Available from online retailers for less than $100, the Voyager Q makes a great addition to your desktop if you frequently work with various internal hard drives. The device supports both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SATA hard drives and is compatible with all the existing external storage connections. It's also simple to use, and in our testing, produced an impressive performance. Unfortunately, the Voyager Q doesn't support the older ATA (IDE) standard, which means that if you purchased your computer more than seven years ago, the Voyager Q will not be compatible. If this is the case, we recommend the WiebeTech UltraDock V4, which offers legacy support.

Drive type	External hard-drive docking station
Connector options	USB2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800 eSATA
Available capacities	Up to 2TB
Capacity of test unit	500GB
Dimensions (WDH)	3.9 x 5.9 x 3.2 inches
Notable design features	None
OSes supported	Windows 2K, XP, Vista, Mac OS X
Software included	None
Service and Support	1-year warranty

Design and features
The Voyager Q looks very much like a toaster, especially because of its top-loading slot, into which you load an internal hard drive. The slot, which can handle both the 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SATA hard drives, has an opening with a spring-loaded latch that automatically secures the hard drive, regardless of its thickness.

On its front is a blue on/off button that doubles as its activity indicator and flashes red when the device is at work. Directly on top of the button is a release latch that ejects the hard drive when pressed.

On the back of the device is an array of connection ports, supporting USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800, and eSATA connections. The Voyager ships with cables for each of these connections.

The only complaint we had with the Voyager Q's design is its power adapter, which, compared with the size of the Voyager, looks bulky.

With the Voyager Q connected to our test machine, we linked several hard drives without any problems. There was no software driver to install, and every hard drive we tried could be "hot-plugged," meaning we could remove or insert it while the computer was running.