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StarTech USB/SATA Drive Duplicator and Eraser review


The StarTech Drive Duplicator and Eraser for SATA and USB Flash Drives is a powerful, simple to use, and versatile tool for IT professionals or consumers who routinely need to manage a number of different types of data drives. Although it’s lacking in documentation and is a bit expensive at the suggested retail price of $796.99, the Drive Duplicator can replace a standard computer tasked with the same operations.

The Drive Duplicator comes in standard StarTech packaging, no frills and well-protected with clear indications of the product functions.

What’s in the Box

  • 1 – SATA/USB duplicator and eraser
  • 1 – 12v DC Power supply
  • 4 – Universal power adapters (NA/JP, UK, EU, ANZ)
  • 2 – Drive-connector cables
  • 2 – Drive pads
  • 1 – Quick-start guide

The unit comes with five different types of international power cables, including two for the U.S., one with a ground plug and one with a wired ground.

The design of the unit speaks much to the functioning of it, simple and direct. A glossy back top with four membrane buttons, an LCD screen and 12 LED indicator lights is met on the sides by a textured hard plastic casing.

 

Both sides of the unit have connections for USB 2.0 and standard 22 pin SATA drives. You can use 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SATA SSDs or HDDs with the unit. The top of the unit has the connection for the power plug and an on/off rocker switch.

To be honest, the rocker switch causes me a lot of anxiety as it can easily be knocked into the off position during vital operations.

The connections on either side of the unit are clearly marked Target and Source. There are separate LED indicator lights (yellow, green and red) for each input.

The quick-start guide recommends always using the included SATA drive connector cables when connecting SATA drives to prevent damage to the SATA connectors on the unit and the drives themselves.

Soft, mousepad-like “drive pads” are also recommended for use when using SATA drives.

For my SATA testing, I used two identical 120gb SSDs connected via the drive connector cables.

For USB testing I used two identical 2gb USB flash drives.

With SATA drives and power plugged in, the unit takes up a good bit of space and is rather unwieldy. Although, considering that it can replace a computer doing the same functions, it’s a small caveat.

All operations are controlled via menus on the LCD screen and the membrane buttons. The menus take a little getting used to at first, but for basic functions like copy and erase, the process is pretty simple to activate. The LEDs indicate drive functions; yellow indicates that the drive is connected correctly, green indicates that activity is occurring, and red indicates that an error is occurring.

The Drive Duplicator supports six erase modes and four copy modes as well as cross-interface support allowing you to copy SATA-to-USB or USB-to-SATA.

One of the most useful functions of the unit drive erasure. I use it daily to wipe USB flash drives that come out of usage rotation and for wiping SATA drives that are being put into new machines. The unit provides you with six different erase modes. The one I use the most is the basic Quick Erase mode, but it also includes Single Pass Overwrite (Full Erase), 3-Pass Overwrite (DoD) Erase, 3-Pass Overwrite and Compare, Secure Erase and 7-Pass Overwrite. The 3-Pass DoD Overwrite is compliant with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) secure erase standard; the drive is overwritten three times to make sure data is completely wiped.

The default modes on the unit have a failsafe in place to protect the Source drive from being erased, but with a little trip through the menu-tree you’re not only able to erase a single SATA or USB drive, but two drives simultaneously.

As you can imagine, with bigger drives the multiple overwrite modes take significantly more time. But, as with the copy modes, since the unit’s functionality is hardware based as opposed to software based, it’s still faster than comparable operations on a computer.

For copying, the drive duplicator provides four duplication modes; Quick Copy, All Partitions, Sector-by-Sector (Whole Drive) and Percentage Copy. Again, like erasing, the mode I use the most is Quick Copy. Copy times between SATA drives are very impressive, but when duplicating USB drives, the lack of USB 3.0 support becomes painfully obvious.

At smaller sizes, the copy times aren’t much of an issue, especially in Quick Copy mode. However, when utilizing the cross-interface duplication (SATA to USB or USB to SATA) it would be really useful to be able to access the higher speeds that USB 3.0 offers.

Despite the lack of USB 3.0 support, the copy modes of the unit are still incredibly useful. The compare function of the duplicator is particularly helpful as it checks the drives after a copy has finished to make sure the copy operation was successful. Keep in mind, with any copy mode, the target drive must be the same size or larger than the source drive.

Sector-by-Sector mode is great for creating an exact replica of a source drive. All data and empty space are copied to the target drive so even hidden partitions will be duplicated. I use this mode a lot for testing purposes, creating a backup of an entire drive for safekeeping before I work on the original drive.

