SABRENT USB 3.0 to SATA I/II/III Dual Bay External Hard Drive Docking Station for 2.5 or 3.5in HDD, SSD with Hard Drive Duplicator/Cloner Function [20+TB Support] (EC-HD2B)

Works great to plug in a hard drive on the fly. 2.5" or 3.5" in either slot at any moment. The built-in copier seems rather slow, but I think that's because it copies every single sector, rather than intelligent software like Macrium Reflect which can skip the empty areas. I usually end up using Macrium with this. Comes with a power supply, it's durable, and is a good value for the money. I can't say if it works with all drives, I don't own all drives, but probably any normal drive.

I've been using the Sabrent USB 3.0 to SATA External Hard Drive Docking Station for about two weeks now, and I'm generally pleased with its performance. I replaced my old SSK dock with this one after it failed within a year, and so far, this Sabrent dock has been a more reliable choice.The speeds on this dock are definitely an improvement over my old one. I've connected my Synology Disk Station to the dock via USB, and I've achieved transfer speeds of up to 120 MBps. Response times are also snappy, making it easy to transfer files and data.While I haven't had time to thoroughly stress-test this dock, it's been working smoothly so far. The power delivery seems stable, and my hard drive has been running without issues. I appreciate the compact design and the fact that it's easy to set up.Overall, I'm glad I made the switch. This Sabrent dock is a solid upgrade from my previous one, and I'm hoping it will last longer. If you're looking for a reliable USB dock, this one is definitely worth considering.

This item was delivered on time and was not packaged in an Amazon box, which was surprising. Nonetheless, the Sabrent package is as sturdy and professional as I have come to expect from the brand.Short version:This docking station worked just as I expected. The 4 HDDs I inserted into it were recognized immediately by the OS (Windows 11 Home) exactly as they were when they were installed in the PC the docking station is now connected to. My only complaint is that the slots that the drives sit in are not suited for slim profile drives. I had to insert a small piece of cardboard into the slot along with the one slim profile HDD (first drive on the right in the photo) to help it stay upright. Other than that, I am satisfied and will continue to use Sabrent equipment for my PC and network needs.Long version:I have been building my own PCs for years with great success. The current iteration uses a Gigabyte motherboard mounted in an Antec gaming tower enclosure with three SATA drives installed in addition to two M.2 drives, one of which hosts the OS. When I decided that I needed more drive space and there were not enough power plugs on the existing power supply to accommodate an additional HDD, I decided that a docking station was the way to go. Since I have been using Sabrent networking accessories for years, it was the logical choice. I currently use a Sabrent USB hub attached to my TP-Link router to share 4 "My Passport" drives on my home network and it works well.When this docking station arrived, I removed the 3 HDDs from the PC, mounted them in the dock along with the fourth drive, and powered the system back up. The drives were recognized in the same configuration as they were when mounted in the PC. I did make sure the drives were mounted in the dock's slots (A, B, C, and D) in the same order as they were connected to the PC's SATA slots (0, 1, 2, and 3). I'm not sure that was necessary, but it seemed reasonable to me. Subsequently, the drive shares show up on the other PCs on the home network just as they were before the installation of the dock. That is exactly what I was expecting. As a bonus, my PC now seems to run cooler without having to contend with powering the HDDs and dealing with the heat they generate, which is now dissipated into the air. Highly recommended.

-IT WORKS WELL OVERALL.As an external USB drive docking station, this works well. Connecting to either a computer directly or through a Wi-Fi router that supports USB share both work, with no problems.The file transfer speed is decent. In the duplication mode, it duplicated 1.25 TB in about 12 hours, roughly about 30 MB/sec. Not super fast, but quite usable. (In comparison, the newest Synology NAS has about 100 MB/sec, but it is a whole different kind of product, a real NAS having numerous functions such as RAID, cloud file hosting, and many other things, and it costs almost 8 times as much).ISSUES WITH DUPLICATIONThe Duplication function, however, is dubious. My first try of duplication failed. The indicators on the device showed that the duplication was done (with all four blue lights having become steady, indicating 100% completion). But when I checked the content, I found the destination drive (slot B) only had category files instead of the actual files under the Windows directory. These machine files are completely unusable of course. That is, the duplication simply didn't work at all, after more than 12 hours of busy work.Not only that, I initially had a scare of seemingly losing all my data on the source drive. After the duplication was done, I connected to the driver through the computer and saw that all the files had disappeared! I checked both drives, and they showed the same thing. At the moment, I was terrified seeing that the duplicator not only failed to make the duplication but also managed to wipe out all my files in the source drive!Fortunately, after I disconnected all the drives, powered off the device, and then put the source drive alone back into slot A, and powered back on, it showed that all the files were still there. What a relief.Then I tried the duplication again. This time I left it untouched for a long time (overnight) even after the indicators showed completion. And it worked. All files were successfully duplicated from the drive in slot A to the drive in slot B.So, duplication does work. But it is finicky and not reliable.NO SYNCHRONIZATIONNote that once the duplication is done, there is no file synchronization between the duplicated drives. One should not expect it otherwise because it is not RAID.However, interestingly, after duplication, the two drivers show up as one disk letter. That is, when both drives are inserted, you don't see two different drives, but only one drive. If you insert just one drive, it also works independently. That is, the two drives do have some kind of merge when both drives are mounted. Not sure if this is a good thing or bad. They don't have synchronization after duplication. So this makes file management very confusing after the duplication. For example, if you delete some files, on the computer you see the files were deleted (just like normally it would), but behind the scenes, only the files stored in the duplicated drive (slot B) are actually deleted. Nothing changes in the original drive (slot A). But of course, you don't see this unless you take out the duplicated drive and use the original drive alone to check.Again, because it is not RAID, it makes no sense to have both drives mounted after the duplication. It only causes confusion with this simple product. The better practice is to simply take one of the drives (either the original or the duplicated one) away, put it somewhere as an inactive backup, and use the other drive from that point on. If, after a while, you decide to update the backup, you put the backup drive back on, and do another duplication. This isn't an elegant way to manage a backup. But if you want more, you shouldn't be using a simple device like this. A real NAS with RAID is the solution.ADDITIONAL REMARKSThe design of this device is questionable due to not only its potential unreliability in duplication, but also the false alarm of losing all original files (of course this is better than actually losing the files, but still, it is terrible).Another complaint: the LED lights are too bright. This is a common problem with these electronic devices, and has become a plague.RATINGAt this time, I rate it four stars because (1) it works as a very nice external USB drive that is quickly swappable, better than a fixed USB drive if you desire swappability; (2) duplication does work, even though very rudimentary.

Works well; provided high-speed access to spinning HDDs. The USB interface is far faster than what the SATA-III drives can support.