Hidden Treasures

In working with electronics every once in a while you find out something that completely changes your life that is a complete accident. One of those items is the Seagate Free Agent Goflex, now no it isn't the cheapest 1TB drive out there, and the drive itself isn't what is so awesome it's the base. See you can remove the base and get a standing Sata HD docking bay. Yes for 80 bucks(less if you are a reward zone member with points stored up) whether it be desktop or laptop if you have a sata drive that you aren't sure if there is data left over on you can just pop the top of the drive off from the bottom and boom the base is free to plop any sata drive on it you wish.

Now for those who don't speak geek Sata stands for Serial Ata or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment so if you have a computer that seems to be kaput but have access to another pc or laptop, and also just so happen to own a free agent go flex(with a base similar to the one up above) just patiently pull the base straight down and it should pop off. and look like so

This is the top down view

 Now if done correctly you should have something that looks like thisI would leave the little Styrofoam cushioning on there because pffft why wast time pulling it off. pretty small and non space consuming and it turns what was intended to be a unitasker(stealing a word from Food Networks Alton Brown) and turning into the ultimate multitasker as long as you unplug the power first before you swap out drives you shouldn't have too many problems.

This is the view from the front side where the indicator lights are

This is what it looks like with a Laptop hard drive in it. That is the hard drive from my old Acer laptop, and what I am finding is all my old files, the old operating system everything. So basically the laptop died but the data lives again. And if I was so inclined(which at the moment I am not) I could format that drive and now have myself a free 80 gb storage drive(yeah 80 gigs ain much unless you consider that 80 gig just went from a useless paperweight to a drive I can now use again even if the laptop is fried), think about it I still have to buy a new laptop and if there was no data on the old one who couldn't use 80 gigs for music or video? And like I said all I have to do is unplug the power from the drive and then put on another HD(as I did for my brothers girlfriend to see if while her laptop, also surprisingly an Acer, was fried if her data was okay which it was) and see if the drive is fried as well. Now this is not perfect by any means you could find that the drive is just fine but that another computer will have a hissy fit and not accept it(with it's temperamental stanking Aaa). So you may in essence win the battle but not the war, but hey just keep using your free agent base and it's still access to previously "lost" data.