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External drive enclosures

N

NRaygun

Member
With a Linksys NSLU2 on the way, I'm looking into additional drive enclosures.

I already have a no-name one from Compusa(I think it's their "house brand").

There doesnt appear to be a clear leader in external drive enclosures.

Which one is the best? I'm looking for USB 2.0 and Firewire support. I'd imagine it comes down to chipsets but most of the no-name ones dont specify this on the box.

Does anyone know of a site that has some of the more popular ones compared?
 
Bump.

So far what I've seen is that cooling is important as well as maximum drive support. Some folks have commented on how some of the aluminum ones(which you would think would run cooler) need fans because there's no metal to metal contact to transfer heat.

Anyone else have good tips for enclosures? What's the best "name brand"?
 
my enclosure doesn't have any real metal to metal contact,but its aluminum and it never gets too hot. heat isn't a real problem unless you intend to put some top performing hard drives in the case,which is a waste anyhow. cut corners and get slower drives since its going to be external, your seek times will pay but the interface latency and bottleneck will make it un-noticable.

buying enclosures are pretty hit or miss. a friend of mine had lots of trouble but got this enclosure and has been happy ever since:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-145-322&depa=0
 
is there any reason you want firewire AND usb 2.0? it seems to me it causes more troubes for whatever reason. i'd suggest just getting USB 2.0 because its more widely accepted and used,even though firewire edges it out a bit in performance.
 
How does one install a Hard Drive into one of these? Can you use a harddrive with windows xp on it? NTFS? I don't want to reformat untill I get my data off!

I have a desktop that has a dead MoBo right now. I'm getting a new laptop and would rather just get my data off with one of these and have a new toy than get a new mobo.
 
you can boot from external drives provided your bios supports it....most modern bioses support booting directly from firewire or usb drives, including hdds, optical drives, and so on.

check in your bios to confirm.
 
Originally posted by: EvanAdams
How does one install a Hard Drive into one of these? Can you use a harddrive with windows xp on it? NTFS? I don't want to reformat untill I get my data off!

I have a desktop that has a dead MoBo right now. I'm getting a new laptop and would rather just get my data off with one of these and have a new toy than get a new mobo.
Click to expand...

you don't need a to reformat it, just put it in the case and plug it into your laptop, XP should do the rest
(and remember you're looking at what used to be your C: so you may hafta dig for your files)

also the drives do just fine as NTFS
 
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