HDD caddies/enclosures..

[A Place of Light]

Originally Posted by LeperousDust

Theres an even better one i'm in too much of a rush to find atm Huddy, i'm off out, when i get back later if you haven't bought it i'll show you. I think it takes 2.5 3.25 IDE and SATA all in one and they literally just plug in, no undoing things and the hard drive just sticks out the top with the connecters covered. perfect for just pulling data, or fixing one hard drive after another...

3.25 IDE?
I thought IDE's came in 2.5 (laptop) and 3.5 (desktop) flavours?

[Mark]

Originally Posted by AboveTheSalt

My mistake, I should have mentioned that these drives were held in low-cost pluggable caddies that could be removed without the need to open up the case - a bit like this but for PATA drives

I know those. Wouldn't have expected those to be any slower than a directly-connected PATA drive (unless the connectors are so poor that they degrade the data signal).

[AboveTheSalt]

Originally Posted by Mark

I know those. Wouldn't have expected those to be any slower than a directly-connected PATA drive (unless the connectors are so poor that they degrade the data signal).

I didn't expect that result either - my first thought was that the internal cable (from the drive to the caddy socket) was 40-wire rather than 80-wire; it appeared to be fine. However, this issue is a bit of a red herring to be honest and I apologise for raising it.

What I was really interesting in was knowing how the speed of any enclosure that Admiral Huddy does eventually buy compares with the same drive connected directly.

For my part and in atonement for my unintended attempt at derailing the thread, I will try and get together and post some figures for my external 300GB drive using USB 2.0, FW400 & eSATA

[kaiowas]

Originally Posted by Mark

eSATA is undoubtedly the king when it comes to these caddies as it's pretty much a straight through connection to the onboard SATA hardware.

Indeed. It's just a shame that:

a) The eSATA standard didn't include any provision for integrated power supply meaning you still have to use external power bricks.

b) It's really not being pushed as much as it should.