Plugable USB 3.0 Hard Drive Dock for 2.5 and 3.5 HDD or SSD (Supports SATA III, UASP and Drives 8TB+)

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of this device...ADVANTAGES.1. The plastic body is well constructed with thick plastic..2. It handles SATA hard drives up to 4TB..3. The USB 3.0 cable is thick and shielded. As a result, electrical signals does not get corrupted or degraded..4. It handles 3.5" and 2.5" hard drives..5. The USB 3.0 port, power connector, and power switch are ergonomically located..6. The company's tech person emailed me with various suggestions on a Sunday afternoon...DISADVANTAGES.1. The product is very unstable. I have two identical Asus CM1831 computers. The Plugable does not work on either..Although the Device Manager, Eject Icon, and Devices and Printer screen recognized the unit's existence, the Auto Play did not activate. As a result, the drive and its files did not exist according Windows Explorer..Scanning the product's website, I downloaded and updated the firmware. It did nothing to solve the problem..So, I re-installed Windows 7 "from scratch" and used Device Genius to search the web for the latest USB 3.0 drivers. After booting, the Plugable docking station did not activate on one computer. On the other computer, it "sometimes work" if I rebooted a few times. . . . It was a gamble..2. The engineers and designers should have placed an alternative eSATA port on the device. If the USB 3.0 did not work, the hard drive could use the reliable eSATA feature to activate..3. I spent over five hours trying to get this product to work without any positive results. The company's tech person also spent two hours on a Sunday afternoon without any success...----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------..UPDATE #1.A few weeks after the above disaster, Plugable's tech department emailed me on a Thursday. The message expressed concern that my experience with their product was negative. Between the weeks, their engineers updated the firmware and wanted me to "try out" the revision, which I agreed..The package arrived on Saturday afternoon. I tested the docking station on my two main computers. Upon connection, the AUTOPLAY immediately recognized the device. On one computer, the file transfer rate was between 89 to 105 mb/s. On the other, the speed was between 79 to 84 mb/s. Considering my SATA file transfer rate between hard drives was 13-14 mb/s, this was a 600% to 946% increase in speed using the Plugable!.I emailed the company's technician back with the good news and offered to pay for the device. He declined the payment. It was their way of saying thanks for reporting the defect and my attempts to make it work..What can I say? . . . The product worked beyond my expectation. In addition, I was very impressed with the firm's customer service. Any other company would "write the customer off" and treat him as a "lost sale" - a $60 loss is no big deal. Yet, the firm had their programmers personally researched and fixed the firmware problem within a short time, shipped the revision to me for testing, and declined any payment. . . . They did all that - - - unbelievable!.I have never experienced such a consumer focused company with superb customer service. Every firm should be like this! . . . I am still flabbergasted...---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------..UPDATE #2.There three design changes that would make this product perfect..1. The hard drive gets very hot after an extended session - this leads to shorten life span and other problems. Most of the heat is generated on the underside where the spindle and electronics plate are located. This temperature is trapped by the docking station's plastic on the bottom and two sides. . . . This heating problem can be solved simply by a small design change..First during mounting, the hard drive needs to be repositioned 180 degrees with the underside on top. The effect of this "flipping over the hard drive" is huge. The electronics and spindle are exposed to the open air for passive cooling..This change in hard drive mounting requires the two electrical connectors to be relocated from their present positions..2. The four 5/8" wide raised plastic rails on the plastic platform need to be deeper. At present, they are 1mm deep. The small space limits heat flowing out of the hard drive's opposite side. They need to be deeper - at least 1/8"..3. The hard drive tends to "pop" out of the two electrical connectors during usage..The solution is to replace the two round rubber pads on the end of the docking station. Install 0.5" ones. This will tilt the hard drive platform in a slight angle. When the hard drive is mounted, gravity and weight will cause the device to go forward, thus the device maintains constant contact with the two electrical contacts..The slight tilt will also help in the cooling of the hard drive on the side which is resting on the dock's plastic platform. With the proposed 1/8" channels and a slight tilt, heat from the hard drive's opposite side rises up and flows out of the channels.

