Guide: Building your own External Hard Drive

[Alexjfinch]

As some of you are aware I was looking into building my own External Hard Drive. I was concerned that a few external drives either suffered from manufacturers who were using unreliable Hard Drives or using cheap unreliable Enclosures.

So I set about making my own.

Firstly I needed to decide what Size of drive I was going to use and what Data Size I wanted and what Interface I was going to use.

I settled on a 3.5" 500GB Seagate SATA drive. I also decided to use the new eSATA connection which is 3.5GB/sec transfer rate, which is equal to internal hard drive transfer speeds!

I worked out that my Laptop would accept the new ExpressCard instead of the old PCMCIA slots and purchased this:

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...6/DSCF1229.jpg

This slots into the expansion port on the side of my laptop.

Next I bought the Hard Drive. I settled on Seagate as I've have problems in the past with Maxtor and Western Digital have been flagging recently and don't talk to me about hitachi deskstars (apparently these are being used in recent LaCie drives). Seagate have the longest warranty.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...6/DSCF1225.jpg

I found that UK enclosures suffered from being cheap and nasty and heard that "Apricorn" in the US made really good ones.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...6/DSCF1223.jpg

Thus I bought this one.

Contents:

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...6/DSCF1224.jpg

The enclosure is made of Aluminium to keep the drive cool and has a fan on the one side which is completely silent. The drive is powered by an external transformer which supports 240v, so to change it to UK plugs all I had to do was get a 3pin UK plug with a Figure of 8 end to plug into the transformer.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...6/DSCF1230.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...6/DSCF1231.jpg

So I fitted the drive into the enclosure, only gripe I have here is that it's a little snug in there and I had to squeeze some cables around

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...6/DSCF1226.jpg

Around the outside there are holes that you can put a screw through that will screw the hard drive in place, the top of the enclosure and the bottom all together.

There are rubber caps over these screws so they are out of sight.

There was a eSATA cable that came with the enclosure, check out how long it is!

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...6/DSCF1228.jpg

The completed deal connected to my laptop:

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...6/DSCF1232.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...6/DSCF1233.jpg

All in all I'm very impressed with the enclosure and the drive, the transfer speeds are REALLY quick and its portable

Pros

Easily upgrade internal drive to a bigger size.
Known quality of goods going together.
Smart.
Quiet.
Satisfaction of doing it yourself.
Design of the enclosure fixings.
Simplicity.

Cons

Unless you know someone in the US, shipping of the enclosure is going to cost you a bomb, I luckily used my father.
Snug fit of drive - Could of allowed for a bit more room for the cables.


Special thanks to Rjfvillarosa, GLC & Freakitchen

[vtfanmv5]

Nice. How much did the whole thing cost you? Excluding the eSATA adapter, I guess.

[Alexjfinch]

The Drive cost me around £48 plus delivery and the enclosure I am uncertain about as I didn't pay and there are exchange rates.

Here is the link to the enclosure, supplied by newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817362002

[AnotherMuggle]

Nice!

I put a 250Gig Western Digital into an Akasa enclosure a few months back. The drive only screwed into the case at one end which meant that the drive actually flopped about inside the enclosure, which if you ask me is a terrible design. I tried doing the screws as tight as possible in hope that it would stop the movement but turned out there was no hope.

In the end I had to super glue some small feet to either side of the drive to make it fit snugly inside the enclosure. It is now solid and I am happy with it. Been used regularly for backups over the past few months and it seems to be working just fine :-)

The enclosure has eSATA capabilities, however I am just using the USB2.0 at present.

TK

[not important]

Congrats Alexjfinch on saving some money and doing it yourself. I have a MaxCool external SATA/PATA enclosure that I've been using for a couple of years for File storage and Image backups. It has no fan but it's aluminum and vented on the sides.

[Alexjfinch]

Sorry to hear about that case Tom! this thing is fantastic to be honest. Very impressed, I feel like becoming the UK importer of Apricorn Enclosures, might make some money lol.

Upon more research it turns out the ExpressCard slot will only support data transfer of 2.5GB as opposed to the eSATA being 3.5GB/sec, so although the ExpressCard supports 3.5GB/sec transfer its being bottlenecked by the port itself, hardly notice the difference to be honest.

