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Are There Better Alternatives To A Hard Disk Drive Enclosure?

Hard disk drive enclosures (sometimes also called cases or caddy's) are a brilliant way to recycle old hard disk drives and create a back up solution for a fraction of the cost of buying a new external storage solution.

Hard disk drive enclosures are available for all types and flavours of hard disk (IDE, SATA, ATA, PATA) and sizes (2.5" from laptops and 3.5" from desktops). There are plenty of good quality HDD cases on the market, most of them, as a bare minimum will connect via USB 2.0 but you can buy some with Firewire or e-SATA as an alternative connection method. (both these alternatives are popular because they support a faster data transfer rate)

The design of Hard Disk Drive Enclosures mean they are really intended to be permanent solution for your salvaged hard disk drive. The reason is simply because HDD cases are designed to provide a "protective wrapper" around the hard disk drive and because they need a screwdriver and a little time to set them up. The process is pretty straightforward and typically everything, including the screwdriver, will be supplied with the HDD enclosure.

Whilst the set up is relatively quick and the protection offered by an enclosure is excellent if all you want to do is test and HDD and recover some data from it the process of unscrewing the case, installing the HDD etc. can be a real pain.

If you're a IT support engineer or "systems guy" who has to test lots of HDD's then you'll probably prefer something that's quicker, and easier to use. Ideally you'll also want something that covers all eventualities. HDD cases come in SATA or IDE/ATA versions and there are separate models for HDD's from laptops and from desktops. So just to cover the basic options you could need four different HDD cases!

A much simpler and more convenient option is to use a USB to IDE/SATA cable kit. These kits should be a mandatory addition to any IT support persons bag because they support pretty much every Hard Drive you will encounter. As well as all the cables they also come with a separate power supply "brick" so that you can independently power the hard drive.

The cable kits are not as attractive as the cases, they're not designed to be long term solutions and they offer zero protection to the hard disk drives but it you simply want to know if the HDD is "ok" and want to recover data from it they are hard to beat!

The cable kits work with all current PC operating systems (including Windows 7) and they're happy with Macs too. When you've got a hard disk drive connected to your PC via one of these cable kits your PC will dynamically allocate a new drive letter and assuming the HDD is OK you'll be able to use then just like a large USB flash drive!

About the Author

Phil is part of the team at USB2U. Launched in 2002 USB2U has now establised iteself as one of the leading supplier of branded flash drives and custom USB memory sticks in the UK. USB2U offer a free design and mock up service couple with great prices and outstanding customer support. Contact us today for a quote. We'd love to hear from you.

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