When asked to name a few storage solutions, most people tend to think of external hard drives and flash drives. Little do they know, they can also repurpose their old or unused drives with what’s called a drive enclosure. HornetTek offers a variety of these devices that are capable of supporting 2.5” or 3.5” SATA I, II, and III drives. For portability, there’s the Black Box U3, Cheetah, Leopard, and Shark. These models are made for 2.5” hard drives or solid-state drives and features USB 3.1 or 3.0 connectivity for data transfer rates of up to 10 Gb/s and 5 Gb/s respectively. With USB 3.1, you can transfer data faster than the SATA III interface so you’ll spend less time waiting and more time getting things done. Furthermore, select models are USB Type-C compatible via an included adapter.
If you’re interested in a semi-portable design, you should consider HorneTek’s Viper and Jaws enclosures. These are somewhat larger than their portable counterparts, but come with a wall adapter for drives that require additional power to get going. An included vertical stand lets you save some desk space and secures it in place. An enclosure is not limited to just holding drives; they’re also capable of supporting RAID with models such as the HT-RAB237, Titan, X2-U3, Gemini, and Enterprise. Some offer further RAID profiles such as RAID 0 and RAID 1, but all of them support JBOD mode, which provides you with a larger storage capacity. To ensure your drives stay cool and operational, they are outfitted with built-in fans that help dissipate heat. All of the mentioned enclosures are Windows and Mac compatible and have LED indicators for power and activity so you can quickly check the status of your drives with just a glance.
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1 Comment
Nice idea for recycle/reuse, but how do you put your drives into the enclosures?