I hate to admit that I saw this on a TV show, but…
on tonight’s (Jan 28, '04) Smallville, I saw someone use an external hard drive adapter. Now, what made this unit unique is that it sort of operated like a “hard drive toaster.” What I mean is that you simply dropped a standard ATA hard drive into a vertical slot and you could read the drive - power and data connected automatically when the drive was inserted into the slot. I’m assuming the connection to the PC was either USB or Firewire.
I’ve Googled until I’m blue - I can find all kinds of external “enclosures” but they all require the drive to be permanently fixed inside the enclosure with screws.
Anyone got any ideas?? HELP!
Keep in mind that the device in question may simply be a stage prop created for that scene, with no functional aspect to it. The hard disk inserted into it probably wasn’t functional, too. Old, especially non-functional, hard disks are readly available for low or no cost. They look like new ones, too. And there’s no problem if they get damaged during filming. I doubt your average actor knows about avoiding electrostatic damage.
That said, I’ve never seen a docking adapter for a hard drive such as the one you describe. There may be problems with hard disks that have different connector spacing and keying, so a model where connectors are attached by hand is more likely.
I’ve got one of those enclosures (I used it for my old HD, til it croaked).
It’s basically kinda like what you’re describing, but with a little more work. You mount the HD on the tray, just like you would in a regular tower, and hook up the power cable and IDE. You slide it into the plastic case. Mine’s a USB drive, so I plug it into the USB port, though it does require an external power source. Still handy as hell.
I took an external enclosure like one of those that 12 parsecs linked to, and mounted a hard drive rack in it. Only problem is, the rack doesn’t completely fit inside the enclosure, so it’s kind of ugly. Works great, though.
Hmmm…I’m willing to admit that it might have simply been a prop, but the historical propensity of this show led me to believe that it might not be the case -
For example, the computer this particular adapter was attached to was an FIC SFF “cube” computer. Not exactly run-of-the-mill, but readily available. I’ve also seen Alienware units used as “props.” Like I said, I was inclined to believe this might actually be a functional piece of tech that they were using as a prop…
I can get external adapters all over the place, for as little as $30 (I’m a system integrator/reseller/technolgy consultant)…but this unit grabbed my attention because of the concept that was implied. I’ve examined a couple of dozen drives in my shop this morning, and I don’t see a reason it wouldn’t work - all of the ATA drives I have here have connectors that are located in identical positions.
Oh, well…maybe I was just duped…
Second what Cleophus said: I’m pretty sure that I’ve seen hard drives with the connectors in different configurations from each other.
I had a great response all typed up and then the hamsters ate it. Let me try again…
The SCA spec for SCSI drives was designed for precisely this reason; all SCA drives (from different vendors) have the connector in the same postion on the rear of the drive. The SCA connector provides power and SCSI id selection in addition to all 68 pins on the wide SCSI bus. And the SCA connector (which looks a little like a small centronics connector) was designed for multiple insertions/removals. However, you still need a vendor-specific sled for each drive, since different vendors’ drive arrays use different mounting methods.
There is no similar connector for ATA drives. Molex and pin connectors are not designed for repeated insertions/removals, and would probably break in short order. In addition, most ATA drive manufacturers (the notable exception being WD, who have been on the forefront of developing high-performance EIDE drives) also manufacture SCSI drives, and do not want to take away from their lucrative SCSI business by making equivalent, but cheaper, ATA drives.
The closest you could get to the situation mentioned in the OP would be an external 5.25" USB->IDE cabinet with a standard removable drive tray, which have been around for many years.
These aren’t even standard; I have three different kinds here in my office - they all look pretty much the same - a grey case with mounting grooves, a handle and a centronics-like connector at the back - but the orientation of the connector, the position of the mounting grooves and the method of locking are different on all three models - for all I know, the pinouts on the connectors might be different as well, as they all come with their own matching connector in the docking bay.