I bought a new toy for $40 at Frys: http://wiki.dirvish.org/index.cgi?DriveDock
This is a Vantec NST-D100U external dock for a bare 3.5 inch (or allegedly a 2.5 inch) SATA drive, which plugs into a slot on the top. It has its own power supply, and connects via ESATA or USB2 to the host computer. I tried it out with a 1.5TB (1500GB!!) Seagate (which were $125 at Frys), connected (with the supplied cable) to an ESATA socket on the back of my backup server. Since it is a straight ESATA connection, there are no Linux compatability issues. I don't know if the USB2 connection works. It has a power button on the front, permitting hot swapping. I will use it for backup hard drives for dirvish. I rotate drives in succession into a fire resistant safe, and this will be facilitate that as long as I don't drop the drives. Fry's also had "protector sleeves" for bare hard drives, which pad the sides and corners of the drive, but these do not fit into the top slot on the Vantec. I'm not sure about long term reliability - it is cheaply made, and the plating may wear off the SATA connector. There were some complaints on the Newegg customer reviews, though most reviews were positive. My drive formatted and stored at least a few gigabytes OK, so time will tell. Keith -- Keith Lofstrom [email protected] Voice (503)-520-1993 KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon" Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs _______________________________________________ Dirvish mailing list [email protected] http://www.dirvish.org/mailman/listinfo/dirvish
