Drive cradle makes it easy to swap around SATA drives

StorageDepot's SATA Hard Drive Cradle lets you plunk drive in it, write/read with them, unmount them and yank 'em out, then stick in the next one. All the times I've had to monkey around with taking dodgy drives out of a laptop, screwing them into an enclosure, plugging that into a good PC, doing diagnostics, taking them out of the enclosure, trying the next one... Or just remembering what's on the small stack of laptop drives here on my desk! Works on 2.5" and 3.5" drives, both SATA I and SATA II. Link (via Red Ferret)

[#1 posted by drtwist , December 5, 2007 8:35 AM]

I like these even better. you can do the same thing with both SATA and IDE drives

[#2 posted by Simon Greenwood , December 5, 2007 8:39 AM]

Drtwist:
Maplin in the UK sell a similar one. It's proved to be remarkably useful. The caddy is a good idea but takes up a bit more desk space.

[#3 posted by JPW , December 5, 2007 8:46 AM]

SATA II Misnomer

The 3.0 Gbit/s specification has been very widely referred to as “Serial ATA II” (“SATA II”), contrary to the wishes of the The Serial ATA International Organization ( abbreviated SATA-IO ) which defines the standard.

Source: Wikipedia

[#4 posted by David Klecha , December 5, 2007 9:14 AM]

Ooh. I need to talk my boss into buying me one of those.

I currently have an awkward USB adapter arrangement (for both SATA and IDE drives), and this would knock that into a cocked hat.

[#5 posted by mr_tumnus001 , December 5, 2007 9:18 AM]

Okay, so you have two drives, one for research/email and one for shopping/paying bills. When you need to pay a bill or shop, you plug in that hard drive, make your purchases, and then simply unplug it. What hacker can grab your Credit Card numbers if THAT drive isn't running?
I've wanted simething like this for YEARS (after being hacked).

[#6 posted by EdT. , December 5, 2007 9:30 AM]

@1-DRTWIST: Thanks! I was just logging in to ask if there was a PATA version as well and bam, first comment gave me my answer. Thanks!

Just checked Newegg and they have one for even less.

[#7 posted by Jacques , December 5, 2007 1:11 PM]

If it were eSATA it might be an interesting product, USB is too unstable for this.

[#8 posted by AaronZ , December 5, 2007 1:12 PM]

@ drtwist, ditto for me. This'll make a great gift for my brother who does IT support, but I didn't want to pay shipping from the UK. Thanks for the link!

[#9 posted by Jacques , December 5, 2007 1:15 PM]

Apparently logitech is coming out with one that supports eSATA as well as USB, although details are sketchy.

http://www.geekstuff4u.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=640

[#10 posted by renataf , December 5, 2007 5:18 PM]

Try this- It's not so cheap, but it's pretty awesome and they have other configurations as well. These products have been great, we've used them for a couple years no (the satadock anyway)

http://www.wiebetech.com/products/RTX200.php
http://www.wiebetech.com/products/satadock.php