Question 1

will this unit work with a Western Digital WD800AAJS drive?

Accepted Answer

I suggest contacting the manufacturer directly for specific model compatibility. I personally use the WD40EZRX 4TG Green drive with the Rosewill RDDO-12001 with  no issues. I have a Windows 7 Pro laptop with TrueCrypt hard disk encryption, and I encrypt every external drive with its unique encryption key (managed in Lastpass).

Question 2

Can this be used as a Hard Drive duplicator? I have an Alluratek unit that looks the same and duplicates with no software needed.

Accepted Answer

I have not use the Rosewill for duplicating drives. But I have checked on many sites that said it does. Even though the Rosewill is cheaper than the Thermaltake it runs great. It does not need any software to recognize drives and using the storage manager to prepare drives and retrieve information from old drives.

I service Apple products but have not tried on their laptops. I will be in the future trying out the firewire cable.

I have had no problems since it will reverse recognize 2.0 and below.

Question 3

Does This Rosewill RDDO-12001 USB 3.0 Docking bay support duel up to 3TB drives or Not? This is a question I'm trying to figure out. I have two 3TB external drives that I want use this Bay for. Does this unit support a total of 6 TB HHDs at the same time or not? I can't get a straight answer from anyone anywhere on this matter.

Accepted Answer

Generally no. If you have a special E-Sata card that switching/multiplier then yes you can connect two 3TB drives with an E-Sata. 
Example card: SYBA SI-PEX40064

Side note: esata provides direct access so any drive size will work, but with USB 3TB drives will not be recognized as 3TB, at least I haven't had any success, only 2TB and below WHEN USING USB. The drive will work, but during writing you won't be able to format to 3TB. Writing and reading will eventually go off the end of the filesystem and cause problems.

Question 4

Does this allow you to use two 4TB drives or two 2 2TB drives to equal 4TB?

Accepted Answer

I've got a bunch of 2TB drives (Seagate, WD, Hitachi) and they all work fine in my Thermaltake BlacX, but NONE of them show up properly in the Rosewill via USB 3 connection.  All the laptop drives (2.5 inch) up to 1TB capacity show up fine.  I just haven't taken the time to continue troubleshooting yet.  They may all show up fine when connected via eSata rather than USB 3.

Question 5

Does this device (or others like it) recognize disc partitions? Does it allow the user to partition individual drives? Can the clone function be applied to a partitioned drive?

Accepted Answer

This device acts exactly as if you were to connect your hard drive internally. While I have no partitions on the hard drives I am using it with, I would imagine that it would not be a problem. The drives show up under the disk manager just as if they were plugged in inside the case.

Questions & Answers