NewerTech intros quad-interface SATA HDD dock of its own

It's amazing, really, that this meme has lasted this long. When we first noticed Brando's SATA HDD Dock, we figured it was destined to become a cute, one-off gift that only the hardest of hardcore storage freaks would bother with. Over a year later, we're having trouble counting the iterations available. Now, we've got storage mainstay NewerTech diving in with one of its own, as it has just revealed the quad-interface Voyager SATA hard drive docking station. As you'd expect, the unit turns any 2.5- or 3.5-inch SATA I / II hard drive (up to 2TB) into an external drive, and with FireWire 400 / 800, USB 2.0 and eSATA sockets, you shouldn't have any issue hooking it up. It's available now for stocking stuffing at $99.95.

[Patriks7 @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:22PM]

FireWire 400? What a bag of hurt.



I kid, I kid!

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:24PM]

Bit expensive but can be useful if you've not got the space in your case. (Ryhmes)

[JStro @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:35PM]

Yeah, why don't I go eat some hay. I can make things out of clay, or lay by the bay, I just may. Whaddya say?

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:38PM]

I say You took it to Serious-Lay.



I fail
Like a whale.

[phanbouy fan fan @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:41PM]

Dude. Never crack a joke again

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:44PM]

But that doesn't rhyme

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:51PM]

You failed to rhyme like a lime.

[StalematE @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:47PM]

it does if you say it in pig latin...

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Dec 2nd 2008 5:08PM]

Pigs can't learn latin.



(Joke dtectors to stun)

[YOYO @ Dec 2nd 2008 9:53PM]

i got thermal take blacx same thing tough and it only coast me 50 bucks at best buy


it very very usefully and now that own one i can say i would pony up the hundred bucks for one

but then again a good part of my work is people bring me damage hard drive and asking me to to retrieve personal data off it

so i built a linux system using bactrac 3 just for that purepose and that all i really use for

it been handy as hell

i also bought a second one i use on my personal computer in house i tossed an 300gb hard drive in it and use like a backup drive but it nice to be able just swap out another drive for when i cant sleep and decide to work in bed

[Evoss @ Dec 3rd 2008 3:52PM]

this is shredder for data :D perfect thing :D

[bandigolo @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:26PM]

$100 stocking stuffer? Damn. Where do I get a Santa like that?

[Samboini @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:33PM]

The orphanage.

[thatone @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:34PM]

You're not using the word "meme" correctly.

[jay.viz @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:25PM]

Yeah, the meme meme jumped the shark.

[Mikey @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:36PM]

Is it really quad-interface? Isn't saying FireWire 400/800 like saying USB 1.0/2.0?

[JeffEd @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:42PM]

No. 800 is a seperate type of port. Generally an extra 50-100 bucks more to have 800 on a hard drive.

[Information Central @ Dec 3rd 2008 3:26AM]

Yes, because Apple didn't learn anything from the SCSI connector fiasco and didn't design a forward-thinking port in the first place. Meanwhile, USB is on its third generation with the same port (with USB 3 being backward-compatible).

And who was the moron who invented eSATA, a recent interconnect with NO PROVISION FOR POWER?

The current state of high-performance interconnects is pretty sad, what with Apple giving up on FireWire and no real replacement coming up. And no, USB is not a replacement for FireWire. USB is for mice, modems, and keyboards; not mass storage.

[JeffEd @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:36PM]

I bought the BlacX one with eSata when it was on sale. Use the eSata with my MBP. I love it. It's so nifty. I'd love one with Firewire 800 but it's 3 times the price. They're cool though.
@Patriks7: Funny, :-P ;-)

[Period.Man @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:36PM]

That's kindof nifty, I'd have no need for one now, but there's definitely been times in the past where I couldv'e used another external harddrive and didn't have one, except for a harddrive from an old broken PC.

[iEye @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:49PM]

Apple Time Capsule

[offroadering @ Dec 2nd 2008 5:05PM]

nope

[StalematE @ Dec 2nd 2008 5:14PM]

Not even a little bit.

[Tallest Skil @ Dec 2nd 2008 5:21PM]

So, uh, where's this mythical 2TB 3.5" drive they seem to think exists?

And if I'm wrong I want a link to somewhere where I can buy it.

[Brad, The @ Dec 2nd 2008 5:23PM]

I love these things. I'm using one this very moment to scan someone's 2.5" drive that they carelessly got infected with something that knocked out their McAfee.

[Colin @ Dec 2nd 2008 10:02PM]

What's so weird about this? Drives are cheap and fill quickly with multimedia files. Buying inexpensive drives to use with a dock makes perfect sense to me.

[Regis @ Dec 2nd 2008 6:27PM]

LOL at antivirus software.

APPLE APPLE APPLE APPLE APPLE.

'nuff said.

[Kieran @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:43PM]

uh, no. not 'nuff said, sorry.

[Bo @ Dec 2nd 2008 10:39PM]

@regis:
today's news:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7760344.stm

[ProfessorKaos @ Dec 3rd 2008 10:31AM]

Regis:

Mac's do get virus's just not as much. I hate that flippin argument by Apple fanboys.

[Thunderbuck @ Dec 2nd 2008 5:53PM]

Actually of monumental usefulness if you spend much of any time cloning drives (or upgrading HDDs for clients in-place).