If I take into consideration the cost of the enclosure and shipping to the UK it probably hasn't cost me less than buying a prebuild but, the enclosure will last a very long time and I can just change the HDD out if it ever goes wrong

[glc]

Don't forget the bundled software that comes with Apricorn housings. It's essentially an OEM version of Acronis True Image on a bootable CD - and the software is installable too. It does both images and drive cloning.

I'm going to move this to the Hardware Review section.

[Floppyman]

Another two thumbs up for the Apricorn DTS external hdd enclosure!

Bought one with along with a WD 640GB SATA drive from Newegg the other day and I am very impressed. Installation took 5 minutes max, the housing is sturdy and the included fan quiet. On top of that, the hdd is fast and also whisper quiet.

Highly recommended.

[trowand]

FYI, I just bought this one from Vantec. It holds TWO 3.5" desktop drives. I've got a 750GB Western Digital and a 1TB Samsung in it. I chose to keep them as seperate drives.

http://www.vantecusa.com/system/appl...00mx-sr-01.jpg

http://www.vantecusa.com/front/product/view_detail/277

[glc]

120 bucks is a lot to spend for just an enclosure. If you are keeping the 2 drives separate, buying 2 Apricorns is cheaper.

[Masaki 7-11]

I own two Vantec enclosures; one 2.5 inch enclosure with a 40GB IDE drive and the other is a 3.5 inch enclosure with a 500GB Seagate running with eSATA.

The 2.5 inch one cost me $30 and came with all the necessary cables/drivers, the 3.5 inch one cost me $40 and came with all the necessary cables, a eSATA bracket, and necessary drivers.

If you can find Apricorn enclosures, it may be a better deal; but for people like myself who don't have access to such enclosures, you can use the Vantec ones since they come at a reasonable price and are of good quality.

[trowand]

Originally Posted by glc 120 bucks is a lot to spend for just an enclosure. If you are keeping the 2 drives separate, buying 2 Apricorns is cheaper.

Yes, it is a mighty expensive enclosure. I eventually plan to get another 1TB Samsung F1 drive and put them together in RAID 0. But currently, they remain seperate. And yes, I really DO need that much storage.

[glc]

2 TB is your maximum array size limit with a 32 bit OS. If you ever need more, you will need XP or Vista 64 and format the array GPT instead of MBR.

If you really need a ton of space, look at this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816132015

Five 1tb drives in RAID 5 is 4tb of storage with a safety margin, unlike RAID 0.

[shadowpr]

Need storage: http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=208921110

[trowand]

Originally Posted by shadowpr Need storage: http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=208921110

Yeah, I can't wait to read reviews on Seagate's 1.5TB drive. Hopefully it's super fast. I also can't believe that they're only charging $200 for it. I thought it'd be way more than that.

[glc]

The 7200.11 1 TB drive is down to $140 now, so $200 is about right.

[srfransen]

I'm building an external hard drive using a 500 GB Barracuda 7200.10.

What's the right way to power down the drive? Do I simply cut the power to the drive after unmounting it at the OS level?

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by srfransen What's the right way to power down the drive? Do I simply cut the power to the drive after unmounting it at the OS level?

That's how I do it - use the Safely Remove Hardware icon by the clock and when it's safe to remove, turn off the power button/switch.

[Alexjfinch]

Well bit of an update, as I have now owned this for 5 Months.

The only problem I'm getting is the drive sometimes drops its connection with the laptop, which I think is down to the cheap eSATA express card I have bought.

The casing itself is fantastic, unfortunately the foam feet on the bottom of the stand have become unstuck and have moved, along the way picking up dirt/hair/dust. They can be easily replaced and a little bit of cleaning agent on the bottom to get rid of the old adhesive works a treat.

So apart from the connection problem and the feet moving there is nothing wrong with the casing. The drive works perfectly.

eSATA I feel is the way forward, when I purchase my next laptop sometime in the future I will be making sure it has a eSATA port on the side so I don't have to mess about with the express card.

[glc]

I can confirm that the Apricorn DTS housing is compatible with a Seagate 1.5 TB SATA drive. I've got one here right now in the process of formatting.

