gear02

I want to have a portable device to bring my data, music, movies, etc. around with me. It needs to have about 200 Gigs.

Now I could go with one of these:

http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...837&pfp=BROWSE
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...496413-5740034

But the pricetag is huge.

I've read a lot on this board about people's external enclosures that containt a 3.5 in hard drive.

What's the difference between the two? Are external enclosures very portable (i.e. you can move them often without worrying about problems)?

Which one would you get?

ray

I am personally a fan of purchasing an internal IDE hard drive and separately purchasing an enclosure for that drive. I like having the flexibility of being able to swap the drives out if i ever upgrade or want to swap it to one of my desktops. I have 2 USB2.0 external casings that can fit both a 5.25" and 3.5" ide device. If you wanted something smaller, you can definitely find an external casing for a 3.5" device only.

I have seen the USB2.0 casings for as cheap as $30. I have seen Firewire only casings for as cheap as about $35. And I have seen combo USB2.0 and Firewire for $40. Check the deals page to take a look at some of the external casings that are frequently on sale. There are also numerous older threads where people discussed their experiences with different cases.

If you are looking to save money, then you should buy them separately. If money won't be an issue, then it's all going to come down to the 'look' of the item you purchase.

Kevster

I did this. It has worked out beautifully (after some problems with the enclosure early on that was worked out).

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Merlin

I've *ahem* upgraded enough times that I had a few drives just laying about. As such All I needed was the enclosure.

Best advise I can give at this point is to get one with both USB and Firewire. I use the Firewire connection as I find it gives better performance and is slightly more stable. Also, I've got plenty plugged into my USB ports. But that said, I wanted to be able to move it to any other computer out there and since they don't all come with Firewire I made sure that USB can be a backup. Get one that does both. The additional option is worth the $5 more.

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gear02

right now I'm thinking about getting the maxtor one touch at compusa $240 for 200GB. I know there's a deal on G|A for a enclosure + 244GB drive for $244. however, I figure I can just go to compusa and get it today to work on. Also, I'm not sure how hot enclosures get. Reviews on the maxtor said it doesn't get too warm and it's recommended by many people.

Anything anyone can say to dissuade me?

mcs328

I bought a usb2.0 and firewire enclosure about 2 weeks ago from Dealsonic via G|A. It works great considering I was trying to get off my data files from a dying HD. It just seems like a pain to swap HD because of the way my enclosure is designed.

I do have a software related question, how do I surface scan or scandisk to markup bad sectors on my HD I got in this enclosure using Win XP Pro. Everytime I run it says this OS or something is busy, do you want to schedule one next time you reboot. In 98, I could run scandisk on the C: drive without a problem but in XP it doesn't.

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brainsmile

definitely go with the separate pieces. it's much better IMHO

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glagic

i second that. its hell of a lot cheaper too. i got mine a couple months ago and it hasnt failed me. it came in handy when my brothers computer died and he needed files off his hd's. go for the separate pieces. if anything dies, you can just switch the hd's.

bachviet

I bought external hard drive before when it was on sale for cheap last year. I took out the hard drive (40GB) and put a bigger hard drive in there. I also use external enclosure to store my other hard drive.

I suggest you just buy the internal IDE drive and external enclosure separately.

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ski

Do the Maxtor ones have separate power cables in addition to the USB ones, or is it USB-powered? If there are 2 cables, you might as well go wit the enclosure and drive, but depending on how mobile you are, a Maxtor one might be better (only if it is USB powered, probably not).

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gear02

After much thought, I decided just to get the 300Gb Maxtor one from newegg. Yeah, I know I could have bought it cheaper if I just got the parts, but 1) I don't know how good each enclosure was) and 2) I knew what I was going to get with the Maxtor. Reviews have said that it was very stable, not too hot, and fairly quiet, 3 things I could not have guaranteed if I built it myself. Plus, I don't have too much time right now and I needed it ASAP.

Thanks for all your opinions guys! Judging by this thing, this won't be my last external enclosure. I'll probably build my next one.

And I think most large external hard drives require an outside power source. You really think you can power a hard drive with the power from the USB port?

ray

I know that some 2.5" laptop drives built into external casings can be powered from the computer itself, but the 3.5" and 5.25" devices, from what I have seen, cannot.

sekser

i just bought this a few days ago and put it together.. Its awesome.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...155-211&depa=0

lights up blue when its on....

spigidygak

Yeah I don't think there is any 3.5" drive that can be powered over a Firewire port let alone a USB which puts out less power. The new thing I've seen for USB 2.5" drives is that it uses two usb ports to get enough power. Yet another reason why firewire is just that much better .

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