22.10.2018

**IMPORTANT**: Drive enclosures are not totally "plug and play" like a USB flash drive. Upon the first time connecting it to your PC, you might have to do a couple simple steps to have the PC recognize the new drive. First try openning Windows Disk Manager (In Windows 10, just type "Disk Management" in the search box on the toolbar and the new drive/enclosure should be listed for you to then properly format it so Windows will recognize it in a "plug and play" manner in the future. If it isn't listed in the Disk Manager, you'll have to open the Device Manager (again, search via the Windows 10 toolbar) and once opened, scroll down to "Universal Bus Controllers", expand the list,then right click on "Intel USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller" and choose "uninstall device" from the dropdown menu. Then restart your PC and 99% of the time the new drive/enclosure will then be listed on the Disk Manager. This is what I had to do myself. I thought I should make people aware of this since most (like one of the reviews here) people will assume that it'll be instantly recognizable, and if not, that their drive or enclosure is malfunctioning, which isn't the case. Remember, there's something called "Google" where you can search "USB 3.0 enclosure not recognized by Windows 10" and find the answers you need in seconds which I always strongly recommend prior to unfairly giving this or any product a bad reviewI chose this Inateck enclosure due to the fact that it's powered and I'd be connecting it to my Microsoft Surface Pro 3 which have underpowered USB ports; meaning that drive enclosures, external drives and other devices completely dependent on being bus powered from the USB port can be problematic. Also by being a powered enclosure, there's the option of using it to house a 3.5" Hard Drive (spinning platter; HDD) which require significantly more power than an SSD. There's also the fact that I intend to use this Inateck drive enclosure in a predominantly sedentary application on my desk as opposed to a more mobile use.Another factor in choosing this enclosure is its use of the Asmedia ASM1153E chipset to convert from SATAIII to USB 3.0 as it features UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) which allows for faster final transfers over USB 3.0. Also, Asmedia Chipsets tend to be less problematic, more robust and longer lasting than competing options like the JMicron JMS567 SATA-to-USB bridge Chipset found in cheaper enclosures; afterall, when it comes to USB 3.0/3.1/3.1 Gen 2 controllers for computer motherboards, nearly every manufacturer (e.g. Asus, Gigabyte, etc) use Asmedia controllers and that says a lot. One of, if not the biggest priority with respect to an enclosure for myself, is data transfer speed; I want an enclosure that allows for the fastest possible connection as I intended to use a high quality SSD with MLC NAND flash and an enclosure that'd bottleneck the SSD would just be wasting the drive's potential.You can see from my picture that I benchmarked the enclosure with a brand new, never before used, Samsung 860 EVO 500GB SSD and it achieved nearly 450MB/sec reads and 420MB/sec writes which is completely satisfying as those speeds are approaching the limits of the USB 3.0 connection (5 gigabits per second or 625MB/sec before factoring in "overhead"). With a 6Gbps SATAIII connection to a motherboard, the Samsung 860 EVO will reach 550MB/sec sequential reads and 530MB/sec sequential writes, so the fact that the Inateck enclosure is achieving 450MB/sec over the USB 3.0 bus with 1 Gbps less bandwidth is impressive.The enclosure itself seems durable enough with the housing made of brushed aluminum. The USB 3.0 cable and power adapter cable included are heavy gauge (thick; included a Bic lighter in photos for size reference) and are definitely much better than a cheap usb data cable that comes with most phone chargers. The back I/O fascia/plate is fastened with two screws (an additional two screws are included as extras) and is definitely secure. There are also two indicator LEDs on the I/O fascia for "power" and "data" which is helpful for troubleshooting. It also includes four smaller, zinc plated (silver) screws to mount the drive to the tray, but the thread diameter on them was slightly too large to fit in the female threads on my Samsung 860 EVO SSD so I'm assuming they're intended for a 3.5" hard drive. This is fine however, as the SATA data and power connector that is inserted in the drive secures a small, light SSD perfectly fine by itself. Included with the accessories in addition to the screws are two extra adhesive rubber feet and a small phillips head screwdriver (in photos) (probably size #0) for the included screws which is definitely a nice touch.I use (and benchmarked) the enclosure connected DIRECTLY to my Microsoft Surface Pro 3 USB 3.0 port, so I cannot comment on what may happen when connected through a USB hub or similar device. I have a cheap Tecknet USB 3.0 3x USB port and Gigabit LAN port hub that I attempted to connect the enclosure through, but for some reason I did not care to ascertain, the Computer would not recognize the enclosure/drive through the hub. I should mention however, that months prior to this, for some reason, the Gigabit port on the hub ceased to function so perhaps the hub itself is to blame.For the price, I feel as though this is about the best USB 3.0 enclosure on Amazon for those that intend to use it in a mostly stationary application. There are much smaller (about the size of an iPod or wallet) and cheaper, bus powered (draws its power directly from the USB port rather than an AC to DC adapter/charger) enclosures specifically for SSDs on Amazon, but most of these use lower quality chipsets like those from Jmicron, are made from far less durable plastic. Also, they are limited to using SSDs, while this Inateck enclosure offers the option to use a 3.5" hard drive which is a nice feature as eventually I intend to use the Samsung 860 EVO SSD in a new PC I am building and will therefor most likely use this enclosure with a large capacity 3.5" hard drive (8+TB) to backup and store seldom used files. The external power supply is also a nice feature as contrary to what many people believe, all USB 3.0 ports are not identical with the amount of power supplied by the port varying greatly as with the USB port on my Surface Pro 3 which is low power. The Inateck enclosure however, is still small enough to be easily portable and will most likely fit in the vast majority of laptop bags, booksbags, and even smaller purses. It's aesthetically simple and pleasing and will fit in with most people's computer "space" (unless you're an Apple fanboy, then you'd probably have to paint it white or something and double the price, haha). I will return to update my review after a month of use and probably again after 6 months to comment on long term durability

