Some hard drives are designed to fit neatly and precisely into the innards of a laptop or a desktop system. They are bare metal and open to touch, so these are not drives you would not want sitting on a desk or under a desk without protection. An external chassis docking system is the perfect solution for working with them when you need them outside your system.
We do this type of activity fairly often. When family and friends are done with their computers, they often give the computers to us to empty out, refresh, and donate to a new cause. We’re also the go-to people when family members have drive failures and need help restoring them.
Our external chassis stays in pretty much constant use.
In essence this chassis provides the connectivity a drive needs to function in an environment outside the protective shell of your desktop and laptop. It has a power connector which plugs into a standard wall plug. It also has a data connector which in this case is USB 3.0. The combination of standard-use connectors makes the docking station easy to move around from system to system.
I will note we do NOT recommend using this as a “permanent” solution if you want to keep this type of drive out on your desk for long term use. The setup is meant to be portable and easy-in, easy-out. So it’s great for repairing or cloning a drive. You’ll want something far sturdier if you want to keep a backup drive on your desk for months.
That being said, this Sabrent chassis has worked like a charm for us. No problems at all. It’s helped us through a number of hard drive repairs and data transitions.
Well recommended.
Buy the Sabrent Hard Drive Socking Station from Amazon
(I have an affiliate account with Amazon and get credit if you buy through my link).
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