Choose Hard Drive Dock Station for Re-Using Old Hard Drives

When we need to upgrade our older computers, we will save the hard drives. We may have collected several hard drives from laptops or computers. We can actually turn the internal hard drives into external ones with the help of the hard drive dock station, one of the very convenient peripheral accessories which allows us to create more external storage out of internal hard drives.

If you thrown away your hard drives, why not re-use them and expand the space of the computer or laptop you are using right now? You do not necessarily need to install them internally. Get a hard drive docking station and maximize the use of those old hard drives.

Hard drive dock is to hard drive what carports to cars. The hard drives can just sit on the dock of the bay, without any need of installation. Just drop the drive into the dock. Or when we need to change the hard drive, just eject the current one and pop in a new one. That’s just convenient. The USB 3.0 makes the internal hard drives work faster, with a transfer speed almost the same to that of external drives. USB 3.0 hard drive docking station can handle both 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch HDD or SSD. Such hard drive dock is compatible with USB 2.0 as well.

Now there are different hard drive dock stations available in the market. For example, we can choose dock station with single bay or dual bay for accommodating different numbers of hard drives. Dual bay dock stations or hard drive docking station with more bays allow us to copy data from one drive to another, which is just beyond a single bay dock. Anyway, if we want to maximize the use of old internal hard drive or if we want to make data transfer or copy easier, we need hard drive dock station.

Hard drive dock with one bay

This is a super speed hard drive docking station which accepts either a 3.5 inch or 2.5 inch hard drive, both SSD and HDD. It makes the connection of hard drive and computer free from extra application or tools. Now priced $29.99, this peripheral is an cost effective solution for copying data from the old internal hard drives. The e-SATA and USB 3.0 interface makes the data transfer rates up to 3Gbps and 5Gbps respectively.

Dual bay dock station

This hard drive dock station accommodates two hard drives at the same time, not only expanding the external storage up to 8TB, but also offering us opportunity to duplicate drives easily without any software. The dock makes the offline copy more easily and can ensure multiple data security. It is now priced $35.00. The super speed USB3.0 dock station can realizes data transfer rates up 5Gbps and copying speed up to 60M/s or more.

If a single external hard drive is not enough for backing up the data or if you have collected quite a few internal hard drives from used computers, get a hard drive dock station for recycling the drives.

Tips on Choosing Hard Drive Docking Station for HDD or SSD

For those who always need to use hard drives for data copy or transfer, the portable and hot swapping hard drive docking station or hard drive enclosure is very convenient computer peripheral. Hard drive dock station or enclosure makes an internal hard drive into an external one. This is very useful when we need to expand the space of our computer or when we need to access the hard drive of a laptop from an desktop.

Making the internal hard drive external just brings us more flexibility. We just choose the enclosure or dock station and it makes traditional hard drive portable. We can easily transfer data to the hard drive on most of the operation systems. Such external hard drive just reduce the possibility of data corruption or data loss. Data can be backed up or archived much more easily. Besides, we can even recover data from a damaged computer via the hard drive dock station.

Since hard drive enclosure has an close-type design, with the hard drive enclosed in the case. Though portable, it is not easy for changing the hard drives inside. Compared to hard drive enclosure, hard drive dock station seems much more convenient when we need to transfer data between two different HDDs and it can realize quick swapping HDD without the need for external drive enclosure. Then how to choose the hard drive docking station?

Pay attention to the material of the dock station. Hard drive dock station is mainly made from plastics. For better durability, some of the docks are made from steel. Besides, the size of hard drive dock stations differ. Usually, they come with sizes of 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch, supporting the hard drives of 2.5’ and 3.5’ respectively. Take a look at the interface of the different hard drive dock stations. Now HDDs use SATA or IDE interfaces, so the docking station should be chosen accordingly. Some HDD docking stations have extra functions, such as a USB hub or multi-card reader. Choose it according to our need. The cable connecting the dock station to our computer also affects the transfer speed, with USB 3.0 transferring data faster. Now there are hard drive dock stations with different numbers of bays. Single hard drive dock station can only support one hard drive yet dual bay dock take two internal hard drives. Dual bay dock station can offer us larger portable hard drive space.

