Docking Station: StarTech.com SuperSpeed USB 3.0 to SATA Hard Drive Docking Station for 2.5/3.5-Inch Hard Drive SATDOCKU3S (Black)

Product Details

Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 6.5 x 3.5 inches ; 14.4 ounces
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
ASIN: B0033AF5WW
Item model number: SATDOCKU3S

By : StarTech
List Price : ~~$66.99~~
Price : $36.99
You Save : $30.00 (45%)

Product Description

The SATDOCKU3S USB 3.0 Hard Drive Docking Station delivers full, instant access to any 2.5in or 3.5in SATA (SATA, SATA II, SATA III) hard drive (HDD) or solid state drive (SSD), without having to mount the drive in a computer or install it in an external enclosure. Connected to the host computer through a single USB 3.0 SuperSpeed or USB 2.0 connection, the hard drive docking station provides a convenient, plug-and-play storage solution that delivers instant access to the hard drive without requiring a reboot. Relying on the outstanding data throughput support of USB 3.0, the HDD docking station is capable of transfer speed up 5Gbps, making it the fastest way to access data from an external drive. Double the value of this hard drive docking station, using a SATA to IDE hard drive adapter (SAT2IDEADP), which enables you to use any 2.5 or 3.5in IDE hard drive in a SATA hard drive dock slot.

Technical Details

SuperSpeed USB 3.0 technology provides fast access for external storage, while still being backwards compatible with USB 2.0
A top slot-loading design and unique drive ejection mechanism provides quick and easy access to the data without having to install drives into an enclosure or tray
Backed by a StarTech.com 1 year warranty and free lifetime technical support
SuperSpeed USB 3.0 compliant host interface, with transfer rates up to 5Gbps
High Speed USB 2.0 compliant host interface, with transfer rates up to 480Mbps
Combined power switch and status LED
Compatible with SATA revision 1/2/3 (1.5/3.0/6.0 Gbps) drives
Patented drive ejection mechanism

Customer Reviews

Very nice docking station. There are things to keep in mind when purchasing this kind of item. Three problems you want to focus on: 1- make sure you have a USB 3.0 pci expression card in your desktop/laptop or a motherboard with USB 3.0! Not expensive. If NOT, it's the same as using a USB 2.0 (good thing is that it will still work but you need to change the cable to reg USB). You won't be able to take advantange of the speed. I tried to install it on one of my computers pci slot and it did not fit! Luckly, I had another computer which did have a specific slot that it fit in. This is important because I can see people buying the PCI expression card with this docking station and finding that it doesn't even fit in their computer slots.
2- If you have the older hard drives (PATA 133 HHD)this will not work with it! I was disappointed to find that out but now I'm looking for an adapter the would convert the older hard drive to a SATA connection and that will fit in the slot. I was able to copy files from one laptop harddrive to another. IT is very light and you don't need a cd driver installed to recognize the device on your computer. When you hit the power botton on top, a light comes on red and when it reads the drive the light turns multi-colors (looks nice). You can use this as an external storage device by use a laptop hard drive or a desktop SATA harddrive. I used it on Vista 64bit ; XP. Definately nice! It did the job for me

Although I have not used this particular StarTech USB 3.0 SATA docking station for 1 hard drive, I have been using its big brother, the same product for 4 SATA hard drives (StarTech.com SATDOCK4U3E 4 Bay eSATA USB 3.0 to SATA Hard Drive Docking Station for 2.5/3.5 HDD). I purchased two of those 4-bay StarTech units back in August 2011, and have been using them for 6 months. I have them both attached to separate USB 3.0 ports on my Dell XPS 17 laptop, and they work perfectly. So, even though I have been using the big brother of this product, I thought it might be useful to someone for me to pass along my experience with it, because I would imagine that using this 1-bay version of the product is essentially identical.
This unit also works with USB 2.0 ports (though USB 3.0 is much faster, of course).
BIG CAVEAT: I need to say that I don't really swap hard drives much in these docking stations. I have swapped hard drives several times, and it's gone without a hitch, but that's not my normal usage pattern. I am using these StarTech USB 3.0 docking stations to provide my laptop with flexible external storage, and I don't swap the drives as a general rule. The drives just sit in the docking station and hum along, doing their thing with great transfer speeds. If you are going to be swapping drives frequently, I can't say one way or the other if you'll run into problems. I just haven't observed any such problems myself, and the product is designed to handle seamless hard disk swapping without having to turn off your computer or anything. Just remember, like with any external hard drive, to use the "Safely Remove Hardware" feature that is usually in the Windows 7 system tray at the bottom right of the screen, to make sure that any unwritten data gets written to the external drive before you swap it.
NOTE: One reviewer expressed disappointment that this StarTech docking unit only works with SATA hard drives, not the older IDE (or PATA 133) hard drives. In case it's useful, I wanted to mention that StarTech also offers a different, very similar docking unit, that lets you connect either or both of an IDE (PATA 133) or SATA hard drive, using a single USB 2.0 port (StarTech USB to SATA IDE Hard Drive Docking Station for 2.5-Inch or 3.5-Inch HDD UNIDOCK2U). (Alas, that IDE-compatible unit doesn't come in a USB 3.0 version.)
Anyway, this docking station IS for USB 3.0 (or USB 2.0). It lets you use ANY internal SATA hard drive (3.5" or 2.5"), just plug the drive into the slot. Then, plug the USB 3.0 cable on this docking unit into one of the USB 3.0 ports on your laptop or desktop computer. Voila! External disk storage, instantly available, super fast access, and you can upgrade the storage capacity at any time by just buying a bigger SATA hard drive. As of this writing, the largest available internal SATA hard drive seems to be 4TB (for example, the 4TB Seagate Barracuda XT ST4000DX000 SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive, which I use in my StarTech docking station and it works great). And now I have a growth path - if I need even more storage in the future, I just wait for the SATA hard drive manufacturers to make an even bigger drive, and just slip it into the slot on this StarTech docking station. And again, I have been using these two StarTech docking stations for 6 months now, continuously, every day, all the time, and they work great - I've had zero problems.
Plus, if you want to, you really can, trivially easily, pop out the SATA drive and put in a different one, if your situation calls for that. (Like maybe you keep all the files for each of your clients on a separate SATA drive. Whatever.) It's a piece of cake, and works beautifully.
I don't mean to gush. I have just found my StarTech USB 3.0 SATA docking station to be a reasonably priced, high speed, and extremely reliable solution to an important problem I have of requiring lots of external storage for my laptop. So I wanted to pass along my experience with this product.
By the way, in addition to this single bay docking station for one SATA hard drive on a USB 3.0 port, StarTech sells the same product in a 2-drive configuration (StarTech.com SuperSpeed USB 3.0 to Dual 2.5/3.5-Inch SATA Hard Drive Docking Station (SATDOCK22U3S)) and a 4-drive configuration (StarTech.com SATDOCK4U3E 4 Bay eSATA USB 3.0 to SATA Hard Drive Docking Station for 2.5/3.5 HDD, which is the one I use), for truly massive external hard drive space on a single USB 3.0 port. And, if you get the 2-drive or 4-drive version, you don't have to use all of the drive slots; you can use any number of slots (including just one). The extra slots just give you expansion room for the future.
I hope this helps someone. This was my favorite product purchase of any kind in 2011.

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