Inateck 2.5 Hard Drive Enclosure, USB 3.0 External Hard Drive Case, Support UASP, Up to 5Gbps,FE2004

I *LOVE* this hard drive! I have literally dozens of external drives which I use to supplement the small SSD in my 2015 Macbook Pro, provide handy backups, or just pass around data faster than a USB stick. Typically I buy aluminum, multi-port, higher end cases costing $80-$150, but this time I wanted a super light, super small drive because I have to drag it with me everywhere. Originally, I hoped for an M.2 setup, but the external cases for M.2 drives just aren't ready for prime time. I took a chance on this Inateck case, and it blew me away! It's just impossibly thin and light! At first, I didn't think any drive could fit inside, but my 850 Evo SSD fits in it fine with room to spare! In fact, it much less tight of a fit than in my giant aluminum enclosures. And I absolutely LOVE the toolless design - who knew screws were so unneccesary. It's so easy to pull drives in and out that this doubles as a handy tool for just copying drives or temporarily converting them to USB 3. And at this insanely low price, you can afford to have extras lying around. Performance was the best I've seen for those mini-USB 3.0 types - the ones with the flat curvy plug. I consistently got about 247MB/sec read and 242 MB/sec write. In comparison, the same drive over eSATA-6000 hits about 300 MB/sec R/W. This enclosure even has the highest performance i've seen on USB 2.0, which sadly is NOT much, but many USB 3.0 enclosures are absolutely abysmal on USB 2.0. I get about 35 MB/sec read / 28 MB/sec write, again, about maxing out the USB 2.0 standard. I even love the blinking blue activity light, the good looks, and soft, smooth, rubbery feel of this case - it's not metal, but it doesn't feel like cheap plastic either. And with an SSD, it's always cool to the touch. I recommend this enclosure highly. One caution - This is my first day with heavy use, and some users reported long term issues. I'll update this review if the case starts to fail later on.

I've used this for HDDs and SSDs and it works easily. Just slide out the enclosure and put your SSD or HDD into it and the enclosure locks together, so you don't need screws to swap drives in and out. I really like the matte finish, which make it feel nice in the hand with its soft-touch plastic finish. I have two of these for old SSDs I converted into external drives. It works great for that I get 150mb/s writes and sometimes 500mb/s when I'm on a Mac on a USB Type-C port with a dongle adapter. It's great if you want to use it for Tech Support and you have a family member with a dead laptop and you need to recover their data, or if you just want to make an old SSD or HDD into an external drive. This enclosure is worth the money I paid, which was $8.99 at the time. I would buy another again if I needed another enclosure for at home or at work.

I bought this in order to add an internal HDD I had laying around to my PS4 for the extra space. Because of my own inability to read the specs, I ordered this thinking I was going to be able to use it on my regular-sized SATA drive. To my surprise, this case was much smaller than I anticipated. I thought about returning it, but because I would have had to pay a dumdum fee / shipping to send it back because of the fact I don't really understand what I'm buying, plus the fact I got it on a lightning deal, I decided to keep it. I made sure the SATA connectors matched up, and triple-checked around the case to make sure there were no electrical components anywhere on it except for the connections in the back. I took off the top half (lid?) and cut through the bottom half with a pair of dull scissors. I almost broke the scissors but they held strong and completed the job. I made some extra little cuts to tweak the fit until it finally allowed my HDD to slide in. I made sure everything was connected tight, everything looked good, turned on the PS4 and...it didn't see my HDD. I powered it down and went over all the connections in the setup to make sure everything was tightly connected. Turned on the PS4 again and...nothing. "Aw, [phooey]! I broke it!," I thought. Or maybe it's a dead drive. I know I have another HDD I can test out. So I start my search. About 5 minutes into it, I find an older never-used laptop HDD in the original packaging and all. "[Dadgum!] I forgot all about this!" I open it up and see it's the exact size meant for this case. I disconnect my other SATA drive, connect the laptop drive in, poorly attempt to enclose the drive with these jagged plastic shards that I cut off just moments ago, and turn my PS4 on. Success! It discovered the drive, formatted, all that fun stuff. Works great and would definitely recommend. I may even buy another just to replace this monstrosity I have created.

Slide the drive in, stick the padding on the cover, slide cover on, connect to USB cable, plug it in and format it. Very light. Nice tool-less case. Case has a rubber like texture on the outside so even though it's made of plastic, it doesn't feel like it. The downside about these types of coverings is that the covering will likely wear off with frequent use. Only time will tell how long it lasts. It would have been easier if the foam padding (inside the cover) was already put on. You have to do it yourself and the plastic adhesive covering that you need to peel off took a while get off. Other than these minor things, its great, inexpensive case.

