Moderators DennisD Posted March 10, 2012 Moderators Share Posted March 10, 2012 Just about to buy one of these, but before I do, have any of you guys bought a caddy at any time? Examples: Anything you recommend to go for, or advise to steer clear of? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeW Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Hi Dennis. Best advice is to stay clear of the small slim line cases, as they tend to overheat if the drive is to used on a frequent basis but ok for small backups. Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit - IE11 - Nod32 - Mbam pro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tr3bg0D Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 I have every flavor on the link you posted. My favorite is this type (not necessarily this brand): But you have linked to a page which has several options. What are you looking to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators DennisD Posted March 10, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted March 10, 2012 This is just to use a couple of spare IDE drives for storage, which wouldn't be running for very long, so a cooling fan isn't really necessary. The only concern I have is some of these things have poor reviews with power adapters failing and such. Like everything else, I'll have to take my chance, but I thought I'd ask the question first. EDIT: The link was really for the benefit of folk who may not even have heard of a hard drive caddy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tr3bg0D Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Your link shows 3.5" and 2.5" in both SATA and IDE. If you are looking to use laptop IDE and you want a case around the drive, the small enclosures do the job just fine But for 3.5" IDE, that is a different story. I have many 3.5" IDE and am sure not going to waste money putting them in their own enclosure as some enclosure do not coma apart that easily. for 3.5", I use a swappable HD tray or a USB Adapter cable...depending on what I want to do. or I just happened to go on e-bay and I wet my pants. I found the cat's meow and think I will order this. It is a SATA & IDE enclosure which accepts both 2.5" and 3.5". Talk about universal. http://www.ebay.com/...695118009551342 The only drawback to this unit is the "Wart on the Cord" Power supply. I just hate that. Why can't they just put it on the outlet end? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators DennisD Posted March 10, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted March 10, 2012 Your link shows 3.5" and 2.5" in both SATA and IDE. I know, as I mentioned, that general link was just for the benefit of anyone reading this thread who had never heard of a hard drive caddy. And I was one of them not too long ago. Mmmm. I like the look of the blue gadget there, which is ideal for changing more that one drive. That dock looks cool as well. Thanks for the input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators DennisD Posted March 10, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted March 10, 2012 Tr3bg0D, I've changed my plans and scotched the idea of a caddy. The best solution (for me) is the simple USB to IDE cable. So thanks to you and Mike for your input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tr3bg0D Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Tr3bg0D, I've changed my plans and scotched the idea of a caddy. The best solution (for me) is the simple USB to IDE cable. So thanks to you and Mike for your input. The only problem with the USB to IDE cable is that it still needs a power supply and it is just as big as the one in the All-in-One-HDD_Docking and is only a few dollars cheaper. Personally the All-In-One is the best solution I have seen. I sent that info to a couple of friends since I posted the info here and they have already ordered theirs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Fast Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 TR3, the All-In-One HDD caddy is very nice. But a bit clunky. I have the simple USB to IDE cable with Sata/Pata support & it works great for most of what I do. Smaller, easier to carry in a bag. It DOES have a power cord, but that is because larger 3.5 in drives draw so much more power than their 2.5 in cousins... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tr3bg0D Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 I tend to agree with you on both. It's just that the All-in-One is a nice tool to have on your desktop. To be honest, there were drives I could not access with the USB cable setup and I took out a similar device to this All-in-One but just SATA and I was able to read the drive. Don't get me wrong, I am not forcing this down anyone's throat, but if you have multiple drives in multiple flavors, this is the way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators DennisD Posted March 12, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted March 12, 2012 Am I allowed to change my mind again? Went with this ... http://www.pcworld.c...928648-pdt.html The reason being, PCWorld is only a few miles away, and I know the guys in there, and was able to open the sealed box and have a good look before I bought. It looked good in the shop, and even better when I got it home. As far as build quality is concerned it's excellent. IDE drive fits in snug, and is fastened onto an inside rail with 4 standard screws (supplied), and then two external rear screws to hold the innards tight. Good quality USB cable and good quality mains cable and power supply. With this being the first time I've used an internal drive in an external caddy, I thought I may have a small issue with one of the partitions of the fitted drive still being labelled C:, but no worries, windows picked the drive up staright away, and re-labelled it. If this impression of good quality carries through to reliability with light useage, at £15 I'm having another. It actually cost the same as the on-line one+postage I was looking at, and actually cheaper than some other sites with heavier postage. Anyways, this may be useful to others thinking of buying a caddy. It's been running for a couple of hours now, and (without a fan) isn't even warm, and the power supply is only warm to the touch. Also no added noise or vibration. All you hear is the hard drive, so if you have a quiet HD, great. If you have a noisy one, and some sound "busy" as they're working, it'll sound the same in the Caddy. EDIT: Ignore the "runs from USB power" in that advert. A PCWorld mistake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corona Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 So you use it as an HDD casing to hold your extra back-up drive connected by a USB connection? And it holds a terabyte drive? Sounds like a very good investment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators DennisD Posted March 13, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted March 13, 2012 It's better than either throwing old hard drives away when they get a bit long in the tooth but still working fine with no real surface or file system errors, or having to swap them over inside the desktop to use them. I can now easily use them for storage or maybe sticking a different operating system on. (And that means anything but win8). I've just ordered another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tr3bg0D Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 A friend game me this link http://dx.com/c/computers-networking-399/hdd-enclosures-310/hdd-dockings-devices-330 Vvvvvvvveeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyy Interesting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Fast Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Am I allowed to change my mind again? EDIT: Ignore the "runs from USB power" in that advert. A PCWorld mistake. Depends on the drive your connecting. USB1 doesn't provide the needed power. USB 2.0 & 3.0 supply more power. You still need a power cable for 3.5 inch drives, but laptop 2.5 inch drives should be self powered from USB 2 & 3 slots. I like the enclosure box looks, but it isn't practical for me, seeing I have to routinely hook up drives in data backup/recovery/imaging. For the occasional user, it works great. For the user who must do this nearly daily, its a major chore. Not to mention, that the smaller type device I got fits much better in a laptop bag without being so bulky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
login123 Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 I sort of like the "wart on the cord " because those big transformer plugs block more than one wall socket. Have not purchased one yet, but am leaning toward that all-in-one in Tr3's post. The CCleaner SLIM version is always released a bit after any new version; when it is it will be HERE :-) Pssssst: ... It isn't really a cloud. Its a bunch of big, giant servers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators DennisD Posted April 2, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted April 2, 2012 I decided on two of the caddies I mentioned above to make two permanent external hard drives, standing on my desktop, connected and always ready to switch on. I can't see myself ever having another spare internal drive, so I'm not bothered about the flexibility of interchanging. Both working flawlessly so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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