Chris Pirillo » enclosure

How to Protect Your Hard Drive

Chris Pirillo — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:47:37 +0000

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There are thousands upon thousands of hard drive enclosures. However, only one of them is both fireproof and waterproof. I have precious video files from the Gnomedex conference on my ioSafe Solo. For the purpose of this video, I completely submerged the hard drive in water, to show you that it truly is waterproof as they claim! Yes – the videos were all still completely intact! I wouldn’t try this at home with any enclosure other than the ioSafe Solo!

I know you’re not likely to submerge your hard drive in a bathtub full of water. However, imagine your business or home office were to become flooded for some reason. Or, heaven forbid, you were to have a fire. Using the ioSafe Solo will guarantee that your data is still safe.

It’s waterproof for up to ten feet of salt water OR fresh water, for up to three days. It can withstand up to 1550 degrees of heat for up to half an hour! It’s only good for one disaster, of course. I have to thank ioSafe for passing this along for me to review. It’s an excellent piece of hardware!

We have a special for you, in case you want to pick up your own ioSafe Solo. You can save 10% when purchasing the ioSafe Solo for yourself!

After I extracted my hard drive from the enclosure, I hooked it back up to my computer. As you can see in the video… my files are all still in perfect shape! Gnomedex is saved! The ioSafe Solo definitely works as advertised!

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How to Protect Your Hard Drive

What’s the Best Hard Drive Enclosure to Buy?

Chris Pirillo — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:25:04 +0000

What’s the Best Hard Drive Enclosure to Buy?

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A few days ago, I heard whimpering from my closet. I thought one of the dogs had been stuck inside there. Low and behold, it was an old hard drive whining to be used once again. However, I needed an enclosure to put it in! When I had the opportunity to look at the NexStar 3 from Vantec, I jumped on it!

The sturdy cage protects your hard drive, and the aluminum case draws away the heat. This protects your drive from overheating. The NexStar 3 is available in two awesome colors: Onyx black and midnight blue. The colors are vibrant, allowing you to store your data in an enclosure that matches your style.

This enclosure will accommodate any SATA drive, no matter the size. It even has several connectivity options, which makes it quite versatile! One of the things that stands out about the NexStar 3 is that it has a removable stand, and can sit it whichever way works best.

The thing that stands out the most, however, is that the tray slides out. Once you’ve attached the hard drive to this, you simply slide the tray back in. There are no tools necessary, and it’s just so easy to get your drive up and running.

So there you have it: The NexStar 3 from Vantec is sleek and sexy looking, it has a ton of connectivity options, and it is amazing easy to use. Be sure to consider grabbing one of these for yourself if you need a hard drive enclosure.

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What’s the Best Hard Drive Enclosure to Buy?

How Can You Connect SATA Hard Drives without an Enclosure?

Chris Pirillo — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:25:42 +0000

How Can You Connect SATA Hard Drives without an Enclosure?

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I have a hard drive without an enclosure, and I don’t really have any extra enclosures. I need to get to the data that is on this hard drive. I either need to buy an enclosure to put it into just long enough to access my data. Or… is there another way I can get access to the information on the hard drive without putting it into an enclosure? Luckily, I have the NexStar Hard Drive Dock.

The NexStar is functionally no different than any other drive enclosure out there, supporting both eSATA and USB 2.0 connections. It nicely supports both 2.5″ (notebook) and 3.5″ SATA I/II HDDs as well as Windows/Mac/Linux OSes. It also supports HDDs up to 1 TB in size, enough for most current HDDs I’m aware of. Vantec also has included all required cables, as is usual with their products. You get a USB 2.0 cable as well as an eSATA cable, along with a SATA to eSATA bracket to use inside your PC if your motherboard lacks an eSATA port.

The biggest difference is of course, how you put the drive into the dock. There’s no need to use screws or brackets of any sort; you merely slide the HDD into a slot at the top and it slides into the proper connectors at the bottom inside, sort of like a Super Nintendo cartridge. The drive protrude out from the top of the slot and to remove it, there is a convenient eject button that pushes out the drive from the bottom so you don’t have to messily yank it out. (Again, like a SNES cartridge)

Looking at the Vantec HDD Dock, it sort of resembles a small single-slot toaster, perhaps something like you’d expect from Apple if they came out with the iToaster. It comes well-protected and sits in the middle of the package, which is good, since the entire unit is made of plastic. Aluminum would’ve been a more durable choice for the dock’s exterior, as it currently feels a little lightweight and flimsy compared to other normal drive enclosures.

It really is easy. Plug it into a power source, and then plug it into the Mac or PC via USB. Slide the hard drive into the machine until you hear it click into place. Then, you’re ready to go. Turn it on and watch your data pop up onto your screen. How simple is that?

The next time you need to access data off of a drive that has no enclosure, try out the toaster-looking (but very easy-to-use) NexStar.

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How Can You Connect SATA Hard Drives without an Enclosure?