STORAGE: Pre-fab external HDD vs. Enclosure + Internal HDD

spoon805

Senior member
Aug 10, 2000
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Like most laptop users, I'm trying to add more HDD space that exceed that offered by current 2.5 drives. Plus, it's a company laptop.

So the question becomes: Should I get a pre-fabbed external HDD made by Maxtor or WD? OR should I use an internal HDD with an enclosure?

I'm concerned w/ the following: speed, ease of install, reliability, ease of use

If your opinion lies in favor of the enclosure method, which brands should I look at? IOGear, Enermax, Generic? I was looking at the IOGear specifically, if I was going this route, but I have yet to find any reviews.

Couple more thing... I'm looking for this to be 200+ GB. Does anyone know if the pre-fab ones can be opened to swap the HDD?

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

bobbyjosh

Junior Member
Aug 20, 2003
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The very first external I bought was a BusLink USB 2.0 40GB with 8MBs cache.... no problems what so ever and it's the oldest one I have. I bought 2 IOMEGA external USB/Firewire Drives in the past... They both made some pretty awkard sounds about every 10 minutes. They worked though... Worked pretty good... all but one which I had my first serious problem with not too long ago. Something to the affect of 'Windows was unable to save data to... etc'... I was pretty mad. I had to restart my computer for me to see the hard drive. With the fear of losing all my MP3's and such I knew I needed something more reliable and the one reliable HD I had just wasn't big enough for me. Just recently I went to Fry's Electronics with a buddy to go buy another hard drive. I went looking for Maxtor this time because I've heard so much about there perfomrance. I picked up a 160GB 8MBs cache external USB 2.0/Firewire drive. Got it home and plugged it in and it began making a mechanical beeping sound. My computer wouldn't even see it. And the sound was definitely louder than what any other computer setup I've ever seen so... it was a definite take back item. I returned the external Maxtor the next day and picked up one of those external enclosures (PPA Inc. is the only clue as to who makes it... It's pretty generic looking but it has an on/off switch, two firewire connections and a USB 2.0 connection) with an internal Maxtor 200GB 8MB cache for litterally 10 bucks more than the one I bought the day before. 10 bucks for 40 more GBs and that included the enclosure. Got it home and hooked it up. These do require some assembly... but then go figure. She works like a charm... She is by far my fastest Hard Drive. I don't know if it's just my luck but 3 external hard drives I have now boughten in the past... really didn't work too well. I think I will try my luck with the enclosure setups for now on as I too am running a laptop setup which by the way.. you can check out here.
 

thraxes

Golden Member
Nov 4, 2000
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I have a generic Aluminium USB2 enclosure wwith a Western Digital 60GB 5400 drive that is a little iffy (whhhhhiiiiiiinnnneeeeeee :( )
Works pretty well though!!
 

spoon805

Senior member
Aug 10, 2000
220
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Would there be anyone who would say to stay away from generic enclosures and go for name branded ones?
 

bobbyjosh

Junior Member
Aug 20, 2003
22
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I can't say to stay away from the generic ones... I think I might go back and get another one of the same ones I got. It even has a high powered fan that keeps the drive really cool to the touch even after playing a game for a good while. Also if your looking into desktop optical drives this baby supports those too. Oh... and here is a website selling them... maybe you can find more info on it using this as reference.