Lindy USB 2.0 & eSATA Docking & Cloning Station review

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Verdict:

Not for everyone, but if you often need to access or make copies of external disks this is essential.

Review Date: 26 May 2012

Price when reviewed: £50

Supplier: http://www.lindy.co.uk

Reviewed By: Alan Lu

Our Rating 5 stars out of 5

ExpertReviews Award

Review
Specs

The Lindy Docking & Cloning Station is aimed at people who frequently repair computers or need to transfer files off internal hard disks. It's compatible with both 3.5in desktop and 2.5in laptop SATA hard disks, without the hassle of fitting the disk inside an enclosure. You can connect it to your PC via USB or eSATA.

Unlike other disk cradles it has two top-loading slots instead of just one, so two disks can be attached to one computer using a single USB cable. Unfortunately only one disk can be used over eSATA due to the limitations of that interface. As it names implies, the Cloning Station can also copy the contents of one disk to another without the aid of a computer.

The disk cloning worked perfectly in our testing, even copying a hidden restore partition. The Cloning Station's file transfer speeds over both USB and eSATA were in line with what we'd expect from external disks using those interfaces. Not everyone needs a hard disk cradle, but if you do then the Cloning Station is the best yet. It's pricier than single-slot cradles, but the disk cloning function could be very useful and is easily worth the extra cost.

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User comments

Be aware that it does not accept ATS disks - even the pictures shows a big HDD in the cradle.

Further, there is no software for cloning your disk. If you want to clone your disk in the notebook, you need to get a cloning software.

You could ofcause open the notebok and take the HDD out, and place it in the clonig station - but realy, spending 50 euro is this what you expect ? Better to buy a 10 euro adapter and connect the HDD directly to the USB port on the notebook.

Further, if there are mounting flanks on the HDD placed on the wrong site, the HDD wont enter the Lindy.

My own conclusion is to buy an adapter cable instead of a Lindy - as this Linydy is only usefull if you want to clone two spare HDD, which is not the case when you just want to back up your notebook.

By JanAndersen on 3 Nov 2010

Second part:

Opened the notebook and unmounted the HDD, only to find that the connector disnt fit in the Lindy. So I would need two buy adapters to make this work - if the adapters fit - no way to know that than try and see.

Looked in the manual - not a clue about connectors - the "manual" is hardly a manual, but a tiny quick start guide, the smallest I have seen to date.

Mounted the HDD in the notebook and searched the net for a cloning software, and found the EASEUS cloning software, its free.

After 1 hour and 10 minutes, the process stopped with the error message "Internal Error". Dont know if its a Lindy error or a EASEUS error. I wonder how they can ship a product like the Lindy, and call it a cloning product, when there is no way to clone a HDD unless you spend time in the jungle of cloning software packages on the net.

Lindy Docking & Cloning - make sure this is what you need before you spend the money.

By JanAndersen on 4 Nov 2010

Third part

Now after a week, I have still not managed to clone my disk. I have various notebooks, I found three different connectors on the SATA drives, one matched to Lindy supported connector, the two others not.

This Lindy is close to useless as:

1) There is now cloning software included in the package for yiu to clone a disk in a notebook.

2) As is - it only supports one SATA connector type.

3) The connector sits deep down in the housing, in order to insert a SATA disk you need to mingle around in blind. Thinking of mounting a converter makes this even more mingling. For very frequent use the connector will soon be damaged - and no professional would use this Lindy.

4) If there are mounting flanks on the SATA disk, you probably will have to dismount this. Or the ports, which a a ot silly, are in the way.

5) Using a standard free cloning software didnt work for me - if this was caused by the Lindy, or the cloning software I found on the net I dont know

6) It dosnt support ATA disk drives.

7) A simple cable and connector is more inexpensive, flexible and useable.