It is by no means a required feature and one needs to think carefully whether it is really useful in their own specific circumstances, as how often does the typical consumer need to make an exact copy of a hard drive In addition, on the odd occasion when one does need to make a copy, this can usually be achieved via the computer instead.To accommodate this thirst for digital storage space, many of us resort to buying multiple external hard disk drives (HDDs) each with its own USB or similar connection hardware, and each with its own power adapter.
Sata Docking Station Reviews Upgrade Computers OverIn addition, as we upgrade computers over the years, many of us are left with a trail of old laptop and desktop computers that are too slow to deal with todays fast moving digital pace but still have usable hard drives inside if only they were more accessible. ![]() Hard drive docking stations come in several flavours from those that handle a single HDD or SSD to other more professional HDD docks that can handle an array of drives. Since here at DeskTopVibes.com we are focused on consumer computing hardware, we favour the 2-bay or dual hard drive docking station for its balance between technical flexibility and yet still reasonable price. To find the best dual HDD docking station, one needs to know first what technical specifications to look for before then choosing a reputable manufacturer. More. What to look for in a Dual Hard Drive Dock 2.5 and 3.5 drives First and foremost, the HDD dock should be able to handle the two most common sizes of hard drive SSD, namely the 2.5 laptop-format drives and the desktop-sized 3.5 drives. Fortunately, the majority of dual hard drive docking stations on the market today are able to accommodate both standard formats, so ensuring this feature is included in your future HDD dock should not be too difficult. The SATA protocol has evolved over the years with each iteration doubling the theoretical maximum speed at which data can be transferred. The oldest of these, SATA I, has a theoretical maximum data transfer speed of 1.5 Gbps. This was followed by SATA II with a maximum data speed of 3 Gbps, and then more recently by SATA III, which has a maximum speed of 6 Gbps. Fortunately, the SATA standard has been developed to be backwards-compatible and forwards-compatible, meaning older SATA drives will work when they are plugged into newer SATA interfaces, and conversely, newer SATA drives will work in older SATA hardware, albeit always at the maximum data transfer rate of the lower SATA standard. What this means for SATA HDD docking stations is that they will accept and run older SATA drives from obsolete computers, while at the same time being compatible with current SATA HDDs and SSDs, and should remain capable of running future versions of SATA-based storage drives as well. Gbps explained Hard drive docks are essentially adapters that facilitate the transfer of data from one hard drive to another, so the basic question users need to ask is how fast can these HDD docks transfer data. Data transfer is usually measured in giga bits per second (Gbps), which can be translated into the more commonly used data parameters of gigabytes (GB) and megabytes (MB) by dividing the Gbps by 8 to get the number of GBs, and then multiplying by 1000 to get the more familiar metric of MBs of data. Gbps 1 GB sec 1000 MB sec USB vs eSATA The HDD dock connects to a computer via its external interface. Todays current defacto standard for the external interface is a USB 3.0 connection, which has a theoretical maximum data transfer speed of 5 Gbps. USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with the USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) and should also be compatible with USB 1.1 (12 Mbps) standards (although this may not be the case for some less reputable electronics manufacturers) which means that USB 3.0 HDD docking stations will also work via legacy USB ports, although at the much lower data transfer speeds of the older USB standards. A more recent USB standard, USB 3.1, with its maximum speed of 10 Gbps, has also started to make an appearance on some HDD docking stations on the market. However, currently, it seems pointless opting for an HDD dock sporting a USB 3.1 port as the maximum speed data can be transferred in an HDD dock will anyway be limited by the maximum speed of the internal hard drive SATA connections, i.e. Gbps in the case of SATA III. Another common external interface found on HDD docks is the eSATA port, which can be assumed to be equivalent to the internal SATA connections, but designed as an external interface. However, eSATA ports are not all that common on computing hardware so, in general, the slightly slower USB 3.0 port is currently the preferred external interface when it comes to hard drive docking stations. In reality, data transfer speeds rarely, if ever, reach their theoretical maximums due to mechanical limitations of the hard drives themselves, therefore using eSATA at a maximum speed of 6 Gbps versus USB 3.0 at maximum speed of 5 Gbps will not really make any difference to the actual data transfer speeds one observes in real life. UASP The USB Attached SCSI Protocol or UASP is a protocol that enhances the effective data transfer speed over the USB interface. However, this is not to say that the USB 3.0 interface can go even faster than its theoretical maximum of 5 Gbps, but rather that with UASP support, the actual real-life data transfer speeds that one sees over the USB interface comes closer to its theoretical maximum. UASP also has the advantage of using less CPU resources when transferring data over the USB interface. For UASP to do its job, one not only needs a dock that supports UASP but also a computer and operating system that has inherent support for UASP. Sata Docking Station Reviews Mac OS XThis means modern computers running Microsoft Windows 8 and upwards, Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) and above, or more recent versions of Linux starting from version 3.15 can all take advantage of the improved performance attained with UASP when connected to a HDD dock which also supports UASP. Sata Docking Station Reviews Offline Hard DriveHard drive duplicator dock Offline hard drive cloning is a feature found on some dual HDD docking stations, which permits the cloning or identical copying of one drive on to another blank drive without the need for a computer.
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