External Enclosure w/ USB 2.0?

[kevinb44]

I was thinking about buying an external case for a hard drive. I was wondering if anyone has used one of these usb external cases for a hard drive or cd/dvd? Do they work well?

 

[RaymondY]

Just got a Coolmax USB2.0 External 3-1/2" Hard Drive Enclosure. Installation when without any problems and it works great. Transferred 4GB of data pretty fast. I'm extremely happy with it. Since my machine run WinXP Pro, didn't need any drivers.

Coolmax Model: CD-309-U2 (available at Newegg.com) for around $45

I would high recommend it for anyone transferring large files/data. I put a Western Digital 40GB 7200rpm HDD in the enclosure.

Hope this helps

 

[kevinb44]

RaymondY- I am running XP also and I figured it would detect it. I'll check out the one you bought. Thanks.

 

[The Wildcard]

I bought this one....USB 2.0 Enclosure and have been using for off and on for backup purposes for 6 months. It works pretty well and Windows 2000 detected it automaticlly.

I am sure you can shop around and get a better price.

 

[LED]

Look for a Case that has both USB Hi Speed and Firewire as the Firewire transfers faster and the USB will be compatible with most OP's Puters. The 7200 HD's will never reach their max transfer speeds under both Protocols so it's 1 safe bet to use them. If you get a 5 1/4" Case then that will allow Optical Drives as well.

 

[kevinb44]

I don't have any firewire connectors on my pc, so I think I'll buy a USB only one. Any thoughts if the ata speed of the enclosure will make much of a difference? Most of the cases I see only support ata 100.