Does this type of hard drive dock exist yet?

Philocalist

After a fair amount of searching, I'm having no luck.
Perhaps someone can recommend for me the following? ... I'm looking to buy within the UK: availability via Amazon (UK) would be a bonus!

What I am trying to locate is a hard drive dock (that's a DOCK, NOT an external case / caddy) that will preferably take both sizes of commonly available hard drives ( 2.5" and 3.5" ). The ability to handle non-SATA drives in addition to SATA would be a bonus.
So far not too difficult, but I MUST be able to connect this to the PCs via an eSATA cable AND via USB3 also (though not at the same time!), and this facility is proving elusive!
As a bare minimum spec., I need it to take 3.5" SATA drives, and offer BOTH eSATA and USB3 connectivity.

An alternative would be a disk caddy / case with multi-media capability, offering USB3 AND eSATA connectivity AND a further USB socket so that I could play a movie off there from a USB key!

All recommendations greatly appreciated!
Thanks Very Happy

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 2240 Location: Central FL, USA

I regularly run hard drives and DVD drives outside my various computers.
If you run a Netbook this is common place, because netbooks are not big enough to house a floppy disk or DVD drive. There's barely enough room for one little hard drive.

A DOCK? Not so much, but there are a gaggle of adapters ( a whole bunch) that will let you run a HD or DVD drive from outside your PC. Some plug right into the motherboard on a desktop or to a USB port on a Laptop or Netbook.
What to get depends on what kind of a drive you're trying to use and how you're wanting to use it.

I've shown pictures on this forum, of some of the adapters I've bought and used.

Give one specific use and I'll see if I have an adapter that will fill that need.

Doc Cool

goretsky · Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 2:12 am Post subject:

Hello,

I have seen a few eSATA and USB 2.0 docks, but none that operate at the full USB 3.0 speed, yet.

Is there any specific reason you need this with an actual USB 3.0 connector? I would think that eSATA would be sufficient, and cannot imagine a motherboard that ships with USB 3.0 that doesn't have at least one eSATA port.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

Philocalist · Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 6:24 am Post subject:

Hi Doc, Goretsky; thanks for giving this a try:-)
I've already got the cables / adapter type stuff you refer to Doc, and can access drives via that, but at USB2 speed, which is very slow when considering most of the file movements I make are measured in high numbers of megabytes, sometimes gigabytes at a time ... I'm looking for a faster solution, and a proper dock with eSATA and USB3 seems to be the way forwards (unless anyone has a better alternative?
I'm currently sat with 2 PCs holding the maximum number of hard drives, plus SIX 1TB external drives that take up way too much space and the cabling is looking like spaghetti!
I'm figuring to effectively move stuff onto these drives that I rarely need access to, and storing them disconnected from the PCs, OFF the desk.
A dock will then let me have a single footprint on the desk, and I can just rotate additional drives in there when neccessary.

You're correct, eSATA would be sufficient, and my connection of choice.
In hindsight, I'm probably looking no further now than having the dock connect via eSATA (and most of them offer USB2 too) .USB3 was with an eye to the future, but I've thought this through, and figured that when the time comes, I'd rather spec a new PC with eSATA, as it's likely to have USB3 by default, as standard.
Now I've just got to find the best candidate! Very Happy

Something that will lie flat, rather than be vertical (ie more stable / less likely to be knocked over?) would be the preference, possibly a dual dock, but I can't seem to locate such a beast?

rmckay3688 · Joined: Feb 01, 2007 Posts: 26

with that much volume of data ,
you might want to consider data storage unit, 32TB and 16TB are standard

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 2240 Location: Central FL, USA

My own mobo has 8 SATA II ports on it.
Inside my PC I have three hard drives and outside on long cables I have two more drives.

A SATA II drive does not have to be inside your case to take advantage of a mobo sata port.

Just a thought

Doc Cool

Philocalist · Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 3:12 pm Post subject:

Doc, thats what I'm trying to aceive: SATA drives external to the case, linked via an eSATA cable. I've got the eSATA sockets on the PC already, just looking for the best drive solution. Don't really want to just go on adding more and more external drives, each of which carries its own footprint and requires a seperate power source and yet more cables ... figured that a single (or dual) dock would be the best way forward: a single footprint and cable, and just swap drives in and out of the dock as needed.
Now trying to find said dock that will lie flat! Very Happy

goretsky · Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2010 2:38 am Post subject:

Hello,

If you go the external route, I would suggest a NAS or perhaps and entry-level SAN solution that accepted a minimum of eight 2TB hard disk drives. Both Data Robotics (Drobo) and Synology sell devices in this space, although I am not very familiar with their capabilities.

If you decided to go with a PC-based solution, you might want to look at internal drive cages, with allow you to install four or five 3.5" hard disk drives inside a drive cage occupying the space of three 5.25" bays. AMS, Cremax and SANS Digital are three companies which make such devices. Keep in mind you will need sufficient power and SATA controllers inside the computer to power such arrays.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky