SSK Aluminum USB3.0 to SATA 2.5” External Hard Drive Enclosure Adapter, Ultra Slim Hard Disk Case housing for 2.5 Inch 9.5mm 7mm HDD and SSD, UASP SATA III Supported

SSK 2.5 HHD External Drive. Received on 10/1/19Contents: In the box, was an aluminum case, USB Cable, Screws, manual and a square single-sided clear film. The film in my box did not match the image in the instructions and had no markings on it, so I assumed it was the film used to insulate the bottom of the hard drive from touching the metal case. There is plastic rail insert in the case that contains the electronics as well as the mounting holes to attach the 2.5 inch hard drive.Installation: The instructions say to apply the clear film on the bottom of the hard drive (back of HHD’s Printed Circuit Board), then place HDD in the plastic body by attaching the drive to the insert’s SATA port. This was not difficult, but it felt a bit touchy since you need to make sure you support the drive while inserting it into the plastic drive frame. Next, once secure, then screw in two of the supplied screws, securing the HDD to the plastic insert. Then insert the enclosure into the aluminum case and secure the drive with the remaining two mounting screws.I plugged the drive enclosure into a USB 3.1 port and it powered up. There is a small blue LED in the bottom corner that blinks while the drive is being loaded. This blue LED It flashes whenever there is any drive activity. The drive shows up as SSK Storage in Window’s remove/eject hardware utility. I was curious how well it would perform, so I set up a little test environment.TESTING:I tested the performance of the enclosure with two 500GB 2.5 HDD, and with a hot swappable SATA II port on my desktop. The external SATA port is at 3GBs.Speed test environment: My OS is Windows 10 Professional with the latest updates as of 10/1/2019. The computer has 32GB of DDR4 RAM and an Intel I7-4790 [email protected]. The HDD speed was tested using the Parkdale V2.99 HDD Speed test software with the file size set to 4000 MBytes and 1 MByte block size. All drives tested were quiet and allowed to warm up for 15 minutes.Drive 1) description: Toshiba 500GB drive from a 2013 Windows 7 laptop @ 5400 RPMs.Drive 2) description: Seagate 500GB @ 7200 RPMs.Drive 1) using the SSK Enclosure:Test A >> SSK - 0209 464.4 GB Local Disk (F:): 108.0 MByte/sec read, 106.4 MByte/sec write USB.Test B >> SSK - 0209 464.4 GB Local Disk (F:): 108.4 MByte/sec read, 105.7 MByte/sec write USBDrive 2) using the SSK Enclosure:Test A >> SSK - 0209 373.2 GB Local Disk (F:): 70.8 MByte/sec read, 57.9 MByte/sec write USB.Test B >> SSK - 0209 373.2 GB Local Drive (F:): 70.8 MByte/sec read, 69.3 MByte/sec write USBDrive 1) Connected to my computer’s hot-swappable SATA port (SATA II).Test A >> TOSHIBA MQ01ABF050 - AM001J 464.4 GB Local Disk (F:): 78.9 MByte/sec read, 74.5 MByte/sec write.Test B >> TOSHIBA MQ01ABF050 - AM001J 464.4 GB Local Disk (F:): 77.9 MByte/sec read, 75.3 MByte/sec writeDrive 2) Connected to the computer’s hot-swappable SATA port.>> ST9500420AS - 0002SDM1 373.2 GB Local Drive (F:): 58.7 MByte/sec read, 56.0 MByte/sec write.TEST RESULTS:The Toshiba and Seagate were both 500Gbs, but the Toshiba’s spindle speed is 5400 RPMs while the Seagate’s spindle speed was 7200 RPMs. The internal configures of the Toshiba and the Seagate drives are different (heads, platters, etc..) as well, but these are the only drives I had that I could test with this device. As expected the Toshiba’s drive’s transfer speeds were consistently better using the SSK Enclosure over the external hot-swappable SATA port because of the spindle speed, but using the computer’s external SATA II port, they both performed about the same.CONCLUSION:If you want an enclosure that is easy to set up and stylish, then I recommend this enclosure. I suppose the enclosure does provide some protection if the drive is dropped, but it is primarily an enclosure with a USB interface to connect to a computing device that delivers a decent performance. I wished I had another device like it to compare as I would have liked to see how it performed against other devices like it. Saying that, if you have a 2.5 HDD from an old notebook/laptop and want to repurpose it as perhaps a backup drive or a drive where you can move files from one computer to another, then the SSK HDD Enclosure is perfect for that job. Although not tested, I would suspect you can use the drive for a SSD as well as long as it has the SATA connectors.This SSK HDD Enclosure is not designed to easily swap drives in and out. However, it can be done by removing and re-installing the screws. You will also need to find another means to insulate the drive bottom from the case. Instead of placing the film on the drive as instructed, I attached it to the enclosure bottom itself, placing it on the enclosure with tweezers. I will probably use a piece of clear strapping tape sometime in the future so that if I have to replace the drive, I can without worry of the drive contacting the enclosure. The plastic rail that the drive attaches to will protect the drive from contact, but if for some reason, the enclosure becomes compromised or dented on the bottom, I want to make sure there is will be something between the drive and the enclosure.If you are looking for a device to easily swap drives, then purchase a device that is designed to do just that. They are out there, but at an increased cost. SSK also has the SSK Aluminum USB 3.0 to SATA dual bay external HD docking station that will do the job as long as you do not plan to move it around.The price and ease of installation of an HDD is very good. It is lightweight and stylish. The performance of the SSK enclosure with the Toshiba drive was very good. The performance of the enclosure will definitely depend on what drive you use. I transferred several large files, my photo directory and music files to it, and it was not much different that if I was copying files from one internal drive to the other. The sleep feature works as advertised. The drive wakes quickly when selected for a job.The one thing I would suggest they change is the clear film that is applied to the hard drive PCB to insulate it from the bottom of the enclosure, that way if one wants to install a different drive, the insulation remains with the case and not the drive. I have several older IDE HDD enclosure for some older IDE 2.5 inch drives, and there is insulating felt or some form of plastic insulating material on the aluminum enclosure and not the drive. Doing it this way, will allow replacing the drive without having to find something to put on the new drive. The drive plugs in and unplugs easily, but the plastic HDD frame with the electronics is very flimsy and could easily break.I have had this drive connected and in operation for a week now, and I am using it to perform backups on one of my projects, and it has been working extremely well!

