XION XON-SAHDCB-USB 2.5-Inch / 3.5-Inch SATA HDD to USB 2.0 Docking Station - Retail (Black) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)For economical, personal mass storage, you can't beat the good old hard disk drive.There's a problem however when you run out of space in your computer case for more.Sure, you could pop open your case and disconnect the cable from your previous drive, unscrew it from the mounting brackets, and then do the same in reverse for the hard disk drive you want to put in, but that's tedious, and thankfully it's in the past now.

What this little gem does is take much of the hassle out of putting in a new drive or swapping any SATA hard drive.It will just show up as a generic mass storage device in windows, no need to install additional drivers.It's almost as simple as plug and play.*The transfer speed is quite good, reaching more or less 240 megabits a second (30 megabytes a second), which is half the advertised speed of usb 2.0, but still, a lot faster than I expected.The speed is easily fast enough to stream hd video content from the hard disk drive.

The only reasonable fault I could find with this product I could find was that inserting the drive wasn't so easy.I had to use quite a bit of force to get it to slide in properly.I would have preferred something that required less force but had a locking mechanism to hold it in place.Still, that would only make me take off half a star at most.There's also one more point which I'll mention below for people installing a new hard disk drive with this device, which is not really the fault of this device, but rather a fact of life for storage devices.

*If you are installing a brand new hard disk drive from this device, it's not quite plug and play. You're going to have to format the drive, I recommend doing a regular format and not a quick format as quick format from anecdotal evidence has been shown to produce more errors later on in the life of the drive.

Here's how I did it from Windows Vista:

1. Click The windows button to bring up the menu, right click computer and click "Manage"

2. Once the computer management window opens, on the left side you will see a vertical list of menu trees with labels.One of them will be storage, if the menu is not expanded already, double-click it, and then click on Disk Management.

3. Find your new disk drive, it should give some indication that it's not formatted, or does not have a partition.Right-click it and select format.

4. You can now enter a label for your drive if you so desire, and you could choose to quick format.I do not recommend that option for the reason stated above.Choose your preferences and then click ok.

5. If you did not choose quick format you will have to wait a while for the drive to format, on my new 640 gigabyte hard disk drive it took a few hours.Worth it in the long run.

6.Your drive should now be useable in vista! It should show up on your computer menu and work like any other hard disk drive in windows.

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Product Description:
USB 2.0 Transfer Rate Up to 480Mbps. Patent Design for mounting HDD within seconds and fit both 2.5-Inch and 3.5-Inch SATA HDD to USB 2.0 of your PC. Plug And Play feature ,Without Rebooting. Power On/Off Switch.

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Extra Hard Drive Tray Review

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(More customer reviews)The ICY DOCK is the nicest and best designed enclosure I've ever owned, and I've owned 4 in the past 4yrs.The removable trays were well designed and come out quickly with the clever lever design.

I agree with the previous user in that it should come with a simple plastic hard case to protect the drive when it's not in the enclosure.Other than that I have no complaints.

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Product Description:
Extra SATA hard drive tray for ICY DOCK MB559 MB561 series

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ineo I-NIA315Ue, 3.5 Inch IDE/ SATA Hybrid Hard Drive Mesh Iron Enclosure to USB 2.0/ eSATA (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased this HDD box as a replacement for the stock plastic external HDD box from WD that had a 1TB green drive inside. The WD box developed a problem with the USB connector on it's PCB, and rather then jump through all the hoops to send the unit in under warranty, I decided to buy the Ineo box and transfer the hard drive (which is fully functional). The Ineo box is a vast improvement over the stock WD plastic box. The WD box had no ventilation holes whatsoever, plus the fact that it was made of plastic means the HDD was guaranteed to run hot. The Ineo box, on the other hand, has one side that is completely made of a metal mesh screen to ensure that the HDD can easily dissipate heat. And the hard drive mounting tray and box are made of metal, which also helps with heat dissipation.

The fit, finish, and design of the Ineo box are very well done. The instructions are well illustrated and written, and are very easy to follow. Total installation time was about 10 minutes. The only tool you'll need is a small Philips screwdriver. There is only one screw that holds the hard drive tray in the housing. Once you remove that, the tray slides out and you install the HDD into the tray with four screws, attach the appropriate cables (IDE or SATA), and slide the tray assembly back into the housing, tighten the one screw on the side, and your done. Two things to be aware of though: 1)when I went to slide the tray back in it seemed to get hung up on the housing, so don't force it, take your time and it'll go in just fine, 2)if you're installing a SATA drive be aware that the SATA cable is a tight fit and it helps to bend it to the appropriate curvature before you install it, and you may have to press down on it slightly to get it to clear the mesh screen when sliding the tray back in.

