| If you've got an old or salvaged IDE or SATA hard | | | | but they have already proven to be very popular |
| disk drive and you need to recover some data from | | | | technicians and engineers alike because they make |
| it then there are several options open to you. They | | | | testing multiple hard disk drives a piece of cake! The |
| are all easy to use and are certainly worth | | | | hard disk drives are simply pushed in to the docking |
| considering before you pay huge sums of money to | | | | station. There are no screws or connections to mess |
| data recovery specialists. | | | | with so you can be recovering data or just checking |
| Hard Drive Cases (also know as caddys or | | | | that the hard drives work in a couple of seconds. |
| enclosures) | | | | You do need to buy a docking station for either IDE |
| Hard Drive cases are a great solution because they | | | | ATA hard disks OR SATA hard disks. There are no |
| provide physical protection to any hard disk drive | | | | universal docking stations on the market that cover |
| that's installed in the case as well as allowing you to | | | | both interface types but they do work with different |
| connect to the hard drive and recover the data from | | | | physical size versions of the same standard. So, an |
| the hard disk. | | | | IDE docking station will work with 2.5" and 3.5" hard |
| Hard drive cases as the name suggests are metal | | | | disk drives but not SATA and likewise a SATA |
| (normally aluminium) cases that completely encase | | | | docking station will work with 2.5" and 3.5" SATA |
| the bare hard disk drive. Inside the case is either an | | | | hard disk drives but not IDE/ATA drives. |
| IDE connector and ribbon interface or SATA | | | | USB to IDE & SATA HDD Cable Kits: |
| connector (it will vary depending of the type of hard | | | | One of the simplest and most popular products for |
| drive you have and whether you buy an IDE or | | | | recovering data from hard disks drives is a universal |
| SATA HDD case). The HDD case will typically connect | | | | USB to IDE/SATA cable kit. |
| to your PC via USB but cases with Firewire and | | | | These kits are supplied with a range of USB and |
| e-SATA interfaces are also available. | | | | SATA cables plus a switching power supply unit that |
| Hard drive cases not only allow you to breath new | | | | allows you to connect pretty much any hard disk |
| life into any old hard disk drive but you can also you | | | | drive to a PC via USB 2.0. The USB to IDE and SATA |
| use them with new hard disk drives as well but | | | | cable kit support hard drives from laptops (2.5" |
| remember to "allocate" and "format" them first! | | | | HDD's) and desktops (3.5" HDD). Its true flexibility is |
| All Hard Drive enclosures come with leads to connect | | | | that it will also support IDE/ATA hard disk drives and |
| the case to the PC. Smaller cases designed for use | | | | the newer SATA (Serial-ATA) hard disk drives. |
| with hard disks from a laptop will be USB BUS | | | | Additionally these kits work on all the obvious |
| powered but larger cases are all supplied with an | | | | operating systems including VISTA and Windows 7. |
| external power supply. | | | | So pretty much every flavour of hard drive, every |
| The only real downside of the hard drive cases is | | | | size and every operating system is supported. |
| that they are not designed for "popping" hard drives | | | | Whichever solution you use you will need to make |
| in and out quickly. Inside the case the hard disk drive | | | | sure if you're using an IDE/ATA hard disk drive that |
| will be held in place by four screws and then the case | | | | its set to "master" on the jumper settings. When the |
| itself is usually secured with at least two more | | | | hard disk is connected to your PC it will be allocated |
| screws. So, if you're an engineer and you test lots | | | | a new drive letter automatically and will then work |
| of different hard drive cable kit solution or a hard | | | | pretty much like USB flash drives. |
| disk docking station might be a better bet. | | | | Compared to the high cost of employing a |
| Hard Disk Drive Docking Stations: | | | | professional data recovery expert these options are |
| Hard Disk Drive Docking Stations are relatively new | | | | relatively inexpensive. |