Cool Computer Nerd tool

[jaysz2893]

So i have a bunch of old internal hard drives left over from various computer and MAME projects. They all worked when taken out, and they are just sitting around. I usually keep one (SATA) ready with a clean OS on it incase my computer goes toe up. So I got thinking that all an external hard drive is a self contained power supply and some way of adapting the EIDE or SATA to USB. I did a quick google and found the answer i was looking for in this Startech.com piece. It is basically a power source and EIDE or SATA to USB adapter. It works with 3.5 and 2.5 inch HDD's It comes with an EIDE adapter for laptop HDD's too. I just played with it tonight and hooked an old WD800 (80 gig EIDE) and a newer seagate Barracuda 750 gig SATA to it at the same time. I plugged in the USB, power cord and powered up the unit. Both drives came right up. No software/drivers to install. I am running Win 7 Home Prem, but it says it will work with any OS even MAC. This will definatly save money on external drives in the future. I got it off Buy.com for like 50 bucks delivered. Just thought I would share this with you guys. I am by no means advertizing for them. There are other "adapters" out there, but none i saw that can do both types at the same time.
Here is what it looks like:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y136/TheKeenans/IMG_3117.jpg

[Fastbird]

Yup. Basically a drive dock. They use those here on base all the time. I should get one sometime for my backups.

[KissMyWhtSS]

I'd rather have a external enclosure for cheaper. I'm going to pick up a 2.5" enclosure for my old laptop's HDD and use that as an external HDD.

[jaysz2893]

i thought about the enclousure too, but i wanted to be able to hot swap and maybe fix other people's drives on the fly. At current count I have 5 3.5 inch old internals (3 SATA) and 2 2.5 inch ones (one of each interface)

[GreenZ96]

Thats pretty sweet. Ive seen them before, but none that docked both types at the same time.