The other nice thing about this Ineo enclosure is that they even include a eSATA cable, which was a big help for me (nothing extra to have to buy). I connected the drive to my XP desktop, formatted it, and it was good to go. I currently have the Ineo hooked up to an Asus O!Play HDP-R1 - Digital multimedia receiver with the eSATA cable to play DVD ISO files, and it works excellent. The drive runs nice and quiet and cool. If you're looking for a well built external hard drive enclosure that will keep your HDD cool, I would definitely recommend this Ineo unit. I will definitely be buying a couple more of these!

Click Here to see more reviews about: ineo I-NIA315Ue, 3.5 Inch IDE/ SATA Hybrid Hard Drive Mesh Iron Enclosure to USB 2.0/ eSATA (Black)

Product Description:
The I-NIA315Ue series is an intelligent Plug-and-Play high speed USB 2.0 / e-SATA compatible storage device. The I-NIA315Ue supports SATA and IDE ATA Hard Disk Drives. Therefore, the user can choose either SATA or IDE interface to install in enclosure. Besides, the product supports e-SATA interface, and the user can backup data via e-SATA interface, five times faster than USB2.0, between enclosure and PC. This model will make your old fashion IDE hard drive reusable again.

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Vantec NexStar 3 NST-360SU-BK 3.5-Inch SATA to USB 2.0 and eSATA External Hard Drive Enclosure (Onyx Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought a NexStar enclosure early last month to use a 250GB Seagate SATA internal HD I'd mistakenly bought last year when looking for the older IDE sort.Until finding reference to SATA ensclosures with USB 2.0 attachments, I thought I only had the option of putting the SATA drive in my G-5.

The enclosure went together quickly (including connecting a separate light cable) and the SATA HD using just the USB cable popped onto the screen to be initialized just like an IDE drive.Though it can be inferred from the product description that this NexStar enclosure will work with USB connections at the slower USB 2.0 speed, I'll just make it clear that this product comes with a SATA cable that allows faster SATA data rates in the case of you having such a SATA port in your computer--but if not, the enclosure will allow you to operate a SATA HD with the USB connection alone.Very handy--as it allows you to replace SATA drives from a a Apple G-5 and install the old one in the SATA enclosure to make use of the data.Nice way to upgrade and still use the old HD.

Haven't run the enclosure long enough to comment on heat issues.I'm inclined to run external HD's for a limited time as they are needed for back-up, so any heat build up would likely be avoided if it is an issue at all.The NexStar appears to be made of sheet metal and is not nearly as robust as Acomdata's aluminum brick enclosure--but Acomdata doesn't seem to offer a SATA to USB enclosure.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Vantec NexStar 3 NST-360SU-BK 3.5 Inch SATA to USB 2.0 and eSATA External Hard Drive Enclosure (Onyx Black)

Product Description:
Form and functionality collide with style in the NexStar 3 External Hard Drive Enclosure from Vantec. With its mirror finish, sleek curves and bold colors, the Vantec NexStar 3 stands out from the crowd. The sturdy drive cage protects your hard drive while the aluminum case effectively draws away the heat, protecting your drive from overheating. Available in 2 vivid colors (Onyx Black and Midnight Blue), the NexStar 3 lets you store your personal data in an enclosure that matches your style!

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Antec MX-1 USB/e-SATA 3.5-Inch Hard Drive Enclosure Review

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(More customer reviews)The video speaks for itself.Basically, I prefer this over my Thermaltake for one reason: The ease of swapping drives in and out of it when I need to.Right now it's sitting in my entertainment unit with my media PC, and it contains my entire life collection of stuff.It may not be the most attractive or the most durable.But if you need flexibility there really are no better out there.If you want something that's built like a tank and looks like a rock concert then get the Thermaltake N0012USU Max 4 Active Cooling 3.5-Inch USB 2.0 eSATA Hard Drive Enclosure instead.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Antec MX-1 USB/e-SATA 3.5 Inch Hard Drive Enclosure

Product Description:
Keep your data safe and cool in Antec's MX-1 portable Hard Drive enclosure. Features a blower fan to keep your drive running cool, and allowing you to operate the enclosure continuously. Simply install your drive, connect it to your computer and start transferring your data at blazing speeds over USB2.0 or eSATA. There's not even any need to install drivers. The MX-1 is made with a special dual-layer design that reduces noise and is lightweight for easy transporting.

