Question Advice on SATA HDD to USB adaptor

[Josiah_2854]

Hi, I’m currently using a notebook, but there are a few files on my previous computer’s HDD that I need. I have searched countless sites, and either they don’t have one (not even Curry’s PC World to my shock), or I’m just not sure if it’s right for my HDD.

I have a Western Digital Black Sata internal HDD, 2TB.

Part of my problem is I don’t even really know the platter size. All I know is it’s either 3.0” or 3.5”. And since the new WD_Black storage has come out, they seemed to have completely erased their old Black hard drives from their website, so I can’t even look it up. And looking in other places on the internet hasn’t helped either so far.

This is what it looks like:

https://imgur.com/a/H92vw7C

View: https://imgur.com/a/H92vw7C


Second part of my problem is I have no experience/knowledge about brands. Which adaptors are good, which are crap and might damage my data, which come with some extra features i don’t need. all that stuff. I just need to plug my HDD into a USB port, to access and retrieve a few files.

Also, this HDD has everything on it. The operating system, the users, the programs, everything. So ideally I’d like to plug it in without it messing in any way with my current computer.

 

[rgd1101]

https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Lay-Flat-Docking-EC-DFFN/dp/B013WODZH0
3.5 likely need more power

 

[faalin]

I use this one at home and have the same one at work but a dual dock

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0099TX7O4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use SSK external enclosures of NVMe drives, so i wouldnt have any issues trying this one


For the docking station all you have to do is plug the power into the wall, the usb into the computer, then push the drive into the slot, and then power it on. It will show up as a secondary drive on the computer and you can search the drive for whatever you want.

When done in the bottom right corner on the Task Bar click safely remove hardware and eject media and eject the drive, then power off the docking station, wait for the platters to stop spinning, then remove the drive from the dock if you so wish to.

 

[Josiah_2854]

https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Lay-Flat-Docking-EC-DFFN/dp/B013WODZH0
3.5 likely need more power

I don't know. I did some digging and went to the Sabrent store page for this one. There's over 30 "Terrible" reviews, and 13 "poor" reviews. The worrying part is all the negative reviews seem to have more effort and detail put into them than the good ones, and almost every single bad review speaks of the same issues, the device dying within months or less after use, or just not working at all and not recognizing the hard drives. Going to some other review sites there are also numerous reviews complaining about the customer support being unprofessional and unhelpful.

Normally It's quite easy to spot a good product if the good>bad review ratio is quite drastic, and especially if the bad reviews seem like troll posts or just poorly written with little detail. But this isn't the case. 🙁 Even the "Average" reviews (3 stars) all point out the same issue of it not recognizing a hard drive unless it is wiped and formatted.

 

[ErickParker]

I have two Orico 3.5" 7688U3 cases with 4TB WD working perfectly for over a year.
https://www.amazon.com/ORICO-External-Enclosure-Aluminum-Vertical/dp/B082PMXPPY
The case is made of aluminum, has an external power supply, USB 3.0 connection with UASP protocol that allows for much faster transfers and also allows you to connect SATA SSDs and 2.5" HDDs,
One of them is shared on the network and works 24/7.
Perfect and cheap. You can also find it at Orico Store on Aliexpress.