Inateck FE2005 USB 3.0 Tool-Less 2.5″ HDD Enclosure Review

Introduction

Having an external enclosure for your Hard Disk and Solid State Drives can come in very handy for a multitude of reasons. You might have those old Hard Disk drives from a laptop you’ve upgraded with an SSD, or an old SSD you’ve upgraded to a bigger and better one, or maybe even both. If you could answer yes to one of those questions, the Inateck FE2005 tool free 2.5″ external enclosure might be just the right choice for you.

Inateck have designed the FE2005 as a tool-less solution and there is no need for any screws or other fastening tools. You just slide your drive into the enclosure, connect it to a USB port and you’re ready to go. It is compatible to all systems with USB ports; Mac OS, Windows and Linux and supports automatic sleep and spin down of the drives.

The first few times you’ll open the enclosure it will be very tight but once it has been open a few times, the operation will become much smoother. You just pull on the clamshell and the enclosure slides apart. You can also push at the rear bottom in case it is too tight at first and you don’t want to risk accidental damage. Fold the clamshell down, slide the drive in, fold it back and push the enclosure together. That’s it.

The exterior is kept very simple and the only detail added is the name on the top of the enclosure. It is manufactured in a combination of ABS plastic and aluminium to give it an improved heat dissipation.

The choice of materials also helped Inateck to keep the weight down at just 75 grams, without a drive inserted. The enclosure is equally small as it is light and the external dimension equal those of a 3.5-inch drive.

The Connection to your computer is done by a USB micro-B connector, a common choice. It’s also a choice that might give you a bigger choice on what cable you will be using, if the included shouldn’t be the right match for your needs.

A dual-coloured activity LED will tell you what connection mode is active. It will shine white on USB 2 mode and blue on USB3 mode. Inateck also added a slide-lock to prevent accidental or unwanted opening of the enclosure.

By adding a foam-pad inside the enclosure, Inateck made sure that 7mm drives will be securely mounted even though the enclosure also can handle 9.5mm drives. A minor thing to do, but one that gives a big bonus, is that Inateck also included an extra foam pad with the packaging in case you need to remove the pre-installed and later want to add it back to once again safely use 7mm drives.

The enclosure doesn’t have any external anti-vibration features in the form of rubber feet or similar, but covers it internally instead. The bottom of the enclosure is fully padded to protect your drive from scratches and help to eliminate vibrations when mechanical drives are used.

Inateck used the JMicron JMS567 chipset for direct conversion from SATA-III to USB 3.0 with support for USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP) and a Winbond chip for caching. This combination should ensure us as close to the practical speeds possible. There will be a minor impact on the transfer speeds here just as there is with any conversion, but it should be marginal.

Within the package is everything you need to get going. A manual to get started, a USB 3 cable to connect the enclosure and with your PC as well as a replacement foam-pad as mentioned earlier.