8 reviews for USB 3.0 SATA / IDE Adapter with Write-Protection

1. Rated 4 out of 5

   Tempus Securitati – October 23, 2020

   Not quite as good as a WiebeTECH but works well in most situations. For the price this seems a good value, and may even stand up in court if the NIST rating is valid (how was it tested? I know NIST has specs for testing write blockers (high level test cases basically, enumerating all the potential write methods in the various drive API’s that have to be prevented), but who has actually implemented those as a real test?)

   Their specs re speed are a bit confusing, some numbers say 5G/s others say 3G/s

   This device has issues if the drive suffers from logical data corruption (e.g. drive functions correctly, but data garbled or corrupted).. For example, I tried it on two such drives and for the second one it would never ‘see’ the drive, so I am unable to image it using this device, while it images just fine connected to an Forensic UltraDock. (all other equipment the same, only variable was the write protector)

   For the price, a pretty good deal overall, provided you don’t run into the limitations when trying to image drives where someone has tried to cover their tracks by purging the partition table or other such shenanigan’s

2. Rated 5 out of 5

   David – August 6, 2015

   The price of this device is unheard of compared to other write blocking devices. The fact that it can support many HDD types is very helpful and the USB3 interface insures that large drives can be imaged much faster.

3. Rated 5 out of 5

   Mariusz Czarnecki – April 14, 2015

   Works like a charm and a great price~ Thanks

4. Rated 5 out of 5

   howarddavidp – January 5, 2015

   Hello,

   I purchased one of these units to do computer forensics on an infected machine where I work. While there are units that cost 10x what I paid for this unit, it gets the job done correctly. What I am not sure of is whether or not the device has a certificate to verify what it does, like for a court case with chain-of-custody evidence. However, mechanically, it does work and you can block all writes going back to the drive. I used it with Acronis and the FTK image programs, it worked well with both of them. I also plugged a drive in and attached it to a Windows 7 machine, and Windows could not write back to the device with Recycle Bin of System Volume Information folders/directories. So if you don’t need to go to court/”write block certificate”, it works like it is supposed to, without any issues or hassle. Right out of the box simple and easy to use. We will most likely buy several more.

   David

5. Rated 5 out of 5

   cpnrnd – November 12, 2014

   The main reason I purchased this item was for the write-protection. It works perfectly and I highly recommend this item if that is what you are looking for.

6. Rated 4 out of 5

   Customer – September 12, 2014

   This product has become a very useful tool. Compared to other products that do the same as this product it is affordable, and so far seems reliable enough to depend on. Also a very easy product to use.

7. Rated 5 out of 5

   Dave – August 31, 2014

   I needed a hardware write-protect interface for some forensic disk examination. I was skeptical that a device in this price range would be fast enough to be useful, but it’s significantly faster than an older adapter I’d been using. The old adapter has USB2, FW800 and eSATA (not tested, though). It could read ~40MB/s through USB2 and ~90MB/s through FireWire.

   This CoolDrives box reads at about 150MB/s (USB3, Mac) and maybe a little slower on a Linux box (all reading from the same WD Black 1TB drive).

   I’m delighted with this device — it’s going to save me a lot of time! I’ll have to give the eSATA a try…maybe it’s even faster.

8. Rated 4 out of 5

   AirForce – August 11, 2014

   Kinda like the write protection feature which is different from the ones I’ve used a few years ago. Retired IT guy (and retired police officer). Had another product that was about the same price that came with software tools. Wish I could find that again, oh well. I was able to read some damaged drives, others were totally toast. But for ease, portability and function, its a good tool to have. Didn’t give it 5 stars for value although I did a 5 mostly for design features but it is the 1st I’ve had with a power switch (although no additional software) so a 4 for price. There are others out there that can beat this IF you want a different arrangement. But functional, gives me lights, power switch, so can’t complain really. Shipping was good too.