External HDD enclousers

Hello All fine folks

Can someone out there fill me in on external HDD enclosures, good and bad. I've just noticed them on reading forums etc.

I'm thinking of getting another HDD and using it for backing up files. I understand that you can connect to your USB port and back up files that way. Do they have a power connector for the HDD? I know nothing about this way of connecting a HDD to a computer.

Can someone, who has had experience, fill me in on the proper way of using this method of backing up?

Seems like a cool way of taking a HDD and connecting it to other computers.

Thanks for your response.

rjshenal

 

I use them for backups and moving large files from one computer to another. Have one that works off of USB and the other is fire-wire. They do come with there own power supply. For backup you can use programs like Ghost or True Image.

 

Over here in AUS. there are some Shintaro external drive cases without IDE drive available. Should be available in your neck of the woods in a similar configuration?

http://shintaro.com.au/products/External Cases/USB2.htm

I recently purchased an all in one Maxtor one touch 120GB USB2 drive. You pay more for the Maxtor rather than buying the case/supply and then the IDE drive to stick in it. But I'm happy with it.

http://www.maxtor.com/en/products/external/onetouch/

If you are running W2K, XP or W2k3 then all external drives will (should?) be detected without any drivers needed to be installed. 9x/ME will need driver installation. The drive should then be automatically assigned a drive letter.

 

I've been using external drives for along time now and have had no problems with them (as long as it's a high speed connection). I looked at the pre-canned systems, but prefer to buy the enclosure seperately then put whatever hard drive I choose into it. I've had good results from the Belkin brand:

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Product_Id=125643

Which I wait for them to go on sale at CompuUSA for around $50. Figure that, and good hard drive on sale, you've got an awesome combination for under $150. The Belkin unit has cooling fans, on/off switch and comes with the USB cable to connect it.

Just make sure you go through the "safely remove hardware" routine as you would with any device you're hot swapping to alleviate any possibility of data corruption from incorrectly shutting down the device.