How to Put Internal Drive in USB Enclosure

[marchristensen]

I am in the market for a large external hard drive. Looks like I can save some money by purchasing an internal hard drive and external USB/Firewire enclosure separately. What do I need to look out for in the purchase of the enclosure. How hard is it to install the internal drive in the enclosure. Is there anything else I should be aware of. USB hard drive will be connected to a NAS drive used by three computers with SP - two with SP1 and one with SP2 - all using XP home. Thanks.

 

[comtec17]

How do you plan on connecting a USB drive as a NAS device?

 

[marchristensen]

I have Buffalo NAS drive that has 2 USB ports attached. It says you can use one for a network printer and use the other as an additional network attached drive.

 

[paparazi]

It's just so easy to fit a standard ATA drive in one of these enclosures, most designs take less than two minutes to install a drive (simple slide apart, push in the drive, use 4 retaining screws to hold in place, slide back together)
Things to look out for* USB2 external hard drive enclosure

1) If you want reasonable performance then it must be connected via USB2 (not USB1.1) this gives a very reasonable 60megabytes/sec max throughput.
USB1 on the other hand is patheticly slow (40X slower)
2) metal housings are better because they act as a natural heatsink for the drive also housings with a build in fan offer better cooling
3) external power adapters aren't as neat as housings that have built in power units but it does make them slightly bigger.
4) when choosing a hard drive go for a 7,200 spin speed unit but look at one that is known to run cooler in it's class.
This is only what I have heard but some USB controllers are supposed to be more compatible (the actual chip built into the unit) personally I've used several diferant makes of housing and have never looked at the controller chip on any of them but all have performed admirably.


Martin


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