Product ID: SATDOCK4U3RE
The SATDOCK4U3RE USB 3.0 and eSATA 1-to-3 Hard Drive Duplicator docking station enables you to duplicate/clone a single SATA hard drive to up to three other SATA drives simultaneously, as a standalone device. The duplicator can also function as a regular 4-bay hard drive docking station, by connecting to a host computer system. Large capacity drives (tested with up to 4TB 3.5" and 1TB 2.5" drives per bay) can be used to greatly enhance your computer's storage/backup capabilities.
Able to perform 1:3 sector duplication, including HPA, from a single SATA drive onto three others simultaneously (at a rate of up to 72 MBps), the duplicator/docking station can save you time and effort. As an external HDD dock, it can be connected to your host computer through USB 3.0 or eSATA, providing data transfer speeds up to 5 Gbps or 3Gbps respectively, from the hard drives to your computer system.
Features Quick and Secure Erase functions and support for IDE hard drives using the included SATA to IDE hard drive adapter (SAT2IDEADP). This drive eraser ensures data is purged (a secure erase) which is required by government agencies and organizations who have strict guidelines on deleting data. Purging is a very secure method of erasing data from your storage device which complies with the NIST 800-88 Rev. 1 media sanitation standard established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Warranty Information | Warranty | 2 Years |
---|---|---|
Connector(s) | 4 - Drive Connectors | SATA Data & Power Combo (7+15 pin) |
1 - Host Connectors | eSATA (7 pin, Data) | |
USB Type-B (9 pin) USB 3.0 | ||
Environmental | Operating Temperature | 5°C to 80°C (41°F to 176°F) |
Storage Temperature | -40°C to 70°C (-40°F to 158°F) | |
Humidity | 8%~90% RH | |
Hardware | Number of Drives | 4 |
Drive Size | 2.5in & 3.5in | |
Compatible Drive Types | SATA | |
2 - Fans | 60 mm | |
Chipset ID | JMicron - JMB394 JMicron - JMS539 |
|
Indicators | 4 - LED Indicators | Drive Power/Activity |
Packaging Information | Package Length | 34.3 cm [13.5 in] |
Package Width | 17.0 cm [6.7 in] | |
Package Height | 21.5 cm [8.5 in] | |
Shipping (Package) Weight | 2.7 kg [6.0 lb] | |
Performance | Maximum Data Transfer Rate | 3Gbps |
Type and Rate | USB 3.0 - 5 Gbit/s | |
SATA II (3 Gbps) | ||
Port Multiplier | Yes | |
Duplication Modes | Sector by Sector (Whole Drive) | |
Erase Modes | Quick Erase | |
Max Drive Capacity | Currently tested with up to 4TB 5400 RPM 3.5" hard drives per bay (16TB total) and 1TB 5400 RPM 2.5" hard drives (4TB total) | |
Duplication Speed | 4.2GBpm | |
Erase Modes | Secure Erase (NIST SP 800-88 Rev 1 - Purge) | |
Insertion Rating | 15,000 cycles per bay | |
Physical Characteristics | Color | Black |
Material | Plastic | |
Product Length | 28.4 cm [11.2 in] | |
Product Width | 17.2 cm [6.8 in] | |
Product Height | 96.0 mm [3.8 in] | |
Weight of Product | 1.1 kg [2.4 lb] | |
Power | Power Source | AC Adapter Included |
Input Voltage | 100 - 240 AC | |
Input Current | 2.0 A | |
Output Voltage | 12V DC | |
Output Current | 6.5 A | |
Power Consumption (In Watts) | 78 | |
Software | OS Compatibility | OS independent; No software or drivers required |
What's in the Box | 1 - Included in Package | SATA Duplicator Dock |
SATA to IDE Adapter | ||
44-Pin to 40-Pin IDE Cable | ||
Package of Mounting Screws | ||
40-pin IDE Cable | ||
SP4 to LP4 Power Cable | ||
eSATA Cable | ||
USB 3.0 Cable | ||
Universal Power Adapter (NA/JP, UK, EU, ANZ) | ||
Instruction Manual |
Use your 2.5in or 3.5in IDE hard drives in a SATA HDD Docking Station
Provide protection against shocks/impacts to a 2.5in hard drive
Provide protection against shocks/impacts to a 3.5in hard drive
Provides safe handling and anti-static protection for most 2.5in hard drives
Provides safe handling and anti-static protection for most 2.5in hard drives
Provides safe handling and anti-static protection for most 2.5in hard drives
Provides safe handling and anti-static protection for most 2.5in hard drives
Provides safe handling and anti-static protection for most 2.5in hard drives
Provides safe handling and anti-static protection for most 2.5in hard drives
Connect your external SATA storage devices to your Laptop or desktop.
