So long as the drives you have lying around are SATA.
Keep those antistatic plastic thingys your HDD come in. Very nice way to store the naked disks.

Bob.

Jay? I think you're gonna have to send me one!! I can't find a UK-Distrib.

Grazie

I saw this article as part of Ben AND Tiffany's Neofight cast:http://neofight.podcastspot.com/episodes/23B1E4Brando USB HD Dock [/link]

Looks just the job . . .

G

Graham, have tried http://www.storagedepot.co.uk/Enclosures-and-Cases/sc884/p640popup1531.aspx?x=y?

Or better yet... http://www.storagedepot.co.uk/Enclosures-and-Cases/sc884/p640.aspx

And http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/SearchDetail.asp?productID=22660this cradle[/link] has both USB2 AND ESATA connections, ESATA, for those of you with this capacity on your mobo, blows USB2 away with its 3GBps transfer speed.

Yes, the faster transfer rate is certainly "more better." Thanks for the info!

Here's a link to a pretty good overview: http://www.virtual-hideout.net/reviews/Vantec_NexStar_HDD_Dock/index.shtml

No idea of pricing but this just released box:
http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/storage/Newertech_USB_Adapter_1.html

Will let you connect any HDD SATA or IDE and optical drive to USB.
Could be a handy thing to have in the tool box.
It doesn't seem as user friendly as you have to connect the naked drive via cables to the box.

Bob.

I've been using this Newertech adapter, and it's an absolute breeze. The ESATA cradle looks pretty tempting, though.

I had mentioned the Thermaltake BlacX SATA docking station here a couple of months ago. I've been using it a lot and it works perfectly well.

I see that TrippLite has stuck their name on it and is selling it for a little more than the identical ThermalTake version. Thermaltake has three versions of this box; one is just USB 2.0, one has a four-port USB hub and the newest version has USB 2.0 and eSATA.

http://thermaltakeusa.com/product/Storage/hdd_station/hdd_station.asp

Oh well, all bets are off for me.

The drives that came out of the MONSTA! edit machine, during its conversion to a Quadie and new drives, are ATA. Not a SATA in sight. Blast!

Would this be a solution:

1] Use old ATA drives as externals in ICY BOX enclosures using F/W or USB

2] Invest in SATA or eSATA (or whatever?) HDs as my main means of backup and THEN purchase one of these SATA devices?

Bum and Blast!

Grazie

Grazie, you can get one of these instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156102&Tpk=bytecc%2bbt300

They are other similar devices made by a variety of companies. I use the one noted above and it works on everything. SATA and IDE, 2.5" and 3.5" and optical drives.

John, thank you.

I'm being thick, but it says SATA, would it still read/write to the ATA HDs?

Grazie

This one says "Mix and match different drives", but I can't tell what that means.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817193042

TGS, thanks. But that is an enclosure? It states a SATA interface anyway. But THANK you!!

I'm looking for a simple way of dockn'>lockn'>poppn' old ATA drives.

Grazie

Yes, it can read/write SATA and ATA drives of all kinds. It has one ATA port for 3.5" hard drives and optical drives, like DVD burners. It has another ATA port which connects to 2.5" ATA drives. The third port is SATA which fits 2.5", 3.5 and optical SATA drives. It interfaces to the computer using USB 2.0 and comes with a power supply for the drives. Basically, you plug this device into any bare drive and the device plugs into a USB 2.0 port. Couldn't be simpler. This IS the device you want for your old ATA drives.

John, thanks for your further explanation and experience.

Do you think I could also "edit" via this thing? I was just considering backup and forget it. But edit? Not good via USB2?

Grazie

If that's the same as the one I mentioned above the only down side is it's not quite as convenient as the one Grazie started with. With that one you just drop the disk into the slot and you're good to go. This works I think because the SATA interface specifies exactly where the connectors are. With ATA they can be in different places. So to hook them up you need cables to accomodated the difference in connector placement.

Bob.

Grazie; Yes, you can edit with the Bytecc interface that I referenced above. It's just like a USB external enclosure just without the enclosure. The maximum transfer rate is limited to about 30 megabytes/sec because of the USB 2.0 interface, but it works fine.

Farss; Grazie said he needed something that works with ATA drives and despite that the Thermaltake BlacX is so convenient, it is SATA only.

Device 1: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=138544The Scan HU-IDE device is a USB 2.0 to IDE adapter[/link]

Device 2: http://www.scan.co.uk/search/search.asp?criteria=8297Scan Easy IDE - USB (2.0/1.1) to IDE Converter - convert ANY IDE device to USB in seconds![/link]

And when I am SATA enabled!: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=723367Sharkoon SATA Quick Port [/link]

ALL of these are under £20 quid!

Grazie

I recently purchased 4 500Gb drives from scan.co.uk only to find they were SATA drives, I then bought the caddies form this company to drop my drives into.

http://www.storagedepot.co.uk/

There are two versions available, one is just a USB version the other a E-SATA and USB, so I brought one of each, the e-sata is much faster.

You have to have an e-sata connection on your PC for that to work.