9.2.2017

I've been needing to set up an external file storage and backup system, and decided I'd prefer to put bare drives into enclosures rather than buy pre-made external drives. I purchased two of these enclosures, one to put a Files HDD into, and one to put a Backup HDD into. I originally was thinking about buying enclosures with fans, since many are made of plastic, but since these are aluminum, I figured I would see how they did with passive heat dissipation; they do get a little warm, (maybe a few degrees above ambient, not at all hot). I also like that they come with a dedicated power supply cable, instead of relying on USB bus power. The Power (green) and Activity (blue)

16.6.2016

Following from my previous review of the Inateck 2.5 inch HDD enclosure, I think inateck has done it again with their larger size 3.5' one.Build quality is fantastic with a brushed aluminium exterior and plastic panels on front and back for I/O. Two leds (one green and blue) indicate activity and power are a nice touch albeit low brightness. Overall, this is your standard Anker/ ORICO type quality of aluminium with nice edges and anodizing. The aluminum is thick; despite the propensity for metal to transmit vibration, both 2.5 and 3.5' hard-drives had minimal buzz when in operation.Quality aside, I can CONFIRM that the chip being used is the Asmedia 1053e, which, in my opinion, for USB 3.0,

5.6.2017

*** NOT A PAID REVIEW ***Bottom Line: Nice Aluminum EnclosureThis is a review of the “Inateck Aluminum USB 3.0 Hard Disk Drive Enclosure”. I bought this drive to make use of a spare 3TB HDD I had laying around. The aluminum casing feels great to the touch and helps to reduce the internal temperatures which will also prolong the life of the HDD. The onboard chip and setup seems reasonably fast and easily recognized by both macOS and Windows. You can see the results from Blackmagic Disk Speed Test for my 3TB WD RED drive in the picture attached. The casing was warm to the touch which isn’t a bad thing since it indicates good transfer of heat.I would be remised if I didn’t mention a few of the negatives that I encountered.

5.2.2020

I decided that I wanted to periodically backup my Synology NAS to an external USB disk. The benefit of this being that if something really bad happens to the Synology I'll still have a copy of the data, but also if one of the disks fails then I have an identical model drive which I can quickly swap out etc.I've used Inateck products before with great success so I was fairly confident with this purchase. You get everything you need in the box even down to a screwdriver so you basically don't need any tools to assemble this yourself. I've installed a Western Digital Red 10TB in the caddy and although it's a snug fit I didn't have any problems with getting it assembled.Performance-wise this caddy seems to perform really well,

8.11.2015

Worked OK for a few hours with my Xbox One, but then suddenly started very frequent disconnect/reconnect cycles ( every few minutes). I really wanted to like this enclosure, I like the size and it kept my drive cool. I originally had a Seagate 3.5 inch 2tb 7200 rpm SSHD drive when it began failing. I then tried a Western Digital Green 1 tb, 5400 rpm to see if it would work with my X1, but it had the same problem. I know it's not the ports on the X1, because I plugged in my old WD 1 tb Passport, and it ran fine.Edited on 11/9: I added one star to the rating as I have received excellent communication from the seller.They have offered to send me a replacement and I will revise my review when I have the opportunity to test the replacement.Added on 11/23: Increased rating to 4 stars.

