Making a standard internal drive external?

furman · 16 Feb 2006 at 11:54

Hi,
I am planning on replacing my desktop with a notebook. I have 2 300gb sata drives in my pc, 1 I use for backups and the other I keep mp3s etc on. I had a look at the hdd accessories section. I want something reliable that I can stick my hdd into and it won't lose the usb sync or anything. Any recommendations? Do I need to think about cooling or anything? 1 drive maybe connected all the time.

Thanks

GeForce · 16 Feb 2006 at 18:38

As far as I know, just get a standard 3.5" SATA to USB2.0 hard drive caddy, such as these ones from OCUK: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Removable_Hard_Drive_Racks.html

One such as the Enermax External Enclosure IDE/SATA to USB2.0 (on that page) should do you fine.

Jon

Rambaud · 17 Feb 2006 at 18:16

I have a PATA IcyBox Enclosure + 320Gb WD drive.

This has worked fine via the FireWire connection (rather than the USB2 one).

Behemoth · 17 Feb 2006 at 21:44

yeah another vote for an icy box, got one myself, top notch stuff

furman · 4 Mar 2006 at 09:28

Hi,
I was looking at this one:
Icy Box External Enclosure IB-351ST-US-B Serial ATA to USB 2.0 - Black (HD-003-BT)
Aluminium housing with lattice mesh design.
- Hot Plug & Play
- Extremely quiet without exhaust fan
- Works in both vertical and horizontal positions
- Assembly without screwdrivers
- Supports SATA hard drives
- USB2.0 & SATA Combo connection to host computer (1m cables supplied)
Price: £28.95 (£34.02 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Does it need external power or can it be powered from USB?

Also is there any real difference with this one:
Enermax External Enclosure EB305C IDE/SATA to USB2.0 - Silver (HD-002-EN)
The Enermax case has blue leds and a stand - and it states external power. But is it not as good quality as the Icy Box case?

Rambaud · 4 Mar 2006 at 09:47

furman said:
Hi,
I was looking at this one:
Icy Box External Enclosure IB-351ST-US-B Serial ATA to USB 2.0 - Black (HD-003-BT)
Aluminium housing with lattice mesh design.
- Hot Plug & Play
- Extremely quiet without exhaust fan
- Works in both vertical and horizontal positions
- Assembly without screwdrivers
- Supports SATA hard drives
- USB2.0 & SATA Combo connection to host computer (1m cables supplied)
Price: £28.95 (£34.02 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Does it need external power or can it be powered from USB?

Also is there any real difference with this one:
Enermax External Enclosure EB305C IDE/SATA to USB2.0 - Silver (HD-002-EN)
The Enermax case has blue leds and a stand - and it states external power. But is it not as good quality as the Icy Box case?

I got the ICY Box SATA one yesterday.

It needs an external power supply (which comes with it).

furman · 4 Mar 2006 at 09:50

I was looking at new SATA hard drives and noticed that some are SATA2, wtf is SATA 2? Will a SATA 2 drive work in any of these cases? I saw a WD SE 7200rpm 250gb SATA2 drive for £67.

Is it worth even getting a SATA drive as an external hdd?

Rambaud · 4 Mar 2006 at 10:21

There is a Sitcky at the top of this forum about SATA II.

I would assume SATA II drives will work with the ICY Box, as they are meant to be backwards compatible?

I only got the SATA version, as I have a few SATA I drives lying around doing nothing. It's a bit quicker to install the SATA version, but no big deal. Otherwise, I would probably have bought another PATA version.

One of the advantages of the PATA version is that a Firewire option is available.