Thermaltake BlacX ST0005U External Hard Drive SATA Enclosure Docking Station 2.5” & 3.5” USB 2.0 & eSATA

Pros: The built quality is really nice, it work verry well and it's Sata connection make data transfer an easy task. I've pluged it in the back of my Synology DS410 and use it to make backup of few importent transfert like camera security videos and it's so much better than the USB . Make me play with HD like old Floppy disk;-)

Cons: The eject button didn't work well but i don't relly use it... Just take the HD bu the side and pull it...

Other Thoughts: Every one should get one of these if you have an HD in spare !

Pros: Quiet

Cons: Poor components. Power switch failed on first one in less than one year. Sent back for replacement. Had new unit for another year and power switch also failed on new one. Switch is solid state, soldered to circuit board so had to modify instead of sending second unit back. Not recommended.

Other Thoughts: Hope components are better in newer version and they have improved quality.

Pros: Allows easy connection and removal of internal SATA Hard drives from outside the computer if your PC is hot swappable to begin with.
Basically this is a direct connection to the SATA port on Motherboard when using eSATA cable

Cons: The Con is this doesn't change the SATA port behavior of your motherboard, and Plug and Play feature isn't guaranteed unless your motherboard has the to begin with.
Your BIOS must have AHCI mode for drives to be hot-swappable using this without reboots needed.

Other Thoughts: I read some reviews complaining they had to refresh the drives in computer management each time or reboot for new drive to be recognized, that is a feature of AHCI in bios being enabled (if you want hot swappable feature) your motherboard needs to support that!

Pros: None really, as the thing has never worked.

Cons: The device drops the connection with the PC before the backup is finished. I need to turn the device on and off before my PC will recognize it again. Even small backups seems to fail.

Other Thoughts: I bought this in NA and now I am in Asia, and its too late to return it. Don't think I'll risk buying another product form this company.

Pros: It works. The box says it supports only up to 2Tb drives, but 3Tb drives will work in it as well. NOTE: you need to format the drive as GPT instead of MBR for the system to utilize the entire 3Tb... Google "hard drive GPT" if you're stuck

Cons: Requires going to device manager and scanning for hardware changes when ever you plug in a drive, or swapping drives. It's not automatically detected as the manual states.

Other Thoughts: I'm using the eSATA connection on a Windows 7 64bit machine and the following things differ from what the manual says - that everything happens automatically:

A) Plugging in a drive requires going to device manager and scanning for hardware changes in order for the PC to recognize the drive. Or rebooting the PC

B) Swapping a drive requires the same thing - going to device manager and scanning for hardware changes in order for the PC to see the new drive. Or rebooting the PC

C) Not verified yet - but I believe removing a drive and leaving the dock empty will also require a visit to the device manager and scanning for hardware changes in order for the PC to recognize that the drive is now removed.

None these are not major hurdles, but if you don't know - you might think your dock is busted when in fact it's more than likely a compatibility issue between Window 7, or 64bit, or both - and the dock

Pros: Great idea

Cons: not recognized, didn't see a driver.

Pros: Worked perfectly for about a month

Cons: It got extremely temperamental after more use, the device randomly disconnects from the system and so much data loss has occurred due to this thing that I had to stop using it.

It looks like I got one of the bad ones.

Pros: This has worked well for me. Aside from some problems with eSATA cables, it works great with both Windows 7 and Linux. I've had no problems with disks upto 1 TB (Tbyte) in size.

I've had no problems with the plastic or the weights, either.

Cons: The USB interface doesn't work with 3 TB drives, though the eSATA interface seems to work fine. I'm not sure why 2 TByte (2^41) is a magic number for the USB interface, but it seems to be in my case. This is true for both Windows 7 and Linux.

Note that this is not a MBR vs. GPT partitioning scheme issue, since I can get the 3 Tbyte drives to work using the eSATA interface.

Also note that older versions of Linux can't handle disks larger than 2 Tbyte at all. For example, Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx), can't handle my 3 Tbyte disks on the USB or eSATA interfaces.

Windows 7 seems unable to handle hot-swap of disks on the eSATA interface, which means that with Windows 7 you're either stuck with disks smaller than 2 Tbyte (USB interfaced), or you can't swap disks without rebooting (eSATA interface).

Finally, I"ve had problems with the external eSATA cables becoming loose and causing disk errors when they "wobble". There are no locking eSATA cables and the ones I'm using that fit securely when new seem to become quite loose as they edge (cheap metal in the spring on the connector???). I've bought some more expensive cables that seem to be holding up, but its too early to tell since the cheap cables fit firmly when they were new.

Other Thoughts: I don't have any 2 Tbyte drives to test with, only 750 GB, 1 TB, and 3 TB.

Further, I need to redo some of these tests to be sure I'm reporting them correctly (any updates will follow).

Pros: Compact design and the ability to read 3.0 TB drives

Cons: I found the AC adapter connection to very loose. The drive would constantly power on and off while try to copy files. I noticed this was more pronounced by simply brushing a hand across the AC cord. I had similar issues with the power switch on Thermaltake's dual drive docking station.

Other Thoughts: The unit was simply too unstable so I returned it. I might try another brand.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,
We at Thermaltake apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you. We can replace it through warranty service. Please contact our customer service team for warranty instructions.
Thermaltake USA Customer Service
email: ttsupport@thermaltakeusa.com
Toll free: 1-800-988-1088 M-F 9:00AM ~ 5:30PM (P.S.T)

Pros: Unboxed.
Connected via USB
Inserted customers laptop hard drive.
Automatically popped up much like a Flash drive/USB Drive does.

No drivers, no installation required. Just plug the drive in and its up in seconds.

Cons: that I didn't buy one of these years ago.