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Hard drive docks

A

Arkitech

Diamond Member
I'm thinking of getting one this week, I have about 12 ide drives lying around my office. Most multiple drive enclosures cost more than I want to spend and it's a pain constantly swapping drives in and out of the single drive usb enclosures I already have. A drive dock sounds like a pretty sensible idea.

Any of you guys using one? Whath's your thoughts on it?
 
The concept is great. A friend of mine just got the Vantec dock, and he really likes. It will take both 3.5 and 2.5 in drives, and is very much P&P. The only ctiricsms I have seen are that it is mostly plastic and con't be treated rough. I plan to get one myself one of these days, especially since it is both USB and eSATA.

Dock

It's a decent review - fairly typical.
 
Initially I was going to give a wholehearted YES to drive docks. I have several Thermaltake BlacX esata/usb docks and they're a godsend if you have multiple drives.

Then I noticed you said IDE hard drives. There are no equivalent drive docks for IDE.
 
For IDE you might be better off using a external enclosure, but not keeping it together. The kind I have has a tray that slides into a aluminum case. I just keep the tray out, and plug up the drives like that. It's a little more delicate, but it's much easier to switch out the drives.
 
IDE doesn't have standardized connector spacing at the rear, so no docking stations like SATA. The closest, as noted, is an opened external case or a USB-to-IDE adapter cable.
 
Sorry - I didn't react to the term IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics). All modern HDDs are IDE - they divide into two types, PATA and SATA. PATA IDE drives do not have standard interfaces for 2.5 and 3.5 connections. SATA drives are standard on both sizes. Ergo, a dock is not really practical for PATA drives.

I endorse lxskllr's solution for PATA drives. I have done that many times, and it works.

There are SATA adapters for PATA drives. It might be possible to use one, then connect to the dock via a SATA cable link.
 
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