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Acomdata USB 2.0 3.5-Inch SATA Hard Disk Enclosure HDEUSE-504 (Silver) Review

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(More customer reviews)I paired this with a Western Digital WD5000AAKS.

Pros:

*Well built, professional looking enclosure.

*Bright blue Power on indicator on the front of the enclosure which flashes red (well it's kind of pink actually) to indicate read/write activity.

*Average Read/Write speeds of 29 MB/s via USB 2.0 interface.

Cons:

*Gets quite warm after 1 hour. It lacks proper ventilation.

*Unlike my other cheaper USB enclosure, it does not provide Disk information, temperature, S.M.A.R.T. or other performance information to my Disk Drive monitoring software. Nowadays this information is very important for keeping watch on the status of your drives thereby safeguarding your data.

I should mention that while this lack of information could sometimes be the fault of the installed drive, I've never seen an instance where the faulty drive failed to register it's model number with the software. In this case the drive just registers the as "DMI Ultra HDD (500 GB)" which leads me to believe that the USB interface controller used in the case is at fault. That's a little disappointing really.

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Product Description:
Acomdata 3.5-Inch USB 2.0 Desktop Enclosure for SATA Hard Drive HDEUSE-504 (Black)

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Thermaltake BlacX eSATA USB Docking Station Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a great device for a bunch of reasons:
1.Backup. Using Acronis True Image 11 home, I can clone the drive in an hour. Put it off site and a bulletproof backup.
2. Reinstalling the operating system. I just reinstalled Vista (use it full time now that SP1 is out). I put my old Vista drive in the Blacx and could pull any info I needed right off the drive.
3. Booting different operating systems. I have three hard drives with different operating systems on them, Vista, XP , and Linux. I used to have them all in my PC but was afraid of a catastrophic failure (due mostly to me- I am a menace to my poor computer!). Now I can keep the drives out of the PC but insert and boot from them at any time. Just change the order of the boot hard drive in the BIOS.
4. Extra storage. Nice to be able to dump a bunch of older stuff into a drive. Keeps my boot drive clean and the access is there when I need it.
Cons? Not many. My WD drives run a little hot in the BlacX when booting from it. The power cord to the box is pretty short. You need to have an ESATA port on your PC (or in my case, and adapter and change the port in the BIOS).
Speed? On the ESATA, I notice NO speed slowdowns when booting from a drive in the BlacX in comparison to an internal SATA hard drive. They got it right with ESATA.
Clever engineering, works fine, easy to use, 5 stars.

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Product Description:
PRODUCT FEATURES:Patented designRoHS complianceHot-swap capability for rapid multi HDDs access and exchangeSupports eSATASupports USB 2.0Compact docking station design maximizes heat dissipation and exhaust

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Eagle Tech ET-CSNU2-BK 3.5-Inch IDE to USB HDD Enclosure Review

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(More customer reviews)Just purchased and assembled a couple of these.Gonna take 12 screws to complete the assembly although it was easy using my Milwaukee electric screwdriver.Each side panel must be removed (4 screws).The drive mounts easily with 4 screws (included) after attaching and folding the internal IDE and power cables to afixed plastic plate in the unit.The aluminum sides are then re-attached and you are done.My concerns are lack of heat conduction to the side plates as the conducting material is hard plastic.With no fan and little airflow, I can't imagine the internal drives won't run a bit warm if left on for extended periods of time.An external power switch is provided on the rear of the case and power is via a medium-sized wall wart.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Eagle Tech ET-CSNU2-BK 3.5 Inch IDE to USB HDD Enclosure

Product Description:
Backup all your data, music, picture, video and more with this easy add-on storage system. Stackable design minimizes desktop clutter. High quality chipset and rigorous thermal testing ensures peak performance and rock solid stability.

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AcomData Rugged Samurai USB 2.0/eSATA 2.5-Inch SATA Hard Drive Enclosure SDXXXUSE Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased this along with Hitachi Travelstar 2.5 - 500 GB 7200 rpm IDK-PANAM Mobile Hard Drive - Retail Box H2IK5001672SP and now have a portable eSATA drive that is very speedy and does not feel like I am about to trash the data every time I touch it.

