The Adventures of Systems Boy!

Or is it Hudzee?

A friend of mine is trying his hand at product creation. Based on his 15+ years of systems experience in the world of commercial video production he’s determined a burgeoning need for storage storage: a case for your hard drives.

Hudzee: Pretty and Smart

See, hard drives have become so cheap that they’re actually the best per-gigabyte bang for your buck when it comes to data storage. So more and more clients are simply archiving everything to standard, internal ATA hard drives. Once a project’s done, pull the drive from the machine or (firewire case) and stick it on a shelf. Many of my friend’s clients have stacks of these drives, wrapped in anti-static bags, piled one on top of another on a shelf in some closet somewhere. It’s an ugly way to treat your drives, and, moreover, it’s not necessarily the safest way either.

Enter Hudzee. (Or is it Hudzee?)

Hudzee is a tape case for your hard drive. Remember tape? Back in the day it’s what we stored all our video on. It’s also what we used to archive data. It’s slow and expensive, but it’s very good for archiving. And it’s slowly going the way of the dodo. But the thing about tapes is that every tape you bought — whether for data storage or video — came with something no hard drive does: A case. A nice, big, cushioned, stackable, hard, plastic case. Hudzee is just such a beast only sized precisely for your hard drive.

Hudzee: Latchable, Labelable Goodness

Now I will say, Hudzee’s creator is a friend of mine. And I’m obviously motivated by my desire to see him succeed. But I also have to say, I think that Hudzee is a great idea. I’ve just received my first production unit. The build quality is nice. The materials are solid, and plenty strong to safely hold a standard, 3.5″ hard drive, and there is plenty of cushioning inside. A solid, but easy-to-open, latch keeps the case securely shut. My drive feels safe in here. Safer than it’s ever felt before.

The other great thing about the Hudzee is that, like tape cases of yore, it features a label card. Finally, you can know what’s on that drive without putting it back in the machine. Or, worse, labeling it with tape or some such sticky nastiness. Now a simple glance at the case is all you need.

So if you’ve got — or will have — a stack of hard drives sitting on a shelf in some back room somewhere, you might consider getting some Hudzee. (Or is it Hudzees?) They’re $8 bucks a pop, or $65 bucks for a box of 10. Cheap compared to the price of a hard drive. Absolute chump change compared to the pricelessness of your data.

Order some online today. You know you want to.