StarTech.com 2.5in SATA Removable Hard Drive Bay for PC Expansion Slot - Storage bay adapter - black , TAA (S25SLOTR)

The 4-bay 5.25 inch back plane worked out great. Easy installation, I just needed a dual molex adapter to single sata power. I was looking into icy dock but these are good alternatives.

Have a couple of old 3U servers that have 3.5" floppy drive bays (did I mention they were old) on the front of the case that were just sitting empty since I didn't have any floppy drives to put in them. The servers are e-waste rescues that I use for home labs use. I use this to hold the boot SSD and can easily swap between machines on swap SSDs to change the OS without having to pull the server out of the rack and disassembling it. The entire hot swap cage is metal. This makes much more sturdy for changing out the drives unlike other 2.5" trays where the sleds are metal, but the locking mechanism is cheap plastic. You can also pick up the sleds separately so you can have spares or other drives ready for swap.

I tried the startech product after having 3 of a competitors drive bays fail after about 3 years. Ports would fail etc. As I've only used this for a month, I can't speak to longevity yet.It does have 2 fans whereas the others seemed to have one. The drive cages seem well built and it does hold the drive securely. No issues putting them in. One downside is that it does require screws for the drives. It uses very small screws and they're all in one small bag that's not resealable. If you don't need to put in 4 drives at once, you're going to want to get something to keep them in.The LED is bright on the drive and easy to see. The fans are reasonably quiet for their size, but it will add noise to your system.It sticks out a bit more than the competitor so if you have a tight case, that might be an issue. There's still a gap in my short depth case with the PSU behind it but it's less than I'd like. It is mostly an issue with cable management since you don't want them to get stuck in the fans.

I used this to add an SSD as a C-drive update to my desktop computer. With limited bays for 3.5" hard drives, I decided to use this as a mount for the 2.5" SSD in one of the external 3.5" floppy drive slots. I has worked perfectly so far, and adds an extra drive access light just for the installed HD. It's a very heavy duty enclosure. I was a bit concerned that using the SATA pass-through to the installed hard drive might adversely impact the performance, but I don't notice any change in performance. Like most StarTech products, it's very well built and reliable. The price is a bit steep for what it does, but it was the best quality option for what I needed. I do not use the hot swap capability. It included the screws needed for mounting as well as the key for locking in the drive.

