Best Hard Drive Enclosures

The technical features of the ProBox HF2-SU3S2 docking station show that it stands out of the peers. This distinctiveness is primarily due to the availability of four drive slots in the docking station. This model supports the drives with a capacity of up to 8TB each that in total makes it possible to connect up to 32TB of storage space to your PC/laptop - one of the highest values for the class. The rate of the data transfer via USB 3.0 connector is 5.0 Gbps, while via the eSATA - 6.0 Gbps, thus empowering you to quickly exchange the large data volumes. The excellent compatibility of this docking station-type HDD enclosure with the popular operating systems is also worth mentioning: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, as well as with Mac OS 10.3 or newer.

One of the main features of Mediasonic ProBox docking station is the cooling system, which maintains an optimal temperature of the hard drives during the operation. The cooling system of this external hard drive enclosure includes a built-in temperature sensor that accurately monitors the installed drives temperature. The cooling system of this HDD enclosure model has two modes, automatic and manual, therefore you can either set the fan speed (three levels) manually or let the system do it automatically. Another important feature of this Mediasonic hard disk drive enclosure is the availability of the button, by pressing which you can quickly switch between the USB 3.0 and eSATA external interfaces. Please, note: 1) the SATA port of the PC/laptop motherboard, which you connect the docking station to must support the Port Multiplier function for your PC to recognize multiple hard drives installed in the HDD enclosure; 2) you can use only one interface at a time (either USB 3.0 or eSATA). The power for the station drives is supplied by a separate power adapter supporting the 100-240V input voltage. Despite such a large number of the mountable hard drives, this SATA hard drive enclosure has quite a compact size - 8.5 x 5 x 6.5 inches, thereby it can be conveniently placed on a computer desk.

The MiniPro FireWire 800 CB3-BK external hard drive enclosure offers only one slot for the connection of HDD/SSD drives. This removable hard drive enclosure provides the installation of the drives with a storage capacity of up to 2TB, which, given the compactness and the power supply type of the enclosure, is probably the optimal option. As for the peak data transfer rate, the rates are high enough: 5.0 Gbps via the USB 3.0 and 100 MB/s maximum for the FireWire 800 connection. This theoretical maximum is 10 times the maximal data transfer rate that the USB 2.0 connection provides. The OS compatibility of this SATA hard drive enclosure enables you to use it with the PCs with the following operating systems installed: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and newer, as well as MAC OS 10.2 or newer, Linux 2.4.22 and newer.

The first notable feature of the device is the support of the sleep mode on MiniPro CB3-BK single-hard-drive enclosure, entering which makes it possible for the device to cut down the power consumption of the hard drive connected by decreasing its spindle rotation speed. Moreover, the device offers the backward compatibility with the USB 2.0, which permits its connection to the older PCs. The second important thing to mention is the use of ASMedia 1153E controller with the support of UASP protocol enabling the higher data exchange speeds for the SSD type drives. The power for the hooked up drives is provided via the USB port, which is a very practical solution. However, if required, you can resort to the option of the power supply from a dedicated power adapter or via the FireWire cable used for connecting the HDD enclosure to a PC. In this regard, this compact HDD enclosure is a very versatile one. The dimensions of the rack ensure its high compactness and convenience, the dimensions are mere 4.9 x 3.2 x 1.0 inches.

This model of a USB enclosure for hard drives is rendered in a rack type and is designed for using with only one HDD or SSD-type drive. One of the big advantages this SATA drive enclosure offers is the unlimited capacity of the connected drive, which, as the manufacturer website states, enables installing the hard drives with more than 8TB storage space. The external interface-conditioned peak data transfer rates supported are 5.0 Gbps for the USB 3.0 and 480 Mbps for the USB 2.0, which are high enough to utilize the connected drives data transfer capabilities fully. You will unlikely run into any compatibility difficulties when using this hard disk enclosure as it supports such Windows family operating systems as Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, and the most recent Windows 10, as well as Mac OS 10.6 and newer operating systems.

