Question 1

Is this dock backward compatible with my older system which only has USB2.0?  I intend to upgrade my computer in the next several months so I would rather get something that will work optimally with a newer system but still work with what I have now.

Accepted Answer

Yes, I have tested this dock on a USB 2.0 port and it works fine. All USB 3.0 devices are supposed to work with USB 2.0 ports.

I would use eSATA instead of USB 2.0 if you can. If your motherboard has SATA, you can find an eSATA bracket for a couple bucks online. You have to make sure to turn on auto detection for the SATA port in the BIOS though.

Question 2

One reviewer mentioned that even though there 2 bays the computer recognizes it as one device.  Does this mean that if I have 2-1T drives plugged in that it will show only 2T of storage space or does it mean that I will see two separate drives but cannot eject one drive or the other individually?

Accepted Answer

When you put two drives in, your computer will show both drives seperately as they are.  But when you pull one drive out of either bay, it will temporariy disconnect both drives and the one left in the bay will reconnect momentarily.  When  you plug a second drive back in, it will not temporarily disconnect the second drive that is already plugged in.  This is my experience with Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

I've used this with faster USB3 ports and PCs and USB2 older and slower PCs with both Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit and Fedora Core 19 and in all cases, this is a very handy device and I love it.  I've done tons of moving data and consolidating older and smaller drives to newer and larger drives and its worked like a charm.

Despite the odd brief disconnection problem when unplugging one drive from one of the bays while the other is still in use... I have to say I love this purchase and do recommend it.

Question 3

It say's that it supports 2.5 inch and 3.5 inch drives.  Dose each slot fit both or dose one slot fit 2.5 inch and the other slot fits 3.5 inch?    Also, if I had 2 external hard drives, can I just take them out of their casings and then put them in?

Accepted Answer

Each slot can be used for either 2.5 or 3.5 drives....you can have 2 of each type or one of each type (for a total of 2 drives).  Yes you should be able to use the drives in external casings although some of those drives are hard to remove without breaking the case (in case you needed to reuse them).

Question 4

Does SSD's work on this? I'm planning to clone my MAC hard drive to a SSD and want to see if this is compatible rather than getting a external enclosure when it'll only be used once

Accepted Answer

SSDs work fine in this dock.  For any drive you need to be a bit careful when inserting it to make sure you line the connectors up well.  It seems to have a little more play when inserting drives then the Thermaltake docks i have used.

Question 5

With 2 drives, will my system see it as one drive or 2 separate drives?

Accepted Answer

The drives are seen as separate drives.  But if you unplug one drive, it knocks offline the other and then it reconnects that remaining drive.  So don't pull a drive while the othter that is plugged in is still doing some sort of a read/write operation.

Question 6

Will this work on sata 6.0 drives?

Accepted Answer

Yes, SATA drive are backwards compatible with older specs so you could put a SATA III (6Gbps) drive on a SATA I interface and it still would work, just a slower maximum speed.

Question 7

Anyone have any problems running Seatools on drives connected via this dock?
Every drive I put into it throws and error right away in Seatools, but if I connect via internal SATA, it's fine.

Accepted Answer

Can't help, I don't run or use Seatools

Question 8

Hi,

As soon as I connected this with my laptop computer using USB 3.0 connection on my computer, initially, it picked up the new drive WD Green WD40EZRX 4TB IntelliPower 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive. Windows 7 asked me to initialize the drive and I used GUID instead of MBR for initializing.
However, soon after initializing the drive, the blue light went off in this unit. I tried to use alternate USB 3.0 slot in laptop, USB 2.0 slot in laptop, tried the other bay in the Rosewill unit, tried to disconnect it and connect it again, switch off the power and turn it on. In short, no matter what I do, the drive does not get detected in either of the bay in Rosewill unit now. The blue light on Rosewill never comes up now and the drive does not get detected in My Computer or even in Disk Management ?

I also read in the reviews that similar drive connection being dropped problem is being faced by quite a few other customers also.

Any ideas to resolve this will be highly appreciated. Else, I will be left with no choice but to return this Rosewill unit.

Thanking in advance,

Regards,

Jay

Accepted Answer

I use this in it's eide mode and haven't tried the usb mode much at all. Do you have another drive to try?

Question 9

My docking station works perfectly well ... with my Macintosh. My iMac sees the dock, sees any HDs plugged in, and even allows me to format drives for Windows. Hooked up to my PC, however, is a different story. With an AMD FX-8350 and an ASUS Sabertooth 990FX/Gen3 R2.0 motherboard running Windows 7 Professional, I cannot get my PC to recognize the dock. I've tried plugging in through the USB 3 ports and the eSATA ports, but nothing is working. Any ideas out there on what I should try or what might be going wrong?

Accepted Answer

If the drive is formatted in the IOS format or whatever, then it isn't recognized by Windows. If the drives are NTFS, and it doesn't work, then you might have either a problem with your computer, or the dock itself. Try contacting rosewill about it.

Question 10

I lost my power-supply for this docking station and would like to acquire another one with the correct specifications. I know its a 100-240V to DC 12v/3a input, but does anyone know the size of the connector? That is, the size the hole is in the back where you connect the power-supply? If you could provide me a link somewhere or give me the exact specs I'd be much obliged. Or, even better, does anyone know if I can simply re-purchase the same power supply from Newegg without re-purchasing the entire dock? Thank you.

Accepted Answer

5.5 mm x 2.1mm connector

Questions & Answers