First, this review is for the S251BU31REM hot swap bay. The rest of the reviews here are for one or more completely different products. Amazon really needs to discontinue their despicable practice of combining reviews for what they consider to be "similar" products.I bought this (and a few additional enclosures) to use for backing up my laptop and syncing them with a desktop computer. I can connect the drives in the enclosures to the laptop for updating by using short USB cables (more on that in a moment). Also, by inserting them one at a time into the hot swap bay installed in the computer, I can sync data between the laptop and the desktop (aka sneakernet). Four of these enclosures (I have four drives in my laptop so I need four backup drives) will easily fit into my laptop case.The enclosures are fairly rugged (I would have preferred to have seen aluminum on the front and rear instead of plastic) and should do a good job of protecting the drive inside if the enclosure is dropped, even if the plastic ends break. The body is sturdy extruded aluminumI had several of an earlier version of this hot swap bay and enclosure but I replaced them with this newer version because the earlier version of the enclosure was not TRIM compatible when using SSDs and connecting via USB. The older version of the enclosure required that a SATA to USB adapter be removed from the enclosure before inserting it into the enclosure, something that is not needed on this one (one less thing to lose, break, or wear out).I was a bit concerned when I ordered these because all the pictures I could find of it, including on Amazon and at Startech's website, showed the hot swap bay sticking out significantly from the front of the 3.5" to 5.25" bay adapter, which would look junky. Actually, it does not stick out; it's nearly flush with the adapter. Also, I wasn't able to find any pictures showing how far the enclosure protruded from the bay. Fortunately, it protrudes only far enough to easily see the power/activity LED and, when the ejector button has been pressed, it will move out even more to make grasping it for removal easy. I included a couple of photos showing the bay with the bay installed in the bay adapter and the enclosure inserted in the bay.Although there is nothing really wrong with the included plastic bay adapter, I prefer metal over plastic and plan on not using the included bay adapter. I already knew this when I placed the order; I have brushed aluminum finished aluminum adapters (discontinued Lian Li) I can use that will match the other bays and bay covers I have in use already.Installing drives into the enclosures is far easier than it was in the older version I had. In the older enclosures, the two tiny screws in the back were a bear to remove and replace without stripping the screw heads. The screws in the end of the new enclosures are much, much easier to remove and replace. A PH00 (aka #00 Phillips head) screwdriver works best for removing and replacing those screws. A #1 Phillips head screwdriver is best for installing the screws that hold the drive to the PCB inside the enclosure.The enclosures fit smoothly and easily into the hot swap bays but the fit is close enough, you can't put any decals or label tape on top of the enclosures without them hanging up when removing the enclosures from the bay. I also tried putting electrical tape on the bottom of an enclosure so scooting it around on a desk top wouldn't scratch up the paint on the bottom over time. That also caused the enclosure to hang up when being removed from the bay. I put my label tape on the front of the enclosures. You can also put 1/4" flat label tape (such as used by Brother label makers) on the sides but it's a close fit.Edit: What made me drop the rating from five stars down to one is the two tiny black screws that hold the back of the enclosure onto the enclosure are an oddball or proprietary size that I can't find anywhere. The thread is 4-48 and the length is 5/16". The only 4-48 screw lengths I could find that came close were 1/4" (too short) or 3/8" (too long). I could have cut 3/8" screws down but the other problem is the heads on the Startech screws are much smaller than any other screws I could find and would keep the enclosure from being inserted into the hotswap bay.I attempted to get some spare screws from Startech since, if I were to lose one (very easy to do), the enclosure would be useless. Startech's response was, since it wasn't a warranty issue, they couldn't provide any screws. When I responded, asking if they could tell me where I could buy them (after all, they have to get theirs from somewhere), they ignored me. My advice? Unless you absolutely need something like this, stay away from this due to Startech's unacceptably poor customer service. If you do get this, do NOT lose those screws!Edit 2: I finally was able to get Startech to tell me the screws were actually 2.6mm instead of 4-48 (It's curious that screws fit my 4-48 thread gauge). With that information I was able to find a company ( nbk1560 dot com/en-US/products/#all ) that carried the screws under part number SNZF-M2.6-8-TBZ. I had to buy a pack of 50 screws but, even with shipping, is far less expensive than having to replace an entire enclosure if I ever lost a screw.Something else I like about the enclosures is the LEDs aren't a piercingly bright blue. They put out a pleasantly soft, green light.Although I rated this at five stars, I do have some serious complaints. First is the use of a USB 3.0 type micro B connector on the back of the enclosure. Why? USB C has been around almost as long as these enclosures, if not longer, and it's far easier to find USB C cables nowadays. Startech did include a USB C to USB 3.0 micro B cable and a USB 3.0 type A to USB 3.9 micro B cable but they are way too long for my needs (others may find them too short). I had one heck of a time finding shorter ones of each more suitable for my use.Also, what is Startech's obsession with using floppy drive power connectors (this isn't the first Startech product I've seen and used that had them)? Those were on the way out before the end of the last century! SATA power connectors have been the standard for years. Startech did include a four pin floppy power connector to SATA power adapter cable and a floppy four pin power connector to Molex four pin power connector (another outmoded connector) adapter cable. Fortunately, the cable with the SATA power connector was exactly the right length for my use and only need some sleeving added to dress up the ugly bare wires.Another improvement over the previous model I had was the SATA data connector. This one is latchable. The previous one wouldn't latch and I had to shim the connector with tape to get it to stay in. Ironically, the SATA data cable included with the hot swap bay is not the latchable type. Way to go, Startech!Between the USB and power cables and a SATA data cable, that's five cables, of which only two will get used at most (if at all), and they may or may not be the correct length. That's an added cost that consumers do not need. If Startech had just used more current connectors, then a consumer could easily just get the correct cables they need themselves. I have a huge number of cables that were included with various devices that were the wrong length, etc. that I'll probably never use.The enclosures and bay will work with Linux out of the box. TRIM for SSDs will work when the enclosure is inserted in the bay, but, when using a USB cable, TRIM will not work out of the box. It's necessary to first create a udev rule in the computer. I had a hard time finding out how to do this with another brand of enclosure (all the directions I found were incomplete) so here are directions on how to do it.1. Identify the Vendor ID and Product IDRun lsusb in the terminal with the device plugged in. If you aren't sure which device in the list is your SSD, unplug it and run lsusb again and see which device disappeared. (Don't forget to unmount the filesystem before you unplug the device.)Every device has an ID value in the list. For example, mine is “174c:1351” (the ID for the Startech enclosure). The Vendor ID is the first part and the Product ID is the second part.2. Create a udev rule. In the terminal, copy and paste this line and hit Enter.sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/50-usb-ssd-trim.rulesType in your password, then hit Enter again.Copy and paste this rule into the text editor (all one line; the correct IDs for these enclosures have already been added):ACTION=="add|change", ATTRS{idVendor}=="174c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1351", SUBSYSTEM=="scsi_disk", ATTR{provisioning_mode}="unmap"Pressing CTRL+O, ENTER, and CTRL+X will save and close the file in Nano.Now, the next time you plug in your device via USB, TRIM should work.

Well built materials used. Easy to add SSD. I finely got to get rid of my floppy drive. lol looks like it came with a 2' sata data cable however I needed one a tad bit longer. But everything worked out. I did buy a 5.25 tray.. but not needed. It's a nice tight fit for my 1.44 floppy bay. ( 3.5" )If you want hardware for your SSD. It only my opinion but I don't think that you will go wrong with this one. I think this is worth the price. I believe that I will be using this past the life of the SSD in it many time over.It was well packaged And fits my needs. I hope that if not this one .. that you find what your looking for.Rich .W