At work, I often have to copy data from an old laptop hard drive to a new one. I have been using a hard drive caddy for this (the second one on this page), since the same caddy will fit in all the models of laptop we use.
Now, however, we’re starting to branch out into different brands/models, and one caddy isn’t going to fit all the laptops anymore. Rather than having to buy a different caddy for each model, I’d like to have some sort of external USB device that I can plug a hard drive into. I think something like this would do the trick, but I don’t have any experience with enclosures, so I’m not sure. The page mentions’s that it’s “hot swappable”, but I’m not sure if they’re talking about swapping drives in and out, or what… I don’t really want to have to open the thing up and mount the drive with screws every time I use it.
Does anyone know of any gizmos that would help me out? Or is this what I need, and I just don’t know it?
IANALE (Laptop Expert, dontchaknow) but a couple of things you should know: Most laptop drives are 2.5", not 3.5". The latter are the familiar or standard desktop variety of drive. You need something more along the lines of this.
The other note is about hot-swapping. I’ve never known an external enclosure that allows you to change the *drive *when the power is on; I strongly suspect that in this case the hot-swapping ability is limited to inserting and removing the USB cable into the computer.
But that does mean you can disconnect it, change the drive, and then plug it back in without having to power down the system. Just don’t swap the drive when it’s connected.
Perhaps some clarification would help. You wish to copy data from Drive X to Drive Z. Do you want a caddy that you can install either Drive X or Z into to facilitate direct copying, or do you just want an external device containing Drive Y so you can use it as an intermediate step?
slaphead - ideally, I’d like something device that’ll let me copy directly from X to Z. No muss, no fuss.
Dervorin - of course you’re right, I am talking about 2.5" drives. I should have looked more carefully on the page I linked.
drachillix - wow, that’s a pretty handy looking toy! The description says that it’s compatible with any 2.5", 3.5", or 5.25" IDE device… are there multiple connectors on it? It’s tough to tell from the picture. I think that’s exactly what I’m looking for, and it’ll even more usefull if I can connect 5.25" desktop drives to it too.
There’s a connector on one side for a 3.5" drive and the other side is for 2.5". It comes with a power supply for 3.5" drives and generally 2.5" ones are powered by the USB port.
good luck, It can be used with the external power to drive things like CD/DVD rom drives as well. Kinda makes for a nice all in one external drive tool.