Apricorn SATA Wire Notebook Hard Drive Upgrade Kit with USB 3.0 Connection ASW-USB3-25 (Grey)

I really appreciate this product. I used it to make a backup drive for my laptop computer. Cloning was surprisingly quick. The newly cloned hard drive booted the computer and everything worked just fine. I next used the product to clone a (jam-packed) desktop drive to a larger hard drive. Again, everything worked great. This product is unbelievably easy to use. A recommendation: Read the product manual before you clone.MICROSOFT DE-ACTIVATION:I discovered that a new hard drive causes Windows 8.1 and Microsoft Office to become deactivated ("activated" status might be lost on the cloned drive). Your Microsoft products might re-activate over the internet; but you might need to call Microsoft (and convince a real person) to re-activate Windows or Office. This deactivation is NOT a fault in the Apricorn software; it is a function of the Microsoft software detecting that the drive has been changed. By the way, Windows 8.1 also deactivated itself when I added more memory to my computer.YOU MAY NEED TO RE-LOAD DRIVERS:After I installed the cloned drive, the computer's LAN connection did not work until I reloaded the motherboard's LAN driver. You might want to have a flash drive loaded with your computer's drivers (at least the LAN and/or Wi-Fi driver) before you clone.A FEW TIPS AND HINTS:Before you clone, backup your important files to an external hard drive, a flash drive, a network drive, cloud drive, DVDs, etc. (Just in case something goes wrong.)You can download the product manual from the Apricorn website (as a PDF file). It is really worth the time and effort to read through the manual first.On the Apricorn webpage for the kit, you can find some troubleshooting tips (frequently asked questions).You can also download the latest version of the cloning software (EZ GIG IV) as:(1) The Windows-based program to load on your computer, and(2) A disc image (ISO) file that you can burn to CD to produce a bootable disc ("burn to CD," not copy to CD).I chose to boot the computer to the Apricorn CD. To do this, you may need to go into your computer's BIOS to set it to boot from CD.The Apricorn software won't work unless it senses the Apricorn "SATA Wire" adapter.This product will make an exact (sector-by-sector) copy of your hard drive. Therefore, it would be good if you did two things before you clone:(1) Instruct Windows to perform a "disk check" of the hard drive to be cloned(2) Defrag (or "optimize") the hard drive to be clonedBefore you start cloning, you need to instruct windows:(1) Never go to sleep (never hibernate)(2) Never turn screen off (turn off screen saver)Don't use the full-auto cloning option unless both the "Source" drive and the "Destination" drive are exactly the same size. If they are NOT the same size, I would recommend that you enter the manual setup ("Advanced Options") part of the software to set the desired partition sizes. For example, if you are going to clone to a larger drive, you'll want to enter "Advanced Options" to specify the size of each partition. You can also specify files and folders to omit from the cloning.The instructions state that you should connect the new hard drive to the "SATA Wire" adapter. Actually, the cloning software will work no matter which drive (old or new) is connected to the "SATA Wire" adapter and which is in the computer. You will identify which drive is the "Source" (old) drive and which is the "Destination" (new) drive in the software.CLONING 3.5-INCH DRIVESThis product is specifically designed to be connected to a 2.5-inch drive; however, it is possible to use it to clone a 3.5-inch drive.You can easily clone a 3.5-inch drive to a 2.5-inch drive (or vice versus) by attaching the 2.5-inch drive to the "SATA Wire" socket and having the 3.5-inch drive installed in the computer. In this case, you just instruct the software that the 3.5-inch drive is the source and the 2.5-inch drive is the destination (or vice versus).To clone a 3.5-inch drive to another 3.5 inch drive requires an adapter cable to connect the 3.5-inch drive's data port to the data socket on the Apricorn "SATA wire" adapter. Also, you must provide power to the 3.5-inch drive to be cloned (since the 12 VDC it needs cannot be supplied via a USB cable). You can do this in one of two ways: (1) with your computer unplugged, you can connect one of your computer's SATA power supply connectors to the drive; or (2) you can connect a SATA power supply from a kit like the SABRENT USB 3.0 TO SATA/IDE 2.5/3.5/5.25-INCH Hard Drive Converter With Power Supply & LED Activity Lights (USB-DSC8). I used the NSI LK-13526 7-pin internal SATA Male to SATA Female Extension cable - 7 pin SATA M/F - 20 inch (50 cm) to connect the Apricorn "SATA wire" adapter to the 3.5-inch drive's data port. To make this work, I had to snip off the hard plastic locking pieces on either side of the male end of the connector.You can also use the Apricorn "SATA Wire" adapter (without the software) to read and write to 2.5 inch (notebook-sized) hard drives via a USB connection. That means, you can use this device to recover data off of an old hard drive. Just connect the drive to the adapter, plug the adapter into a USB port, and use file manager to copy files.

I had previously purchased the Apricorn SATA Wire USB 2.0 upgrade kit and loved how easy it was to upgrade my hard drives without losing any data or programs and getting an exact clone of the original hard drive but with a larger capacity with the new hard drive. I've cloned traditional hard drives with the spinning platters, 2.5 SSD drives, and just recently a mSata drive using a mSata to Sata adapter. I am a computer programmer by profession and have used various cloning and hard drive duplication software on both PCs and Apple computers (iMac and Macbook Pro). Cloning software can sometimes be very complicated because some let you control things like the target alignment size in MB, etc.. If you just want a straight forward and easy to upgrade your hard drives, this is the way to go. Basically, you attach your new hard drive or SSD to the Apricorn Sata connector and the USB connector to your computer. I thought the USB 2.0 speed was fine since I've always considered all cloning processes to be slow but the USB 3.0 has a dramatic improvement in the whole process speed. There are 2 ways to run the Apricorn cloning software, either by booting directly to the Apricorn CD or by running the cloning software in Windows or iO/S. If you are not cloning your main system hard drive, running the cloning software in Windows or iO/S is fine but if you are cloning your main system hard drive, I would always recommended running the cloning software by booting to the CD because you do not have to worry about the operating system conflicting with the cloning processes because in essence, it's like you painting the inside of a barrel, you can paint the inside of the barrel while you are in the barrel or you can paint the inside of the barrel while outside the barrel, obviously painting from the outside is easier because you do not have to worry about painting around you. You can still paint from inside the barrel but it just makes it more difficult. The same goes for the cloning software, you can clone the hard drive you are running the software on and the software does have a method to avoid conflicts but it's much easier to boot to the CD and run the cloning software from the CD directly.The Apricorn cloning software is very easy and straight forward and guides you through the cloning process and adjusting everything from free space to partition resizing, but for those that require more control, the software will let you control the alignment size for SSDs and you can manually adjust the partition sizes on the destination hard drive.I've had no issues except for when cloning a mSata SSD that required me to put the new mSata SSD into a mSata to Sata adapter and the connect that adapter to the Apricorn adapter but that is a very small exception, most if not all of the time, you just connect your new hard drive to the Sata connector and you are good to go.Overall, for those technically challenged and those not, this upgrade kit will save you money than bring your laptop or computer to a consumer electronic store to have them do it as long as your are comfortable opening up your computer and changing your hard drive. If you changed your computer's memory, you are already half of what is needed.