Question Anyone Know of Good Hardware SATA Controller-based External HDD Docks?

[TechyInAZ]

Hey guys, I need some help. I'm looking for a good SATA hard drive docking station, that has a hardware controller?

Reason being is because my dad can't get GPT partitioned hard drives to be visible in Windows Server all the time, when hot swapping from Windows 10 with a non-hardware-based dock.

He heard that hardware SATA controller HDD docks can fix this issue.

Thanks guys!

 

[Eximo]

Only one I use regularly is still made: Thermaltake Black X and the Black X Duet. Same product is sold under many brands.

Pretty simple USB to SATA controller, I've never had any issues.

Not sure if the ones they sell now still have it, but the one I have also supports eSATA. Not that that is still a standard thing, but that worked pretty well as long as you booted with it plugged in. Just treated it as another SATA drive (because it was) But that wasn't truly hot swappable.

 

[fzabkar]

What is a "non-hardware-based dock"?

I expect that your problem is an issue of sector size. When a HDD is connected via SATA, it presents a sector size of 512 bytes. However, some docks are configured with a sector size of 4096 bytes.

If you view the Partitions tab in DMDE, it will tell you if there is a sector size issue by flagging the partition as "4K".

https://dmde.com/

You can also get this info at the CMD prompt (x: is the drive letter):

fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo x: