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February 26, 2009 1:25 PM PST

Access hard drives conveniently with NewerTech Voyager

by Dong Ngo
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(Credit: NewerTech)

If you do a lot of work that involves transferring data from one hard drive to another, you'll probably love the NewerTech Voyager hard drive dock.

This the first quad-interface hard drive docking station that supports FireWire 800/400, USB 2.0, and eSATA. The device can turn any 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SATA hard drive, up to 2.0TB, into a fully bootable and hot-swappable external drive solution.

NewerTech Voyager is compatible with both Macs and PC and features plug-and-plug installation with no software or driver needed. All you need to do is plug in a new hard drive, and format it if need be. You can of course--and I believe this is the main use of the device--put in an old hard drive to access data from it.

Other features of the NewerTech Voyager include:

  • Data transfer rates up to 3Gbps (300MBps)
  • Push button drive eject for safe hard drive removal
  • Hot-swap functionality for fast access to multiple hard drives
  • Weighted base and nonskid rubber feet for stable operation
  • Two-color status LED: Left side is blue for power on, right side flashes red for disk activity
  • Compact design: Measures 5.28 inches tall by 3.70 inches wide by 2.68 inches deep and weighs 1.35 pounds without drive
  • Fanless design for quiet operation

The docking station comes with all interface connection cables and a one-year warranty. You can get it now for $99 at OWC. OWC also sells the docking station bundled with hard drives for prices varying from $150 (500GB) to $380 (2TB).

Dong Ngo is a CNET editor who covers networking and network storage, and writes about anything else he finds interesting. You can also listen to his podcast at insidecnetlabs.cnet.com. E-mail Dong.
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by invisible21 February 26, 2009 3:08 PM PST
I believe you mean 3 Gb/s (which consequently is about 3000 Mbps...unless of course there is some new outrageously fast standard that nobody's heard of.
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by Leslie Katz February 26, 2009 3:28 PM PST
Yes, a typo. Fixed. Thanks!
by chillaxed February 26, 2009 3:16 PM PST
Ha ha it looks like a toaster for hard drives! If you look at circle 3, it is an eject lever!
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by cooki4casey February 28, 2009 1:16 PM PST
haha, my thoughts exactly.
by Mindstyle06 February 27, 2009 12:27 AM PST
I find it expensive and definitely in the time of recession, I am not comfortable spending so much money on it.
BTW, ebay sells similar *not so fancy' item for half of the price.
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by February 27, 2009 5:18 AM PST
used two of these for sneaker-netting video projects from user to user and have had no problems. drives do get hot. also had to send back one bad power supply and another user in office has had similar problem. other than that, great.
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