This is a great solution if you need some cheap, external enclosures that use USB 3 that are very easy to swap out drives. These use no screws at all. The entire bottom slides off like a large remote control battery lid. Very, very handy if you have to run through a lot of drives, erasing, reformatting and laying down an OS. It takes like five seconds to trade the installed drive for another. The cord is USB 3, but whether it actually runs properly at that standard is an unknown to me right now. I will test that later. All I know right now is that I have several easy to set up drive enclosures to use USB 3 with an internal 2.5" SATA drive. They have a soft-touch surface, very lightly rubberized over the plastic. They look very nice. They have a very small pin-hole-type blue LED I/O light. The cord is about a foot long. For the price and the free Prime Shipping you cannot go wrong if you need one of these. I liked my pair so much that I bought another two days after I received the first pair. Not bad at all. And hey, the company's name (Inateck) is *almost* the same as "Initech" from the movie "Office Space," and you have to smile at that! These drive enclosures might not be as good as a red Swingline stapler, but they are recommended by me nonetheless. ;-)

UPDATE: after having purchased a few of these two years ago, I purchased another just recently (JUNE 2022), but the version I received feels a little lighter and cheaper than the previous version. Specifically, the plastic feels like a cheaper plastic that seems to scuff pretty easily, whereas the previous version had a more premium matte-type rubber coating that resisted scuffs. Both versions have the same model number, and I generally hate when manufacturers change a product but keep the same model number. ORIGINAL REVIEW: As a purveyor of at least twenty prior USB hard drive enclosures, this is my clear favorite now. Extremely light, with a super-fitting form factor and flexible (not stiff) USB 3.0 cable, this drive is a perfect combination of price, performance, functionality (especially with the tool-less opening design), and style. The only thing that could be possibly added to this drive is a power switch, which I've always thought was theoretically useful, but hasn't ever really been practically useful, in my experience.

I had purchased one of these external HD cases in July 2016 and was very impressed with the quality. The case was covered with a soft-touch material, there was a thin layer of foam padding on the inside of the case to cushion the HD and the USB cable was of a very good quality. I just purchased another of these cases (1/14/17) and am pretty disappointed. The case is not covered with the soft-touch material, there is no foam padding on the inside of the case and the USB cable is really cheap and I am sure that it will not standup to daily use. I did install my HD into the case and it does work. Just be advised, if you have an older version of this case and are expecting the same quality, you are going to be disappointed. Update 1/19/2017 After I posted my review on Amazon, the seller of this item contacted me to say that they wanted to send me a replacement case, that would address the issues that I had expressed. They did send me a replacement case. The replacement case does have the soft-touch material on the outside of the case. A piece of self-adhesive foam was included in the box, to be used to cushion the HD installed in the case. The USB cable may be of a slightly higher quality than the one that came with the original case, but that one is hard to tell. Overall, I am very pleased with the willingness of the seller to proactively try to address my concerns. I have updated my rating to 5 stars and I will not hesitate to purchase from this seller in the future.

Used on both Xbox to add storage with a Western Digital SSD; formatted and stays connected better than Xbox branded devices. Used on laptop to pull data from one point to another, operates at full bus speed as expected. Placing the drive in the enclosure is simple and quick, and does not require any tools, the enclosure snaps securely shut, and included the foam cushions to suspend the drive internally to provide limited shock protection. (though with SSDs they aren't as prone to that issue, but would work great for a spin drive too) Cable length was generous, allowing the enclosure to be tucked out of sight when plugged in, and uses minimal power. Many enclosures either draw too much off the USB bus, or need external power, this doesn't have any of those issues. Will be buying a couple more to have on both personal and work laptops as well for simple storage that can be upgraded as needed.

This is a very good product. It's perfect for any 2.5" SATA HDD and 2.5" SSD.

Came in a nice matte black color and almost feels like soft touch material. Build quality is good, no weird/off/hanging pieces. Comes with USB cord that firmly attaches to the case. Case is made of cheap plastic though... I’m almost very sure that if i drop my case it would break and kill my HD. I didn’t give 5 stars due to when i attached my HD it didn’t recognize it right away. My Mac kept saying there was an error in unmounting the disk. After x amount of attempts it worked and is fine now. Good read and write speed. Overall, a good buy for $20 including shipping.

It arrived on time and it is easy to setup and works as expected. Hope this will not break down and last a long time!

The enclosure is easy to use. Nothing complicated however about sliding open the panel and slipping in a hard drive. USB cable is a little short, about 6 inches, but for my setup it's fine.

the connection was on the wrong side for my hard drive therefore I could not use it