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StarTech 1:2 Standalone Flash Drive Duplicator Review

by Adam Armstrong

The StarTech 1:2 Standalone Flash Drive Duplicator allows for fast (1.5GB/minute) and easy duplication of your flash drive without the need of a computer. The Drive Duplicator also supports copying SD/SDHC/Micro SD/MMC/Mini SD/CF media through a USB multimedia card reader (such as Kingston MobileLite Wireless not included). Along with quick duplication, there are erase options allowing you to erase up to two USB drives at once with a Quick, Full, or Secure Erase.


The StarTech 1:2 Standalone Flash Drive Duplicator allows for fast (1.5GB/minute) and easy duplication of your flash drive without the need of a computer. The Drive Duplicator also supports copying SD/SDHC/Micro SD/MMC/Mini SD/CF media through a USB multimedia card reader (such as Kingston MobileLite Wireless not included). Along with quick duplication, there are erase options allowing you to erase up to two USB drives at once with a Quick, Full, or Secure Erase.

Times arise when large amounts of information need to be duplicated quickly: a charity giving information to a business for a potential donation; a production company demonstrating its abilities to a large studio; or game developers with a beta version of their game. If they are at a convention all they would need is a power source and they would be able to make duplicates on demand. With its Department of Defense erase standard, the Drive Duplicator can be used in computer forensics when one or more exact copies of source drives are needed. Or you can just create exact boot drives for your servers and systems.

The StarTech 1:2 Standalone Flash Drive Duplicator is available now for a street price of $160.00. The price is inclusive of a 2-year warranty including lifetime technical support.

StarTech 1:2 Standalone Flash Drive Duplicator Specifications

  • Standalone duplicator, no computer required
  • Supports USB 2.0/ USB 1.1 Flash Drives
  • Supports both Asynchronous and Synchronous copy modes
  • 64MB of internal memory
  • Maximum Duplication Speed: 1.5GB/minute
  • Department of Defense secure erase
  • Operating Temperature: 41°F ~ 113°F
  • Storage Temperature: -4°F ~ 185°F
  • Supports duplicating to HDD/ SSD/ SD/ SDHC/ Micro SD/ MMC/ Mini SD/ CF media types through a USB enclosure, dock, or multimedia card reader (sold separately)
  • Bit-by-bit Flash Drive imaging/cloning to create an exact replica of a source USB drive onto two target USB drives

Design and Build

The StarTech 1:2 Standalone Flash Drive Duplicator is compact at 120mm x 130mm x 25mm (4.72in x 5.12in x .99in) and light at 190g (.42lbs), making it slightly smaller than an external CD drive. The case is a flat black plastic. There are three USB ports on top, one master and two target ports, a LCD screen for duplication process and options menu, and four buttons (Forward, Backward, OK, & ESC) for easy navigation.

The duplication progress is indicated by LED lights next to the ports: flashing green while in progress, solid green when finished, and red if an error occurs. On the back is a DC power port and ON/OFF switch.

Usability

The StarTech 1:2 Standalone Flash Drive Duplicator comes ready to go out of the box. Plug it in, flip the switch, and you’re ready to duplicate. Plug in the master drive and the two target drives, select the copy function, and press OK; the duplication process will start automatically. When the process is complete, the LCD screen will show the time it took and the number of passes and failures, if a fail happens. There is a compare option that can be used after the process to ensure the copy was successful. Or you can chose the Copy + Compare which will automatically compare the drives after completion. The target drive has to have equal or greater storage capacity. By selecting Capacity Check, you can quickly check the capacity of multiple drives with the LED lights indicating with either green or red lights.

Along with duplication, The Drive Duplicator can also quickly format and erase drives. Simply insert a drive into a target slot and press OK. This function automatically detects capacity and formats accordingly. From the LCD screen users can choose the type of erase you would like: Quick erase – which doesn’t erase formatting, Full erase – which erases all content and formatting, or DoD erase – which erases all content and formatting three times over guaranteeing all data is deleted.

Performance

The StarTech 1:2 Flash Drive Duplicator is rated for a duplication rate of 1.5GB/m (just under 26MB/s), which we found to be very quick in real-world tests. The Drive Duplicator analyzes the device being copied for its current partition info and only transfers over usable data (versus a sector for sector copy that would transfer the total size of the device each time). In practice this meant it took 15-20 seconds to copy a ESXi 5.1 installation between 4GB thumb drives. Duplicating a master ESXi 5.1 boot thumb drive (577MB) took about 32 seconds. Copying a Windows Server 2012 installation thumbdrive with about 3.6GB of data took just under 9 minutes, which is slower than the duplicators rated speed, but is a factor of how common thumb drives just have slower write speeds.

Conclusion

The StarTech 1:2 Standalone Flash Drive Duplicator enables users to quickly duplicate USB drives without the need of a computer. The Drive Duplicator also allows for quick formatting and erasing as well as quality and speed checks of the flash drives.

The Drive Duplicator is ideal for users who want to make exact duplicates quickly without using a computer. It is small and light making it easily portable and only needs a power outlet for connection. It allows for quick, on the spot, formatting and secure erasing. There is also a 2-year warranty followed up by lifetime technical support. However it does cost more than the similar Acumen 1:2 Standalone Drive Duplicator that has a list price of $100.00.

Pros

  • Fast, exact duplication and erasure
  • Lightweight and easily portable
  • No computer required

Cons

  • Priced Higher than some duplicators with similar capabilities

Bottom Line

The StarTech 1:2 Standalone Flash Drive Duplicator allows for quick duplicate drives as required, and only needs a power source to get started.

StarTech Flash Drive Duplicator at Amazon.com

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