. **Contact manufacturer support**: Post the exact model of the drive (e.g., SAS, 4Kn, model number) to the manufacturer’s support and ask “Is this drive supported in the G-SPEED Shuttle XL TB3 backplane? Are SAS drives supported? Are 4Kn drives supported?”
5. **Ensure RAID controller compatibility**: Even if the drive is recognised, RAID rebuild, LR mode or weird sector-size behaviour may cause problems in a multi-drive RAID array (especially if mixing different sector sizes or drive types).
6. **Backup plan**: If it doesn’t work, be prepared to revert to supported SATA drives or a different enclosure explicitly supporting SAS + 4Kn.
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### 🔚 My bottom line
If I were to summarise in one sentence: **No firm guarantee** — the Shuttle XL TB3 does *not clearly specify* support for SAS / 4Kn drives, so using 4Kn SAS drives would be a risk unless you verify with the vendor or test it yourself.
If you like, I can dig into deeper user-forum reports or tech support logs to see if *someone* has successfully used 4Kn SAS drives with this exact model — would that be helpful?
[1]: https://www.westerndigital.com/en-kw/products/external-drives/g-technology-g-speed-shuttle-xl-ev-series-bay-adapters-thunderbolt-3-hdd?utm_source=chatgpt.com "48TB G-SPEED Shuttle XL Thunderbolt 3 with ev Series ..."
[2]: https://community.wd.com/t/g-speed-shuttle-xl-thunderbolt-3-support-for-4kn-sas-drives/475522?utm_source=chatgpt.com "G-Speed Shuttle XL ThunderBolt 3 support for 4Kn SAS drives?"
[3]: https://www.creativestorageworks.com/G-SPEED-Shuttle-XL-Thunderbolt-3.asp?utm_source=chatgpt.com "WD G-Technology G-SPEED Shuttle XL with Thunderbolt 3"
[4]: https://support-en.wd.com/app/products/product-detailweb/p/100?utm_source=chatgpt.com "G-SPEED Shuttle XL with Thunderbolt 3"