Build your own External Hard Drive

[ezeht]

Hmm that enclosure looks nice. But did I see or read right in the start post- you just put it into the case and the ends back on. If so seems to me that sucker would vibrate like hell make all shorts of noise and be moving all around in side that case just like if you hook up a hdd and just sit the drive on your desk top. That being metal Id guess would make even more noise and can not be good long term for the drive- or moving it around not such a great idea either.

I need to get another extern enclosure. Most I see at new egg look cheap and have poor reviews. I would like one that can run sata and sataII and III if it could also do ide even better. Think I have seen them that can run all I just stated in the 1 enclosure. I know they can do either or.

I have these now had them near 7 years and maybe 8 hours total on the drives..>

2 Thermaltake silver river usb enclosers- 2 Seagate st3200822a 200g Ultra100 IDE.

I only power and turn them on when I need to add or remove info from them. I love both the enclosures and drives. And the actual drives mount to the base of the enclosures and are quite and have a lil blue light fan too. I pull the plastic strips from the sides the top pops off. Aluminum they are cool and look nice. Look a lot like those in the start post..

I have 2x Seagate st3200822as 200g sata 1.5g I am getting no use out of. I need at least 1 good enclosure. Recording my every step of game play. I could use the extra storage and the drives are as old as the others a lot more use tho- stopped using them about 2 years ago ran great just cant use them in my later rigs- but would be nice for external drives and being I would not turn them on often.

I get least 1 set up I could do a full back up image of my w7 install- Be nice for the future and clean up time and reinstall the os etc. I never much run my 250 gig os drive over 50% full. So I might be able to do the image and still have some left over unless the image is a full 250 gigs- I have never done a full image back up. So my 200 gig drives may not be enough for that I do not know?

 

[ezeht]

Oh ya. Nice job on the thread and showing folks how to install the drive etc..

I am not trying to be a stick in the mud I just notce things and figured I should ask. And folks might know of other nice enclosures I could give a look at?

I prefer the lay flat type vs standing on its side. I would not use the side types or mount drives in my computer case on its side either. I am pretty sure most enclosures are either or- can lay flat or on its side. Do not care for a dock either.

Thanks..

 

[DocBrown]

Quote member whs
" I use this one Newegg.com - XION XON-SAHDCB-COMBOCR 2.5" & 3.5" Black USB2.0 & eSATA Combo Dock Station Also gives you 2 USB2 ports and an SD card reader. Works well with both 2.5" and 3.5" HDs. "

rb:

I got one of these units from NewEgg

Looks like it is well built and will be very uselful

 

[essenbe]

So, That's what you were ordering the other day.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Strollin said;

"I'm curious about your statement regarding USB3 and eSata. While, in theory, USB3 is faster than Sata, I doubt you will see an increase in xfer speed from an external drive since the drive itself can't xfer data fast enough to saturate the Sata bus, let alone achieve the theoretical speed of 5G for USB3. Perhaps with an SSD as the external drive you would see a benefit. USB3 may prove to be more popular than eSata though, when mass produced computers all come with USB3 ports. Unfortunately for eSata, it never became particularly widespread."

That's a good point but I can say that both my externals run much faster on esata vs usb 2.0 or firewire but their also green drives so they have limits there as well. My internal 7,000 rpm + drives really aren't much faster but it's no contest when compared to SSD. When transferring huge files like my lossless music you can see the difference plain as day.

 

[James Colbert]

Everything I've read states esata (which is really sata, just outside the machine) to be faster than USB 3 (at least in its current iteration).

James

 

[essenbe]

I have and use both. I prefer esata because I always get faster speeds with esata than USB 3,0. In fact, I'm currently looking for a laptop and have found a few I like, but no esata port. I scratch them off my list. USB 3.0 is definately much faster than 2.0, but my experience is esata is faster. It has other uses also. You can boot from esata but not from USB 3.0. eSata comes in handy in other ways too because the computer sees it as the same as an internal drive.

 

[James Colbert]

I have and use both. I prefer esata because I always get faster speeds with esata than USB 3,0. In fact, I'm currently looking for a laptop and have found a few I like, but no esata port. I scratch them off my list. USB 3.0 is definately much faster than 2.0, but my experience is esata is faster. It has other uses also. You can boot from esata but not from USB 3.0. eSata comes in handy in other ways too because the computer sees it as the same as an internal drive.

Agreed on all points. I hope they're not phasing esata out. I may have to buy a few more esata docks to have around. Of course, once SSD drive prices become reasonable and USB3 is refined, that may all change.

 

[essenbe]

I have and use both. I prefer esata because I always get faster speeds with esata than USB 3,0. In fact, I'm currently looking for a laptop and have found a few I like, but no esata port. I scratch them off my list. USB 3.0 is definately much faster than 2.0, but my experience is esata is faster. It has other uses also. You can boot from esata but not from USB 3.0. eSata comes in handy in other ways too because the computer sees it as the same as an internal drive.