The peculiarities of this hard drive enclosure include the drive hot swapping for a quick HDD change without shutting the system down. The Sabrent EC-DFLT single HDD enclosure provides the backward compatibility with the USB 1.1 and 2.0 versions as the external connection interface, which will come in handy for those with the older PCs or laptops. The second advanced and useful feature of this external hard drive enclosure is the support of UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) protocol that can boost the data transfer in case of SSD drives use. Despite the compactness of this model, it supplies the power to the installed drives from an external power adapter of 12V/2.5A power. Regarding the HDD enclosure dimensions, they bring the portability and ensure a convenient use of the device. The device outer dimensions are 7.1 x 1.6 x 4.8 inches.

Nowadays many PC users frequently encounter the problem of accidental deletion of important data and files from their PC data storage. Today we would like to describe 3 simple methods how to recover your lost data.

1. Perform a search in the Recycle Bin. It may sound trivial but the Recycle Bin is the first measure against unintended files deletion. At that, many Windows users empty the Recycle Bin reflexively right after removing their files to it. Though, generally speaking, there is no need to empty the Recycle Bin manually as the system performs it automatically. It is easy to find files and folders in the Recycle Bin. Just search for the corresponding icon on your Desktop and click on it. If you know the name of the file you look for, type it in the search box. You can also sort the files in the Recycle Bin by the date of deletion and find the recently deleted.
2. The second option is to search through the shadow copies. The standard system restore tool in Windows suits this purpose well. This restore feature is enabled by default on the operating system installation. Thus, if the System Restore was not disabled manually then you need to find the folder that contained the file before its deletion, open the folder properties menu and select the Previous Versions tab in order to recover the file from a Windows shadow copy. On clicking the tab, you will see the info on the versions of the file of interest that have been stored in the folder. After that, you have to choose the most recent folder version and try to find the file you want to restore there. In case the selected folder version does not contain the file, check the previous one and so forth until the needed version is found.
3. You can recover your files by means of third-party recovery utilities, for example, Recuva. This application is capable of searching and recovering the deleted files that have already been removed from the Recycle Bin.

Anker USB 3.0 SuperSpeed 10-Port Hub is a superb USB hub that offers 10 high-speed ports, one of which in addition can be used for charging the mobile devices.

In these latter days, almost everyone be it on a home or a workplace PC stores a lot of important and precious information, the loss of which is frightful to think of. That is why we recommend you to back up your data to an external HDD and SSD. Though you can go a simpler and, in some cases, more convenient way and opt for cloud services. In addition, backing up your data using a cloud storage can be the only safe way of keeping the data, if you have no external hard drive enclosure. Here is the list of the TOP 5 cloud storage services with their highlights:

1. Google Drive. Each Google Drive user is granted 15GB of storage space (this offer by Google exceeds the one by Dropbox, for example). If the standard capacity is insufficient you can acquire an additional 30 TB of storage;
2. OneDrive. The OneDrive service now allows you to store up to 5 GB of data free of charge (compared to initial 15 GB storage), which has a standard folder tree representation. For the images stored in the cloud, the service allows for a preview as thumbnails or a slideshow;
3. Dropbox. The basic Dropbox account offers a free 2 GB storage space. Though 2 GB may seem a very modest capacity the Dropbox service has many free mechanisms, along with the ones offered on a fee paid basis, which may help expand the storage capacity from 2 to 48 GB;
4. Mega. The distinguishing feature of the Mega service is the stored content encryption right in your browser using the AES algorithm, thus enabling the service users to exchange the encrypted files with the files remaining in the “cloud”. The decryption keys are not available to the public but are distributed according to Friend-to-Friend scheme among the trusted users. It is interesting that the Mega cloud service was launched with already a 50 GB free storage, which can be expanded further by paid options;
5. Yandex.Disk. The service offers a 10 GB free storage from the beginning. Moreover, the Yandex.Disk can serve as a cloud storage integrated into the Microsoft Office 2013 suite with a recently added ability of automatic uploading of photos and video files from digital cameras and external media to the storage. With that, a user is provided with an additional 32 GB of the Yandex.Disk storage space for 6 months.

AmazonBasics USB 3.0 Cable is a high-speed data transfer cable, which has a healthy 9-feet length.