Comments on: Plug-and-Play SATA HDD Rack

By: silverfire

silverfire — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 04:06:28 +0000

I’ve been using one of these for a few years now:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121173

It doesn’t work through USB unless you stick it into one of those 5.25″ enclosures for CD drives, then you have yourself a swappable USB hard drive.

Extra trays cost about $10 each, though, but that’s really a small price to pay for a hard metal shell around your valuable data. I have a stack of three completely filled 300GB SATA drives that are sitting in foam cases.

All you have to do to swap a drive is turn a key, lift a handle, and pull gently.

Reverse the process to put a new one in.

By: Kurogane

Kurogane — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:44:33 +0000

Saw that on Digg a few days back and I really wanted it too myself, lol. Gotta love the concept of the device, but man, it’s friggin expensive.

By: Fimbulvetr

Fimbulvetr — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 09:19:59 +0000

Actually this is nothing so new, I stopped burning DVDs a long time ago and have been collecting HDDs ever since. I use normal external cases and just leave them open, makes switching around fast and easy.
And yeah, it would be a lot better if it was eSata. USB->SATA is not just slow, it uses more cpu and can corrupt data too. If you have an eSATA port or can add one, use that.
My 2cents

By: 0rion

0rion — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:19:11 +0000

A pretty cool looking gadget; it really does remind me of an old cartridge based console. Really, though, for just hooking up external HDs I always preferred just to use SATA to USB cables like this…

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812186020

By: animeking

animeking — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 14:41:28 +0000

Ah,thanks then. :P

By: DarkMirage

DarkMirage — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 14:34:04 +0000

Huh, that is fine. It’s not like a normal computer case is airtight anyway.

It may be bad for your drive if your room temperature is high though. Casings are designed with better airflow than open air. Also, I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to operate drives in the vertical position (though I imagine it should be fine).

By: animeking

animeking — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 14:28:51 +0000

Darkmirage,question,is it really wise to leave an HDD out like that? From what I see in that image the back is showing a lot. o_o

By: James Urquhart

James Urquhart — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 12:09:22 +0000

Wow, this looks like a very useful device indeed!

By: KesenaiTsumi

KesenaiTsumi — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 10:43:40 +0000

the design is kinda like Ipod’s dock…hehe.
anyway, there have been something like this before. But it require you to place the dock in your Casing of your cpu like CD rom. then you place your harddisk on a board then push the board in to the casing then it will connect it.

but it is not USB ^.^

By: anonymous

anonymous — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 10:29:31 +0000

hmm… putting some drying agents in might be an idea..?