Hard Drive docks-What do you think?

[Bsmooth]

Always a quandry where to store your images, and everyone has a different way.Well my question today is about Hard drive docks and what your opinion is of them.
I've been doing quite a bit of research(yes that does include doing searches here as well) ,there's no question of needing it but whats the best way?
Right now I don't have a great amount of images. I think the best thing I've done is to become more critical of my images in the first place and just get rid of ones that are only so-so.
So to the question at hand. I have looked at external drives and some like the WD Passport seem like a good way to go, but after doing a bit of reading the hard drive docks like this one
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3516746&CatId=2785 (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3516746&CatId=2785)
seem like a good option.Next is the choice of hard drives, again I used to like Seagate, but after getting bought out they seem to have gone straight down hill. So WD seems to be the way to go from what I've read.
Right now I store my images on DVD's for my 20D.
So what are your opinions on this? I would like to get this done soon

[basroil]

meant for different things. WD makes the mybook line for desktops, and hdd docks are meant to be desktop things. passports are for portable use. unless you need 250gb on the go (in a car), get yourself a mybook or similar external and leave the docks to those that know how to use them

[ChasP505]

I've got the Thermaltake HD dock, but I have the eSATA model. What can I say? It's fast! It works like a card reader.

[davidcrebelxt]

I store my images on internal hard drive.
Will likely get a 2nd internal drive for when I install Windows7, then I may keep my images on the secondary drive.

BUT, don't forget backups.
That's where I have my external drive... just in case my internal crashes.
AND, I also have a 2nd backup, and keep outside my home, in case of flood/fire/theft, etc. That is on DVDs, and I try to refresh it yearly... that way, hopefully at worst I may be out my most recent images.

[Damian75]

I would agree that for your purpose and HD dock is not the way to go they are great if you need to be swapping drives out alot I use one at work for pre imaging drive before they are installed in a system. Depending on your budget I would look at some kind of redundant storage personally I am a fan of the Drobo from datarobotics RAID like security without the headaches. I am not a big fan of WD I have just seen way to many failures not of the drives but of the enclosures they use personal vote would be G tech or roll your own buy an enclosure and then the drive you want to go in it.

[hollis_f]

I use a dock for my backup drives - two of them (one stored off-site). It also came in handy when I upgraded the HD in my laptop (twice) and when the data drive in the laptop started to die and needed to be cloned to the replacement drive. And a dock plus a couple of 1TB 3.5" drives ends up a lot cheaper than getting the drives in their own pretty enclosures.

eSATA is definitely the best way of connecting external drives. The speed vs USB is hugely different.

[basroil]

eSATA is definitely the best way of connecting external drives. The speed vs USB is hugely different.

Speed vs Firewire is also large, even firewire 800 can get really slow compared to esata

[ChasP505]

eSATA is definitely the best way of connecting external drives. The speed vs USB is hugely different.

Yep! I also use alternating 1TB drives and keep one off premises. I still have one WD 500GB MyBook USB drive too. It's twin died, prompting me to try the docking SATA drive backup arrangement.

[René Damkot]

I use a dock for my backup drives - two of them (one stored off-site)

I'm planning to do the same in the near future for off-site backup.

How do you store the drives? Just an anti-static bag or some enclosure?

[hollis_f]

I'm planning to do the same in the near future for off-site backup.

How do you store the drives? Just an anti-static bag or some enclosure?

Well, the on-site backup drive spends most of its time in the dock. The off-site drive spend most of its time in the cardboard box it got delivered in - in my friend's fire-proof safe at her work premises.

[René Damkot]

Thanks. I'll be trying that once funds allow ;)

[JRKO]

try this one if you fancy a dock

http://www.newertech.com/products/voyagerq.php

a bit dearer for the multi interface one but great if you don't have access to eSata but have some form of firewire.

I use one of the USB/esata and one of the FW/eSata connected to my Macbook pro via esata on an express card. SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much faster than FW800!!!!

I trashed all my Lacie enclosures for drives as well as getting a couple of 1.5Tb drives for a great back up solution

[CyberDyneSystems]

I've got one (thermaltake I think ) from Newegg,. the E-Sata one.. it's seems a great solution to me, and once you make the investment, the hard drives are more affordable than normal externals,. and with E-Sata much faster than the USB externals.

Use the Hard drives like we used to use Bernouli or Jazz drives,.. it's a great Idea that needed SATA to make practical.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Well, the on-site backup drive spends most of its time in the dock. The off-site drive spend most of its time in the cardboard box it got delivered in - in my friend's fire-proof safe at her work premises.

I had the old soft foam stuffing from a much older drives packaging.. ( they don;t make them like they used to) and fit it into (cut and glued) one of those fancy aluminum cases like they sell for storing CDs or tools...

It looks very James Bond!

399794

(No this isn't my case, this is for a drill, but you get the general idea..)

[tim]

That's a good idea CDS, I have something similar lying around somewhere that I could use. I considered a dock and bare hard drives for backups, but I wanted more physical protection so I keep using drives in eSata enclosures.

I have two backup drives, one an internal drive mirror and one a backup of data no longer on my internal hard drives. When either of the backup drives fill up I just put it in a drawer and buy a larger drive. Currently i'm using 1-1.5TB drives, and by the time they're full i'll probably be buying 3-4TB drives.

[basroil]

I had the old soft foam stuffing from a much older drives packaging.. ( they don;t make them like they used to) and fit it into (cut and glued) one of those fancy aluminum cases like they sell for storing CDs or tools...

It looks very James Bond!

399794

(No this isn't my case, this is for a drill, but you get the general idea..)

Why not go one step further than get daisy chained drives with a PSU in there ;)

[Bsmooth]

Great thing SATA If you have it, but I don't. So its USB for me.

[tim]

You can buy an sata/eSata card for most computers, even laptops.

[hollis_f]

You can buy an sata/eSata card for most computers, even laptops.

Indeed, the eSATA dock that I bought came with a SATA to eSATA backplate for a PC. And an eSATA ExpressCard for laptops is pretty cheap.

If you move large chunks of data to external drives (and who doesn't when they backup the full system) then eSATA is the way to go. USB just seems so slow now.

[Bsmooth]

As I said thats great,but I'm basically out of slots.A lot of us have to do with what we have, at least for now anyways.
Strangely enough haven't ever backed up a whole system, even when I was running a dual boot system with Win98/WinXP.
I just hope Win7 isn't the memory hog that Vista is.Too many luxury features most of us don't need anyway.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Why not go one step further than get daisy chained drives with a PSU in there ;)

Well, the one I use to trigger a pre-emptive strike from SAC NORAD has that and more of course... ;)

[basroil]

Well, the one I use to trigger a pre-emptive strike from SAC NORAD has that and more of course... ;)

Beta-voltaic cells and a robo-apocalypse proof crank generator?