--- No insulating film in the box? It may be stuck to the inside of the box. Check carefully. It is white and hard to see. If not, just use any small sheet of plastic. ---I have many used 2.5" hard drives and I wanted to use one as a permanent backup drive. I selected this enclosure because it has a full protective shell of aluminum, and uses screws to secure the hard drive to the enclosure, which eliminates the possibility of a drop in the right orientation causing the hard drive to disconnect from the connector or put strain on it. (Given how this enclosure is designed, though, the hard drive would not actually be able to disconnect from the SATA port while held within the frame by the shell. There is no significant space between it and the thin, angled rails in the back end of the frame.)This enclosure is clearly designed for long-term use and protection for the hard drive within, rather than for frequent swapping, which is exactly what I wanted. (By protection, I mean protection from crushing or other exterior damage. There is no shock absorption.)The enclosure is composed of two parts: the aluminum outer shell, which is open on the two ends, and a plastic frame that slides into it and has the SATA connector on the inside of one end and the USB port and blue activity LED on the outside. The USB cable is a generous 19" in length. The plastic frame, while a bit thin and flimsy, is flexible, not brittle, and will probably hold up fine if handled with a bit of care while outside the shell. Its thinness helps keep the whole enclosure small.Installation was simple and easy. First, apply an insulating film to the hard drive's PCB. Then slide the plastic connector frame out of the shell, angle the hard drive into it and plug it into the SATA connector, secure it with the included screws if desired (it will stay in place fine without them), slide it back into the shell, and secure the shell to the connector frame and hard drive with two more screws.I at first thought there was no insulating film in the package as there was supposed to be, so I just cut out a section of an electronics bag from another purchase and used that instead, placing it against the PCB and wrapping the end around the edge of the hard drive so that it would secure itself against the connector frame. I later found that the film was in the box, but stuck to the inside and almost invisible because the backing is white like the inside of the box.The film may not be necessary, but it eliminates the possibility of the aluminum shell of the enclosure touching anything on the PCB and causing a short circuit. If you work on laptops, you'll notice that the hard drive mounting brackets always have a plastic film against the PCB side of the hard drive to prevent the bracket from contacting the PCB.There were 6 screws included, though only 4 can be used at a time. I am pleased to have been given spares. There was even a small and well-made screwdriver included. Up to four screws can be used to secure the hard drive to the plastic connector frame, and two can be used to secure the hard drive and frame to the outer shell. But if you intend to put screws through the shell, you must leave the corresponding screw holes in the hard drive open, and so only the two holes on the end near the SATA port are used for attaching the hard drive to the frame in that case.I am very pleased with the design and appearance of this enclosure. It feels solid and sturdy, everything aligned perfectly, including the screw holes, and it is compact and elegant. I copied a terabyte or so of data to the drive inside, and performed hours of testing on the drive to ensure it was reliable, and the enclosure performed flawlessly.IMPORTANT POWER DRAW NOTE: I was using a USB hub to connect this enclosure to the computer. At one point I connected a second external hard drive to the hub, and then a flash drive. When I connected the flash drive, one of the external hard drives (or maybe both) started repeatedly shutting off and back on. This was because, though my USB hub is powered, I had unplugged the power adapter, and so the hub was getting only the 0.9A of current from the computer's USB 3.0 port. My three devices had exceeded the power draw limit. You must be aware of power requirements when connecting things like this, especially to an unpowered hub. Once I plugged in the hub's additional power, all devices connected to it functioned perfectly. Some 2.5" hard drives need a relatively high current to run, and may have trouble on a USB 2.0 port, and may not run if anything else is connected to the same port through a hub.

I put an SSD 870 EVO in the case, which is pretty easy.The W11 system found the device, but not the SSD itself.I finally plugged the SSD directly into the system and formatted it.Back into this case and the SSD was found.

Great Experience!The item arrived exactly as described and right on time. Shipping was fast and the packaging was secure and professional, ensuring the product arrived in perfect condition. Everything went smoothly from start to finish. Very satisfied with the overall purchase experience!

I rarely review products but in this case, absolutely recommend this product. It's very affordable and the quality is great. It helped me save a few hundred dollars by helping me create my own external drive from a repurpose 2tb internal drive I removed from my laptop. I love it!

Worked as described

Funciona perfecto

works as expected