When connecting an HDD over USB, what do you use?

To be clear I have a laptop running R-Studio I want to do some Recovery with, but I want to know the best way / products to connect drives to it.

Best way is to connect it directly to the PC ie via sata or ide.
But in your case as your running a laptop then this isnt an option.
You can use something like this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-HDD-Dock-3- ... 45f86211f8


Loki

Yeah, we have a guy in the office who uses those all the time (not for recovery) but he gets through about one every 6 months. They die.

I'm hoping for more luck with this one:

http://www.ebuyer.com/180384-startech-s ... unidupdock

Or this one:

http://www.ebuyer.com/180460-startech-u ... -unidock2u

One of the guys in the office uses those (not for recovery) he gets through about one every 6 months. They die.

I'm thinking I'll try this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/180460-startech-u ... -unidock2u

Or this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/180384-startech-s ... unidupdock

What do you reckon?

@LastGroundhog,

DIY recovery attempts have risks; you can make the situation worse than they were before you started (or even turn a recoverable situation into an unrecoverable one). Software-only recovery also has limitations, and additional procedures (e.g. cloning of the problem drive, learning procedures with unimportant disks etc. etc.) are often recommended first (depending on your exact problem). Assuming that you accept the risks of DIY (as well as the potential benefits) and accept all the consequences of your actions then...

You haven't said what situation you're trying to recover from. For purely logical corruption (i.e. absolutely no hardware problem), then having a USB-attached SATA source drive should not affect recovery (if all other procedures are followed correctly, and assuming that this is a SATA drive which was not originally attached via an encrypting USB-SATA bridge, for example).

However for other types of problem (e.g. problem unknown; or detected bad sectors; or drive only intermittently recognised by the BIOS etc. etc. etc.) then you can waste lots of time (and potentially have the source drive deteriorate without any useful result), if the SATA source drive is USB-attached, so this is typically not recommended, as loki said. For those situations, and if you are limited to using a laptop, then you may want to consider buying a suitable Cardbus SATA adapter or Expresscard SATA adapter (whichever is compatible, depending on the age of your laptop) because that way you would be able to make a SATA connection to the drive.

Other suggestions may be possible, depending on the exact symptoms of the problem that you're trying to solve, your budget, the importance of the data, and other details about your situation.

@ Vulcan

I'm looking to learn about data recovery. I have a desktop, laptop and a pile of (unwanted) HDD's broken in various unknown ways.

I figure this is a good place to start. I have a (finite) budget for equipment, what would you say are the essentials?

I'm want to be able to recover drives up to the point where they need taking apart. Do you need a clean environment to replace a PCB?

If you are going to buy one do you get Deepspar Imager, Data Compass, Atola Insight?

So many questions...

There have been previous threads from people wanting to do this, and some of those already working in DR gave their views. I suggest using the forum search functionality.


Now that you've mentioned that so you're not limited to a laptop, obviously this allows other options, as does the other equipment you're now asking about.

My background is elsewhere in the data storage industry, so although I see many, many faulty disks and do some DIY recovery, for the questions you're now asking, I'll defer to any DR pros who want to offer you their advice in addition to those previous threads, now that we have the full story of what you're doing. I'll just answer one of your questions - no, you don't need a specially clean environment (e.g. clean room or laminar flow bench) to replace a PCB, although I strongly recommend suitable, comprehensive, ESD precautions. Good luck!