Question 1

Can you also clone your hard drive using the 3.0 USB connection? I don't really want to remove my hard drive if I don't have too.

Accepted Answer

You can if you are running back-up software on the machine that you don't want to remove a drive from, but that would totally defeat the purpose of having this product.  You would save a lot of $$$ by simply getting ANY USB 3.0 compatible external enclosure and a copy of Clonezilla (or any commercial-based software solution).

This product is good at making byte-for-byte copies of SATA hard disk WITHOUT tying up a PC.  It is self-contained in that it does not even need to be connected to a PC via USB to clone hard drives plugged into the 2 bays on the appliance (1 drive is the source, the other is the destination).  It also allows you to use the appliance as an external host for hard disk plugged into the bays, but that should only be considered a bonus feature here.  Hope this helps...

Question 2

Will the unit work of SSDs?

Accepted Answer

Yes it works with any SATA drives.  The one issue with SSD drives is that the destination drive has to be exactly the same size or larger.  Even if the drive you are copying is not full.
So in my case, I could not copy my 300gb laptop drive to a 256gb SSD drive, even though the 300gb drive was only using 100gb of the space.

Question 3

What are the drive size limitations? For example, I have a 500GB drive that is reporting impending failure. I want to clone this drive to a new 1TB or 2 TB drive?

Accepted Answer

Works well.
I like it.  Would recommend.
No drive limitation.
Don't think I used it with my 8TB drives. But would not consider doing so.
Definitely have used it with 4TB and likely 6TB drives.
When I say used, I mean as a drive bay.   To connect to computer.
As a drive cloner, I have definitely used it, but not sure of sizes.
I do not use small drives so it was something larger, but not gigantic.
HOWEVER IF YOU CLONE A 500GB DRIVE TO A LARGER DRIVE, I THINK YOU WILL END UP WITH ONLY A SAME SIZE 500GB DRIVE.
You can use this to copy one drive to another, by using a PC to connect the two.  
OR you can buy a same size new drive and clone the 500 to a new 500.
That is what you would do if it was a boot drive.  To get the same file structure.

Question 4

Can I use this as a stand-alone to duplicate CDs, CD-Rs and DVDs?

Accepted Answer

NO, the "Aleratec 1:1 HDD Copy Dock", as stand-alone it ONLY copies Hard Disk Drives. Used in concert with a PC it can dock one or two external hard drives for external storage.

Question 5

Does this work with SATA 6GB/s  (SATA III) drives ?

Accepted Answer

I purchased this for the duplication function.  I had a large number of MSATA drives to image.  I attempted to image identical devices, Kingston  sms200s3/30g while using two Aleratec mSATA SSD to 2.5" SATA Drive Converter with 2.5" Frames.    When this failed, I attempted to image two identical Seagate ST3400620AS 400gb drives, as well as using a larger destination drive.    The unit showed to recognize the drives each time, The "source" and "target" buttons were both blue, but when you pressed the "Copy" button nothing happened. 
The one I received would not work with SATAII, nor with MSATA.

I called technical support twice and leave messages....  Never heard back from the manufacturer.

I RMA'd the device.

I hope this will help.

Question 6

I have a 200GB sata drive with data and want to mirror it onto a target drive that is 500GB, will this work? And will I also be able to use the remaining 300GB? and if so, how is it done?

Accepted Answer

yes you can, after cloning the new drive go to 
:control panel>admin tools>computer management>storage>disk manager

right click the new drive primary partition
click on extend volume

Question 7

I need to recover data from from an IDE hard drive. Is it possible to connect an IDE Hard Disk for data recovery? Will an adapter for IDE to SATA work?

Accepted Answer

I would recommend an 'azio external enclosure' which goes for about $25 but handles about every situation! Although if you already own the Aleratec and have the adapters, it would be worth a try. The plug-ins would have to line up perfect, unless the plugins have cables between the plug ends. The Azio enclosure I have has adapters to externally plug in USB or eSATA, but with the adapters you can just plug the drive to the mother board and access it directly if you want, just set it outside the tower or set it in an open bay till you're done. just do you hook ups and unhooks with the power off. Good luck with whatever you decide, I love the Azio, and the Aleratec also, but for externally grabbing data I say Azio, turns your drive into an external storage unit, and has a power switch. Full blown drive cloning Aleratec is great. Sorry for rambling on.

Question 8

Can I clone the data from a larger drive that had less data than will fit on a smaller drive?

I have a 180gb SSD with 60gb of data that I would like to clone to a 128gb SSD.

Accepted Answer

No. The unit is sector to sector copy. It requires an exact same size or larger SSD

Brand	Aleratec
Type	Consumer Electronics

Aleratec 1:1 HDD Copy Dock

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Item#: 0Y5-0001-00014