Need a HDD Storage Box?

[21stHermit]

I'm looking for a generic plastic? box to store 3.5" bare hard drives to go along with this SATA Dock.

Any ideas?

 

[RebateMonger]

Don't think Tupperware.

Most Tupperware is polypropylene and it's quite bad for static electricity, which can wreck the exposed PCB on the bottom of the drive.

WiebeTech Anti-Static Drive Case for bare drives

 

[21stHermit]

Easily solved, a piece of anti-static foam like MB's are shipped with. Do you have any box suggestions?

 

[taltamir]

i put them in an anti static bag, the ones that come with new HDD... but the boxes rebatemonger linked to seem much better for it, but i can't see them fitting the dock you want.

why are you even casing it? the whole POINT of that dock is that it is open... it is directly air cooled, and you can hot swap it. let it sit on the table outside a box.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: taltamir
why are you even casing it? the whole POINT of that dock is that it is open... it is directly air cooled, and you can hot swap it. let it sit on the table outside a box.

The cases would be only for storage while the drives aren't being used.

I recently bought a similar dock, but haven't used it yet since I own very few SATA drives. But when I start using it (for external backup drives), it WOULD be a good idea to have a safe storage box for the rotating drive inventory. You really don't want to leave drives laying around near the computers, since they'll be taken if you have a burglary.

And ESD is a worry with bare drives. One Data Recovery expert claims that Western Digital drives are especially vulnerable to ESD damange on their printed circuit boards. So, for five bucks or so, those ESD-rated storage boxes would probably be worthwhile.

I give my clients padded cases to hold their removable drive trays, but those enclosed (aluminum) trays provide good ESD protection. I wouldn't want to put a drive directly into a padded case, again, because of ESD worries.

 

[taltamir]

burglers are not retarded animals. Putting it in a box or putting an automatic light on your patio isn't gonna help you.
What you should do to protect against burgleries is offsite backups, or WORTHLESS media storage... aka... use DVD+R to backup your stuff... there is no value in stealing those.

I agree about ESD worries, but the cases you linked are not gonna be very suitable for a live operation, they are designed for storing unplugged offline drives. They are plastic, and I doubt they cool well.
That external dock he purchased is not meant as a permanent external storage device. if he wants that he should just buy an external enclosure. That will provide SSD protection and everything else.

 

[21stHermit]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
WiebeTech Anti-Static Drive Case for bare drives

That's a spot-on solution, thanks for the link. When I Googled before posting, it didn't show at the top ~20.

Will be able to store many HDDs in little space.