Question 1

Is this only for duplicating?  Can it be used just for storage and not for cloning?

Accepted Answer

Yes.  When you put 2 drives in it, they both show up as physical drives.

Question 2

Can this be  used to safelly wipe all data from old hard drives from software on an existing pc?

Accepted Answer

Yes, the computer will access any drive in this unit as a lettered drive, like drive C:   or what ever the next drive letter designation is open,  Then you can delete or do a full reformat & re-write the drive.  Or you need a program that would wipe the drive & leave no info on it.
If you re-format BE CAREFUL what drive you reformat, you could accidentally wipe you primary drive and loose everything.
So Please BE CAREFUL !
Or you can have a professional do it for you.
Good luck & happy computing.

Question 3

Can this dupe a bootable drive to a drive of a different size? Example: 500GB boot-able system drive to a 2TB drive that will be formatted as 2TB and still be boot-able if placed into the same system?

Accepted Answer

YES it will, and I have used it for exactly that purpose. 
However, there are many issues that affect a drive for boot purposes and your new drive may not boot immediately. You can read about this if you look up the subject; I always take notes but I don't remember what I did. There are various ways to make a drive bootable, different utilities you can try and I would say try the duplication and if your computer won't boot from the new drive then solve that problem then. You can do internet searches, find videos on this subject and you will solve your problem after trying various things until something works.
This is a common problem, where people need a larger SSD or hard drive, folks do this every day, you are not alone.

Question 4

When I clone a drive will it copy all the required system files so I can boot from the newly cloned drive?

Accepted Answer

It will do an exact bit by bit copy. Be careful using the clone function if all your want is to move files.

Question 5

Slots are not labeled.  Which slot is the source and which slot is the target for the One-touch clone feature?  There is no indication on the unit or in the documentation!

Accepted Answer

Source bay is the one in the back. The ring in front will be lit up on the left side.  The front bay is the target bay. You can tell as the front ring will light up toward the right side

Question 6

My laptop does not recognize this unit with a hard disk. I run Windows 8.1 and the laptop has USB 3.0 connections. Can anyone help?

Accepted Answer

Sorry, I didn't see this earlier. Enter Disk Management  in the windows search box  it should let you start up windows disk manager, which will let you  partition and format drives.  If you have trouble with disk management or its confusing you can down load minitool partition wizard.  Its free and easier to use.  Can't  provide the link here, but google knows about it.

Question 7

can this be made to work with any of the linux/ubuntu operating systems?

Accepted Answer

I currently use this with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. I am able to use both bays simultaneously. It works just as I wanted it to. I have not used the come feature.

Question 8

Can I offline clone a larger mechanical drive to a smaller SSD? I own this product but I forgot how to start the cloning process, I lost the manual.

Accepted Answer

NO, only try to clone same size drives and never a larger to a smaller drive...
you can however create an "image" file of a PC, then if it's not too large when uncompressed (for example of a small C drive image) then clone this image file to an SSD using the PC as the copy device, and typical backup imaging software.

Question 9

What is the Warranty on this item? Does this come with a cloning software?

Accepted Answer

I believe the warranty is 1 year and this devices does not come with Cloning software but it still can clone a drive on its own with out a PC. The Clone is a bit-to-bit copy and requires the target drive to be larger than the source. I have used this feature twice in a pinch and while it does work. It took forever to complete the clone process.

Question 10

Does this unit make the attached hard drives run hot or very hot?

Accepted Answer

I believe to answer that question one would need to know the hard drive model, and the related specs for the hard drive.  I should imagine that the type of hard drive will determine how hot it may run when operating, rather than the storage enclosure unit "[making] the attached hard drives run hot or very hot."

In my storage enclosure I use only low power SSD drives (less than 1.5 Watt when operating).  As such, I have had no heating issues with my setup.

Questions & Answers