Vantec NexStar 2.5" & 3.5" SATA to USB2.0, eSATA & FireWire Hard Drive Docking Station

Comment:
Running on Mac G5. Good value, great performance. Mounts 99.9% of time without hiccups, otherwize, just turn it off and on and reset drive into toaster. FireWire is nice option for speed with Mac. Great backup. Needs a case option for HD's laying around. Herk

Comment:
Needed a way to check out several hard drives and the idea of tearing into my computer to install a temporary drive several times was not appealing. Bought this unit and it does everything I needed except you cannot do a firmware upgrade (not the docks fault)m for this I had to install the drive in a computer. Unit is well built (do not forget to hang onto the drive when you press the eject...), a bit pricey compared to other units, but I suspect that is due to the firewire option which for me was a nice option. Overall satisfied, did what I needed and didn't cause any difficulties.

Comment:
Purchased this unit as a HD external toaster, and paid the extra for the Firewire, which is a nice feature. Also works with PC or Mac. CONS: Most disks must be partitioned PRIOR to using with this unit and a PC. But fortunately Mac recognizes, and you can Master Boot Drive-DOS format from Mac Utility partitioning. Also, within one month, and not much use, it burned out during a 750Gb partitioning, leaving me high and dry. Took some time to figure out what exactly burned out and whether or not the disk was usable. Fortunately, it was.

Comment:
Seems to work with most drives! HOWEVER Seems to be a problem with Hitachi 7K1000.B Hard Drive - 1TB, 7200RPM, 16MB, SATA-300, OEM Drive does not seem to seat properly and will not spin up 95% of time Tried 3 differnt drives only one worked once

Comment:
I love this dock - it's really inexpensive, plug and play, and it's completely idiot-proof. But - the drives run hot. As far as I can tell, they never stop spinning for as long as they are docked. Not a huge issue, but I end up using the drive when I need to, and then shut it down. It's not something I leave on all the time and forget.

Comment:
This device works excellently with USB and Firewire; however, I have not been able to get this device or the first one I bought (without firewire) to work with eSATA; however, it is possible I'm not doing something right with that particular interface for my machine. This is the reason for the 4 stars on features and performance.

Comment:
First off, this device works exactly as advertised. In addition, it comes will any cable you could need to connect it. I have it hooked up via esata and the data transfer rate is excellent! I'll take this over an external hard drive any time. Very happy with the performance!

Comment:
Works as advertised. Solid piece of gear. Highly recommended.

Comment:
Very nice design and flexible hardware. Great price next to External Hard Drive Enclosure. Just wish its include the fan to cool the hard drive but cannot expect more for the price.

Comment:
Very impressive device. So simple and flexible. I'm using it with a 500gb Seagate HD and SATA connection. No vibration, runs quiet and disc remains cool. My HP computer running XP recognized the disc immediately. To assure disc recognition, start unit first and wait a few seconds BEFORE starting main computer. Also, be sure the hard disc is firmly inserted into dock. Bottom line: this is a great device.

Comment:
In spite of the fact that the unit died so quickly, I bought 2 and the survivor has been fantastic. Stupid simple to set up, it is well designed and extremely easy to use.Comes with a rear eSata bracket that simply plugs into any sata port on your motherboard. This allows raid configs if your motherboard supports it. I would give it 5 stars if the unit didn't die on me. Purchased on price match for $50.