The Vantec NexStar can connect two 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch hard drives at once. That’s very useful if you want to transfer files between two external drives. However, you’ll have to connect the NexStar using only USB 2.0 or eSATA, there’s no FireWire port. The already-slow USB pipeline gets overloaded while simultaneously reading one drive and writing to another, so be prepared to wait while the drives do their thing.

It's a toaster for your data.

With no internal fan, the NexStar is very quiet, but our drives felt downright hot after using them a while. Ejecting drives from the NexStar is also a little rough--you press a button, and the drive pops up about an inch, which is strange given that many drives aren’t designed for jolting.

 

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There's no FireWire, but the ability to transfer data between two drives is a nice touch.

NexStar Dual Bay
COMPANY: Vantec
CONTACT: www.vantecusa.com
PRICE: $79
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 8.2 or later, USB 2.0 or eSATA port (eSATA must support port multiplication)
Supports two drives.
No FireWire ports. Drives get hot. Rough eject process.