Question 1

My Toshiba laptop has died (won't turn on) and if I buy a new computer (desktop or laptop) can I use this device to access the old Toshiba hard drive to recover my old files and data?

Accepted Answer

Thomas, as long as your HDD has not been completely fried, you can use the Rosewill RX306-PU3-35B to copy your old data files to your new computer. The included instruction sheet tells you how to do this.

Also, after transferring your old data to your new computer, I would suggest you use the dock to make a clone of your new drive; as per the included instructions. This was the main reason I purchased this dock. It works fine, however, the instructions say you must use a drive of the same size, or larger, than the one your cloning. I cloned a 500gb drive to a 1tb drive and for some reason my computer recognizes the 1tb drive as only a 500gb drive. Therefore, make sure you use the "exact same size" drive for the clone.

Question 2

Will this device support cloning from a larger HDD to a smaller SSD?

Accepted Answer

Craig - I haven't tried to clone from a larger HHD to a smaller SSD, but, per the instructions that came with my Dock, it states that the drive you are cloning too must be the same size or larger than the drive you are cloning. Another point, not covered in the instructions, is - be sure to format the new drive before you clone it. I turned a 1 TB drive into a 500 GB drive after cloning a 500 GB HHD - I didn't format the 1 TB drive. I had to format the new drive to get it back to 1 TB. Of course I then had to redo the clone. Live and learn.

Question 3

How can you tell if your clone job is done?
No indications that it's finished, nor is it documented in the PDF instructions...

Accepted Answer

It is indicated by the activity lights on the right side. If they are flashing then there is still activity going on and if you were cloning then it is still in the process of cloning.
The cloning mechanism in this device is pretty good but doesn't like the different sized hard drives. It should explain in the instructions what it can and can't clone. I would recommend using something like Clonezilla that gives you a GUI to interact with if you are having trouble getting the drive to clone or if you are trying to clone a bootable drive to swap with another.
Very happy with this product and it recognized HDDs that my boss was having trouble recognizing so it made me look better then my boss haha

Question 4

Is this thing not compatible with SSHDs?  I have two 2.5" Seagate 1TB SSHDs, and it doesn't seem to be working with either of them.  One of the SSHDs was a replacement for my laptop's old failing HDD, and it had been working fine until recently, when it stopped booting up.  I bought one of these upon recommendation hoping that I could fix the problem, or at least recover the files from the new-but-not-working SSHD.  With the docking station hooked up to my laptop and the SSHD in place, though, nothing seems to be happening.  It is definitely powered on and my computer does seem to at least know something is plugged in, because it gives me a notification about safely disconnecting the USB device when I unplug it; however, no drive is showing up on my computer, so I can't access anything on it.  I tried with both SSHDs, and nothing seems to be working.

Accepted Answer

Brian - First of all, I presume you have a working HDD/SSHD in your laptop, and able to boot the OS. (Reading your description of the problem it sounds, to me, like you've removed both SSHD drives and placed them in the docking station:) 
 My initial reason for purchasing this docking station was to clone my drives; both HDD and SSHD's, which it has done without any problems. I have since used it as an external drive dock with the same results; being able to retrieve data from both HDD and SSHD's. The only problem, if I can call it that, is the time it takes to view some of my data. I attribute this delay, and initial delay in recognizing the drive/s, to having upgraded to Windows 10. (I regret not having waited to upgrade as at times Windows 10 is still acting as the beta I played with before the official launch.) Other than that, I've found the RX306-PU3-35B to work as advertised. Maybe you have a defective unit. Try plugging it into another computer if you haven't done so. If it still doesn't work on the other computer, send it back for a replacement. Good luck. - Lou Z

Question 5

Will the hDock simultaneously support two drives of like physical size, as in two 2.5 SSD ?

Accepted Answer

Yes it will.

Question 6

From the product specs it's unclear if this exposes both disks to the host OS or not.  does it via usb and sata both or does the 2nd slot only work for cloning?

Accepted Answer

Yes

Questions & Answers