Question 1

I purchased this and use 2.5" drives in it.  Right now they are just held in with friction by the SATA port.  Do you know if all 2.5" to 3.5" drive bay adapters align the drives to the SATA port inside this unit properly?  I was looking at this: BYTECC Bracket-35225 2.5" HDD/SSD Mounting Kit For 3.5" Drive Bay or Enclosure

Thanks in advance!

Accepted Answer

Be sure to read the entire answer for the best solution.  If you are buying a 1 to 1 2.5" to 3.5" conversion that specifies that it is a conversion, it should work.  You cannot use the BYTECC bracket 35225 because it will not align the 2.5" SATA connection.  That bracket is for use with cables.  You need something like the ICY DOCK EZConvert MB882SP-1S-2B 2.5" to 3.5".  Or I use Vantec NexStar SE MRK-510ST 2.5" to 3.5" SATA.  The reason I use that one is that it has screw less drive trays that offer a little more protection, and are reasonable priced.  However, I use it as a standalone 2.5" solution.  I use the BPN-DE products only for 3.5" drives.

The best, easiest, and most reliable solution is to use a 4 bay 2.5" enclosure that holds 4 drives in one 5.25" bay.  This enclosure is too expensive and sophisticated for adding yet another enclosure for each 2.5" drive.  iStarUsa has a 4 bay version.....iStarUSA BPN-124K-SA 5.25" to 4 x 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Trayless Hot-Swap Cage ......and a NEW 6 bay version for slim drives....iStarUSA BPU-126-SA 1 x 5.25" to 6 x 2.5" SATA 6.0 Gb/s Hot-Swap Cage.  Use one of these and your hard drives will thank you.  So will newegg and iStarUsa.

Question 2

Will this case accept 5.25 inch hard drives, 5.25 inch form factor CD and DVD drives, and a 3.5 inch floppy drive with ribbon cables?  If you happen to know the answer to any one of the questions, that answer is much appreciated.  I have an old Gateway that is motherboard dead and I want to get the data off the hard drives and use the floppy's.  A USB 3.0 cable for output would be great - my new computer has one and it is fast.

Accepted Answer

It will not accept any of the above. It will accept 3.5 inch "half height" (one inch high) hard drives. This is not an external drive case. This mounts inside a normal PC case (one that has three free adjacent slots for 5.25 inch drives) and lets you mount five 3.5 inch drives in that space. And it does not have USB 3.0, or USB anything. It takes SATA drives and has SATA connectors on the back, one per drive.

Question 3

will a Seagate ST2000DX001 2TB MLC/8GB 64MB Cach SATA 6.0 GB/s NCQ 3.5 in desktop SSHD work with this unit?

Accepted Answer

This is very well built hardware. While I cannot say for sure, this cage is designed to work with any 3.5 inch SATA hard drive. I also bought an adapter that is in a 3.5 inch form factor that allows me to insert a 2.5 inch drive within. The adapter then fits perfectly inside a bay of this cage.

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