Being able to take our data with us is very important, be it musics, pictures or even work related stuff. USB Drives are nice but even though they are getting bigger in capacity, they still can’t carry the amounts of data that a hard drive can, so we have companies that come up with ingenious HDD enclosures so we can take our data with us and protect it at the same time.

On the review block today I have the 2.5 inch SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock from our friends at USBGeek, and it offers the ability to take a 2.5” SATA drive with us wherever we go, along with a dock to put it into and even additional USB ports along with built-in card reader. While this product is a great idea, and it does work well, it does have one major flaw…

Continue on to learn more…

2.5 inch SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock

Author: Kristofer Brozio

Sponsor: USBGeek

Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:

2.5 inch SATA HDD Docking + USB 2.0 Hub + Card Reader

# Features: Supports all 2.5 inch SATA HardDisk

# USB Mass Storage supported, Hot Swappable.

# Supports USB 2.0 transfer speed up to 480Mbps

# 2-Port USB 2.0 hub, 3-Slot Card Reader

# Compact docking station design maximizes heat dissipation & exhaust

# Blue LED indicator

# Support Windows Vista, XP, ME, 2000 and Mac OS

# Weight: 140g

Support Cards:

# SD, SDHC (Up to 32GB)

# Mini SD, Mini SDHC

# T-Flash Card, microSD, microSDHC

Contents:

# 2.5 inch SATA HDD Case

# Multi-Function Dock

# Screw and Screw Driver

*2.5-inch Hard Drive NOT included

Price: US$ 27.00

Color Option:

-Black

-Red

A Better Look at Things

:

The 2.5 inch SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock comes in a sort of attractive green box, on the back is listed the features and not much other information about the product.

Opening the box we find the parts in their own separate compartments, included is an empty aluminum enclosure, screwdriver and the USB dock/card reader. Nope, no user manual, we’ll have to go it alone on this one, but if you’ve used one enclosure then you can figure this one out… also you might have noticed there’s no other USB cable in the package, so it’s going to be hard to take the drive with you without taking the dock as well.

The actual dock is made of a glossy plastic, the version I got was obviously black in color but there is the choice of red as well. There a big slot in the center with a USB port in it, the enclosure with HDD goes here for docking and access to the data on it.

On the front, and both sides of the dock we find memory card slots for SD, miniSD and microSD cards and USB ports. On the bottom we find labels for the ports and the feet of the dock.

The hard drive enclosure is very plain, just black aluminum, on one side the USB port and an LED indicator. The enclosure is not much bigger than a 2.5” HDD so it won’t add much to the size of your drive.

{mospagebreak title= Installation, Testing and Comparison}

Installation, Testing and Comparison

The first things you’ll need to do is install you hard drive, this is easy, unscrew a couple screws, remove the SATA/USB interface, attach your hard drive, slide it all back into the enclosure and put the screws back in, very easy to do.

The dock itself has two LEDs on it as well that remind me of eyes, and when you insert a card into the front slot it resembles a creature sticking it’s tongue out at you.. anyway, transfer times seem comparable to using any other card reader, speeds are limited by the speed of the card and the USB of course.

Using the hard drive dock part is actually tricky, it took me a few times to get it to work correctly, apparently you really have to push hard on the enclosure to get it to connect to the dock, but once it’s in there it’s very secure. Here transfer times were the same as having the HDD in another enclosure.

There is one major flaw with this device, and one minor flaw, the major flaw is that there’s no USB cable included so you can’t take just the hard drive with you and leave the dock at home, unless of course you buy an additional USB cable. The minor flaw is that the USB cable from the dock is very short, depending on where your USB ports are located you may have to use and extension, and especially if your computer is located under your desk.

Summary:

Overall the 2.5 inch SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock is a nice idea and it seems like a great device, but the two flaws it has really detract from it’s overall value and usefulness.

So until this problems get addressed this really isn’t that great of a choice for your portable storage needs.

It might work great if you just need the extra storage space and a card reader/USB hub, but the idea of an HDD enclosure is to make your data portable and this really doesn’t do that…

Al things considered though DragonSteelMods gives the 2.5 inch SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock a 3.5 out of 5 score.

Pros:

-Lightweight

-Portable

-Seems well made

-Easy to use

-Transfer times comparable to other devices

Cons:

-Short USB cord

-Must insert HDD enclosure correctly to work

-No USB cable included to take drive with you

I would like to thank USBGeek for the chance to review the 2.5 inch SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock and for their continued support of DSM.

review# 464