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Harddrive Enclosure Recommendations


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#1
MC Fumunda

MC Fumunda

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First time post here, thanks for any help anyone can give me.

I'm relatively newb, but I know a pretty good fair share about my system.

Anyway, I recently purchased this harddrive, taking advantage of a holiday sale they had on it (it came out to be $107 with a rebate).

Now I'm in the market for an external enclosure, but while shopping, some stuff has come up that makes me a little trepidacious about just picking up any ol' enclosure.

I've been told that for sure I want to go with an aluminum enclosure, as it dissipates heat the best. Though, some I've looked at have cooling fans built into them. Obviously this adds to the cost, but is it necessary? Specifically for the drive I picked up?

Also, I'm going to have to have a firewire connectable drive. I'm having troubles with getting USB 2.0 to run for some reason (I've put in 2 different USB 2.0 pci cards and one crashed my system, the other is just running USB 1).

I've got no troubles with firewire, so I think it's best to stick with that. It's labled as iLink S400 on my system.

I don't know if this is an issue or not, but as I've been shopping at places like pricewatch.com, some enclosures are listed saying they support specific gig sizes or "up to" an amount. I guess I don't understand why an enclosure would or wouldn't support an amount of gig space. Is this an issue at all I should be concerned with?

If anyone could help me out with my questions, or better yet give me any recommendations on actual products or brands, it'd be greatly appreciated.

And, I suppose since this is my first time doing anything with a "home made" external drive, is there anything I have to be aware of as far as formatting goes once I finally have it all set up? I have Windows XP SP2 running, when I connect the new drive, will it be recognized and supported automatically, or am I going to have to do anything special to get it up and running. The product is "OEM", so there was no software or anything with it.

Thanks again :tazz:

-Matty
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#2
DeathsRevenge

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http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817155212

That is one that I use w/ my 250GB Maxtor drive. It will get a little hot if it's under a heavy load, so I would recomend one with a fan (at LAN parties it's gotten too hot to even function).

I've never seen anything saying that it can't support so many gigs or w/e, and i've shopped around quite a bit.

My only recomendations would be. Yes to Alluminum. You may want a fan. Don't be cheap with the enclosure. And I'd try to shop newegg.com. Make sure it has IDE interface inside. And then as long as it has a FireWire port for you, you should be all set.

Also, in the future I would go with a Seagate or Maxtor over WD. I work at PQCOMP in Sauk Centre with a guy that's been there well over 10 yrs, and he says he has nothing but problems with Western Dig. Maxter aren't the best, but they are really getting better these days, and Seagate has always been the best.

Hope this helps.
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#3
MC Fumunda

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Thanks for your reply.

I figured it couldn't be the best drive in the world for the price, but I'm willing to take the chance (it's a gift, anyway). The only thing I'm really worried about backing up is my photography, because most of it only exists digitally. But I still make dvd backups of my photos every few months just to be on the safe side. Everything else on my pc I wouldn't get too upset about losing, if it ever happened.

And yeah, I order lots of stuff from newegg. If I find one that suits what seems best, I'm definitly going with them. I built my father in-law's pc with 90% parts from newegg.

I just found this one over there. There's a lot of reviews, and it's got a 5/5. I might end up going with this one.

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817145657

But please, anybody chime in if they have advice.
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#4
DeathsRevenge

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Looking at that enclosure makes me jealous XD

Very nice, I'd go with it. Especially not bad for the price.
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