External enclosure for PATA 400gig Seagate drive?

[JackBNimble]

Hi guys.

I just bought one of those Seagate 400gig PATA drives on sale for storage. Now I need an external enclosure but I don't know what or where to buy.

I see enclosures listed by IDE and SATA but I don't know which one to use for a PATA drive. I've got plenty of USB and firewire ports to use. Can I get an external enclosure for this PATA drive to use with firewire or USB2 or do I need a special card to use it?

Thanks for the help.

Jack.

 

[Blain]

PATA is IDE

 

[JackBNimble]

Thanks Blaine.

The more I'm reading about hard drive failures the more concerned I'm becoming about making sure I can keep this baby cool.

Is there close to a consensus about a great external enclosure that keeps the HD as cool as possible? Any particular brands that most people seem to like?

Thanks again for the help.

 

[Blain]

I prefer 5 1/4" enclosures for HDs, since you get more room for air movement inside.
I also prefer the enclosures that don't require external power adapters.
> Like This One <

 

[JackBNimble]

Thanks Blaine.

It seems the more I read the more unsure I get. 1/2 of the things I read say to go with an aluminum enclosure with no fan (Like this one)
and the other half seem to think a fan is better (Like this one)

I didn't even consider a larger enclosure like you mentioned. I guess if you're going to go with a fan-based enclosure that would be the way to go if you're overly concerned with heat. (like me)

I'm just going to be using this drive to transfer and store all of my home movies and burn some DVDs for relatives every once in a while. It won't be on that much unless I'm transferring video from the camera. Hopefully heat really won't be too much of an issue.

 

[corkyg]

On the other hand - I have extensive experience with external drive cases, USB, and Firewire. The one thing I will always insist on is a separate attached power supply/cord for the case. There simply insufficient power in USB or Firewire to run a 3.5" external drive reliably.

 

[JackBNimble]

Thanks Corkyg.

Something else I thought of. Can any internal hard drive run properly in an external enclosure on it's side or do they have to be horizontal?

I've got the Venus DS3 right now laying flat but I think I would probably get better heat disipation if I had it perpendicular since there would be more airflow around it.

 

[slpaulson]

As long as the enclosure is stable like that it shouldn't be a problem.

I've seen some OEMs mount their drives sideways, so it really isn't a problem.

 

[gramboh]

I use the Vantech Nexstar. Sleek looking and nice LED.

Link

As said above, I prefer external power because who knows if USB will be enough and you do not want your backup drive to fail.

As for heat, it is aluminum so the case itself acts as a heatsink. I only ever have the drive powered on during back-ups every week or so, I am not concerned about a heat related failure. The drive sits upward and I have not had any problems.

If it makes a difference I'm using a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200gig 16meg cache P-ATA. I know Vantech makes S-ATA versions of this enclosure now but as you have a P-ATA drive that doesn't matter.

I've noticed Vantech makes a version for $10 more that has eSATA (external SATA). With this, if you get a PCI eSATA card or your mainbaord has eSATA ports on the I/O plane, you can connect at full SATA speed for much faster transfers than USB 2.0. Interesting.