Vantec 2.5" HDD/SSD Bracket for 9.5, 12.5 or 15mm Drives

Decided to edit this review because Vantec customer service is awesome. They replaced the 2 units that broke during install. I'm a big fan of these carriers - you can clip drives into the carrier quickly and easily without screws. The trays are very simple which makes swapping drives fast and easy. I had the original SATA II version. This version officially supports SATA III so I upgraded all of my old units. Or at least I tried to - 2 of 6 broke during install, but Vantec customer service replaced them. Compared to its predecessor, they got rid of the blue LED that the old units had - they lit up so you knew you had power and blinked when the drive was accessed. I consider this a wash because you have less info when things aren’t working, but you also have fewer blinky things which can be annoying sometimes. Those old blue LEDs were so bright that they were a bit distracting. My biggest complaint - it's the SATA data and power connectors. SATA cables that have clips won’t clip into them so they’re not as secure as they could be. The older units were like this too and I never had a problem with them, but I guess I’ve gotten used to devices supporting clips over the years. The bigger issue is that the connectors are exposed at the bottom of the chassis - they're not enclosed like on pretty much any other device out there. This is a big deal because the exposed bottom allows the cable to twist downward if there is any pressure on the cable. This puts torsion on the a flimsy plastic tab inside the SATA connector which then breaks. I lost 2 of 6 units that way during install. This isn’t an issue on most SATA devices because when the connector is enclosed, the bottom prevents the cable from twisting within the connector. It would be great if Vantec could address that in future iterations of the device. Until then, be careful during install. The drive is meant to go into a 3.5" drive bay, but the 3 holes on each side of the chassis don't align well with floppy drive mount points - at least in my chassis. In my cases, (all Chenbro 43200) only 1 out of the 3 screws on each side would align with the 3.5" holes, but that’s enough to keep things in place. The chassis is plastic so I could very easily fix this with a drill if I felt like it was necessary, but its good enough for me for non-commercial use. Overall, these are super simple and useful carriers which is why I keep buying them. There are much nicer carriers out there but there is something to be said for the simplicity of this solution. A little disappointed with the exposed connector, but that issue won’t affect everyone and can be mostly mitigated with some extra care during install. Very happy with their customer service.

I needed an extra tray for my PC and purchased this one. Unfortunately, one of the tabs broke during my first use. I had to glue so I could at least still use it. Very flimsy and unreliable.

I am an IT person and I have bought about 10 of these over the years (not all from Amazon) to mount SSDs into computers both for my customers and for myself. These are very nice because they are metal and provide some heat dissipation for the SSD versus the plastic ones. I see some people complaining about the mounting hole size. It's not really an issue if you just use the size screw that fits the computer case and a little bit of oomph. It will re-size the hole in this drive tray and go right into the computer case. Plus many computer cases don't even require screws any more. They have quick release 3.5" trays and this will fit right into the 3.5" tray WITHOUT screws after the 2.5 drive is attached to it. It also works on some HP computers that only have 4 big screws with squishy washers that attach to the 3.5" tray and then slide into a locking mechanism in the case.

This is a great enclosure if you like to run multiple operating systems on one computer. I have 3 SSDs. One for Windows 7, one for Linux and the main one for Windows 10. I can power down the computer and remove one tray then insert another for a totally different OS. The only issue that I've had with it is it is hard for me to grasp the two clips and squeeze them together to remove the tray. I did break the clip on one side but the tray still works. I haven't had the problem some people talk about with poor contact. I have the 5.25" two tray model. I use the top tray for the operating system and the bottom one for a secondary data drive. I ended up buying a second one of these since it was just as costly to buy a second 2 tray unit as buying two separate trays.

for home use ONLY. support only SATA 2 and 1. Drawers are sort of cheap made but if you open carefully should last. The blue LED are way too powerfull, had to disconnect them. Great packaging with all the cable you may need.