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External Harddrive or External Enclosure who wins?

V

ViciouS

Golden Member
*Update* I have no prefference yet. Help me out with your votes.






I understand an External Hard drive. Its simple it?s a hard drive that is connected through USB or firewire outside of your computer. I?m not exactly sure what an External Enclosure is. From what it seems to me, it is an external case for an internal HD, which connects through USB or firewire. These are very naive questions; believe it or not I happen to build computers for a living, so I know my way around hardware. I hate asking a NOOB question, but this is new to me. My customer wants to save close to 40 gigs of media separate from his computer. He wants something external. I want to provide this to him in the most cost efficient manner. External Hard drives are expensive, and it seems if I?m correct, that buying an external enclosure and a hard drive would be the cheaper alternative. My questions are:

1. Am I correct about what an External Enclosure is?
2. If so what are the plug and play abilities of an external enclosure (can it be used from one computer to another easily)

3. Should I just forget about External Enclosures and spend the extra money on External HD?
 
An 'external hard drive' *IS* an 'External Enclosure' containing a normal internal hard disk....they are one and the same thing
 
Well, external harddrives are basically the whole package. They consist of the drive itself fixed in the enclosure. I recently bought an enclosure and drive for it and I have to say that I am somewhat disappointed with some of the USB/IDE interfaces, they tend to not like the newer drives with an 8 MB cache. If you want something that is completely compatible then go with the external hard drive, but in that case you cannot remove the drive once it's in there or you have to nearly break the case to get it out.

If your customer wants simply 40 Gigs of storage and something compact with a USB2/IDE interface you can get one of the newer external HDDs that feature a laptop drive (lower RPM, and slower drive) but it is very compact and you can take it almost anywhere.

Hope this helps.
 
While you are trying to be cheap...... Don't over look the Maxtor and Western Digital externals.... Point being is that they come with backup software that can be scheduled to perform the backups or be a one touch manual backup type of process. The smaller units are not too terribly expensive and at least you'll be giving them a solution that is as fullproof as you can get -least in regard to external drives.
 
Originally posted by: WackyDan
While you are trying to be cheap...... Don't over look the Maxtor and Western Digital externals.... Point being is that they come with backup software that can be scheduled to perform the backups or be a one touch manual backup type of process. The smaller units are not too terribly expensive and at least you'll be giving them a solution that is as fullproof as you can get -least in regard to external drives.
Click to expand...

Gahhh.. Fullproof=FOOLPROOF.... 🙂
 
Hes going to need atleast 120 gig, i think an encloure might be the best idea. Seems to be the most bang for my buck. And of course I wouldnt use anything but Western Digital, Maxtor, or Seagate.
 
The question is use dependent. The enclosure is the way to make good use of those older HDDs you have displaced by upgrades. Why buy a complete drive if you have several decent HDDs lying around? But - if you ain't got - then probably a complete drive is OK. In that vein - just do the math. Which ever is most cost-effective wins.
 
http://www.stbernard.com/

stbernard open file, once it is set up, allows you to keep the files open and in use while backing up. it's very usefull for doing large backups. rather than use the maxter/WD utility as suggested before, i'd recommend getting the open enclosure, using an internal hd and with the money saved buy this software.
 
An external enclosure might seem like the way to go, until you actually own one for a while.

Most external enclosures have a power supply built into them that heats up the enclosure and usually has a cheap noisy fan that will eventually fail. They are also very flimsy in construction and can get damaged easily in transport.

I now have a Western Digital 80GB External USB 2.0 7200 RPM hard drive and I love it. It is solidly built, uses an external brick-type power supply (very quiet) and was on sale for $80.
 
Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
http://www.stbernard.com/

stbernard open file, once it is set up, allows you to keep the files open and in use while backing up. it's very usefull for doing large backups. rather than use the maxter/WD utility as suggested before, i'd recommend getting the open enclosure, using an internal hd and with the money saved buy this software.
Click to expand...

Considering that the software product alone costs $345 alone, it's probably not a viable option considering it seems he needs an on the chep solution.... Not always the best option certainly, but if simple, will get the job done and offer a decent amount of protection.
 
External hard drives are not too available in say a 80Gig size. Usually they are quite large and you have to spend the big bucks to get the total package. If you only need 80 or 120 gig then you have to spend $300.00 for that 250 Gig Drive kit.

The big advantage I see with the external drive kit is you are in charge of how much you want to spend and what size of drive you want to get.
 
I have a plumax external enclosure from dealsonic and i put a 120gig WD 7200RPm 8mb in it and it works like a charm.

I usually go to friend houses to steal vid and mp3s.

An average anime series is 3.3gig to 5gigs and it takes the enclosure about 3 to 5min to copy it all.

pretty good if u ask me.

The plumax has no brick PSU. it just the enclosure and the usb 2.0 cable and a normal power cable.


~RaNDoM
 
Wow look at this thing... And its not that expensive, in the review it says he got it for 114.00. For that price that performance and that name brand. I think it might be the best option.WD EXT HD
 
for your needs, I'd get the external hard drive.

I use an external enclosure, and I love it, but my reason for doing so is that I requently swap out the hard drive that is in there (and sometimes put in a 5.25" drive when I need to take my DVD burner on the road).
 
Originally posted by: loki8481
for your needs, I'd get the external hard drive.

I use an external enclosure, and I love it, but my reason for doing so is that I requently swap out the hard drive that is in there (and sometimes put in a 5.25" drive when I need to take my DVD burner on the road).
Click to expand...

what enclosure do you use... From what I've heard they are all a real pain in the a$$ to open and close.???
 
Originally posted by: ViciouS
Originally posted by: loki8481
for your needs, I'd get the external hard drive.

I use an external enclosure, and I love it, but my reason for doing so is that I requently swap out the hard drive that is in there (and sometimes put in a 5.25" drive when I need to take my DVD burner on the road).
Click to expand...

what enclosure do you use... From what I've heard they are all a real pain in the a$$ to open and close.???
Click to expand...

this one: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-123-110&depa=1

it's pretty easy to open (no screws, just four tabs to click open), and the heat disappation is great. the only bad thing about it is that it's purple 😛

it's a nice shade of purple, but still, it doesn't go with my black/silver desk 🙂
 
What the difference between an enclosure and just the USB<>IDE cable?

For example:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=12-107-107&amp;depa=0

vs.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-146-310&amp;depa=0

The price difference isn't that much, and as far as I can understand, the enclosure includes a box for you to put your hd in, instead of having it sit on a table.

I'm looking to access my hd w/my laptop, or be able to carry just my hd home during the holidays
 
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