Vantec Nexstar SATA 2.5IN/3.5IN Hard Drive Docking Station USB2.0 eSATA

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Ditto for this in-depth review. eSata backplane - gooood.

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I definitely agree with the other positive reviews. Great price, works as expected, and includes SATA & USB cables. And although you may not be able to initialize & format via USB under XP, it works fine under Vista-- so no need to open up your case while the drive formats. Still searching for software that will let me 'safely remove' when connected via eSATA.

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I have no complaints about its workings so far. I wish I could use it with IDE drives, since I have a few lying around from old laptops. It doesn't seem very durable, but I'm not exactly throwing it around, so we'll see. I liked the fact that it comes with all necessary cables, including a bracket for eSATA!

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Received product in 2 bus days, and it works just like it says. If you are not sure how to partition and format a new hard drive using the USB connection, go to Vantec's website and follow the directions in their system support. It is a lot easier than you think. Don't freak out when you put a new drive in the unit and it does not appear on your screen. Just follow Vantec's directions and you will be up and running in no time. Thanks T.D. for helping get rid of my desk clutter and making my SMALL internal hard drives have a purpose again. Great for photo back-up disk. Now I need some kind of storage boxes for the internal drives to lable and put away for safe keeping. Any suggestions?

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This is a very handy tool for people who need to work with multiple HDDs. eSATA provides significant better performance but need to boot up with the drive power on or use disk management MMC to connect/disconnect. Not as easy to use as USB.

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It works as is but the worst i hate is the on/off switch get stucks, did not pop out, have to press again, bad design. Price still pretty high.Other than that, it works and easy to use, on/off switch in front is a good idea that u can easily turn it off while not use.I use it as a backup drive, so no need for me to keep my drive always on.

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This device is great. It work on the first try. I am using it with a WD drive right now connected to my PVR and it does the job well.

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This dock is very useful if you need to transfer data around or check the health of a drive. However, I would suggest Vantec use a material that would make the case a little sturdier and allow some heat transfer from the HDD, probably should have a fan directed at it for longer operations. This review was modfied by poster @ 09-26-08 01:09 PM

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It works, but is too flimsy to be a workhorse. Spring loaded top door broke at month 1, and it feels cheap, like its going to break each time I go to use it. However it does the job, comes with everything you need, and... has a nice blue led.

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I have the Nexstar HD dock sitting right in front of me on my desk and I use it every day. The device feels a bit plasticy, and I treat it with care because I'm afraid it will break. Not really an issue because you don't want to throw your harddive around anyway. The device worked exellent right from the start and so far I've had no issues. It definitely beats all the external drives with their power supplies all over my desk!

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I cought this on sale and decided to go for it, as it's a way better solution than any enclosure for external HDD because you only need one for all your disks, but of course you can't easily travel with it...I needed a solution for my backup disks because I was tired of having to open the case everytime I needed to connect the drives, this did the trick perfectly !I really like the fact that the AC adapter isn't directly on the plug like most electronic devices because my powerbar is getting reallyfull with all the computer stuff connected. Like someone else said, it would've been great if the power supply wasn't in the middle, like laptop ones but instead right on the docking station, which would've increase it's weight and stability. The only thing that annoys me is it's weight, because when you plug in a heavy hard disk, it can sometimes feel not stable enought, and moving a HDD while in use really isn't the best thing to do.

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It's easy to swap hard drives and they fit in snugly. It comes with a good number of accessories, including a PCI bracket for a eSATA port. The only real problem is that it's not tall enough to cover the circuitry on the back of hard drives.

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Light and easy to swap drives. However, with 2.5" drives you must be very careful. A 3.5" drive will easily glide into place because of its' size and weight. But with 2.5" drives the guide is more for 12.7mm height drives which leaves empty space for the more standard 9.5mm height drives. If you accidently knock the drive forward (for whatever reason) I'm afraid it may snap the interface connector. The plastics of the dock does have a cheap plastic feel and it doesn't have a weighted base although it hasn't tipped over yet.

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Bon outil pour faire le transfert de donnés d'un disque dur en installation temporaire. La qualité de fabrication semble très bonne. Malheureusemnt je n'ai pas été capable de le faire fonctionner en SATA.

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This is a very handy tool for people who need to work with multiple HDDs. eSATA provides significant better performance but need to boot up with the drive power on or use disk management MMC to connect/disconnect. Not as easy to use as USB.

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Drives are seated not exactly shock proof or tight and can run hot due to lack of cooling but the box was not meant to be a drive chassis/enclosure.

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This little thing looks very pretty. Its main feature is easily swappable HDs, it essentially makes HDs like USB drives. It includes absolutely everything you need to utilize all its features, so instead of JUST the power supply and USB cable, it include all the necessary eSATA connectors and bracket. You really get your money's worth.However, some downsides include it's plastic, so cooling is compromised; ejection and insertion feels sketchy because of the cheap plastic, you may have to try a few times to get it all the way in.The swapping HD feature is only useful if you have multiple HDs lying around and have stuff stored on all of them, and you would like to easily access them without taking apart either your computer case or enclosure.

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Neat little gadget to have if you have a bunch of hard drives lying around. Extremely easy to use and works perfectly with any SATA hard drive, both 3.5" and 2.5" and the eSATA is good to have. Not that great of a deal at normal pricing but a good deal at 28.99

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The NexStar has a nice design that would look quite at home next to one of those Mac things, but I prefer sleek black.Other than that, the unit preforms as intended. Packaging is excellent too.Ventilation is excellent, providing room temperature cooling. If you don't have eSATA on your PC, Vantec has included a rear bracket in the pack that you can connect to your motherboard. You do need to be a bit careful when you insert and remove the harddrive though. Inserting is takes a bit of patience/skill/luck to align the connectors, while using the eject button makes you want to hold the HDD out of fear for it being hurled somewhere.

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It works as it says. But the On/Off switch stuck inside after pressing it.If support IDE would be excellent.Also doesn't looks/feel like good quality things.

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This is overall a pretty good little device, but the one problem I have is that it doesn't seem to spin down the drive, even when it's unmounted. This results in the drive getting very hot. I have to power it down when not in use to prevent this.

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I like it, it's cheap, it makes it easy to pull someones HD and re-format it in a jiff. I would suggest grabbing one if your tired of cracking your case open. Can't beat the price.

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As others have mentioned, I would agree that the build quality is inferior. However, it does work as advertised. The included power supply is quite large and occupies a lot of space. If only they could have a cable that allows it to run off of the computer's power supply (i.e. PSU slot bracket drive dock).

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I think this is the greatest idea to come along in a while . A dream for video editors - forget those flimsy removable drive bays. I plan to run two drives outside to reduce heat build up in PC case and to ease up on the power supply. No problems with setting up - effortless when exchanging drives. I like the fact that it comes with all the extra goodies like a usb cable, esata cable and backplate connector and power supply. It is a bit light when empty but once the drive is inserted its ok. What would be even nicer would be a dual ''toaster model'' with either twin esata ports or raid configuration - still ...great buy at 38.99 - looks like they are raising the price a bit but still worth it. A 5 for value and features - 4 for quality - it looks like a MAc product,nice blue light. I wish it was heavier when empty like the black USB model they came out with and i rate it as a 4 for performance only because havent used it to render a big video file yet but so far acts like a performer

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Very handy little gadget. My only complaint would be the quality of the materials used, overall kinda feels light and flimsy. But functionally it works like a charm!