Acomdata Tango USB 2.0/eSATA 2.5-Inch SATA Hard Drive Enclosure TNGXXXUSE-BLU (Blue)
by Acomdata
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List Price: Our Price: $16.99 You Save: $3.00 (15%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $15.99 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Acomdata Tango USB 2.0/eSATA 2.5-Inch SATA Hard Drive Enclosure TNGXXXUSE-BLU (Blue)
Customer Review: Awful instructions, but workable with effort
Summary: 3 Stars
My HP laptop cpu died and I needed to pull the drive to recapture data. My experience:
The Good: Once I finally got it installed, I had to use the dual USB power plugs to get it working, glad they included that. After that, operations was a breeze. Transfer rates were a bit slow, but at spec for USB, eSATA recommended if you have it, remember to power the unit by USB. When done, nicely compact and portable.
The Bad: Awful instructions for a previous model are worthless. As earlier reviews state, you must remove the front screws, pull from the BACK (not front), then you must fit the drive atop the card, screw it down, then close the case.
Overall: Gets the job done, once you figure it out.
Hints: My Hitachi drive did not seem to want to fit atop the card, did not have the right screw holes, and would not plug into the connectors. As it turned out, the crive was in an OEM enclosure which I had to unscrew first. After that, it fit on the card and the screw holes lined up... but the connectors still would not fit! I finally realized that there was a plastic adapter affixed in front of the standard pins. Once I pulled that off, things fit properly. Sure would be nice if they would include some tips like this in the instructions. Not everyone has the necessary experience (the last time I opened a PC before this one was a Pentium 1 system and before that, a PC XT!), so great instructions would add a lot of value.
Customer Review: Perfect Unit
Summary: 5 Stars
We are using this with a Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500 GB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 2.5 Inch, 8 MB Cache, 5400 RPM SATA II WD5000BEVT and it works wonderfully with an eSATA connection on a Desktop PC and USB connection(s) on a Notebook PC. We purchased an ACI HandStands 16804 - Hard case for GPS / hard disk drive / camera - blue to carry it and its cable in, and the HDD enclosure fits very well in that case. It has never run very warm, in other words, it seems to dissipate heat during backups very well.
In my opinion the quality of the unit was overall excellent and I found its mechanical fittings and tolerances to be much more acceptable than some previous commentors' experience. Perhaps Acomdata improved the assembly since those earlier reviews.
I was pleasantly surprised at how much I like it because I did not care for Acomdata's 3.5 inch HDD enclosure (Acomdata Samba USB 2.0 3.5-Inch IDE/SATA Hard Drive Enclosure SMBXXXU2E-BLK (Black)) compared to some others that are available, but if you are in the market for a portable (2.5 inch) HDD enclosure I think you should seriously consider this one.
Customer Review: Well made, well designed, and works beautifully
Summary: 5 Stars
After seeing some very poor reviews to the $10 and $15 enclosures, I decided I'd "splurge" and see if $20 could buy you a good drive enclosure. I'm glad I did. Unlike the plastic enclosures, this model uses a very well-designed aluminum case, which will withstand repeated installations. It also looks great, as a bonus, and appears to do a very good job dissipating heat. (You can tell this because the enclosure gets slightly warm to the touch. Contrary to popular belief, if something feels warm, that actually means it's doing a good job of pulling the heat out of whatever is inside it and letting it flow to the air. That's why heatsinks get hot, and why styrofoam cups don't.)
Internally, the printed circuit board (PCB) takes up the entire length of the enclosure, and the drive is screwed on to it. This is much more stable and rugged than the cheap enclosures, where the drive simply gets shoved in the enclosure and attached to a small PCB at the back.
An additional benefit you won't find on other, cheaper, enclosures is that an eSATA interface is offered, allowing for high transfer speeds if your computer can support this.
The only problem I encountered was that the manual was completely incorrect in its diagram of how to install the drive, and must be referring to a previous generation. Other than that, I have nothing but good things to say about this product.
Customer Review: perfect external 2.5" enclosure
Summary: 5 Stars
You could pay $10 for an ultra-cheap enclosure from NewEgg (I have plenty of times, and I love NewEgg), but pay an extra $10 and get this enclosure instead. Here's why:
* It comes with a USB Y cable with a mini USB connector as you would expect on the hard drive end. Many of the cheap ones come with a full-sized USB connector on both ends.
* It comes just a little larger than the hard drive (but not too large), with a nice-looking grill vent on the end. The cheap ones barely wrap around the drive.
* The hard drive actually attaches to a little platform with four included screws. The cheap ones let the drive dangle around inside.
* The enclosure uses real screws, not "sliver screws". Really, the cheap ones come with little screws so small that once the manufacturer accidentally included a metal sliver instead of a screw in mine.
* It looks stylish and handsome.
(Ignore the manual; unscrew the two screws on the connection end and pull the platform out from the other end.)
This is the enclosure I've been looking for, and it works fine with my Western Digital 640 GB Scorpio Blue SATA Bulk/OEM Notebook Hard Drive WD6400BEVT.
Customer Review: don't buy it
Summary: 1 Stars
I had many hassles. Maybe they are part Amazon's fault. It is not as advertised, and the specs are misleading. The documentation was ridiculous. It did not explain the simplest thing. Installation was very hard and not obvious. I tried the "free tech support forever." First they make you fill out endless information on their web site. There is no phone support. You have to write your problem. 24 hours later they email back to you, and make a lot of excuses. They have better documentation now, they say. I just got an old one. After a lot of grief and lost time it did work with XP, but not with a windows 7 computer for some reason. The specs on Amazon need to be longer and more specific. The instructions also say it does not work with eSATA without a separate power supply you have to buy separately. At very least the instructions have to say how to get the board out of the case to mount the hard disk. If they have new documentation, then need to post a PDF on their web site so we can download it. I would never buy from this company again. Any computer product needs some sort of convenient, easy support, which starts with sensible up-to-date instructions in the box, or access to them on the web.