[hungrythepool]

I know this is going to be a late post for this forum, but I just got the ICY DOCK two bay external enclosure for Christmas. It has a RAID built into the component and it uses DIP switches to set up the RAID. It's really nice, and even with the fan it's not that noisy. Both hard drives stay really cool, and using two 1 TB WD Caviar hard drive allows me to keep backup of one hard drive over the other one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...k=MB662UEAB-2S

But when I saw the price on this, I have to say this was really expensive. If you have the money for it I would really recommend it. I have to really thank my uncle for getting me this for Christmas.

By the way, I bought the hard drives myself.

[cmichael258]

You forgot to post your uncle's name and address

[Alexjfinch]

* UPDATE *

My mother recently dropped the casing breaking the front.

So whilst on a trip out to see my Dad I bought another. There are some revisions to the one I bought a few months back.

I feel they read this thread and made it slightly bigger. For some reason I just built my new one up and its easier to build.

The transformer is now 3 pin instead of 2 pin. Keep this in mind if you are buying one for the UK.

I can now rule the enclosure out of my connection problem as I now have a new eSATA cable and casing. If I still get connection problems then I can certainly guess it being the cheap card I bought from scan.co.uk.


Cheers
Alex

[Rick Hall]

Just as a foot note.

The reason that the drive fits so snugly into the enclosure is because it is necessary so that the aluminium enclosure can act as a heat sink. This does more to disapate the heat than a small fan will.

[glc]

The housing also has a fan, Rick. It's quite large too, and is quiet.

[Panama Red]

Just thought I'd add a little tip after assembling an Apricorn enclosure and hdd. I've used several of these and sell them assembled to my customers needing a backup drive. Like Alexjfinch, I've never been fond of the tight quarters when fitting the drive and wiring in the case. Here's what I just did to make this an easier install. Unplug the two wiring connectors from the case before you set the hdd inside. One is the sata connector with a right angle fit and the other is the power wiring. Both connect to the hdd connector. Once the wiring is removed from the case, attach the connector to the hard drive and set the hard drive inside the case lining up the side mounting screw holes. Next, loop the sata connector wiring around until it fits on the proper case connector. Next, loop the power connector back to the case and tuck any excess wiring below the case lip. It's much easier working with the sata and power connectors separately than trying to twist the hard drive into just the right position so the wiring will allow it to fit firmly in the case. Once the wiring is complete, set the cover in place with the tabs properly aligned and attach it all together with the screws provided.

[Blaster3]

try one of these instead:

this one is usb:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=466

this one is e-sata or firewire 800:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=410

about $250 for 2t of external storage, user switchable from raid0 or raid1

i also see wd has made a 2T internal hdd
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=576

[glc]

Blaster, this thread is solely about building your own external drive, not about prebuilt drives.

[Alexjfinch]

Originally Posted by Panama Red Just thought I'd add a little tip after assembling an Apricorn enclosure and hdd. I've used several of these and sell them assembled to my customers needing a backup drive. Like Alexjfinch, I've never been fond of the tight quarters when fitting the drive and wiring in the case. Here's what I just did to make this an easier install. Unplug the two wiring connectors from the case before you set the hdd inside. One is the sata connector with a right angle fit and the other is the power wiring. Both connect to the hdd connector. Once the wiring is removed from the case, attach the connector to the hard drive and set the hard drive inside the case lining up the side mounting screw holes. Next, loop the sata connector wiring around until it fits on the proper case connector. Next, loop the power connector back to the case and tuck any excess wiring below the case lip. It's much easier working with the sata and power connectors separately than trying to twist the hard drive into just the right position so the wiring will allow it to fit firmly in the case. Once the wiring is complete, set the cover in place with the tabs properly aligned and attach it all together with the screws provided.

Ah brilliant PR, I will give that a look later, at the moment the wires are just stuffed inside the case.

If you buy some new ones you might find them a little more roomier, well I did anyway.

Cheers
Alex

[Blaster3]

Originally Posted by glc Blaster, this thread is solely about building your own external drive, not about prebuilt drives.

oops, excuse me, just thought it was a viable option for future reference & for others that might read through this thread before they actually build one. the price is less then the sum of its parts.