Kingwin EZ-Dock SATA External Storage

The good guys at Kingwin were nice enough to send a sample of their Kingwin EZ-Dock (#EZD-2535) to try out. This is a handy way to quickly change among SATA hard drives, especially for back-ups.

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Key Features:

• Supports 2.5” / 3.5” SATA Hard Drives up To 1 TB (Seagate up to 750 GB)
• USB 2.0 and eSATA ports
• One Touch Back Up function
• Supported OS: Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS 10x & Above
• Ships with external power supply, backup software CD, USB and eSATA cables
• Size: 133 x 123 x 62 mm; plastic construction

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Looking down into the hard drive slot shows the HD connector:

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The back shows the power switch, power port, eSATA and USB ports:

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The parts that ship with the EZ-Dock include a CD for the backup function, USB and eSATA cables and external PS:

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I tried Kingwin’s EZ-Dock using a Seagate Barracuda 250 GB, 7200 rpm 3.5″ hard drive with the following results:

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Contrast eSATA peformance to USB:

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No contest if you’re interested in large file swapping, although the ubiquitous USB port does come in handy when traveling.

Included with Kingwin’s EZ-Dock is software to enable the “One-Touch” file backup function. This is a “lite” version of Fnet’s PCClone Ex – this software enables file backups, not total system backups. After installation, a PCClone icon is installed on the desktop and system tray – click on it, or hit the Back Up button on the dock, and this screen comes up:

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Click on the “Quick Launch” icon and this comes up:

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Hit the “Start” button and it proceeds to backup files:

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Obviously how long it takes depends on how much you have – my wife’s laptop took about 20 minutes for 7.5 GB worth of files. It also generates a text file that lists some items not backed up, but not all. Clicking on the second menu icon brings up this:

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The third menu icon brings up a somewhat confusing screen:

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You figure out that the left side is your OC and the right side is the external drive. Finally there is a “Help” function:

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Adequate enough to figure out what’s going on – the last two screens are “drag and drop”, so you can select whichever file you either want to backup or restore.

A nice package for an external SATA drive – the Back Up function is nice to have and does make it easy, although a much more robust solution is for total system backup, which this software does not support.