Recommend an External Enclosure

[thefultonhow]

As I've posted elsewhere on the forum, my next computer is going to be a Dell Inspiron 9300. I'm not going to get it for a little while yet, but I'm looking at all the peripherals I'd need ahead of time so that I know the total cost. One of these peripherals is an external hard drive enclosure so that I can use my 250 GB (ATA100) storage drive from my current computer with my laptop. I'm a little wary of the quality of these $20 jobbies, because my friend already went the external enclosure route and had his hard drive die when a fan in the enclosure failed. I don't want that to happen.

So my question is, what is a good, reliable enclosure? If possible, I would want a 3.5" one that doesn't need an AC adaptor (which I have been unable to find so far), but the most important thing is that it is well-constructed. Any suggestions?

[glc]

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-155-601&depa=0

There is no better - it's aluminum and has a quality fan, and it comes with drive cloning and imaging software that makes Ghost look like crap in my opinion. There are no bus powered enclosures that will take a 3.5" drive, they would draw too much power.

[thefultonhow]

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-155-601&depa=0

There is no better - it's aluminum and has a quality fan, and it comes with drive cloning and imaging software that makes Ghost look like crap in my opinion. There are no bus powered enclosures that will take a 3.5" drive, they would draw too much power.

Thanks for the tip... I didn't mean bus-powered, I meant something like the 5.25" enclosures that have the AC-to-DC circuitry built into the enclosure. I have a feeing they don't do that because the 3.5" enclosures would get too bulky.

[glc]

The Apricorn transformer is inline, not a wall wart, and it's reasonably compact. Bytecc has some nice looking aluminum housings now - no fan or software though, but they are my second choice. The Apricorns are a good deal right now with the rebates. I think I would want one with a fan if it's going to be left connected and running for any long period of time.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-145-334&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-145-355&depa=0

[thefultonhow]

The Apricorn transformer is inline, not a wall wart, and it's reasonably compact. Bytecc has some nice looking aluminum housings now - no fan or software though, but they are my second choice. The Apricorns are a good deal right now with the rebates. I think I would want one with a fan if it's going to be left connected and running for any long period of time.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-145-334&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-145-355&depa=0

The ByteCC ones lok intriguing to me. I really like their design, and it's conceivable that they would actually be more reliable because there's no fan to fail; they just cool in a heatsink-type way. I'd be interested to see some reliability ratings on drives put into them before I buy, though.

I don't really need a software bundle because I'm just going to put my current drive in and use it as a media drive -- and all I need for that is Windows XP's USB mass storage device support.

[Carl Price]

I think I would buy a 2.5" enclosure in this situation.

1. Notebook drives are more rugged than regular drives. At least they are engineered to be.

2. Notebook drive draw less power that desktop drives so you CAN get a bus powered rig.

3. They are smaller and more compact and can be moved more easily.

The only downside is they are slower and cost more.

[thefultonhow]

I think I would buy a 2.5" enclosure in this situation.

1. Notebook drives are more rugged than regular drives. At least they are engineered to be.

2. Notebook drive draw less power that desktop drives so you CAN get a bus powered rig.

3. They are smaller and more compact and can be moved more easily.

The only downside is they are slower and cost more.

They cost a lot more than $0, which is what putting my current 250 GB storage drive in an external enclosure would cost. Also, I have 200 GB of data on my storage drive, and there just isn't a notebook drive in existence that can hold that much (at least not yet!).

[Carl Price]

They cost a lot more than $0, which is what putting my current 250 GB storage drive in an external enclosure would cost. Also, I have 200 GB of data on my storage drive, and there just isn't a notebook drive in existence that can hold that much (at least not yet!).

Sorry! My internal filter did not pick up that you already had a drive.

[themiragemaker]

I don't know about recommending the perfect hard drive enclosure.
But I was looking around for a nicely designed enclosure that was reliable a while ago.
You should search the threads before double (in this case more than that) posting :)
Anyway I've been in the same boat too.

So don't know if this will help you but you could take a look at some of the enclosure links I had posted.
I'm a designer so the look of the enclosure is also important to me.
Most of the enclosures listed there are researched for reliability as well.

One big word of caution:
Be very aware of firmware revisions for the product you are buying and more importantly do a ton of research when you flash it (if you have to) with the firmware.

I ended up buying the PPA Intl Model #2230 and I don't know what I was thinking
- it was a great enclosure, setup took a couple of minutes, everything was working perfectly and then I had the smart idea to flash it with the newest firmware.
Cos I thought I could get the best out of it and think I did something wrong in the process, so now I have cool looking paperweight.

Other than that stupid mistake, I would suggest not flashing it unless you have NO OTHER OPTION. That goes for any enclosure you get.
Like the old saying goes... If it ain't broke (and you really need it) don't try to 'fix' it.

There is nothing wrong with flashing your hardware with the newest firmware.
Many people do it all the time. I was in a big rush that day and did it in a hurry (still kicking myself for it)
Just be careful in the process,
back up the ROM file before flashing so you can go back if you have any problems
and as far as possible try to use firmware from the original chipset manufacturer rather than a third party.

Also very importantly research the chipset that the enclosure you finally choose, uses, and find out if it has any trouble (with firewire/USB and any other compatibility issues)

Now all that said, I give you my long research on cool external enclosures....

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=120742&highlight=external+enclosure

-themiragemaker.