Question 1

Will this work to clone a smaller SSD to a larger SSD and not loose the size difference?  The instructions imply that if you clone a 100GB SSD unto a 500GB SSD, the 500GB drive will loose 400GB into an unusable state.

Accepted Answer

I believe those instructions are correct... when you clone a drive, the new copy is an exact duplicate, including the drive size. The remaining drive space remains unformatted.   I don't know if you can then go back and create a partition for the remaining space.

You could, instead of cloning the drive, copy the contents from one drive to another by plugging the Aluratek into a computer (instead of using it as a standalone cloning station).  It simply becomes a docking station for the 2 drives that you can use to copy files from one to the other.

Question 2

Does this Drive duplicator leave data on the source disk or does the data get deleted?

Accepted Answer

The data is copied bit for bit from the source drive to the target. The data from the source drive is not deleted in normal operation.

The drives must be in the proper bay for the correct flow of data to occur. Otherwise you will overwrite the original drive with whatever is on the clone. I found it helpful to label each bay according to its purpose. Bay 1 is the Original; Bay 2 is the Clone.

Also, the more similar the drives are, the better. The docking bay is not sophisticated enough to handle drive geometry differences, Advanced Format Disk formatting translation, or overcome any problems with the disks firmware.

I have had colleagues use my docking bay for its intended purpose of doing a simple clone of a drive. Transfer times on an SATA 2 80 GB 7200 RPM drive varied from 15 minutes to 30 minutes depending on the amount of data present.

Question 3

Can this be used with ide drives if use adapter cables?

Accepted Answer

I too had the same question and went as far as to buy extended cable / adapters also. Theoretically it should work I just have not needed to implement it yet but I wanted to be ready with all the parts when needed. good luck

Question 4

what is the requirement for this unit?

Accepted Answer

the best way for me to answer is it works as a stand alone duplicator/ cloner of a hard drives no other equipment is required. Remember it is for SATA drives  2.5" laptop drives and full size 3.5" does not matter. it can duplicate the older IDE drives  but you have to buy IDE to SATA adapters from other sellers to make it work.  The drive duplicator will make a exact clone of the entire drive with operating system that is fully bootable if a drive crashes just pop in the extra copy you already made and you are good to go. It will not make a duplicate if the second drive/ destination drive ( empty no data ) you are copying too does not have the same capacity if not more than the source drive capacity ( drive with data on it to be copied).  Bay #2 is the source,  Bay#1 is the destination. carefully insert the Hard drives into the duplicator, Next Power Up the unit , Next  Press and hold the copy button till it changes color, Next  press start button . It can duplicate as fast as a few hours or as long as 6 to 8 hours depending on the amount of data and how fast the drives spin. This unit has saved me money because it allows me to fix my own problems or prevent them all together and make emergency back ups for safe keeping. this unit can also be used as a external (SATA) Hard drive dock using the USB or eSATA cable to connect to PC or MAC. Never force the hard drive into or out of the unit, never touch the unit or bump the table it is sitting on while it is copying this could cause write errors or damage the drive as they are only slipped into the duplicator and is not designed to be rattled around. there is a eject button for bay1 & 2. when duplicate is complete power it down wait a few seconds for the drives to completely stop. Firmly grab the drive you want to eject and press the eject button down as you pull up on the hard drive in the same time. easy  as Pie!

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