How to: Protect Bare Hot Swappable Hard Drives, Part 2

By on November 28, 2008 in Hardware, How to Guides, Windows Home Server, Windows Home Server v1

Earlier this year I wrote an article on how to store spare hard drives you might have laying around.  If you don’t have a need for such storage, that’s cool.  If you do, the problem for many is that it is very difficult to find those old “Disney” style VHS cases.  These types of cases are simply not made any more and, of course, VHS tapes in general have followed the path of other formats, such as 8-track tapes, cassette tapes, and LP’s, into retirement.

A comment by Vi provided one source for these items.  Well, I have found another source (actually 2) for anyone who might be interested.  About a week ago, my youngest kid wanted to sell some old game boxes and other items so that he could go out and buy a new Xbox 360 game.  We took some games to a local used game/CD/DVD store and guess what?  Sitting on the counter were some VHS tapes for sale.  Included in that stack were some VHS tapes in that exact type of “Disney” style VHS case that works so well for this purpose.  They were selling at about a buck a piece.  Cheaper than Vi’s source and no shipping charges!

We also visited the local pawn shop and guess what?  More VHS tapes in those “Disney” style VHS cases!

So, if you need some storage cases, visit your local pawn shop and/or used CD store.  If I can find them in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, I bet you can find some where you live.


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About Jim Clark

Hello. I’m from the heartland of the U.S. Lots of corn and beans, although Iowa is a lot more than just farmland. It also has a few computer enthusiasts (no, not me!). I’ve been around PCs since I got my 1st PC XT aloooong time ago. WGS is one of the first sites I found centered around WHS. And the best. Every once in awhile, I do get away from the KB and enjoy time with and my wife and our 4 kids. And I do have a day job.
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  • TheEngineer

    Another source will probably be your local FREECYCLE group. Just join them, put out a WANTED request and see what happens :-)
    Regards,

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  • Allen Huffman

    I am about to make the step up from 14 drives in external hard drive enclosures (I do alot of video editing) to one or two new STAT enclosures with trayless removable drives. My thought is to do this — keep drives in storage somehow — and I came across these posts. Some podcasts I listen to refer to the VHS-style cases, which is what I planned to do, but $6 each? Maybe not…

    Instead, I’m looking for a VHS or Digital8 style “rack” that would hold hard drives in little slots. Without the drive itself being enclosed, though, that may not be the safest solution, but I’ll find out…

  • http://liquidsoapdispenser.com Rob M

    Great articles! On the previous one, I noticed discussion about VHS cases coming in two flavors (anti-static, and not anti-static). How do you determine if a particular VHS case is anti-static or not? And can you describe what the Disney-style VHS case looks like, and explain why it is superior to other VHS cases?

  • johnnie

    This was so helpful, thanks for the original article. I just bought a box of these, http://www.hudzee.com, and I think that they are much better than the old VHS cases (I have at least 12 VHS cases stacked on my shelf with hard drives inside!) and the flimsy wiebetech crap which would always break. The new ones are really expesnive, but I am storing all of my photos on those drives, and i dont want anything to happen to that data. Just my thoughts.