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Question On HDD Dock

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by hawk22, 2009/02/12.

  1. 2009/02/12
    hawk22

    hawk22 Geek Member Thread Starter

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    Hi all, I would like to get some information on hard drive docks SATA, USB. If anyone has any experience with them, in regards to stability, reliability I would like to know.
    Versatility appears absolutely great to me but I would like to hear some feedback first before I would buy one.
    Anything good or bad
    cheers
     
    hawk22,
    #1
  2. 2009/02/12
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    I've only seen one once at a friend's house - this one ......

    http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=222999

    Initially I thought - that's neat :) After more consideration I came to the conclusion that in terms of personal storage ....

    I don't fancy the idea of a 'naked' drive' on my desk - a finger in the wrong place - static. It seems to me that drives are not designed to run 'naked'. .....

    Unless the facility is required for a large no. of hard drives, i.e. several to swap in/out of the dock an external case is preferable ....

    What do you do with the drives which are not docked - popping them in an antistatic bag and boxing up after each use seems to be a PITA.

    Far greater chance of accidental damage IMHO...

    As a working tool if you are heavily involved in computer repair, building, maintenance I guess a dock would be useful.

    My 2 cents worth :)
     
    PeteC,
    #2


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  4. 2009/02/12
    aweston

    aweston Banned

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    It depends what your intended usage is. For us, doing remote work on a zillion hard drives (laptop and desktop), something like that is ideal. For someone using it for one hard drive and solely for storage, a USB, eSATA or firewire external enclosure makes a lot more sense.
     
    aweston,
    #3
  5. 2009/02/13
    hawk22

    hawk22 Geek Member Thread Starter

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    Thanks Pete, and aweston, yes Pete one like that that I was looking at, but thinking about what you and aweston have pointed out, I have to agree with you, it does make perfect sense.
    I have a Philips external aluminum case that claims can take drives up to 500 GIG not having used a big drive like that before, in your opinion would that case be able to handle a drive at its maximum capacity without failing, it is USB2.
    Your advice is greatly appreciated.
    hawk22
     
    hawk22,
    #4
  6. 2009/02/13
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    If the manufacture states that the max capacity is 500Gb you have to go along with that - I have no knowledge of Phillips enclosures. Hard drives can fail at any time as you will no doubt be aware - I think the main aspect of any hard drive enclosure is the cooling be it passive or active. Have you a link to that enclosure with the specs?

    What I can say is that I have a Buffalo 500Gb external and a Maxtor 400Gb external and no issues to date. That said they were bought complete - drives included and both are passively cooled. The Maxtor tends to be on all day, the Buffalo once a week for backups as are a coulpe of smaller Maxtor externals.
     
    PeteC,
    #5
  7. 2009/02/13
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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    BUT, some of the enclosures were made before the larger drives came out...So it'd be interesing to test an older one;)
     
    Steve R Jones,
    #6
  8. 2009/02/13
    hawk22

    hawk22 Geek Member Thread Starter

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    hawk22,
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  9. 2009/02/13
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Hmm - no idea what that language is - Urdu, Thai ??? ...., but from the English spec they do say 500Gb.

    I really can't make any further comment bar try it :) If the computer recognises the drive then you should be good to go.
     
    PeteC,
    #8

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