I have been waiting for a while now for this exact combination: 2.5" + eSATA + rugged + 500GB + 7200rpm + 100MB/s speeds and its finally available.

Click Here to see more reviews about: AcomData Rugged Samurai USB 2.0/eSATA 2.5 Inch SATA Hard Drive Enclosure SDXXXUSE

Product Description:
AcomData Samurai USB 2.0/eSATA 2.5" SATA Hard Drive Enclosure SDXXXUSE

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AcomData Samba USB 2.0/eSATA 3.5-Inch SATA Hard Drive Enclosure SMBXXXU2SE-BLK (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)This enclosure is pretty straight forward to install. This is compatible with Sata and EIDE drives that makes it very flexible. It is well made and sturdy and I think this is worth the money!

Click Here to see more reviews about: AcomData Samba USB 2.0/eSATA 3.5 Inch SATA Hard Drive Enclosure SMBXXXU2SE-BLK (Black)

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AcomData Samba USB 2.0/eSATA 3.5" SATA Hard Drive Enclosure SMBXXXU2SE-BLK (Black)

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eSATA USB to SATA External HDD Dock for Dual 2.5 or 3.5in Hard Drive Review

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(More customer reviews)Having owned one of the Thermaltake BlackX versions of these type of docking solutions before, I was eager to try one of these new dual unit stations.

These are a pretty solid product and I found them much cheaper (by about 25% or so) on Amazon than Newegg. The only negative I have in comparing this to my last docking station is that the Thermaltake was a snug fit. The 3.5" drive felt very secure and stable in it. There was no room for wiggling.

This docking station is not as snug. In fact, once you've docked your drives in it, they can still wiggle if you nudge them. These do not detract significantly from the quality, but I would be more careful with placing them in an undisturbed area than before. If I had paid the full price Newegg and others were charging, it might be enough to make me return it and look for something with a tighter fit.

I would absolutely not hesitate to recommend this to someone looking to attach extra storage, backup drives, or even someone like myself who has a shelf full of 3.5" drives that they only occasionally need to retrieve something from. It beats the solution I had years ago with two or three dozen large isolated external cases with power adapters, fans, ribbons, USB cables...

Now... when does the triple and quadruple dock arrive?

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Product Description:
eSATA/USB to SATA External HDD Dock Adapter for 2.5/3.5" Hard Drive - "The SATADOCK22UE Dual 2.5/3.5"" Drive eSATA/USB 2.0 SATA HD Docking Station provides a convenient and efficient way to quickly access 2.5/3.5"" SATA/SATA II hard drive contents without having to open a computer case or mount in an enclosure. With double the hard drive capability of other docking stations, the SATADOCK22UE can be connected to the host computer through either USB 2.0 or eSATA - then, its just a matter of inserting the desired 2.5"" or 3.5"" SATA/SATA II drives (or combination of both) into an available slot on the docking station.A perfect solution for data recovery, drive imaging, software testing, or any environment that requires fast access to uninst

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Cavalry CAHDD Series USB Dual-Bay Dock 4 TB (2x2TB 3.5-Inch SATA Hard Drives) CAHDD3004T02 Review

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(More customer reviews)Have had the captioned roughly 4 weeks now. Packaging and delivery OK.
installation a breeze,the related documentation was sufficient even for the newbie and detailed the difference between different RAID typws clearly.

No incidents so far and works perfectly with one caveat: It runs HOT!!
I put a fan on it to cool the two drives because the level of heat generation makes me uneasy and limits it's usability to within the house.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Cavalry CAHDD Series USB Dual-Bay Dock 4 TB (2x2TB 3.5 Inch SATA Hard Drives) CAHDD3004T02

Product Description:
The Cavalry Dock is perhaps the easiest and most cost-effective way to consolidate the storage of any two hard drives (WD10EACS, or equivalent, included). This two-bay, hot-swappable USB 2.0 dock is perfect for lumping together your odd-capacity drives into one Spanning device; just insert any two 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SATA drives. Your new volume will be read as one drive with combined capacity when set to Spanning (BIG). And the BIG/JBOD settings are easy to change as well; just use the switch on the back of the dock. Your extra hard drives can finally be put to good use with this versatile dock. And with no clumsy cover to unscrew or disassemble, your hot-swappable drives are always accessible and well-ventilated, without a noisy fan. With the USB 2.0 interface and stable, compact base, the Cavalry Dock is perfect for your home or office desktop computer.

