Where can I find external hard-drive enclosures for internal HD's? (1 Viewer)

[NickSo]

Just out of curiousity, but might lead onto a purchase later, i believe i've seen products that are hard drive enclosures to convert an internal IDE hard drive to an external Firewire/USB hard drive. What are these called exactly, and where can i find them?

My dad saw a 80gig external USB2.0 hard drive, but it was very expensive, and my dad doesnt need 80 gigs, so probably getting an enclosure and finding like a 10 or 20 gigger would be sufficient for his uses.

 

[Max Leung]

A couple of enclosures are listed on this webpage, from a local computer store (without hard drives in them). It'll give you an idea on the prices:
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Enclosu...8fd6a6 ae9d18
$120-$200 it seems.
I'm trying to find a USB2.0/Firewire combo enclosure, but I can't find one, except for the laptop harddrive (2.5") enclosure which does have both. Grr.

 

[NickSo]

whoops, i posted it in the wrong IE-window lol... THe throwbacks of multitasking on forums :p)

Anyways, thanks max, ill take a look into it... that looks pretty expensive, damn

 

[Michael Knieriemen]

For around $60 you can get a USB 2.0/Firewire combo unit at...
Computer Geeks
I picked up the Firewire only model a few weeks ago. Haven't opened it up yet so I'm not sure if it works. I'm looking for a big hard drive to put into it. Note that you can put any IDE device in this. CD-R, CD-RW, hard drive, etc.

 

[NickSo]

I was just surfing there, which part of the site is it in? IC ant seem to find it...

 

[Michael Knieriemen]

It is under the "Cases / Power Supplies" section...
Cases / Power Supplies
The item number for the one I picked up is...
ME-320F

 

[Ted Lee]

fry's also has these. they're about 60 bucks. i just went checking a couple weeks ago. they're by (what i call) the pc geek area...

 

[NickSo]

THanks alot guys.. now to find some cheap hard drives, and see what my dad thinks. i dont think he needs anything more than like 12-15 gigs or so

 

[Joe Szott]

Nick,
I just bought one of these for my wife's PC to backup all her business info, works like a charm. Here's where I got it:
http://www.7bytes.com/productm.cgi?HD
The one we got was the 20 GB maxter for $89 halfway down the page. It works like a charm, no need to get anything else (except for maybe the ghost program to copy the drive.)

 

[NickSo]

What would be better for this high-speed application, Firewire or USB2.0? I notice USB2.0 is about $10-$15 cheaper than firewire (well at compgeeks anyays).

I might even wanna use this for an external CD Burner as well.

What are pros and cons of both firewire and USB2.0 for my uses?

Thanks

 

[Chris Rosene]

Nick

Firewire is faster and uses less system resources than USB. Also, when looking for an enclosure, try and find one with an Oxford chipset. They are the most reliable and can be upgraded.

 

[Danny R]

Probably the best thing I ever bought was a small enclosure for a notebook hard drive that supported both firewire and USB 2. The thing is no larger than a palm pilot, and easily fits in my coat pocket.

I have a few enclosures for standard hard drives as well, but its definately not as convenient as they are often as large as external CD drives.

 

[Max Leung]

Danny, do the notebook enclosures power directly from the firewire or USB2 port? It would be nice if you didn't need a separate powersupply!
The great thing about firewire is that you can connect a 2nd PC or laptop directly with another and you have an instant 400mbit network! Such a connection is impossible with USB.
It's really handy at work, connecting two laptops together...a Toshiba laptop attached to a Sony VAIO's iLink port. Fast!

 

[Michael*K]

The 2.5" FW/USB2 notebook enclosure I have is bus powered and I love it. Though I also have a 3.5" IDE FireWire only enclosure that's twice the size (80GB as opposed to 40GB in the portable), I find myself using the portable much more. I love not having to worry with a clunky external power source and the ability to just unplug it, slip it in my pocket and bring it back and forth between my home, office and elsewhere makes it the most valuable computer component I own.

 

[Danny R]

Michael's link is to the same product I have. Both USB and Firewire offer bus power to the drive, so no power cords needed! Its a great product, although you pay a bit of a price premium to get the notebook hard drives.

and I could save some $ by getting an internal IDE dvd burner and one of these USB2 enclosures.

External drives are simply internal drives with enclosures anyway. Your DVD burner should work ok. Since most enclosures cost $100 or so, I don't know if you'll save much.

 

[Michael Knieriemen]

Enclosures that don't require power cables are, most likely, for low power consumption drives.

I'm not sure if a 7200 RPM hard drive would work as it sucks more power than a 5400 RPM drive.

Anyone know the answer?

 

[Michael*K]

I believe if I popped one of the 5400 RPM Travelstar drives in my portable enclosure that I'd probably have to use an external power source. That's about the only drawback at this point. If I want to use the external drive for capturing video, I need to use my full sized one with the 7200 RPM IDE drive.

 

[Max Leung]

It looks like that firewire/usb2 notebook HD enclosure requires an external powersupply when used with Firewire:

Bus Powered; optional external power required to support high power Hard Disk Drives or when using with a cardbus card or FireWire enabled laptops

Dangit! My laptop doesn't have USB2. :frowning:

 

[Michael*K]

Those requirements aren't entirely accurate, Max. I use Mac laptops both at home and work and the Cutie (yeah, that's the name of the drive) runs fine off the FireWire bus.

 

[Max Leung]

Hmm, that's pretty confusing. Elsewhere on the site it says you can't run off firewire without an external powersupply. Maybe that only applies to x86-based laptops and desktops?
The local shop here sells a 2.5" enclosure from a company called Triumph. I'll have to find a description on their site.
EDIT: Here is the link: http://www.triumphtech.com/@PRDCT/ME910.htm
Again, says bus-powered for USB only!