This gadget (http://www.geekstuff4u.com/product_info.php?currency=EUR&manufacturers_id=&products_id=630) treats your hard drives almost like a huge USB memory stick. If you have a lot of drives, this looks like an interesting alternative to a RAID array. And the price is very nice too.

cool design - I can see some Time Machine uses as well.

Interesting design but I am not sure I love the exposed circuitry on the back like that. One stray static discharge and you might lose a drive. I wonder how Time Machine handles archived drives. I know it will use a drive and go on to another one when filled but if you remove one does it ask for it if it needs something from an older drive?

I am not sure I love the exposed circuitry on the back like that. One stray static discharge and you might lose a drive.

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cool design - I can see some Time Machine uses as well.

Personally, I'm with Jerry on this and going with the "dumb design and probably very little relevance for Time Machine" vote at this point.

If you have a lot of drives, this looks like an interesting alternative to a RAID array.

How? I don't think this is gonna do what you think it might do--more likely it's merely a way to mount and unmount a drive over USB, albeit more conveniently in that you can mount a bare drive. But I don't see that as much of an advantage.

What I mean is, "Just a bunch of disks" isn't actually a RAID configuration, even if this (or some other OS X software) somehow magically allowed writing to one disk until full, pausing, allowing you to swap in a second drive, resume writing. Second, USB is slow. Third, there already are safe and affordable ways to get hot-swap and quick-swap drive capabilities, over USB and even faster connections like firewire, that protect the drive better (in trays or enclosures) which utilize some type of back plane connector like this one probably does. (Drives are very safe while in a tray.)

Sure, the price is right, but I think you'd be much better off using a USB hotswap enclosure with drive trays like this ICY DOCK one, the MB559:

http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/cremax/mb559/

It's $50 on newegg, additional enclosures and trays could be purchased separately, or this one, the MB664, which you just slide bare drives into:

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3119&p=2

But at least in both cases the drive is protected. And both give you eSATA, so you're future-proofed a bit if and when Apple ever gets its external storage act together.

I'm going with the "dumb design and probably very little relevance for Time Machine" vote at this point.

I just re-read this and I think I came off more harsh than I intended--I do think this device will do what it advertises just fine, I just have doubts about the risk versus reward. Long term, home theater-wise, I bet it's too risky for the convenience trade-off, it's better not to be handling bare drives or leave them exposed as a routine. (Sure, I have been cavalier with some bare drives, and I bet IT guys do it all the time.) But say you plan to rotate drives in and out of this--well, you still have to store the drives somewhere when not connected and there's greater risk there, as well.

Looks like a repurposed forensic dock to me. If it had an eSATA port, it would be a lot more useful. For someone like me, who has dozens of old drives laying around, It would have some useful functions. But other than that, I think that it is more of a novelty item, rather than a useful item in the htpc. A cheap 8 slot JBOD box would probably be a more useful, versatile and protective device than one of these.

I already have three or four hard drives that are too small for real use, but could be handy to store some large files -- maybe even a few films. I keep them in the silver bags they came in. It's not pretty, but it's safe. Also, there is no reason you must keep the drives in the htpc room.

If you are worried about static, what about connecting a wire to earth/ground, then to a screw that goes into one of the mounting holes on the HD? Wouldn't that work?

As I said, I already have several drives I am not using because they are no longer practical. This device could bring them back to life at a very reasonable price.

This product reminds me of a situation I had with a client who had an HP Media Center. The one with the removable HD, and built in bay. It also has a companion usb dock. The only real difference to this product is that the drive comes packaged in a protective sheath. Anyways, the poor people who bought it couldn't figure out what to do with it. So I explained the theory behind having multiple storage devices to put things like movies and iTunes libraries on. Didn't resonate for them. Then they asked me if they could use it to move files from the tower to the Dell laptop. I said, sure, but we can just network the two computers so they both can share the SAME internet connection, and file share. Didn't resonate. So I showed them how to use the drive and usb dock to move files from one computer to the other (nothing more than the big usb stick approach), and they thought that was pretty cool. Hours of phone and a couple of house calls, and they had nothing more than a glorified floppy--but they were happy. Go figure.

If a device like this helps you store and move some files around, and given its limitations (usb interface, no static protection, noisy, etc.) is still useful and functional, go for it. It is inexpensive. Like I said, it really is a repurposed forensic dock. All that means is that you have a way to hook a drive to a computer or other devices without having to put it in a classic enclosure or in a computer bay. Ease of access and quickness to get the job done, whatever it may be.