Seagate Drive Docks to Organize Your Hard Drives
Long before the ubiquity of disk drive docks, one would have to swap out a hard disk from the second or third data storage slot from a desktop for that one file from five years ago. But having to go through stacks upon stacks of them can be time-consuming, not to mention dangerous to the health of the disk. Luckily, drive docks are widely available and have convenient features that enable you to shuffle between different drives with ease.
What Is a Drive Dock?
- Accepts Any Hard Disk Size: Hard drives require both power and data connections to work. Drive docks are able to power each drive via a separate power cable plugged into a wall socket, while another cable is dedicated for data. This enables you to effectively and safely power hard drives of any size to get the valuable data within.
- Convenient for Storage and Archive: Some users prefer to store or archive their data into physical media, much like you used to with DVDs and CDs. These docks let you transfer and read the data from within the disk, do what you will with them, and eject them safely to prevent data corruption. You can then physically store the disk somewhere safe from shocks and impacts.
- USB Connectivity: USB is the standard for data connections. All docks will feature a USB cable so that your computer can read and write data to the disk.
What Is Seagate FreeAgent?
- Series: This is Seagate's line of portable hard disks focused on convenience and security. FreeAgent often includes software tools for organizing and managing your data.
- Variants: These drives range in size between 60 GB to upwards of 3 TB depending on the model. Cost goes up proportionately with capacity.
- GoFlex: This line of drives support USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 standards and are backwards compatible with USB 2.0 ports. The latter standard is capable of faster real data transfers of up to 1.6 Gbps, making it ideal as media storage organizing tools.
What Types of Drive Docks Are Available?
- FireWire: As an older standard, FireWire was ubiquitous as data connection types for printers, video cameras, and hard disk. Old hard disks may still be used with hard drive docks that support FireWire connections on the drive side but with a USB connector for data transfers to newer computers.
- SATA: This stands for Serial ATA or Advanced Technology Attachment used to connect a hard drive to a modern computer motherboard. These types of drive docks are useful for organizing newer hard disks and have faster data read and write speeds than FireWire drives.
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