3 best computer hard drive accessories

Computer hard drive accessories encompass a range of products designed to enhance the functionality, connectivity, and protection of computer hard drives.These accessories are useful for both internal and external hard drives and can help improve storage solutions and data management. Here are some common computer hard drive accessories:

Hard Drive Enclosures:
- A hard drive enclosure is a protective casing that allows you to convert an internal hard drive into an external one. This accessory is especially useful if you have spare internal hard drives or want to upgrade your storage capacity.
- Hard drive enclosures come in various sizes and types, including 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch enclosures for different drive sizes (HDD or SSD).
- They typically provide connectivity options like USB, eSATA, or Thunderbolt, allowing you to connect the external drive to your computer.
Docking Stations:
- Docking stations are convenient accessories that let you connect internal hard drives without the need for an enclosure.
- They often support both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch drives and offer multiple connectivity options like USB or eSATA.
- Docking stations are commonly used for quick data transfer, backups, and drive maintenance.
Drive Adapters:
- Drive adapters are compact accessories that enable you to connect different types of hard drives or solid-state drives to your computer via USB or other interfaces.
- For example, SATA to USB adapters allow you to connect a bare hard drive directly to a USB port for data access and transfer.
External Hard Drive Cases:
- External hard drive cases are protective enclosures designed for portable external hard drives.
- They provide additional protection against shocks, dust, and moisture and often include shock-absorbing materials and rugged designs for added durability.
Data Cables:
- Various data cables, such as USB, eSATA, Thunderbolt, and SATA cables, are essential for connecting hard drives to computers and other devices.
- The type of cable required depends on the hard drive's interface and the compatibility with your computer.
Hard Drive Mounting Kits:
- These kits are used for securely installing internal hard drives in desktop computer cases.
- Mounting kits typically include brackets, screws, and other hardware necessary to attach the drive securely inside the computer chassis.
Anti-Static Bags and Cases:
- Anti-static bags and cases are used for storing and transporting sensitive hard drives to prevent electrostatic discharge (ESD) damage.
- They are essential when handling internal hard drives and SSDs to protect against static electricity.
Cooling Solutions:
- Cooling accessories, such as hard drive coolers and heat sinks, help manage the temperature of internal hard drives, which can prolong their lifespan and optimize performance.
Drive Caddies and Trays:
- Drive caddies and trays are used in server and enterprise environments to insert and remove hard drives quickly and securely from rack-mounted storage systems.
External Drive Carrying Cases:
- These cases provide protection and portability for external hard drives, making them suitable for travel or storage.

Computer hard drive accessories play a crucial role in expanding, protecting, and maintaining your storage solutions, whether you're using internal or external drives. The choice of accessory depends on your specific needs and the type of hard drive you're using.

Below you can find our editor's choice of the best computer hard drive accessories on the market

Sabrent USB 3.0 to SATA I/II/III Dual Bay External Hard Drive Docking Station for 2.5 or 3.5in HDD, SSD with Hard Drive Duplicator/Cloner Function [10TB Support] (EC-HD2B)

SABRENT

Based on 5 reviews Check latest price

Product description

The Sabrent SATA Hard Drive Docking Station enables you to access desktop or laptop hard drives, without the frustration of assembling hard drive enclosures. By inserting a 2.5"/3.5" SATA hard drive directly into this docking station, you can quickly access drive contents and transfer files. Plus you can swap out hard drives effortlessly with plug and play mounting. Transfer data quickly and easily through USB 3.0 at speeds up to 5Gbps.

To use Hard Drive Offline Clone Function:

System requirements:

Windows

MAC: OS

Package Contents:

Docking Station

Power Supply

USB 3.0 cable

User Manu

Supports Standard Desktop 2.5"/3.5" SATA Hard Drives or SSD
Supports hard drives up to 10TB.
Plug and play, no drivers needed.
Supports Offline Cloning up to 60Mbps.
Supports Transfer Speeds up to 5Gbps (USB 3.0),480Mbps (USB 2.0), 12Mbps (USB 1.1)

User questions & answers

Question:	If two drives are plugged in, does it automatically clone or can that be disabled
Answer:	I always have two drives plugged in and I only use this as a storage dock, I've never had an issue where it automatically cloned.
Question:	Supports hard drives up to 10TB really?, I can't find any specification on the web site
Answer:	I have a 10TB drive in it right now, with a 2TB drive in the second slot. Works perfectly.
Question:	would this station allow one drive to handle time machine backups and the other drive separately handle playback of audio files
Answer:	Yes. Both drives appear as two separate volumes accessible independently.
Question:	Can i access two hard drives at once with this device or does it switch from one to the other
Answer:	Yes, both hard drives can be accesses simultaneously. Files can be transferred directly from on drive to the other.

