External Enclosure for old 120gb IDE Hard drive.

[Gyopo]

I see various instructions for these External enclosures and they state

"Have to format hard drive before installation into the external enclosure."

Although it sounds straightforward, these instructions seem to only refer to new and unused hard drives. Would that matter at all? I have some files and what not that I would like access on the hard drive.

So, anyway, question. Do I have to format my hard drive for an external enclosure to absolutely function?

 

[johnos]

No I'm prettys ure you don't

And even when i have bought new drives and stuck in external enclosures i have formatted them after they have been installed

 

[Sforsyth]

no it should work fine, I think they mean a new HD

 

[Gyopo]

 

[Gyopo]

Phew. Thanks.

Edit: Would anyone know of an external enclosure? I need an IDE compatible one that can do anywhere from at least 60gb-120gb.

I was looking at a number at Newegg around the price range of 25-35 or so (w/o shipping) but its all very baffling with the number of choices.

 

[Paperdoc]

Any external enclosure that accepts IDE HDD's (not SATA drives) will work for you. At one time there were questions about whether a particular external enclosure would support the use of large HDD's, but that mostly referrred to ones over 137GB, and yours is not. But now even that is no issue at all.

Choose according to features you want.
1. What type of interface? Usually they have two, like USB2 and Firewire, or USB2 and eSATA. USB2 is very widely used, but is a bit slower than some of the others. What does your computer have for ports? Note that the interface is a separate question from what type of drive it accepts inside.

2. Power supply - does the unit have its own, or does it draw from the computer? I prefer it should have its own. Sub-question: is it a separate power brick, or is it inside the case?

3. Contruction - plastic or metal? How Durable? How important is that to you?

4. With or without cooling fans? A fan will keep your HDD cooler in operation, and is REALLY important if you are using it for a DVD drive or some such, but you are not. On the other hand, a fan makes some noise, and will wear out eventually. IF the enclosure has its power supply inside its case, that's extra heat and maybe a good reason to have a fan inside, too.

 

[Old Hippie]

Power supply - does the unit have its own, or does it draw from the computer?

The only USB powered external enclosures are for 2.5" (laptop HDDs).
You should look for one with a fan and a decent chipset. V00D00 has a chipset comparison article here.

 

[crossrode]

I set this one up last night with an 80 GB WD IDE HD. Just plug it in to windows and it works.

LINK

 

[Gyopo]

Ah. When I looked on Newegg, that particular enclosure I think was out of stock. I just ended up buying this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817146307.

Well I wish I knew about the chipset benchmarks before but nothing can be done now. Does anyone have any experience with the Kingwin enclosures?

Oh, thanks for the comments.