Overall, the StarTech USB/SATA Drive Duplicator and Eraser is a great, super useful device with a ton of functionality. Although the suggested retail is $796.99, I found it for significantly cheaper at a number of different outlets. At any of these prices, it’s still a great buy because it basically replaces an entire computer running the same operations. Plus, the Drive Duplicator is backed by a StarTech.com 2-year warranty and free lifetime technical support.

Specifications

  • Product ID: SU2DUPERA11
  • Product Weight: 15.9 oz [450 g]
  • Product Measurements: Length: 5.3 in, Width: 3.5 in, Height: 1.1 in
  • Power Source: AC Adapter Included
  • Drive Connectors: 2 – 22 pin SATA Data + Power (7 + 15 pin) Receptacle, 2 – USB Type-A (4 pin) USB 2.0
  • Maximum Data Transfer Rate: 6.6 GB per minute
  • Drive Size: 2.5in & 3.5in
  • Compatible Drive Types: SATA & USB Flash Drive
  • Warranty: 2 Years

Source: The sample for this review was provided by StarTech. Please visit their website for more info and Amazon.

 

Product Information

Price: $796.99
Manufacturer: StarTech
Retailer: Amazon
Requirements:
  • 2.5/3.5” SATA SSDs/HDDs or USB attached storage
Pros:
  • Versatile
  • Supports any operating system
  • Basic functions are simple to use
Cons:
  • Expensive
  • No USB-3.0 support
  • Minimal Documentation / Instructions

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StarTech USB/SATA Drive Duplicator and Eraser review originally appeared on on June 26, 2017 at 10:24 am.

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Julie’s favorite gear, LG G6, Treblab XR100 headphones, and more – Review updates


I have five quick review updates for you this week of reviews that I’ve posted in the last 2 years. Why go back and update old review? Because we like to follow up with updates for products that we continue to use well after the original review has been posted. This gives people a good idea of how a product stands up over time. So click through for the list of recently updated reviews and then scroll to the bottom of each review to read the newest update.

Peak Design Everyday Messenger bag review by Julie Strietelmeier
Nexus 6P review by Julie Strietelmeier and Dave Rees
LG G6 review by Julie Strietelmeier and Judie Stanford
Julie’s Favorite Gear
Treblab XR100 Bluetooth headphones review by Julie Strietelmeier
Moshi Audio Clarus earphones review by Julie Strietelmeier

 

Product Information

Price:

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Julie’s favorite gear, LG G6, Treblab XR100 headphones, and more – Review updates originally appeared on on June 26, 2017 at 8:51 am.

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Read the news with NOOZ reading glasses


So, it’s official I am now my grandpa. How is that you may ask? Well, I will tell you, I need to carry reading glasses everywhere I go. The problem for me is that my options for carrying my readers get kind of limited with the size of most reading glasses. I do have some foldable ones that fit in my pocket but those can be a little bulky and I tend to forget them. I have ones that I can wear around my neck but hey I don’t want to look geeky everywhere I go. Enter NOOZ reading glasses from NOOZ optics. 

NOOZ glasses come in round and oval shapes and clip onto your nose.  A small case is included with the glasses that you can attach to your keychain or any other object you desire. The NOOZ has scratch proof Polycarbonate lenses and comes in strengths ranging from +1 to +3 in +.5 increments and are available in several colors. At a cost of $19.95 from the NOOZ website, you can take the grandpa and grandma out of your readers.

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Read the news with NOOZ reading glasses originally appeared on on June 26, 2017 at 6:38 am.

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Sandisk Connect Wireless Stick review


Most smartphones and tablets do not have expandable memory. One way around this is to purchase the device with as much built-in memory as possible. But for those of you that didn’t think that far ahead when you bought your device and now find that storage space is low, you might want to consider a solution like the Sandisk Connect Wireless Stick.

What is it?

The Sandisk Connect Wireless Stick is a USB flash drive that allows you to wirelessly transfer and access your photos, videos, and files with your mobile device, Windows PC or Mac computer via WiFi or the USB port.

Design and features

The Connect Wireless Stick looks like a slightly oversized USB flash drive that we’re all familiar with. It has a black plastic case with molded facets that give it a cool look and feel.

One end of the stick has a removable cap that reveals a standard USB 2.0 connector that is used to charge the stick’s internal battery and to transfer files to a computer. On the other end of the Connect Wireless Stick is a lanyard attachment slot.

