Blackmagic MultiDock User Manual Getting Started

Introducing MultiDock

Blackmagic MultiDock is an attractive rack mountable docking station that lets you simultaneously mount up to 4 x 2.5” Solid State Drives or Hard Disk Drives to your computer.

Blackmagic MultiDock and Blackmagic MultiDock 10G are perfect for video post production tasks such as editing, color grading, or any task that requires large video files to be stored on multiple drives. By minimizing the time spent swapping external drives, Blackmagic MultiDock allows you more time to focus on your creative work.

Blackmagic MultiDock uses USB 3.1 and Thunderbolt™ 2 technology, which provides a super fast connection to your computer up to 10 and 20Gb/s respectively. Each drive bay has a completely independent SATA 3 disk interface for high performance. Blackmagic MultiDock 10G can even be configured as two independent docks so you can access the drives from two separate pieces of equipment.

A RAID can be configured by simply plugging in multiple disks and using your operating system disk utility software to “stripe” or “mirror” the disks into a single storage volume.

This operation manual is designed to give you all the information you need to help you get the most out of your Blackmagic MultiDock.

Blackmagic MultiDock 10G provides USB 3.1 read and write speeds up to 10Gb/s

Blackmagic MultiDock provides Thunderbolt 2 data transfer speeds up to 20Gb/s

Connecting to your Computer

The first thing you’ll want to do is power your Blackmagic MultiDock and connect to your computer!

Plug your power source into Blackmagic MultiDock’s mains power input using a standard IEC cable and connector. The power indicator on the front panel will illuminate when power is supplied.

On Blackmagic MultiDock 10G, connect the USB-C A port to your computer via a USB-C cable. The switch on the rear of the unit lets you configure Blackmagic MultiDock 10G as a single dock using all four drives, or as two independent dual-drive docks. This means you can access two drives from two separate computers via the two separate USB-C ports. Refer to the ‘Configuring Blackmagic MultiDock 10G’ section for more information.

On the original Blackmagic MultiDock, connect one of the Thunderbolt ports to your computer’s Thunderbolt port using a Thunderbolt cable. If your computer only has a single Thunderbolt port, you can use the additional Thunderbolt port on your MultiDock to attach a RAID or other device.

Connect your power supply to Blackmagic MultiDock using a standard IEC power cable and connector.

Connect Blackmagic MultiDock to your Mac or Windows PC using a Thunderbolt or USB-C cable

Plugging in your Drives

Blackmagic MultiDock uses formatted 2.5” SSDs and HDDs.

To plug in your drive:

1. Hold the drive so its gold SATA contacts are facing down and towards the drive bay.

2. Gently push the drive into the drive bay until you feel it slot into place.

The drive bay’s red LED will briefly illuminate when a drive is detected. When a solid state drive or hard disk drive is being read or written to, the drive bay’s LED will flash according to the level of disk activity.

When plugging in formatted SSDs or HDDs, they will be recognized by your computer and mounted.

On Mac OS, your drives will appear on your desktop.

To find your drive on a Windows PC, click the File Explorer icon in the task bar and navigate to ‘this PC’ in the left hand column.

Now that you have plugged in your power source, connected to a computer and plugged in your drives, you can start using Blackmagic MultiDock.

Plug SSDs or HDDs into any of Blackmagic MultiDock’s 4 drive bays.