do i need protection for my 3.5" SATA internal external drive?

[nhood01]

Hi, i just bought 2, 1GB internal hard drives along with 2 Universal Drive Adapters to turn them into external hard drives.

Can i use them just sitting on my desk bare? or will they be prone to fail without some sort of sleeve. I really like the industrial look of the bare hard drive, but id put them in something if im at risk for hard drive failure.

What do you think?

 

[Makosuke]

If you're not poking the boards on the bottom or banging them around, then no, there's nothing inherently bad about having a bare drive sitting on the desk. That said, they tend to slide around very easily, where most cases have at least some rubber feet to hold them in place, so they're going to be a lot more likely to get bumped and slide around, which is bad, or to accidentally get unplugged, which is also bad. A good external case will also have a fan or at least act as a heat sink for the drive, to improve cooling a bit, but that probably isn't necessary under average normal use.

You could use those toaster-style docks--they'll leave the drive exposed and bare, but keep the cables more organized, and it'll be less likely to get bumped and slide around. I'd feel a lot more comfortable that way, personally.

 

[nhood01]

Thanks for the response.

I'll probably not invest in the toaster style dock for awhile since i just got these universal drive adaptors, but it would make for a safer set up. Since these drives are going to be used for back-up, they won't ever need to be moved around. Are there any textiles that could be laid down underneath them that would be of any help?