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Barracuda Lp Sata 1.0TB HD Review

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(More customer reviews)I tested Seagate, Western Digital and found this pair of 1TB HD's to have the best performance along with the greatest cost to storage overall value.Now to be fair these drives are installed in a Mirrored Raid configuration - so my criteria is mostly diversity and speed of access -

Click Here to see more reviews about: Barracuda Lp Sata 1.0TB HD

Product Description:
1000GB BARRACUDA 5900.12SATA 3.5 5900 RPM 32MB 3.5IN

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Vantec NexStar NST-D100SU 2.5-Inch/3.5-Inch SATA to USB 2.0 and eSATA Hard Drive Dock (White) Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been buying Vantec external hard drive enclosures for several years nows, and they have allowed me to add terabytes of storage to my computers for video and audio files.When I saw this thing, I said to myself, Cool!

Vantec has designed the NST-D100SU in white plastic to make a toaster analogy, you know, the thing you put bread in and it pops up when it's done.Perhaps a better comparison is to an old 8-track tape player.Hard drives are about the size of old 8-track cartridges, and there were players that looked like this (but usually with a 1970's-looking wood grain).

In any event, you can now store a terabyte of information on an external hard drive and swap them out like 8-tracks.For people doing back-ups, testing or cloning hard drives, or who have massive data collections, this is great.

You stick a SATA hard drive down into the device until you feel it make contact and push down.You can't really do it wrong unless you try to.

Then you connect the device to a USB port on your PC or laptop, push on the big power button, and in a few seconds, your PC will see the hard drive.The only thing you have to do is the first time you use a new hard drive, you have to format it.I stay with one brand of hard drives, Western Digital, and I have its Data Lifeguard Tools already installed on my PCs.I start up the software, and it usually recognizes the new hard drive instantly, asks me if I want to format it, and the software sets it up in about 30 seconds.Once the hard drive is formatted, your PC will recognize it and assign it a drive letter.You can then copy to the new hard drive as much as you want.When you finish, remember to use the USB Safely Remove Hardware icon to remove the device.Then power it off by pressing the big power button and lift out the hard drive, and you're ready to slap in another one.

This will save you the cost of having to buy external hard drive enclosures at $35 a pop, especially if you are simply archiving data.I would suggest that you put your bare hard drives in the static-free bags they originally came in, or in Ziploc bags to keep out the dust.And then you will want to store the hard drives someplace where they won't be falling off a shelf or getting zapped by static electricity.

Even though I think this device is great, I only give it four stars for two reasons.The first reason is that it doesn't really replace a hard drive enclosure.An enclosure will protect your hard drive a lot more than this rather open device.The second reason is that you need to be careful to turn the power off before you remove the hard drive.I know I've been tempted to just yank it out first, but if you do that, you could be risking hard drive damage.

Otherwise, this is a great device if you have a need to swap out hard drive like 8-track tapes.With one terabyte hard drives now going for less than $200, I know I'm rethinking my storage strategy to copying all my CDs and DVDs to a hard drive.You could store 1400 uncompressed CDs or 250 DVDs (or a mix of the two) on a terabyte hard drive, virtually eliminating entire bookshelves of disks.For another $100, you could buy an INOI media player 3.5" INOi MH720 USB2.0 Digital A/V Ext SATA Media HD Case, which would then elminate the need for CD and DVD players, and you could have your collection all in the palm of your hand.It blows your mind!!!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Vantec NexStar NST-D100SU 2.5 Inch/3.5 Inch SATA to USB 2.0 and eSATA Hard Drive Dock (White)

Product Description:
The Vantec NexStar Hard Drive Dock is a complete and easy way to add or swap hard drives to your computer.It gives you the flexibility of connecting any SATA I/II hard drive to your computer via USB 2.0 or eSATA connection without opening up your computer case or installing into an enclosure.Simply just insert any 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SATA I/II hard drive into the NexStar Hard Drive Dock and you are ready to transfer, copy, or backup files.Quick and easy, the Vantec NexStar Hard Drive Dock is the perfect solution to access your hard drive in seconds.

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