I would like to use this Plugable USB 3.0 SATA Hard Drive Lay-Flat Docking Station (Latest ASMedia ASM1053E Chipset) along with
WD Green 1 TB Desktop Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA III, 64 MB Cache - WD10EZRX to do a system image backup on a Dell Inspiron 660 64 bit Windows 8.1 PC.
The PC is new and I’d be making the system image backup around once every 3 months so in the event something should happen I could reboot the OS with this device. I’m asking these questions before I buy from Amazon
Also, I assume this would just connect to the PC via 3.0 USB port?
The dock will work with a USB 2.0 or 3.0 connection, though of course the 3.0 connection will be substantially faster.
Having a system image backup is great in case something goes wrong, but please be aware that Windows does not support booting off of USB drives. (With the exception of the “Windows to Go” feature only available in the “Enterprise” version of 8.1.) So to boot off of the drive in the case of emergency, you would need to install it internally in the PC. And, as with any backup solution, make sure to test to make sure it’s working as expected before relying on it in a crisis!
If you have any further questions or concerns by all means feel free to email us at support@plugalble.com - we generally are able to respond to email much more quickly than forum postings.
Could I use a bare drive with this dock? I planned on always leaving it in the dock. The reason I ask is I’d like to purchase the same exact brand and model that is in my PC, that way if the one in my PC failed I could simply install the new drive in its place…
Below is the drive I’d like to use…
Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
I went to go buy this today on Amazon and its no longer available! Has it been discontinued? If so, I guess I’ll have go with a different brand…I really wanted this because of its “flat” configuration but its only available from 3rd party sellers at an astronomical price!!
Thanks for posting back and asking! Increase in sales caused the product to be sold out before the next shipment reached amazon’s warehouses.
A shipment with thousands of units is in transit to amazon’s warehouses and is expected to arrive by the end of this week or the beginning of the next. As soon as the shipment arrives at amazon’s warehouses and gets checked into their inventory system, it will be listed as available (with Plugable Technologies as the seller and at our regular price).
Hope the above information helps! If you need any additional information, please do feel free to shoot us an email at support@plugable.com. We are here to help!