StarTech.com Standalone Hard Drive Duplicator, External Dual Bay USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) / eSATA to 2.5/3.5" SATA III HDD/SSD Cloner/Copier, Hard Disk Docking Station, Cloning/Recovery (SDOCK2U33RE)

When my hard drive started to show signs that it was failing, this device came to the rescue. I made a new copy of the drive and installed it in my computer and it has run perfectly ever since.

Excellent bit of kit for cleaning up Hard Drives and restoring them to working order, easy to use with full instructions for all sizes of drive.

I ordered this to use for business purposes. Obviously I was not planning to use the dock too frequently, as this product doesn't last as long with continued use as more expensive products, which I already knew before purchasing.I tested it out on an SSD hard drive which I knew had issues, just to bench test it and see what it could or couldn't do. Doing so bought up two key issues...the instruction manual, and also the labeling available on the front of the device. When you first start using this device, the instructions are pretty bare. I had to use a few YouTube videos just to compensate for my lack of knowledge and, gain a bit of confidence before using it.Once confident enough, the first thing I wanted to try was the erase method. There was not a lot of input on the internet surprisingly about how to erase an entire hard drive. My intention was to place the hard drive to a starting point where it may be possible to restore to it's original settings, before faults occurred by erasing the faults and any other information that maybe still be on the hard drive that was preventing it from functioning, where I had already tried check disk and disk management, which had already failed to this point. This is where I found the issues with both the manual and the labeling on the device as they both supply such basic of information where further research was required.After attempting completion of erasing the entire hard drive, needless to say this had not worked. The hard drive had too many errors before the dock was able to complete the task in hand. Also to note that all the lights had gone out on the device, to the point where I did not know if I had any power going to the device. This resulted in me having to turn the dock off and on just to see if I hadn't broken anything. Everything was good.The dock function was the next bench test. Due to my particular model of laptop, I found the dock had to be switched off before the laptop could find it. It was no good having the power switched on while the laptop was starting up, You had to turn the dock completely off, wait for the operating system to load, then turn it on. *NOTE: this was for my particular model of laptop. Other devices may have a different reaction, and also the hard drive was still in place within the dock before it was switched on.Everything on the dock method worked fine and even disk management was able to find the hard drive.The duplication method works as described. Currently running my original operating system on a new hard drive as we speak, and it's as if nothing has changed. All my settings, and programs are in the same space except now I have more space available. You will need to go into disk management to extend the hard drive, but that is probably the only minor thing you will have to worry about.It only received 4 stars as the labeling on the dock and the instructions within the manual are basic and for something that would have such a huge impact on most devices, I would've thought StarTech.com would've put more effort within these particular areas despite it being a budget device. But saying that, for the price offered and the fact it is a budget device and you get what you pay for. It is still a very useful piece of equipment and I would recommend this item to any start-up business, gamer and also to anyone who would like a useful method to back up their information and memories, delete sensitive information, and also use as external dock for more storage space if required.

Once set up and did practice run it worked well. Much quicker than via USB or network system. Good investment for the future. Easy to set up but you do need to read the full instructions.

I previously purchased an Inateck dock which just failed to work as advertised. So due to Amazon's excellent return policy, I returned it and purchased this StarTech dock. The build quality is so much better than the Inateck dock, the buttons on the top are made of hard plastic and upon pressing, you feel an assured click. The dock is light weight but feels well made. It features two chunky HDD eject buttons, which is a nice touch. The simple light indicator on the top lets you know when the drives are initiallised and lets you know the clone progress (0-100%).Cloning:Formated the target HDD using my Win 10 PC, disconnected USB cable from PC. Put source HDD in the first slot (labelled HDD2), activated offline clone sequence as instructed in manual..... clone successful after a few hours (500gb)Transfer files from one HDD to another using Win 10, Mac Mini, Macbook Pro:1. Win 10, Macbook pro and Mac Mini could all see two HDDs (I just had to assign drive letters on my particular Win PC)2. I transfered files from first HDD to second HDD using Mac Mini, Macbook Pro and Win 10 with no issuesTips:1. If you hold down the PC/Copy button then press "Start" you will start the clone process.2. As manual stated, I formatted the target HDD in Windows Disk management to make sure it was ready for cloning O/SConclusion:I'm thouroughly impressed with this little dock from StarTech, It does exactly what it says on the tin. Now bear in mind it is more expensive then the other docks, but trust me, this one works flawlessly, why take chances with your valuable data?

So far, I have only used this in copy mode. It made a complex job of repeated swapping and copying my boot drive using software into a simple one-step process. In response to other reviews, the manual is simple but that’s because the device operation is so simple - plug in the source and target drives, switch on, select copy mode and press start! It took 3hrs 15mins to replicate my 1Tb HDD on to a 2Tb SSD and a few minutes more with a partition manager to extend the boot partition to use the additional space.Maybe those who found the lack of instructions daunting might consider whether they have the necessary skills to handle precious disk drives! To me, this is a perfect solution for one-step disk replication that saved me hours of fiddling about in the back of my laptop.Update - I’ve now cloned my fourth drive. 1Tb Samsung 2.5” SFSE Momentus HHD laptop drives on to WD Blue 3D Nano SSD took 3.25 hours each. 2Tb WD 3.5” Black Enterprise HDD desktop drives on to the same WD Blue SSD took 4 hours each. Surprisingly, the 3.5” HDD drives generated the most heat so I took the precaution of keeping them cool with a fan. So far the clones have worked perfectly, albeit with a simple software partition adjustment to use the extra space for the laptop drives.

This is a brilliant device to backup your hard drives.