Docking Station Required (for use on 2TB HDDs)

FMTopfan · 27 Aug 2010 at 20:28

Docking Station (for use on 2TB HDDs)

Its been a while since I bought my last docking station, which was a Newlink 2.5/3.5" Sata II - USB 2.0 /eSata (+USB hub), and I'm after a new one. The maximum capacity which that docking station can take is 1TB and it was a bit slow. 1TB isn't much these days and as the only way of backing up huge amounts of data, it is limiting and more costly than just buying 2TB HDDs.

Which docking station is guaranteed take a 3.5" 2TB HDD?

For now, I intend to buy two 2TB 3.5" HDDs (Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB WD20EARS) for backing up the likes of important documents, loads of 18MP digital photos (which are already on blu-ray discs), Steam games, MP3s and general backing up of my HDDs. Once I've backup them up, they'll be unplugged and placed in my safe until I need to use them again. I see that as a good bet from having an external HDDs plugged in all the time where failure is more likely to happen.

Software Backup
I haven't really got an application for doing the backup process, but my friends did mention Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Suite ($49.99) was a decent app. I don't know if that is any good or there are any better alternatives for under £100 at the most; if its easy to use and manage my 2TB HDDs then I'd love to know before I even get started.

I'd appreciate feedback from more experience ppl

Thanks!

rpstewart · 27 Aug 2010 at 20:53

I use one of these to do pretty much what you're describing. Works fine with 2TB WD EARS drives.

There are plenty of different backup apps to choose from depending on what you want to do. I use Acronis True Image for disk level backups and Vice Versa Pro for file level. It might be worth looking at Synctoy though, it's free for a start.

siege2 · 27 Aug 2010 at 21:54

rpstewart said:
I use one of these to do pretty much what you're describing. Works fine with 2TB WD EARS drives.

There are plenty of different backup apps to choose from depending on what you want to do. I use Acronis True Image for disk level backups and Vice Versa Pro for file level. It might be worth looking at Synctoy though, it's free for a start.

+1

I have one Works on all my external HD's also 2TB one I have.

FMTopfan · 28 Aug 2010 at 01:50

rpstewart said:
I use one of these to do pretty much what you're describing. Works fine with 2TB WD EARS drives.

Thanks rpstewart, that Akasa docking station looks ideal and from the feedback there it confirms it works with 2TB drives. You say it works fine, do you have that WD EARS HDD and how does the read/write speeds fare in USB2/eSata mode?

Seeing as the Akasa has eSata; I have an eSata PCI bracket (provided with my motherboard) that can connect two Sata devices. I've never used eSata before, would it be any faster using this or shall I stick with using USB 2.0?

My previous docking station cost about £20 and paying £28.99 for this one is very reasonable, plus its looks similar to my current one and will be easy to setup and store away.

There are plenty of different backup apps to choose from depending on what you want to do. I use Acronis True Image for disk level backups and Vice Versa Pro for file level. It might be worth looking at Synctoy though, it's free for a start.

I forgot about Acronis. I took a look at Acronis True Image Home 2011 (£40) and that does backups of individual files which I would use a lot. I have my main OS HDD partitioned into Vista/XP, would I be needing Dynamic Disk Support just to backup individual files?

FMTopfan · 28 Aug 2010 at 01:52

siege2 said:
+1

I have one Works on all my external HD's also 2TB one I have.

Sorry, I don't understand what Works is. Is this backup software?

AbsenceJam · 28 Aug 2010 at 19:24

USB 2.0 is 30MB/s max, eSATA is the same speed as SATA.

FMTopfan · 29 Aug 2010 at 22:55

Thanks for the feedback, decided to order the Akasa docking station and two 2tb HDDs.

I have another query, I'd thought ask here than create another thread. It relates to those 2TB HDDs and have got good feedback here so far.

My dad who is a keen photographer, has asked me if its possible to store every single one of his photos so its easily accessible. This time making it accessible somehow through his TV via HDMI in 1080p and accessible with a remote so you can still run it like a slideshow, and it has to be fast at doing so with no obvious loading. I used to just burn his photos to blu-ray but there are too many and cumbersome to sort through. Plus he has photos in RAW/CR2 format which are even bigger.

I'm not sure what route to go down but storage requirements will start out at 6TB (20+ years of photos from friends and family) and no more than six 2TB will be added from what i will assume he will use down the years - plus he has just bought a nice Canon 550D which takes 18MP photos.

My dad doesn't want a big or noisey PC as there ain't much room for one alongside the impressive setup he has. As its just viewing photos, but requires lots of storage, is a Media Centre the only option??

As I have no idea where to even start, I'd like to get some more great ideas here. He doesn't want to spend to much but he hinted he would spend upto a grand if its good enough. Thanks

edGfaCTor · 29 Aug 2010 at 23:25

If your transferring large files esata is the way to go usb2.0 is terrible.

I have tested it on 20 pcs esata always comes out of top I don't care what the specs for usb state.

FMTopfan · 29 Aug 2010 at 23:59

edGfaCTor said:
If your transferring large files esata is the way to go usb2.0 is terrible.

I have tested it on 20 pcs esata always comes out of top I don't care what the specs for usb state.

Thanks, thats what I wanted to know. AbsenceJam reply was great as I wasn't sure what the speeds were. 30mbps vs 150mbps (hopefully even faster) is no contest. Once I get the drives, I'll test the transfer time (just using Windows Explorer) on the biggest file I have and post the differences.

siege2 · 31 Aug 2010 at 15:08

I have all my Hard drives in small stackable draws which are all marked to identify each HD, then I get out the one I want then place it in the Akasa docking station, I have a mix off 2tbs and 1tbs plus some odd 500gb's one's. therefore no media centres etc.

FMTopfan · 27 Sep 2010 at 22:34

Regarding the difference from eSata to USB 2.0 as previously mentioned. USB2 speed was 35MB/s and eSata was faster but only 111MB/s. I tested the speed of eSata 5 times - I was expecting 150MB/s but maybe its because the 2TB HDD is only 5,400rpm. My eSata card is the Lycom PE-114 eSATA III-6Gbps.

I tried running a HD Tach benchmark comparison; although USB 2 worked fine before I installed the eSata card, it now doesn't recognise the Akasa docking station in USB 2 mode and displays this error message below. It works fine for eSata. I only connected either eSata or USB 2 cable, turning the docking station off each time to connect the cable. My USB ports works fine for my iPod so it isn't that either.

Has anyone got an idea what is going on?

FreeStream · 27 Sep 2010 at 23:06

111 would be the limit of the HD... not the connection!

FMTopfan · 28 Sep 2010 at 01:34

Concorde Rules said:
111 would be the limit of the HD... not the connection!

Ok, Concorde Rules, I'm not daft. I did say in the same sentence it was the HDD.

Thats what I suspected. 111MB/s isn't too bad for a 2TB 5,400rpm HDD used only for backup purposes, costing just £78. A green edition was bought for the enormous space and low energy consumption. A product review on OC says he got 105MB/s read and 80MB/s write.

To summarise, it took me 10.5mins to backup 10GB of uncompressed game data from Steam using USB 2, now using eSata it took 3.5mins which definitely eases the pain of backing up data these days.