Hard Drive enclosure purchase help plz

[brian183]

I've been meaning to get myself a hard drive enclosure for my 300GB maxtor drive but I honestly don't know what a good enclosure there is available. I basically want a USB 2.0 connection and a firewire connection (my laptop uses firewire). Beyond that I really don't know what else to look for. Do some brands do better than others? Is 40 dollars too much for one? I'm looking for the best value here I guess.

Also, should I use FAT32 on this drive to ensure OS compatibility or should I go NTFS? I primarily would use this with win2k or XP. Isn't there a drive size limit for FAT32? I don't care about the 4GB file size cap. This drive will only have music on it and maybe a few movies that are not 4+GB in size.

Thanx guys.

 

[stevesurf]

Here are my best, current recommendations for:

Stackable HDD Enclosures

DVD Writer Enclosure

 

[brian183]

I settled on purchasing the following
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817146602

What sold me on this one was the price and plus the 73 great/good reviews it got. Plus it has 1394 interface.

I love newegg.

 

[kramer5150]

definitely do a www search for reviews. There are some usefull reviews out there that walk you through setup procedures. I bought a Nexstar 2.5" for the extra 40G fujitsu laptop drive I had laying around. Its been fine for ~3 years. The only wierd thing is I have to partion the drive through windows and setup as a single partition. Not sure if this is common for other external HD setups?? So, its not like you just plug the drive in and go.

For $18 I can't complain.

 

[blargman]

i have the exact same case. works well. cept it only has usb2

i don't like the fact it has an external power supply but its for 3.5" drives. what do i expect. I plan to one day soon get a 2.5" enclosure. I'd like to be able to just use the usb port to power my drive. using the external battery pack is just a pain.

 

[kramer5150]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blargman i have the exact same case. works well. cept it only has usb2 i don't like the fact it has an external power supply but its for 3.5" drives. what do i expect. I plan to one day soon get a 2.5" enclosure. I'd like to be able to just use the usb port to power my drive. using the external battery pack is just a pain.

Yeah its So convenient.... just plug in and go. As a laptop user its about as portable as I can get. Be carefull though... supposedly some laptop USB power outlets don't have the current capacity needed to spool up the HD.

So I imagine it largely depends on the power of your USB port and the external HD you select.

 

[K2Grey]

Be sure to make sure your HD is IDE

 

[milkpowder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blargman i have the exact same case. works well. cept it only has usb2 i don't like the fact it has an external power supply but its for 3.5" drives. what do i expect. I plan to one day soon get a 2.5" enclosure. I'd like to be able to just use the usb port to power my drive. using the external battery pack is just a pain.

2.5" HDDs are expensive and much smaller in capacity. My 320gb 7,200rpm 3.5" WD External HDD cost less than my 80gb samsung 5,400rpm 2.5" external hdd. 3.5" is also noticeably faster due to higher data density and higher rpm. I believe the 3.5" drive also has more disk cache.

 

[floydenheimer]

These are the best 3.5" enclosures with USB and Firewire. I settle for nothing less.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817145657

 

[K2Grey]

Floydenheimer: I have the USB version of that (with a Seagate Barracuda HD inside). Had it for about 10 months and it hasn't died yet despite being thrown into a bunch of bus luggage compartments with only some clothes for padding. Of course, a cheaper enclosure may have done the same job, but it does seem to be a pretty good enclosure and I'd feel the effects of a HD failure much more than I'd feel the effects of being out an extra $10.

 

[harkamus]

http://consumer.hardocp.com/article....xoY29uc3VtZXI=