Connect your external SATA storage devices to your Laptop or desktop.
Flush mount a USB 3.0 ExpressCard adapter into a laptop ExpressCard slot
Add a slim flush mounting eSATA port to a laptop through ExpressCard
Add 2 USB 3.0 ports to your desktop computer through a PCI Express expansion slot
Add two USB 3.0 ports to your laptop through an ExpressCard slot
Add an eSATA port to a desktop computer through a PCI Express slot
Add 2 flush mounted eSATA ports to a laptop through an ExpressCard/54 slot
We are always ready to assist you with any questions you may have.
Live Chat (opens in new window)We are always ready to assist you with any questions you may have.
Live Chat (opens in new window)Ensure there is no USB cable connecting the duplicator to a computer.
When you troubleshoot issues with a hard drive dock or duplicator, there are some quick tests that you can complete to rule out potential problems. You can test to make sure that the following components are working correctly and are not the source of the issue:
To test your setup components, try the following:
When you test the hard drive and hard drive dock or duplicator, it is recommended that you do the following:
Note: For a hard drive duplicator you may need to switch the device to PC mode (if available).
Note: Formatting a hard drive erases all of the data on it. Make sure that you back up all of your data before you reformat the hard drive.
Note: A formatted hard drive will not show up in Computer or My Computer until it has a drive letter assigned to it.
This docking station allows the hard drive to enforce its own power state, as opposed to enforcing a power state that keeps the hard drive active at all times. Since most newer hard drives have low-power energy conservation modes, this will cause the hard drive to enter an idle state if it is not used for a certain amount of time.
You do not need to format your target hard drive before you begin to duplicate it, because the target hard drive is automatically overwritten during the duplication process.
The hard drive duplicator copies the exact partition from the source drive to the target drive. Since it is required that you use a target drive that is equal or larger in size than the source drive a portion of the target drive appears as free space. You can append free space to the live partition on the target drive so that the full size of the drive can be utilized.
Note: A partition cannot be extended on an operating system drive that is in use. You must extend the partition when it not being used by the operating system, and ideally when it is still connected to the duplicator.
Note: Do not extend a System Reserved partition. Only extend the primary partition, which is typically the largest in size and formatted with NTFS or FAT32.
After you have successfully duplicated a drive and the target drive is still connected to your computer system (for example, through the duplicator), complete the following:
The primary partition on the drive now uses the entire drive area.
You can use the SATDOCK4U3RE to skip bad sectors on a hard drive. For more information, visit the following FAQ: http://www.startech.com/ca/faq/hard_drive_duplicators_failing_drives.
To use the SATDOCK4U3RE to skip bad sectors, you need to enable Read Error Skip. By default, Read Error Skip is disabled.
To enable Read Error Skip, complete the following:
Turn on the SATDOCK4U3RE.
Press ENT four times to enable Duplicator mode.
Press ESC to open the menu.
Press UP to open the Advanced Setup menu.
Press ENT twice to open the ReadErr Skip menu.
Select Enable and then press ENT twice.
Wait a few seconds for the unit to exit the menu.
StarTech.com hard drive duplicators only read from the source drive and only write to the target drives while in standalone duplication mode . A duplication that fails or halts will not cause a problem with the source drive.
You can use this device to duplicate an internal hard drive with the stand alone duplicator function if you remove the hard drive from the computer and connect it directly to this device.
It is not possible to duplicate from a larger drive to a smaller one. The capacity of the target drive must be equal to or greater than that of the source drive.
To confirm that the Mac OS detects your USB device, complete the following:
You may need to refresh the System Information page after you plug in your device. To do so, press Command + R with the System Information page open.
Your USB device is listed according to the name of the chipset. To determine the name of the chipset of your USB device, navigate to www.StarTech.com and look on the Technical Specifications tab for your product.
Some old hard drives (often low capacity as well) may not work because they use an old IDE standard not supported by the duplicator. Use a newer drive to determine if the duplicator works or if the drive is not compatible.
StarTech.com hard drive and flash drive duplicators perform a sector by sector copy, which means that the target drive must be the exact same size (down to the sector) or larger than the hard drive or flash drive that is being copied. During a sector by sector copy, each individual sector is copied over to the target drive, regardless of whether or not any data is present. A 500 GB hard drive with 50 GB of data on it will take the same amount of time to copy as a 500 GB hard drive with 450 GB of data on it.
