external drive setups that actually work

[drwoo123]

So in the past I have tried buying an enclosure and dumping in an IDE drive into it. It "worked" for a while, but I got annoyed by the drive sometimes being detected and sometimes not - and all the other associated problems with the setup.

So my question is do you have an external setup that actually works. Is there perhaps one enclosure better than another that is sure fire - should I go with firewire or stick to usb 2.0

thanks in advance

 

[pkme2]

The USB connector sometimes works and sometimes it doesn't? You connect your external pocket drive and it doesn't work.

You should have dual USB connectors. Sometimes you need only one, but other times, you need both.
Some computer generate enough power to operate the external, but some units require both to be plugged in.

 

[Kelnoen]

I have a 15gb ultra portable drive that works like a charm.
powered from the usb so essencially a 15gb thumb drive.
made from an old dead ipod

 

[jackschmittusa]

Don't have a laptop, but I have an old 5400rpm 40gb drive stuck in a used Maxtor enclosure and it has worked every time in several computers.

 

[drwoo123]

Any good enclosures that I can pickup on like newegg - unfortunately its not just me who has had this issue - its other people i know as well. I have a 200GB Seagate and a 120GB WD that I want to throw in enclosures. I'm willing to spend some decent money - even perhaps pick up a new drive (was thinking the 300GB SATA 3.0 Gb/s seagate) but just havent figured out which enclosure.

thanks

 

[Bob Anderson]

I have an 80 GB Acomdata USB 2.0. The HD itself is a Western Digital 7200 RPM. I've had it for 2 years and it works perfectly. I bought it as a unit; I did not buy the enclosure separately. I use it for storing disk images of my notebook.

-Bob

 

[Boyo]

I have the Vantec NexStar 3 and it works like a charm. It has both USB 2.0 and eSATA (which won't help you), but they also have firewire versions. I highly recommend them.

 

[Carl Uman]

I have an Kingwin that just crapped out on me (makes a hiss/sizzle sound). Also have a AMS (fan went bad on first one in first month) that seems to be acting up as well. Both worked for a year or longer. The AMS will is showing a 160GB drive as 200GB but direct connection to my PC shows the drive as being fine. The drive that was in the Kingwin is being formated in using direct IDE connection now. I use these two externals as backups for my data but now I'm not to happy with these problems 🙁

Hope you have better luck than I have had!

 

[drwoo123]

So overall the external drives seem flaky at best. I was hoping one solution was perhaps better than another but its doesn't seem to be shaping up that way.

 

[Carl Uman]

Yep, looks like the AMS is bad for sure. Just hooked up my freshly formated drive and it sees a 160GB drive with two partitions (one 64GB unallocated and one 213.5GB Healthy). Guess I'll check to see if I can at least get RMA on the one enclosure 🙁

 

[Old Hippie]

So overall the external drives seem flaky at best.

I've got four, two 2.5s and two 3.5s. They all work fine. I wouldn't run them 24 /7, not even the enclosure with two fans.
Somebody here had a link to external drive chipsets. It listed the good, bad and ugly.

 

[Arcanedeath]

I have a bytec Oxford 911 based Firewire 400 3.5In external drive enclosure, it has 1 fan and a sepearte power brick I've used it on and off for close to 2 years now w/out any issues w/ a WD1200JB its still going strong, but since it's only used for backup its on about once a week for a few hrs to run the backup and verify its good.

 

[Baked]

I have a Vantec NexStart USB 2.0 enclosure for my spare HDs. I'd use mobile racks, but I'm too lazy to set those up. The USB enclosure has to be connected to rear USB ports on the computer or it'll have read problems. Something with front ports in my case just don't like HDs.