I'm looking on the web for a caddy (to get old HHDs doing something useful again).
Is there anything I need to look out for / avoid in particular?
My drives are:
3.5 inch
SATA II
Do I just ensure I have ordered the correct size of caddy, and that it accepts SATA II?
Any help would be great. I know they are really cheap, but I don't want one of those 'I should have asked them!' feelings.
Best
AD
I presume you are talking about external enclosures for hard drives. If so, The most important thing is the connections. USB 3.0 is faster than USB 2.0 and eSATA is faster than either. So, it depends on the options you have on your computer. I have several but my preferred one is the Thermaltake Black X Which is USB 2.0 or eSATA. As far as sata II or III, they both backward and forward compatable. Depending on what you want to use, you may also consider whether the enclosure will accept 3.5" or 2.5" drives, or either. Get one that will take either one and you will have a lot of options.
Steve is right. You may want to get an open enclosure. Much better ventilation and also easier to swap disks. I would get one that takes 2.5" and 3.5" disks. You never know. Multiple attachments are also preferable, but if you have no Sata3 or eSata on your system, that may not help - although you can buy an eSata PCI-e card (Express card for laptops) for little money and add it to your box. Examples:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812186052
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16839328019
That covers everything.
Many thanks indeed.
It's good that some of those that wield the knowledge (and the lightsabers) answer the non-bleeding edge questions too.
This docking station comes in handy and is easy to use. Its usb 2 & 3 supports all SATA/ESATA, IDE 2.5 & 3.5 drives (hot swap) and all memory cards. You can also have more than 1 drive in at a time and its cheap. +- £15
I just ordered one of these
http://junglejumble.com.au/misc-clea...0-support.html
Bargain I thought, however, probably no good if you're outside Australia
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