21.4.2019

I'm a computer repair tech, so when clients call me saying their comp died and they want to get info off of it or they want to replace their slow HDD with a fast SSD, I need something that will fill both needs! I didn't want to have to worry about having two different enclosures for 2.5" vs. 3.5" drives either, so I hunted carefully for a few days for something that would meet all that, never mind be easy to use and not take up too much space! Finally, I found this one, and after weighing my options one more time (I'm very thorough and a perfectionist, haha), I ordered! It came quickly, and while the edge with the status lights seemed to have gotten a tiny bit bent in transit,

21.5.2019

I recently upgraded the drives in my Synology NAS, and wanted to put the old WD Red drives in enclosures to use them as backup drives. I researched a few of the enclosures on Amazon and ended up purchasing both the Inateck and Orico enclosures. Both enclosures are well made and function well. I'm going to highlight differences in their basic features in this review. Hopefully this will help a few people that are deciding between these units.The Orico enclosure is made of molded plastic and is extremely easy to setup without using any tools. Iinstalling the drive and closing the case is easily done in seconds. The Inateck enclosure is made of aluminum and requires a small screw driver (provided)

31.7.2016

I bought this drive after returning another one with a plastic casing. The metal casing is great and reduces internal disk drive (DD) temperatures by about 4-5 degrees long term. The drive is fast and recognized right away and enables the DD to transmit its data at its fastest rate. Using HD Pro, I saw my new 6TB Western Digital RED drive starting out at 190 MBytes/sec on its outer tracks and finishing at a rate of about 140 MBytes/sec in its inner tracks. The metal cover was somewhat hot, which is GOOD for its doing its job of transferring heat from the DD to the outside air. Plastic enclosures like my previous one are barely warm to the touch, yet the internal DD temperatures are rather high,

11.11.2019

This is a high-quality enclosure using a genuine ASMedia ASM1153E controller. It's not a tool-free enclosure, so it might be better suited for permanent or semi-permanent installations. This is not only because you need tools to install or remove the drive, but also because the enclosure attaches properly to the drive (i.e. using screws), so the whole thing won't fall apart when you move it. I do prefer these kind of solidly built enclosures for NAS use cases.I purchased this enclosure because I had issues with an external HDD (WD Elements) reporting an incorrect size and not passing some of the SATA flags correctly from within its original box. I suspect the WD controller reported the drive's size less some reserved space,

31.5.2015

After I had to return a similar enclosure from another manufacturer, it was a relief that this item worked without problems with its advertised USB3 protocol and speeds. It's a nice unit complete with rubber stands, good heat dissipation, so the overall quality is commendable. Like all products of its type it still falls short of expectations.1) The two drive indicator LEDs are located on the side, and are not visible from either end of the unit, but only if one turns it sideways. One could say the worst of both worlds.2) While there is a light diffusion cover for the advertised Power LED, there is either no LED or it doesn't work. The drive activity LED does.I hate to search for these enclosures,

7.8.2019

First off, I have to say I had a problem with my first unit, but I emailed the company and had no problem getting a replacement. That's important to me. The second one worked fine. Not much to say other than it looks and feels nice, it seemed to go as fast as my drive would take, and it was very easy to put a hard drive in. It's a case for an external drive. Everyone should have one so you can have local backups of important files just in case something happens. I backup pictures of my kids, home videos, important documents, and the like. So with this case, I'll plug it in, turn it on, back up to it, and then turn it off.There are two lights on the case. One for power and one for hard drive activity.

2.6.2020

This was used to house a 2tb HDD i removed from a redundant appliance.The enclosure is well made and it was simple to install the HDD.It features an on/off power switch and comes with a UK power adapter and a substantial usb cable.When the encloure arrives, after removing the packaging you will find that the end of the enclosure with the power switch etc is not screwed in. It can be removed by sliding it out and the HDD just plugs into the appropriate connector.There are also a couple of screws to secure to HDD on to the enclosure end. The screw holes are located in the sides and it holds everything snug.Also enclosed are some rubber pads the same as the rubber feet,

17.3.2019

After sitting in storage for a month, my wife's AIO computer would not start up. There was a lot of much needed data she needed to retreive, including pictures and video. After removing its 500GB hard drive, I looked for my hard drive enclosure but of course, after moving, I could not find it. Having read the reviews on this enclosure and many others, I decided to go with this one. After receiving this, following the exact directions for simple assembly, I was up and running with the hard drive and enclosure in less than 10 minutes. It contains all hardware, including extra screws, non-slip pads, USB cable and power cord. Simply install the hard drive per instruction, plug in both the USB and power cables,

14.10.2016

The drive case has been reviewed to death so I don't know what I'll really add. However here's my thoughts still the same.The drive fits in through the connection end of the case. If you're using a 3.5" drive it will simply be held by 2 screws through the side of the drive. The front half of the drive will flop around. It would have been improved if the case provided some support for the front half of the drive. At one point the description mentions a leather type material inside. I don't have anything of the sort. It's just aluminum. Personally I consider the connection end with the power switch to be the rear of the drive, if you do as well then the rear of the case is where the power and activity LEDS are.

Inateck FE3001 - Reviews

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