martytdx's Full Review: Thermaltake& BlacX& 2.5-3.5" eSATA/USB HDD Docking...
I never thought it would happen - I didn't think Iwould be able to fill up 1TB of memory (500GB, 300GB and 250GB drives). But it happened, and I needed to get MORE hard drive space, in this case a new 1TB internal drive. However, because all of my drives were nearly full, I had no way to transfer the files from the drive that I was replacing to another drive. Then I saw something in the ThinkGeek catalog that looked like a perfect solution - a SATA/USB docking station. After doing some research, I settled on the Thermaltake BlacX 2.5/3.5" eSATA/USB Hard Drive Docking Station from Amazon.com. And it's worked like a dream.
● A Docking Station? ● So, what is a docking station? Basically, it allows you to take any 2.5" or 3.5" SATA hard drive and access it externally. So, in my case, it allowed me to remove the smallest drive I had and get the data off of it after I had installed my new drive. I could then transfer my files from the old internal drive to my new one without having to transfer the files to another drive first.
● Using the BlacX ● The BlacX is simple to use - simply plug the drive into one of your USB 2.0 slots (or an eSATA plug, if you have one), and then take an internal hard drive and plug it into the slot provided. As the name suggests, you can do both 2.5" and 3.5" hard drives here, and although I didn't try out any 2.5" drives, using a 3.5" drive was simple. I literally just took the drive, pushed it into place, turned on the docking station and Windows saw the drive. Once the new hard drive was in, Windows popped up a dialog box asking me what I wanted to do. I chose "Open Folder" and had access to my entire drive. In my case, the drive had been partitioned, but it didn't matter - Windows saw it the same way it had when the hard drive had been plugged in internally. Then it's simply transferring the files.
Now, the dock isn't as fast as when the drive was located internally, but it's not bad. The top-rated speed is 480 Mb/second, and while I don't think I saw quite that speed, it did transfer about 48GB of data in a little less than 40 minutes. If you have an eSata socket, the maximum speed jumps up to 3Gb/second - pretty fast (but unfortunately, I don't have an eSATA connection). When you're done, you can simply eject the drive via the button on the face of the dock, and the drive pops out to be stored elsewhere as a backup drive. ● The Device ● There isn't much to the device. It is a simple docking station with a double slot in the top that accepts the two sizes listed. Inside the slot are the interfaces that plug into the appropriate slots on the drive itself. The dock comes with two types of cables - the USB 2.0 and the eSATA cables. On the top of the dock is an LED indicator that shows power and activity, as well as a ejector button. I did find that the ejector button was a little tough to press the button to get the drive out.
● Final Thoughts ● This drive has done everything I could have hoped for - it was simple to install, simple to use and worked well. A truly 'plug-and-play' device, it allowed me to get the data from my old hard drive easily (and fairly quickly) without all of hassle of having to copy the same files twice to get them onto the new drive. As an added bonus, I was able to access other hard drives I had laying around because they had been in old computer and I didn't have any open hard drive slots to transfer the files. The drive worked well and with the exception of the ejection button, I really liked this drive - especially for the price ($41.99 at Amazon.com).
● Specifications ● Model: N0028USU Interface: SATA to USB 2.0 USB Transfer Rate: Up to 480 Mbps (Max) eSATA Transfer Rate: Up to 3Gbps (Max) SATA Compatible: SATA I & II HDD Compatible: All 2.5" or 3.5" SATA HDD up to 1TB OS Compatible: Windows Vista / XP / 2003 / 2000 / NT / 98 / 95 Mac 10.3 and later RoHS Compliance: Yes Material: ABS Plastic Power: 12 V / 2 A Dimension (L x W x H): 5.12" x 3.55" x 2.56" / 130 x 90 x 65 mm
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