Product Description

InfoSafe 2.5" USB 2.0 SATA Drive Enclosure

Product Details

• Brand: StarTech
• Model: SAT2510U2
• Platform: Windows
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 2.00" h x 5.25" w x 8.25" l, .14 pounds

Features

• 2.5-inch USB/SATA hard drive Enclosure for virtually any 2.5-inch SATA II (SATA /300) or SATA (SATA /150) notebook hard drive
• Data transfer rates of up to 480 Mbps
• Lightweight, durable aluminum construction; powers via USB connection
• Includes USB 2.0 (Male) to USB Mini B (Male) / Y cable, installation CD, protective pouch, instruction manual and screw kit
• 1-year limited warranty

Customer Reviews

Handy device for data recovery, and a lot more...
I purchased this to recover the data off a 2.5" SATA hard drive that used to live inside my Toshiba Satellite laptop that went belly up shortly after its warranty expired. I done a complete virus scan and recovered about 100 GB so far with absolutely no problems and decent USB 2.0 speed.

The enclosure is powered by USB as well, which works fine. Two USB dongles are actually on the cable (for extra power), which is what I use and I've had no problems up to this point.

The package includes a little baggy with the tiniest screwdriver I've ever seen. Be careful when you open it, because it contains two even more miniscule screws, used for securing the hard drive once you insert it into the enclosure.

I promptly dumped mine on the carpet and spent a good 10 minutes looking for them. Very hard on the eyes...

Cheap and effective
PRO:
- Decent data transfer rate -- about 20 megabyte sustained with my drive
- Comes with a carrying sleeve
- Comes with the only tool you need to assemble the enclosure - a tiny eyeglass screwdriver

CON:
- Misreports current usage - use caution to avoid damaging your PC
- Microscopic "eyeglass" screws.

SUMMARY
This should have been tool-free, or used larger screws on the back. Assembling it is a bit of a pain, as the screws are about the size of a pinhead. Luckily it comes with a third spare screw.

The fact that it misreports current use is dangerous. It only reports half the current that would be used by a 5400RPM drive in the enclosure on the assumption that the power-only connector will be swallowing half the current load. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security if you find that you can operate with just one USB plug, especially if using a high current draw 7200RPM drive. Insert both plugs, inserting the power-only end plug first. USB controllers shut down devices if current draw is high enough to damage the controller - this won't work if the controller is getting bad information.

Note that - as with most USB enclosures - the controller does not understand hard drive passwords. If you're repurposing an old laptop drive, be sure to clear the hard drive password in the laptop's BIOS before moving it to the enclosure. If you forget this step, you'll get mysterious CRC failure errors when trying to initialize the drive.

Near-perfect
I used one of these to enclose the 60GB disk that I took out of my PS3 after I upgraded it to 320GB. Installation consists on pushing the disk in and screwing 2 little screws using the little screwdriver provided. It's all done in less than 5 minutes.

It connects through an USB wire which powers the HDD. Included.

End of story.

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Jan 2010 update

Almost 1.5 year later, I am still happy with my purchase. My HDD is still working inside its enclosure and I've never had a problem. I am using this disc to store data that I only rarely access - backups of photos, tax documents and so on - but I'm happy to know that they are in safe and that I can access my data quickly and easily by simply plugging in the disk.

P.S. - you can get the very much same thing minus the brand name for a lot less these days.