Product features

Sabrent USB 3.0 to SATA I/II/III Dual Bay External Hard Drive Docking Station for 2.5 or 3.5in HDD, SSD with Hard Drive Duplicator/Cloner Function

Supports Standard Desktop 2.5"/3.5" SATA Hard Drives or SSD
Supports hard drives up to 10TB
Plug and play, no drivers needed
Supports Offline Cloning up to 60Mbps
Supports Transfer Speeds up to 5Gbps (USB 3.0),480Mbps (USB 2.0), 12Mbps (USB 1.1)

The Sabrent SATA Hard Drive Docking Station enables you to access desktop or laptop hard drives, without the frustration of assembling hard drive enclosures. By inserting a 2.5″/3.5″ SATA hard drive directly into this docking station, you can quickly access drive contents and transfer files. Plus you can swap out hard drives effortlessly with plug and play mounting. Transfer data quickly and easily through USB 3.0 at speeds up to 5Gbps.

To use Hard Drive Offline Clone Function:

Insert Source Disk into hard drive bay A, then insert Target Disk into hard drive bay B.
Make sure that the USB cable is disconnected from your computer.
Connect power supply and switch on power.
Hold down the CLONE button, release when you see a Blue LED.
Then quickly press the CLONE Button.
A Blue LED will flash on 25% indicating that the cloning process has begun.
The cloning process is complete when all the lights turn solid Blue (25%-100%).
Finally press the power switch to the off position and eject your drives.

Features:

System requirements:

• Windows

• MAC: OS

Package Contents:

Docking Station, Power Supply, USB 3.0 cable, User Manual

Sabrent USB 3.0 to SATA External Hard Drive Lay-Flat Docking Station for 2.5 or 3.5in HDD, SSD [Support UASP] (EC-DFLT)

SABRENT

Based on 12 reviews Check latest price

Product description

The Sabrent EC-DFLT SATA Lay-Flat Docking Station supports the direct insertion of Desktop 2.5"/3.5" SATA Hard Drives. It is a caseless solution that makes swapping hard drives easier than ever before. Plus, now you can take advantage of the lightening speed of USB 3.0 to quickly transfer files up to 5 Gbps!

Features:

Supports Standard Desktop 2.5"/3.5" SATA Hard Drives. .

On/Off power switch.

LED light indicates Power and Activity status.

Hot-swappable, plug and play, no drivers needed.

Reverse compatible with USB 1.1 & USB 2.0.

Transfer Rates Up to 5 Gbps w/USB 3.0

Transfer Rates Up to 480 Mbps w/USB 2.0

System requirements:

Available USB 3.0 for high speed data transfer

Reverse compatible with USB 1.1 & USB 2.0.

Windows: 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10 (Both 32-bit & 64-bit versions)

MAC: OS X

Package Contents:

Sabrent EC-DFLT Lay-Flat Docking

Power Supply

USB 3.0 cable

User Manual

Warranty information:

1 year limited warranty.

When you register your new Sabrent product online within 90 days of purchase, your standard 1-year warranty coverage is extended to 2-years.

Supports all 2.5 and 3.5-inch SATA drives
Connects via SuperSpeed USB 3.0 (up to 10x as fast as USB 2.0)
UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) support for even faster performance. UASP requires UASP capable host system
Serial ATA bus up to 6Gbps Signal bandwidth for fast storage backups
This Docking station comes with a free download of Acronis True Image for Sabrent software for easy cloning

