Customer Reviews

ineo I-NC05, 3.5-Inch SATA/ IDE Hard Drive Protection Box (Milky White)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I use bare "internal" hard drives in an external dock to do my backups, and swap the drive to an off-site location every week. I wanted a protective case to carry the bare drive in, and was surprised to find such a case difficult to find.

The ineo box looked like what I wanted, but it occurs to me that my intended use is probably not what ineo had in mind. The box is a simple plastic shell (as expected), and the only padding is two hard foam strips on either end that hold the hard drive in place. Outside of that, the drive rests against the bare plastic of the sides. ineo claims "anti-shock", but this case isn't going to provide much protection against impacts that aren't mostly to the end of the case. My guess is that it was intended to go no further than crossing the room from a machine to a storage cabinet.

Even so, it's still better than throwing a bare drive in my bag, keeping fingers and keys off of the drive itself. It does that job well enough that I bought a second one. For the price, the level of protection is not unreasonable.

UPDATE: I've been using these boxes to carry my backup hard drives off-site for five months now and they have performed the job as expected. I've not dropped a drive, but I carry it in my bag one day a week, and the cases are doing the job as expected.

UPDATE 2: (06/2011) I've now been using two of these boxes as indicated above for over 18 months. Still no complaints, and I've upgraded my rating from three to four stars. I've had no trouble with the drives that I transport in them. The hinges are not showing any signs of stress, though I've probably opened and closed them less than 100 times each.

The case was certainly nice to have when I was off work for two weeks and kept my offsite backup at my dad's... I was more comfortable handing him the drive in a sturdy case than just wrapped in an ESD bag.

This case fits the hard drive snugly, and it has small pads on either end to prevent the drive from rattling inside the box. Much cheaper than buying 2 USB enclosures.

I use 2 bare drives for backup, with a USB drive dock. I swap them between an offsite location monthly. This box is a great way to protect the drives during storage and transport.

Great way to store naked hard drives. You can stack them and they keep the dust off the drives. The one problem is it is not waterproof.

If you want a case that protects your hard drive perfectly and you don't mind paying appr. 10 bucks for it, get this one (I did).

If you want a case that is much cheaper but also way inferior in quality (but still works), get one from [...] (I did).

Maybe a good compromise is: buy the best case for the HD's that you schlepp between docking stations and use frequently but get the cheap ones that just lie in the your filing cabinet full of backups of important stuff that you will never ever use unless a major catastrophe strikes.

N.B. You can buy these at amazon.com in larger quantities at a much cheaper per unit price.

I love the product. Keeps all my drives organized and keeps my drives dust free! It does what it needs to do and will be safely secure and protected from any accidents that may arrive.

I was looking for something simple, however, the plastic box for both units I ordered were warped such that the square opening was very convex, and if you slide the drive into the box there is a good chance it would pop a surface mounted cap right off the drive circuit board!

I am going to put them into the oven at around 200-250 degrees with a drive over-wrapped with paper towel(to try and bulge the box the other way hehe); if I can flow the plastic back into something closer to a rectangle, well, it would be a low cost fix.

just an FYI to watch out for...

The white ones are too thin on the side and the lips buckle inward, making it hard to get the drive in. The other colors are fine.

I purchased these cases over a year ago and liked them. So when I was looking for more, I purchased them again. However, this time they broke a little over a month of occasional use. The latch on one case broke (so now I cannot keep it closed.) The other case has a broken hinge so the lid doesn't stay on at all. They seemed to have been made from inferior plastic.

I WOULD NOT BUY THESE AGAIN!

Not much else to say. The shape is a bit convex like other users have noted, but nowhere near as bad as what I had expected. It really didn't cause any problems for me.

The Crest 3.5 inch IDE/SATA HDD Storage Boxes are the way to go!

They come in all kinds of colors so you can organize them accordingly.
Red for Video, Blue for Music, white for Photography, etc...

They stack on top of each other nicely.

The only thing I would recommend since they are made of plastic, is to drop in a little packet of Silica Sand so no humidity can build up in the boxes.

Theses are much better than the Black Plastic ones that look like VHS Cases.