Plugable USB 3.0 SATA Hard Drive Lay-Flat Docking Station (Latest ASMedia ASM1053E Chipset) arrived very timely as in fast, well packed and preceeded by the only time I've ever received an email from any vender thanking me for the purchase before the shipment actually arrived and inviting me to use the device fully then let them know what I think and if I need any help. I liked that email and I intend to follow its advice.OK.....I have a HP HPE-410F system, AMD PhenomII X6 1045T @2.70GHz, N-Alvorix-RS880-uATX (Alvorix), 8.00 GB, ATI Radeon HT5570, Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA2 32MB cache 7200RPM (primary HDD)I installed a new Gigaware 2-Port USB 3.0 PCI Express Card, which was absurdly cheap prior to the Plugable dock purchase, since USB 2.0 is all the computer had OEM.I ordered a new Hitachi Ultrastar 2TB 64MB 7200RPM 3.5" (Enterprise) SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive.First reading the instructions with the Plugable dock, I then inserted HDD into the dock, connected the power supply with the dock switch off, then the USB 3.0 cable between the dock and the recently installed USB 3.0 input.(PRIOR to the first use of the Plugable device, the new Gigaware 2-Port USB 3.0 PCI Express Card worked fine with other USB devices including a Seagate USB 3.0 portable 1TB HDD...but I don't know what actual DATA FLOW RATE was obtained since presently I haven't the means to measure.)Plugable dock switch TURNED ON......LED activates, HDD spins......computer doesn't recognize the new device. (HDD was sold stated formatting was required) It doesn't appear anywhere on the system.Plugable dock switch off, then USB cable replaced into computer's USB 2.0 input then POWER ON.....computer recognizes the device and begins searching and installing drivers for it.The Plugable website FAQ page addresses the possibility of issues between USB 3.0 products of different manufacturers......>>>We recommend connecting the USB3-SATA-UASP1 Docking Station directly to a USB 3.0 port on your computer for best results. The ASMedia chipset is a solid performer, and does usually work with hubs but because of issues that can occur between different manufacturers USB 3.0 systems and USB 3.0 hubs we recommend connecting the SATA-UASP1 directly if you experience any problems.<<< .....so I allow that this may be my issue particularly since my USB 3.0 Express Card costs a mere $3 bucks plus $3.99 shipping off Amazon! Meanwhile....As the Plugable rig is found by the system through a USB 2.0 port, I connect an iPod to a USB 3.0 port to see if that's normal and it is, fully recognized as always before.From the USB 2.0 port the HDD in the Plugable dock shows in Device Manager and/or Disk Management as "Disk 1"...Unknown/Not Initialized/with 1863.02 GB Unallocated. The "Initialize Disk" window is open with "Disk 1" and "MBR" preselected. I DON'T proceed with the process.Selecting "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media"....(though the "joint" device consists of the Plugable Docking Station and the Hitachi HDD, it's identified as ASM1053E in both Device Manager/Disk Drives and the "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media" link. ASM1053E relates to the Plugable device alone.).....then....POWER OFF the Plugable dock, return the USB 3.0 cable to the USB 3.0 port and POWER ON...NOW the computer recognizes the Plugable device from the USB 3.0 port!The Plugable device is recognized in Device Manager and/or Disk Management just as before, needing "Initializing." So THEN I proceeded."Disk 1_MBR_New Simple Volume Wizard_Max Disk Space @1907727MB_Drive letter F_Format Partition NTFS, Default, Hitachi 2TB_Wizard Summary".........FULL FORMAT in this manner took FIVE hours and THIRTEEN minutes to complete.The Hitachi HDD reported in properties as 1.81 TB free space, 147 MB used space and shown in Windows Explorer as, "This Folder is Empty."Numerous times I powered up the Plugable/Hitachi device and all is fine.As new computer hardware, I give the Plugable Docking Station FIVE STARS.