Wouldn't mind one myself, but if I try to hint at this for my wife to get me for Christmas, I'm frightened of what I might wind up with ;-)

[Geir @ Dec 2nd 2008 5:57PM]

I've got a Sharkoon SATA QuickPort Duo II for up to two harddrives with 2 x eSATA (3 Gbps) and 1 x USB2 connectivity. Works great. Highly recommended. I don't care much for USB or FireWire though, I strictly use it with eSATA.

[zargon @ Dec 2nd 2008 6:15PM]

I really like the dock style of these things.

If these things are to expensive for people, similar devices can be had for less. We use some at work that support 2.5 and 3.5 IDE and all SATA I/II. It is just a cable device with the connectors and if you search around, you can pick them up for about $20 or so.

[MarbleMind @ Dec 2nd 2008 6:15PM]

Make it a quad HDD bay, cut the price by 1/3, and we might just be so gracious to bestow consideration on your insignificant existence.

[Falcom @ Dec 2nd 2008 6:55PM]

$100 for an external hard disk enclosure, minus the enclosure? Great for some i'm sure but i'll be passing on this.

[Richard @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:38PM]

I have something like this that I picked up from Best Buy.. works great with my laptop! I found out the hard way that the FreeAgent Desktop drives have cheap USB connectors that break easily... so I had to crack the case and use one of these to get to all my info. Will probably just buy a NAS/drobo at some point though.

[Kieran @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:41PM]

I've got three of these, love them.

[Dave Senior @ Dec 2nd 2008 8:51PM]

doesn't thermaltake manufacture and market this exact enclosure?

[BB @ Dec 2nd 2008 8:52PM]

These are great and all, and we use 'em at the shop, but what we REALLY need is a PATA compatible one. So many people have older systems that we need to get the info off of, and one's like the Newertech USB cable version is just a mess o' wires and such.

[Joe @ Dec 2nd 2008 9:35PM]

Why would you guys (engadget) think this would be a one-off oddity? It sounds like a fucking awesome idea to me, I know I and many friends have bare HDDs lying around and it's a pain to swap out the connections to even just check what's on them.

[Sizer @ Dec 2nd 2008 10:15PM]

You can get a USB 2.0 only version of this with two bays for only $50 from Newegg. Won't be nearly as fast, of course, so if you use it for a lot of cloning or the like the extra $50 may be worth it, but otherwise...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817996002

[superhobo @ Dec 3rd 2008 2:25AM]

You don't think this is useful? And you guys run a tech site?

Are you kidding?

[justin @ Dec 3rd 2008 2:58AM]

I find the HDD to USB adapters dont actually work very well with any sort of damaged drive. Basically they just wont mount. Yoyo, were your ones not that badly damaged, or do these new dock adapters work better?

[luminael @ Dec 3rd 2008 5:20AM]

Useful but too expensive. I'll buy one if it's $49

[Labrador @ Dec 3rd 2008 9:18AM]

They should make a motorized front loading version for the 5 1/4 inch bay. It would sell like hot cakes.

[ProfessorKaos @ Dec 3rd 2008 10:28AM]

One thing I never got about these things: why not buy a external enclosure for 20-30 bucks, sve your self the money and protect the hard drive better than touting around a bare hard drive that could easily be damaged. Seriously though, how its this practical, its not like its a hub for flash drives or external drives, you stick a bare HDD in it and away, well great but not a great idea to be swapping bare metal contact HDD's in and out. Hard Drive enclosures were made for a reason lol. When you HDD breaks, don't cry to this company.

:)

sorry for ranting.

[Traycer @ Dec 4th 2008 2:25PM]

ProfessorKaos:

Have you actually used one of these docks? I have the Thermaltake Blacx eSATA/USB dock, and it is easily the best storage-related purchase I've made all year. I have all sorts of other enclosures (trayless or otherwise, toolless or otherwise), but the Blacx is the most robust, convenient, reliable and fastest method I have of connecting a SATA hard drive to my computer. I'd love to have one of the dual-slot versions.

[Pete Ruksakiati @ Dec 3rd 2008 4:27PM]

Best $179 I've spent in awhile. Had a 2 TB RAID suddenly go bad. Popped both drives in the dock and discovered that the HDs were fine but the drive enclosure had failed. Could have gotten away w/the USB version but Other World Computing had a special - dock w/1TB drive (purchased in case one or both of the HDs died) for $179 after rebate. Since I use a Mac at home and PC at the office, nice to have FW and USB.

To Professor Kaos (and anyone interested), the SATA port is solid, the dock enclosure for the 2.5 or 3.5 drive is snug (not a lot of wiggle room), and the usual HD removal protocols should be followed according to the directions (safely remove for Windows, drag to trash for Mac).

[Pete Ruksakiati @ Dec 3rd 2008 4:56PM]

Forgot to mention that I did try Newer Technologies' Universal Drive Adapter on both drives at first - both came up DOA.

[Gabriel @ Dec 3rd 2008 5:22PM]

A "usb to ide/sata adapter" comes to mind, and it comes with a power supply on the side for $25... 24-32 MB a sec up and down you can find it anywhere, i use it allot. But if you want it stationary then $75 or a leg don't hurt.