3.5" HDD enclosure?

So on Sunday I got rid of my desktop for good! I kept my HDD though as my laptop only has 30GB.



I've got a 500GB 3.5" Seagate (I think SATA 2). I was hoping to turn it into an external hard drive, and found this:



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817193052



Is this worth getting? It's the cheapest I could find at my local store. Is there something more recommended? It won't be traveling much, but I don't want an enclosure that will crap out on me and ruin my drive.



Thanks!

Reply 1 : 3.5" HDD enclosure?

What kind of external connectors do you have? Are you limited to only USB 2.0? Do you have USB 3.0? eSATA?

Reply 2 : 3.5" HDD enclosure?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeptinune Lemmie guess you're one of those crazies that wants a SSD so badly on a small budget that you'll buy the smallest one possible and settle with slow external storage? Well that one looks fine but it's OOS (Out Of Stock)... A quick ebay gets this: 3.5 sata enclosure items - Get great deals on Computers Networking, Electronics items on eBay.com! Any one of those would do.. none of them are going to ruin your drive. If your drive breaks, and it wasn't because you dropped it then the drive was just going to break. IIWY I would get a bigger SSD or just get a really nice hard drive like the one in my sig... set up with the proper paritioning it can be as fast as a SSD.

I have no idea what you're going on about... I have a 500GB desktop drive that I want to make use of, and an old Thinkpad...



I don't want an SSD...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forge What kind of external connectors do you have? Are you limited to only USB 2.0? Do you have USB 3.0? eSATA?

USB 2.0 only, since I'm using a really old Thinkpad, and for other legacy laptops. The speeds are fine for me, if it can do 1GB in 45 seconds I'm happy...I figure this enclosure can?

Reply 3 : 3.5" HDD enclosure?

Like I said, any old enclosure would be fine. If you are scared of dropping it then yeah get one that is padded or whatever. There are literally thousands of enclosures to choose from they all pretty much perform the same.. it's up to the drive performance wise, not the caddy.

Reply 4 : 3.5" HDD enclosure?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeptinune Like I said, any old enclosure would be fine. If you are scared of dropping it then yeah get one that is padded or whatever. There are literally thousands of enclosures to choose from they all pretty much perform the same.. it's up to the drive performance wise, not the caddy.

Ok cool will get any old thing then..

Reply 5 : 3.5" HDD enclosure?

Some come with extra little things like a sata connector if compatible, others have usb 3.0 if you want that too, some are rugged so if you drop it the drive should be ok. Tons have decorations/vinyls etc and look good. Really you just go for what you want. Try not to get one that is made in China... and if you can don't just get a generic metallic looking one that you can find absolutely everywhere.



For instance if you look at the ebay link I gave you all of those are pretty generic and most of them aren't protected from drops at all. These days tons of 3,5" drives will park their heads anyway if it feels like they are falling.. but it's best not to drop it anyway.



If you can find one of these near where you are or on newegg or something: http://cgi.ebay.com/Rocketfish-RF-AH...item3a6414179f



They're awesome and have tons of input/output methods. But the choice is yours, if it were me i'd go for something 'above' just plain old generic.