BytePac, a company based in Germany, offers a new way to enclose and even archive hard disk drives. Internal drives are cheaper than external drives, but you can’t use them unless they can fit into your computer or you have a some sort of case and connector. The BytePac Kit comes with a SATA/USB connection kit and three cardboard enclosures that will allow you to use internal disks as external drives. You can use the hard drives while they are in the cardboard enclosures, and you can unplug from the connection kit, close up the box, and archive your data on the hard disk. The BytePac Kit comes with three cardboard enclosures and one connection kit. You can buy extra boxes and labels, or you can even buy a Ready To Store Kit with a hard drive of your choice included. Although the company is in Germany, they show prices in other currencies, including American dollars, so I assume that means they ship to the US. The BytePac kit is $55.93, the Ready to Store Kit is $125.93, and extra enclosures start as low as $19.59 for a 3-pack.
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Wouldn’t the drives overheat in those boxes?
That was my first thought too…although they are stressing that these are for archiving, not as additional storage, so in theory they shouldn’t be used very often…and as I remember from reading Ray Bradbury, paper doesn’t burn until temps get to at least 451 degrees…I’d think the drive would fail before it got to THAT temp!
Pretty expensive for boxes. SATA connection kits usually only cost $15. And boxes shouldn’t add up the remaining $40.
The kit I belief is not a standard SATA kit. You get a PowerBox that allows the connection via a single 22 pin SATA cable. All kits I saw so far used an separate power cable. You can also change the interface between USB 2, USB 3 and Thunderbolt. So you can use the hard disk in the future as well – no matter what interface your new PC will provide. Any as I understood their concept they use the shipping box of the cable kit as external disk enclosures. So its like a zero waste product. That’s cool. For @ 50 $ you get 3 external disk drive enclosures that you can use a easy storage container as well, a cable set, power supply, unique PowerBox – shipping is to expensive to the US. Hope to find the product in the US shortly, to save the shipping.
these are Great the
interface is what you pay for
USB 2/3 to eSata to POWERED eSata very neat Archival YES everyday Yes
i have 1 drive continually on No heat issues
currently no courier to Australia