What is a Hard Drive Enclosure?
A hard drive enclosure or “caddy” is basically a housing for an IDE or SATA hard drive (3.5″ or 2.5″) which has an interface to either USB, Firewire or NAS (Network attached storage). In reality this means that you can use a hard drive enclosure as a secure backup device which can be accessible by any number of computers, either by swapping a cable over, or directly over a network. However, it is important to remember that some of the interfaces you get are better than others, making some hard drive enclosures less secure or stable than other! For more information read our review of External Hard Drives and Hard Drive Enclosures.
A hard drive enclosure is used to house a hard disk externally, adding storage and flexibility to any system. The enclosure connects to the computer through a universal serial bus (USB) or Firewire port, making it a plug-and-play device. This means it can be turned off and on while the system is up and running. A hard drive enclosure can be used for many purposes and provides portability between desktop and laptop, or home and office. Security: One of the main advantages to using an external hard drive enclosure is security. Many people are concerned about online threats including viruses, Trojan horses, spyware, hacking, poorly written software and malicious scripts. Some threats can expose data to outside sources, while others corrupt it. Installing financial data or sensitive programs on an external hard drive is one way to help ensure they stay safe. The hard drive enclosure can be left off when the user isn’t accessing the programs or data, and when online. If several family membe
Hard drive enclosures are small boxes into which a typical computer hard drive can be installed. Once secured inside the enclosure and connected to a PC or Mac the new Firewire or external USB hard drive can be mounted and used on the computer exactly as if it was mounted inside the actual computer case. Hard drive enclosures make almost any drive portable and allow users to move hundreds of gigabytes of data from place to place simply by moving the drive from PC to PC. Most hard drive enclosures come with Firewire and/or USB connections and most require their own power source.