There’s also a tiny status LED on top and something which you don’t normally see on a flash drive which is a power button.

How does it work?

The Sandisk Connect Wireless Stick is available in capacities from 16GB up to 256GB and works just like you would expect a flash drive to work. You can plug it into your PC or Mac computer and save and copy files to it.  But the stick can also create its own WiFi hotspot that you connect to with your mobile device using the Sandisk Connect app to transfer or stream files to and from your mobile device.

To use the stick, the first step is to install the Sandisk Connect app on your iOS or Android device. I tested the Connect Stick with my LG G6 Android smartphone.


After the app is installed, and the stick has been charged by plugging it into a USB port, you can press the power button on the side of the stick and launch the app. The app will detect the stick and connect to its WiFi hotspot.



The stick has some files already saved on it to give you an idea of how to use it. There is a music, video, and photos folder, but you can create other folders and transfer other file types too.


In the Connect Wireless Stick settings, you can set a password to protect the stick and a timeout setting to automatically turn off power when the stick is idle.

You can also enable the photo backup feature that will save the images in your device’s photo gallery to the stick. This can come in handy if you don’t use Google’s Photo’s backup feature or back up your iOS photos to iTunes.


Copying files to and from the stick from your mobile device is as easy as selecting the files and telling the app which folder to place them.

Transfer speed did feel a little slow though. It took a few minutes to copy a 211MB video file stored on the phone to the stick.

You can even access the contents of the Sandisk Connect Wireless Stick from a web browser on your PC or Mac. You have to be connected to the Stick’s WiFi network to use this feature.

Since I have a 12″ MacBook that only has a USB Type-C connector, I used the web browser option to access files on the Stick from my Mac. I even streamed a 211MB video on the stick through my MacBook which worked pretty well, but there were a couple 1-second pauses at the start of the 2-3 minute video. I don’t know if this was the fault of the stick or my phone. When I tried it later, there were no pauses.

The Sandisk Connect Wireless Stick can stream music and video to 3 devices at a time. I tried streaming two different videos to 2 different devices and the same video 2 devices at the same time. One time there was a 1-2 second pause at the start of playback, but for the most part, it video streaming was stutter free.

Final thoughts

One of the best things about the Sandisk Connect Wireless Stick is that it works anywhere because no internet or cables are required. The only issue with this is that while your mobile device is connected to the stick, it isn’t connected to its primary WiFi hotspot. If you are using a phone, you can still use your regular cellular data connection though.

The Connect Wireless Stick is really easy to use and its size makes it extremely portable. The only thing I’d like to see would be a Type-C version of the stick, but other than that, it’s a handy accessory that makes it easy to expand device memory without wires.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by Sandisk. Please visit their site for more info and Amazon to order.

 

Product Information

Price: $23.49 – $197.49
Manufacturer: Sandisk
Retailer: Amazon
Pros:
  • Easy to use
  • Transfer files without cables or the internet
  • Automatically backs up your camera roll when connected
Cons:
  • File transfers from mobile device to Connect stick is slow

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Sandisk Connect Wireless Stick review originally appeared on on June 25, 2017 at 1:44 pm.

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AirSelfie is a pocket-sized drone designed to take your picture from the air


Taking a selfie by holding your phone at arm’s length is usually fine if you’re only taking a snap of yourself or at most another person. But when you try to squeeze more people into the frame or want to see the background too, a camera at the end of your arm just won’t cut it. Neither will a 3-foot long selfie stick. Is there a better alternative? The folds at AirSelfie think so.

AirSelfie is a small smartphone-sized drone whose sole purpose is to take pictures of you as quickly and easily as possible.

This drone is made of lightweight anodized aluminum and features a flat design for easy launching and landing and a 5-megapixel camera with 4GB of storage for images.

It’s powered by a rechargeable battery that provides 3 minutes of flight time and it communicates with your phone via 2.4Ghz WiFi.

AirSelfi comes with a smartphone charging case that provides up to 20 charges in the field.

The AirSelfie drone will be shipping in July and is currently available for pre-order on airselfiecamera.com with a limited time special discount of $279.13 for the drone without the charging case and on Amazon for $329.00 with the charging case and free shipping.

The fine folks at AirSelfie will be sending me a drone to review, so stay tuned for some Gadgeteer selfies very soon!

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AirSelfie is a pocket-sized drone designed to take your picture from the air originally appeared on on June 25, 2017 at 10:00 am.

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