User questions & answers

Question:	Is it safe to use this for media files and run
Answer:	Absolutely. I have had mine connected to my PC for 2 months 24/7, and it runs just like an internal Sata HDD. Have a good one!
Question:	Will this product support a 6TB
Answer:	My 6TB Seagate hard drive didn't work for this product. On Amazon website said 3TB desktop, it might be up to 3TB.
Question:	Is the power supply universal (110-240V
Answer:	12v ps. Provided...do not use 12v supply with 5v drives. Some drives are ranged 5v to 12v . Some just say 5v.
Question:	I have a 1TB internal hard drive which I want to convert to external for backup storage.Is this a viable solution
Answer:	Depends on the HDD or SSD you are using and how you intend to use it. This drive is really made for fast-access to a variety of different drives for shorter periods. The interface is high-speed, but the case does NOT seal out dust, it does not give any sort of shock/impact damage protection, and not having any sort of cooling, it can get very hot with high speed HDDs. I have a 10k RPM WD Raptor from quite a few years back that I wanted to pull music off of. Over about an hour of usage, it got quite hot. While perfectly fine for intermittent usage, this is not ideal for frequent or prolonged usage given heat is a major catalyst of premature hard drive failure. So with higher RPM HDDs, this is not as good a choice for constant usage as a dedicated enclosure with some shock protection and a cooling fan/heat sinks. With a SSD, this is obviously not of concern. So if your 1tb is a HDD and you want to have it running constantly for backups, an external with a fan and shock protection would be a better match, IMO. Depending on the age of your drive though, it may be worth considering buying a new drive outright given you can get enterprise grade drives like the WD RE4's in that size for under $70 and SSDs have even gotten very affordable. While predicting when a specific drive fails is very difficult to do, standard consumer-grade HDDs tend to have failure rates increase at the 3-4 year mark and really spike at the 4-5 year mark (Google's study on this is the most detailed I know of to date.) An enterprise drive would give you a more reliable backup system with a longer reliable service life, and usually read/write speeds that are 2-3 times faster than standard internal HDDs (of which you would need to use USB3 or ThunderBolt to take full advantage of.)Sorry for the long response.

Product features

Product description:

The Sabrent EC-DFLT SATA Lay-Flat Docking Station supports the direct insertion of Desktop 2.5"/3.5" SATA Hard Drives.

It is a caseless solution that makes swapping hard drives easier than ever before. Plus, now you can take advantage of the lightening speed of USB 3.0 to quickly transfer files up to 5 Gbps!

System requirements:

Available USB 3.0 for high speed data transfer
Reverse compatible with USB 1.1 & USB 2.0.
Windows: 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10 (Both 32-bit & 64-bit versions)
MAC: OS X

Package Contents:
Sabrent EC-DFLT Lay-Flat Docking
Power Supply
USB 3.0 cable
User Manual

Sabrent USB 3.0 4 Bay 2.5” Hard Drive/SSD Docking Station with Fan (DS-4SSD)

SABRENT

Based on 905 reviews Check latest price

Product description

The Sabrent SATA Hard Drive Docking Station enables you to access SSDs and 2.5"" hard drives, without the frustration of assembling hard drive enclosures. By inserting a 2.5"" SATA hard drive directly into this docking station, you can quickly access drive contents and transfer files. Transfer data quickly and easily through USB 3.0 at speeds up to 5Gbps.

Features:

Read and write four hard drives simultaneously.

Plug and Play

Tool-free installation

Built in fan

Read and write up to four hard drives at speeds up 5Gbps

System requirements:

Available USB 3.0 for high speed data transfer Reverse compatible with USB 1.1 & USB 2.0.

Windows: 7/8/8.1/10 (Both 32-bit & 64-bit versions)

MAC: OS X

Package Contents:

Sabrent DS-4SSD Hard Drive Dock

Power Supply

USB 3.0 cable

User Manual.

Read and write four hard drives simultaneously.
Tool-free installation
Transfer speeds up to 5Gbps
LED indicator for power and HDD access

User questions & answers

Question:	Can I install 2tb four hard drives? Will it effect the maximum load
Answer:	Yes, it support m.2 sata ssd, could u let us know what is your issue? Pls contact us via email. We will resolve it for u. Thank u.
Question:	Can anyone verify the max depth drives that fit? some of the 3tb-4tb 2.5" drives are over the typical 7-9mm but can reach 15mm thick. will these fit
Answer:	Deberías ser algo mas especifico, porque esto es solamente un adaptador, para colocar unidades ssd SATA
Question:	Hello community
Answer:	It does come with a Thermal Pad for the SSD.
Question:	Can this be configured as a raid array
Answer:	Can't guarantee since I have not tested exactly that combination. But, it should work. the crucial thing it that your SSD is keyed for SATA not PCIe. I would feel comfortable buying this enclosure if I owned that the samsung 860 evo m.2 sata v-nand ssd drive

Product features

Product Description

The Sabrent SATA Hard Drive Docking Station enables you to access four SSDs and 2.5" hard drives on any Mac (or PC). Simply insert a 2.5" external hard drive directly into this dock, and you can immediately access all your data.Featuring USB 3.0 technology experience transfer speeds up to 5Gbps. All four ports allow you to Read/Write your data simultaneously with one another. Each port has its own LED power indicator for easy hard drive distinction. SATA I-II-III compatible for easy use of any level drive.