Hard drive dock station protects our hard drive as well transforms internal hard drives into a plug-and-play device. We can use it anytime while system is running and it will become a removable storage drive.

Cool Tech Gadgets For Male Friends as 2014 Christmas Gifts

What have you bought for your dad, husband, boyfriend, brother or other male friends this Christmas? Buying gifts for men is never easy, but it is known to all that men love gadgets, especially the cool tech gadgets. Most electronic gadgets are expensive. But for men, they love gadgets of any sort. They don’t care the cost of the gift, but they will love the gift that is cool and fun. Whether you have got the gifts prepared or you still have no idea, here are some tech gadgets as Christmas presents for men, useful, affordable and decent. Anyway, buy them all for yourself; and we won't judge.

This is a very cool gadget, that takes a classic look of an alarm clock. Combine it with smart phone dock, and let it remind you to get up with classic metal ringing. Most often, we use smart phone as alarm clock, but when we undergo the Monday blues, it might be too noisy to get us out of bed.

Super Speed Hard Drive Docking Station

If your male friends love to repair computers or have not enough hard drives, the hard drive dock station is a nice gift. It is a decent affordable SATA to USB 3.0 hard drive dock station that supports 3TB drives and can copy data in the old computer or any broken computer very conveniently.



Now smart phone is very common tool that we almost bring it with us every moment. If he is smart phone-obsessed, send him this laser projection keyboard so that he will type and click away on the projection as if he is using a real keyboard. This keyboard is portable and can be a very cool gadget for trip. With this keyboard, there is no need to thumb type the smart phone again.



Now we have more data to be stored, whether they are images, file, videos, etc. The more storage device, the better and the larger space it offers, the better. If the storage gadget can be cool, that is even great. Send him a USB key. This is a very cool looking money clop that can be used as a secret USB flash drive. It can store data up to 8GB, really large enough for countless photos.



Send him a USB hub that has more ports for various USB supported gadgets. This is a USB hub with 13 ports. It is a super speed USB 3.0 hub with transfer rate up to 5Gbps, 10x faster than USB 2.0. The sleek apple style design just makes it nice gadget for Mac Pro, iMac, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, MacBook, and Mac mini. The ports are compatible with a wide-variety of devices, including iPhone, iPad, HTC Phones, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Samsung Galaxy Phone, etc. Let this USB hub better organize the desk of your friends.

Tips for Buying Hard Drive Docking Station

Whether you like to do computer repairs or you have to update the old computers, HDD dock is very necessary. Similar to external hard drives, hard drive dock stations actually are more convenient in transferring data. All we need to do is to connect it to USB, insert the hard drives and power it on. We can copy data in the old drives without cracking open the case.

Among all the different computer peripherals, hard drive dock stations are more and more common. We have more choices. There are different models of the hard drive dock which may differ in performance and cost. If you still have no hard drive docking station and no experience of buying any HDD dock yet you need one, here are some tips that can help you nail down the right choice.

What is a hard drive docking station?

Hard drive docking station is a type of computer peripheral which offers us easy access to data stored in hard drives with the help of USB, eSATA or both the two means. When we try to access the data in the drive via hard drive dock station, we do not have to install the hard drive into the computer. Besides accessing data, it can also read and write the drives.

How does hard drive dock stations work?

Different types of hard drive docking station may work in slightly different ways. We can connect a hard drive dock station to computer or Mac by USB. All we need to do is to insert the hard drive into the docking station slot, plug it and power it on. Then, connect the data cable to the computer and let the computer itself detect the hard drive. As for the connection via eSATA, the PC or Mac has to remain power off at first. We insert the hard drive into the slot and plug it on. Turn on the power. Attach the cable to the computer before we power it.


Common uses of HDD?

Hard drive docking station is very common and useful computer peripheral in copying data to external drives. The HDD allows for data transfer at very fast speed. They just speed up the testing of the hard drives and simplify the data recovery.

Things to consider when we buy HDD dock?

When we buy a new HDD dock station, we need to pay attention to the interface, which has much to do with compatibility. Different interfaces of the HDD may decide compatibility with different formats. Most of the hard drives of older computers or IDE are characterized by a series of small prongs protruding from the top yet new ones or SATA have a bar across the top with several brass fingered coverings. We need to ensure the docking station can support multiple formats.