Comment – ​​Gadgeteer reviewed the Alxum USB 3.0 hard drive docking station with offline cloning in 2019. This review is for a similar product that is equipped with a USB type-C plug and increases the USB SuperSpeed ​​data transfer rate up to 5Gbs. I have one to review. Please continue reading to understand my thoughts.

Alxum SATA hard drive docking station is a hard drive docking station and disk duplicator, suitable for 2.5 and 3.5 inch SATA HDD and up to 18TB SSD. The Alxum USB to SATA hard disk docking station supports two SATA I/II/III HDDs or SSDs. The docking station vertically fixes the hard drive through the SATA interface. To save energy and reduce heat load, if the drive is not accessed within 30 minutes, Alxum will enter sleep mode. With two drives installed, the docking station supports a hard drive capacity of up to 36TB. The manufacturer claims that the typical data transfer speed is as high as 405 MB/s, and the offline cloning speed is as high as 485 MB/s. When using a USB 3.0 SuperSpeed ​​transfer rate and a computer supported by UASP, the data transfer speed is up to 600 MB/s, and the data transfer speed of the SATAIII drive is up to 750 MB/s (1 Gbps = 125 MB/s). The docking station is equipped with a USB Type C to USB 3.0 Type B plug and supports USB 3.0, but it is backward compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1. The hardware supports Windows XP / Vista / 7/8 / 8.1 / 10 (32 / 64 bit), Mac OS 10.10 or higher and Linux, plug and play.    

The Alxum SATA hard drive docking station is packaged in a color printing sleeve and the hard drive picture is displayed on the front. The top of the box shows the operating system compatibility and the contents of the box. Some functions are described on the back of the box.

Inside the sleeve, the disk base is packed in an ordinary cardboard box. A white cardboard insert supports the dock above the other packaged items.

The Alxum SATA hard drive docking station requires a power cord to operate. Although the host end of the USB cable is type C, the peripheral end is type B and is not set for direct power supply (PD) use.

The docking station should be installed where there is a firm support and will not trip over the cables. The drives installed in the Alxum SATA hard drive docking station are fixed in place only by gravity and the SATA interface, so care should be taken to ensure that the docking station will not tip or fall.

Although the manufacturer did mention hot plugging in the project function, in order to protect the data on the device, it is recommended to plug the docking station into the computer and power supply, install the drive, and then turn on the docking station power to ensure that there is no static charge that may damage the media .

The Alxum SATA hard drive docking station is a plastic box with a width of 6 inches, a depth of 4.5 inches, and a height of 2.5 inches. The base of the device is slightly larger than the top, so the sides are slightly inclined towards the base.

Except for the smooth strips on the top front and sides and the back edge of the sides, the design is made of matte black plastic. The front is marked with a white Alxum logo.

There are USB 3.0 interface, power interface and on/off power button on the back.

On the top are two hard drive doors, 7 labeled LEDs and a button to start the cloning process. There are non-slip feet on the bottom to minimize vibration

The top door is designed to provide stability for 3.5-inch hard drives and 2.5-inch hard drives. When the door is opened, there is a 2.5-inch drive opening, 2.7 inches wide and 0.37 inches high. After the 3.5" drive is installed, the door will automatically open to allow the insertion of a larger 3.5" drive.

After installing the drive, the drive cover faces forward. There is no "eject" button-just pull the drive to remove it.

There is a switch on the rear of the docking station that can be locked when the device is turned on. There are 7 LEDs and a button on the top of the docking station. When the switch on the back is pressed, a green LED lights up. When the dock is in power saving mode, the green LED will be on for 1 second and off for 3 seconds. The yellow light next to each drive bay indicates the connection and any activity of the installed drive. Four blue LEDs indicate the cloning process. The LED flashes when each part is partially completed, and stays on when the part of the cloning process is completed. The cloning process has four parts: 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. The clone button has a function to prevent accidental clones. The button must be held down until the 100% LED lights up, and then it must be pressed again. This is an important feature because once you start cloning, it will start to invalidate the data on the target drive. In addition, the source drive is always drive A, and the destination drive is always drive B, in the front.

The hardware uses the supplied USB Type C plug to connect to the computer, but you can also use a USB 3.0 Type A to USB Type B plug. The docking station is also compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1, in case you need to use it to get information from the old system or get information from the old system. The lower USB standard does affect performance, and if you use it on a Windows XP system, you will not be able to access drives larger than the first 2 TB.

The Alxum SATA hard drive docking station does not come with any software. The operating system compatible with the docking station supports the operation of the docking station without additional software. Some systems may require software to access the drive. For example, I need to use the MLUSB installer to access the drive on my Android 9 phone. But being able to use my mobile phone to access SATA drives is something I never thought would be so simple. The docking station is identified as ASM1156-PM. Even if the docking station has only two physical bays, all partitions will be displayed so that they can be found under the ASM1156-PM device.

If the device is not connected to the computer, the device can perform bit-by-bit cloning from one drive to the next. Note that this will also copy all bad sectors.

The drive I used for testing was not the most advanced, so the maximum speed I got was 110 MB/sec. The drive copy rate is also limited to the slowest rate of the two drives being cloned. However, this is a limitation of the drive, not a docking station.

The Alxum SATA hard drive docking station is a simple device that can perform specific functions exactly as it should. It fits the definition of a perfect gadget very well. If you want to use SATA drives on your laptop, mobile phone or game console, choose the Alxum SATA hard drive docking station and start using them.

Price: $35.49 Where to buy: Alxum website, Amazon Source: The sample of this review is provided by Alxum

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