requested information via connection line 62 according to this embodiment hdd 20 includes an internal hdd controller not shown able to receive and respond to commands in other embodiments controller 56 issues appropriate commands to hdd 20 without requiring the presence of an hdd controller on hdd 20 in another embodiment controller 56 e g a soc device manages the interface between the storage system interface 54 and hdds 20 22 24 26 according to this embodiment an external device e g a connected computer system not shown communicates with hdd 20 and user interface 30 via controller 56 in this manner controller 56 relays user commands input at user interface 30 to the connected computer system via storage system interface 54 and relays commands received from the connected computer system via the storage system interface to hdd 20 via connection line 62 controller 56 then provides any response from hdd 20 to the connected computer system via storage system interface 56 and appropriately updates user interface 30 in an embodiment the connected computer system controls the updating of user interface 30 in another embodiment controller 54 controls the updating of user interface 30 directly without requiring input from the connected computer system in yet another embodiment including the schematically depicted dashed connection line 60 in fig3 controller 56 manages the interface between storage system interface 54 and user interface 30 without interacting directly with hdds 20 22 24 26 according to this embodiment connection line 62 between internal connector 52 and controller 56 is not required for operation of storage system 10 controller 56 interacts with the user via user.