A Closer Look
Duplicating a Drive
Duplicating a drive is very simple. Connect up the power to the mini, put the source drive into the source slot and the target drive into the target slot (obvious really). Just make sure that the target drive is the same size or larger than the source otherwise it won’t work!
Press the power button to switch on the mini. The Dup/PC light should be RED (showing duplication mode). If it is blue, just press it and it will go red.
Then just press the Start button and sit back and wait.
You can monitor the progress on the four light – when all four are lit then the duplication is complete.
Just be patient as the duplication can take some time depending on the size and speed of the drives.
Using as a Docking Station
Just connect up the mini to your computer using either the USB connector or the eSATA connector and once you have switched it on make sure the Dup/PC light is Blue showing docking station mode.
Windows should then locate the drives and you can use them as per normal.
Final Thoughts
The Mini is a very easy device to use – literally just plug in the drives and press a button for duplication or just connect to your PC to use a docking station. How simple is that?
The Mini is small and light weight and won’t take up much room on your desk, or if you needed to carry it around with you it won’t take up much space in your bag! And oh, it looks very nice as well!
The only thing I would have liked to seen would have been more status information – 4 lights is ok, but that doesn’t tell me if its a few minutes or a few hours!
The cost of the Aleratec HDD Copy Cruiser Mini is $129.99, which is a pretty good price considering it can duplicate drives without the need of a computer, and can also be used as a docking station.
Now that’s something to add to my toolkit.
How long does it take to duplicate a 2 TB drive?
It’s going to depend on the speed of the drives, but I am going to say about 8 hours or more! If you want specifics, drop Aleratec an email as I am sure they can provide them to you.
That sounds a bit on the slow side, but the important thing is to be able to give the customer a guide time. “I’ll duplicate the drive overnight as a security copy and work on your problem in the morning.”
I only duplicated a 500GB drive and it took a few hours, so I am extrapolating for the 2TB, but what you said makes sense.