If you have two hard drives or flash drives that are listed as the same size but are different makes or models, you need to check how large both drives are down to the sector to ensure that the target drive is the exact same size or larger.
Solid-state drives (SSDs) use SATA connectors to access power and transfer data. Any duplicator that can copy to or from SATA hard drives will work with a StarTech.com duplicator.
Note: If you use a dock to duplicate SSDs, keep in mind that the StarTech.com disk duplicators execute a sector by sector read and write. SSDs are rated by a number of reads and writes. Repeated duplication and sector by sector reads and writes of SSDs can reduce the life cycle of the drive.
Software-level encryption on the drive poses no issue to StarTech.com duplicators, as the duplicators copy encrypted data sector by sector over to the new drive.
Hardware-level encryption or BIOS level hard drive locks cause the duplication to halt and fail, as the drive is unable to read or write the sectors that are encrypted.
Duplication of Hidden Protected Area (HPA) Partitions or Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) cause the duplicator to halt and fail, as the drive cannot read and write the protected partitions on the drive.
Note: Our UNIDUPDOCK, SATDOCK22RE and SATDOCK4U3RE do include the ability to copy HPA partitions, but the duplication is still dependent on how the HPA partition is written to the hard drive, whether or not it is encrypted and how it is encrypted.
StarTech.com duplicators were not designed to recover failing or damaged drives. If the duplicator encounters a corrupt or unreadable sector, the duplication halts and fails. If the source drive has bad sectors, use the Read Error Skip feature if your model of duplicator has it; however, if there are too many errors, it may still halt and fail even with this feature. If this happens, you will need third-party recovery software or custom-built recovery hardware to copy from a failing or damaged drive.
Quick and secure erase functions
Quick erase and secure erase are functions the duplicators call on the hard drives themselves. How they work depends on the manufacturer of the hard drive.
Department of Defense erase function
A Department of Defense (DoD) erase is a function performed by the duplicator where it does three passes. The first pass writes all 0s. The second pass writes all 1s. The third pass writes 0s and 1s randomly.
Note: Not all duplicators will feature all of these erase modes. It is important to review the product manual to confirm the available erase modes.
To determine if your hard drive will work in this device, on the product page, click the Technical Specifications tab, and do the following:
Before you can access a new or formatted drive in your operating system, you need to initialize it first and then create a partition on the drive. A partition defines an area of the drive to use for storing data. The partition uses a file system (for example, ex-FAT, NTFS, and so on).
Note: You typically only need to initialize a drive if the drive is new. If you cannot find an uninitialized drive in Disk Management, skip the following steps and try to partition your device.
Press the Windows key + R, type compmgmt.msc, and click Run to open Computer Management.
Navigate to Disk Management.
When prompted to, initialize your disk(s). If you are running Windows® 7 or later and are using a drive larger than 2TB, initialize the disk(s) with GPT. If you are running an earlier version of Windows, initialize the disk(s) with MBR. For more information, visit the following FAQ: https://www.startech.com/support/faqs/technical-support?topic=hard-drives#mbr-vs-gpt.
Click OK.
Note: The following steps create an NTFS partition that uses the entire drive space. To use a different file system, select a different option in step 6.
Right-click Unallocated or RAW volume, and select New Simple Volume.
In the New Partition Wizard, click Next.
Select Primary partition.
Leave the partition size set to default, and click Next.
Assign a drive letter or leave it set to the default, and click Next.
Enter the following settings to format the partition:
The new drive should appear in Windows Explorer.
Before you can access a new or formatted drive in your operating system, you need to initialize it first and then create a partition on the drive. A partition defines an area of the drive to use for storing data. The partition uses a file system (for example, HFS+, ex-FAT, NTFS, and so on).
Mac OSX detects a drive that needs to be initialized and automatically prompts you to initialize the drive. If you are prompted to initialize the drive, click Initialize. If you are not prompted to initialize the drive and you cannot find the drive in Finder, you will need to create a partition on the drive.
Note: The following steps create an HFS+ (Mac OS Extended (Journaled)) partition that uses the entire drive space.
To create a partition on a new drive, complete the following:
Open Finder.
Navigate to Applications and click Utilities.
Open Disk Utility.
Select the new drive and click the Partition tab.
Click Options and verify that it is set to GUID Partition Table.
Enter a name for the partition.
Click Partition.
The drive should now be accessible in Finder.
For products related to this article, click here.
Check out our review guidelines.