[Dirvish] Hard Drive Dock

[Eric Mountain]

On Sunday 15 Mar 2009, Keith Lofstrom spake thus:
> I bought a new toy for $40 at Frys:
>
> http://wiki.dirvish.org/index.cgi?DriveDock

I got this about 8 months ago for 30 € including shipping:

http://www.textorm.com/boitier-hdd-externe/textorm-boitier...3-
pouces-1_2-%5Bf1826%5D.html

It's quite handy, especially since it handles both PATA and SATA drives.

I recently tried out the SATA option (having at last replaced my 7 year old 
machine with a new one) and compared write speed with my WD 500Gb eBooks (or 
whatever they're called).  Writing 1Gb from /dev/zero using dd to a file on the 
drives went something like this:

- In the disk's own enclosure, USB2 connection: 28Mb/s
- In the Textorm enclosure, USB2 connection: 35Mb/s
- In the Textorm enclosure, SATA connection: 110Mb/s
- To one of the machine's internal SATA drives: 110Mb/s.

Despite the speed difference, I haven't yet taken the plunge - i.e. ripped the 
WD disks out of their enclosures and switched over to the Textorm:

- Speed isn't that essential in my case: I only use these disks for rotating 
"offsite" backups, and while a disk is synching up, I just go off and do 
something else.

- Same as you I am a little concerned by the lack of robustness of the  
connectors.  Mine is worse than yours in this respect, especially when 
switching  USB2/SATA/PATA connectivity.  Then again, I really did intend it 
only for very occasional (home) use.

If I had your kind of system, I would have switched though, because it's a lot 
easier to swap disks.  A future investment perhaps. ;-)

Cheers,
Eric
-- 
Eric Mountain
http://erina.nerim.net/
Stop talking! I'm out of aspirin!

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