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mythos

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 16, 2002
51
16
Los Angeles
I store a lot of library and archived material on bare SATA III drives (with a safety duplicate of each) for storage and when I need to transfer any of the data I just connect it to my Mac via Newer Tech's Universal Drive Adapter, which works.

Only problem is that it's rather clunky and also a little slow for large transfers.


I've used upright "docking stations" in the past and found them unreliable.

I need something solid and with high transfer speeds.

Does anybody know of any options to easily and speedily access data on bare drives - that is, without putting them into enclosures ?

Any suggestions or pointers appreciated.
 

hfg

macrumors 68040
Dec 1, 2006
3,621
312
Cedar Rapids, IA. USA
This may be what you are referring to as a "upright docking station", but I have had good results with this one:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/NewerTech/Voyager/Hard_Drive_Dock


As far as transfer speeds ... you aren't going to transfer data to the disk drive any faster than the disk drive native data rate, no matter how fast the interface between the computer and disk drive dock. You could save to RAID-0 disk arrays at faster speeds, but at the cost of more drives and decreased reliability. You could also save to much faster SSDs, but that could get very costly.
 

ColdCase

macrumors 68040
Feb 10, 2008
3,358
276
NH
Last edited:

mythos

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 16, 2002
51
16
Los Angeles
As far as transfer speeds ... you aren't going to transfer data to the disk drive any faster than the disk drive native data rate, no matter how fast the interface between the computer and disk drive dock.

Thanks, I am aware.
I have about 40 1TB+ SATA III drives in my safe and I'm ideally looking for faster than USB 3 speed if possible.

----------

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812191338[/url]

Thanks, I wasn't aware of this, will look into it, but probably the same speed I have now.

I prefer to pay more for quality than buy cheap anyway.
 

hfg

macrumors 68040
Dec 1, 2006
3,621
312
Cedar Rapids, IA. USA
Thanks, I am aware.
I have about 40 1TB+ SATA III drives in my safe and I'm ideally looking for faster than USB 3 speed if possible.


Although using USB 3.0 to access your hard disks will realize the maximum data rates possible for the disk, you will only see the actual speed of the hard disk itself (around 130MB/sec). You will not see the maximum speeds advertised for the USB 3.0 interface itself (640MB/sec).

Just because the disk drive has a SATA III interface does not imply that the disk can transfer sustained data at SATA III speeds ... it can't ... unfortunately! :mad:
 

mythos

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 16, 2002
51
16
Los Angeles
Although using USB 3.0 to access your hard disks will realize the maximum data rates possible for the disk, you will only see the actual speed of the hard disk itself (around 130MB/sec). You will not see the maximum speeds advertised for the USB 3.0 interface itself (640MB/sec).

Ah ! - showing my ignorance I wasn't aware that the disk was quite that slow.

Thanks for the heads-up.

There goes my hopes of some kind of Thunderbolt transfer at some stage (wry grin).
 

hfg

macrumors 68040
Dec 1, 2006
3,621
312
Cedar Rapids, IA. USA
Ah ! - showing my ignorance I wasn't aware that the disk was quite that slow.

Thanks for the heads-up.

There goes my hopes of some kind of Thunderbolt transfer at some stage (wry grin).

Yeah, even putting that disk on a Thunderbolt interface isn't going to make it transfer data any faster.

Now, if you put 4 of your 1TB disks in a RAID-0 (striped : parallel) Thunderbolt enclosure ... you will have a 4TB volume that transfers data approaching 600MB/sec. :D While this is great for workspace and cache storage, it is not a backup solution because failure of any one of the disks will destroy the total data contained on all of them! :eek:


-howard
 
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