Agreed on all points. I hope they're not phasing esata out. I may have to buy a few more esata docks to have around. Of course, once SSD drive prices become reasonable and USB3 is refined, that may all change.

I don't think they will or can phase esata out. It's too easy to buy an esata bracket and plug it into a sata port. But you are right about USB 3.0. Manufacturers have not gotten serious about building externals designed for USB 3.0. Once they do, the situation may change. But even if it does, there will still be advantages to esata in that the computer sees it as another internal drive. That can't be done with USB.

 

[James Colbert]

I don't think they will or can phase esata out. It's too easy to buy an esata bracket and plug it into a sata port. But you are right about USB 3.0. Manufacturers have not gotten serious about building externals designed for USB 3.0. Once they do, the situation may change. But even if it does, there will still be advantages to esata in that the computer sees it as another internal drive. That can't be done with USB.

I guess even if they do (worse decisions have been made...), it really wouldn't be too difficult to make your own esata 'dock', or even just drill a hole in the case and run power and data cables out.

 

[essenbe]

I know couple of people who do just that. You can buy 3ft long sata and sata power cables. They just run them outside the computer and switch disks in a matter of moments. Those water cooling holes in the back of most cases can have more than 1 use.

 

[James Colbert]

Another simple and inexpensive solution (I have several of these...for use with bare sata drives):

Akasa Thermal Solution

In addition to the internal power & data connections, they come with external power and data cables (from panel to drive). I used to just lay the drive on top of my desk or on top of the computer the drive is 'tethered' to.

 

[strollin]

I have and use both. I prefer esata because I always get faster speeds with esata than USB 3,0. In fact, I'm currently looking for a laptop and have found a few I like, but no esata port. I scratch them off my list. USB 3.0 is definately much faster than 2.0, but my experience is esata is faster. It has other uses also. You can boot from esata but not from USB 3.0. eSata comes in handy in other ways too because the computer sees it as the same as an internal drive.

If a laptop you are considering has a ExpressCard or PC Card slot (many don't nowadays) you could add an eSata adapter that way.

 

[essenbe]

I have and use both. I prefer esata because I always get faster speeds with esata than USB 3,0. In fact, I'm currently looking for a laptop and have found a few I like, but no esata port. I scratch them off my list. USB 3.0 is definately much faster than 2.0, but my experience is esata is faster. It has other uses also. You can boot from esata but not from USB 3.0. eSata comes in handy in other ways too because the computer sees it as the same as an internal drive.

If a laptop you are considering has a ExpressCard or PC Card slot (many don't nowadays) you could add an eSata adapter that way.

The biggest problem is finding out those details. many of the sites don't bother to tell those type of things. But just from looking around, it seems that Toshiba is more likely to have some of the more advanced things like that. I don't know about reliability though.

 

[Dave76]

Great article Doc, you should make this a tutorial.


Can't remember when I got my first 2 1/2" external enclosure, it was IDE and my spare HDD was less than 1GB.
Still have a 20GB IDE HDD in an external enclosure.

 

[DocBrown]

Just found this NewEgg Video on installing

 

[DocBrown]

Well, I really like these new HD Dock units. Here is another that I just got to test. It has 1 slot for SATA & 1 combo slot for 3.5 / 2.5 IDE HDs.
rb:

This SATA HDD Dock allows you to plug any 2.5'' or 3.5'' , SATA or IDE Hard disk to your computer via USB port, and using two HD at the same time. It functions as a 2-port USB hub and card reader as well. The device is compatible with both PCs and Mac.​

rb:​

​

​

Features:

• Supports Double SATA/IDE HD, Standard, convenient and trendy design
• Supports E-SATA,USB1.1, USB2.0, SATA I, and SATA II compatible
• 2-Port USB 2.0 HUB, Hi-speed USB2.0 data transfer rate up to 480MB/s (Max), SATA II transfer rate up to 3GB/s
• Supports 2.5/3.5 inch SATA/IDE Hard Drive, up to 1TB × 2＝2TB
• Multi-Card Reader for SD/MS/CF/XD-memory
• Plugs and play and hot-swappable
• Power LED indicator
• On/Off switch
• OS compatible: Win7/Vista/XP/2000/ME/98SE, Mac OS 9.x or higher
• Power adapter: Input 100-240V, 50-60Hz, 1.0A ; Output 12V-3A, 5.0V-3A
• Dimension: 165.5 x 110 x 102mm
• Weight: 237g

rb:​

​

rb:​

Made a 32gb Windows backup to a 2TB SATA HD in about 20 mins.​

 

[pparks1]

I'm always leary of these do it all products, with Japanese or Chinese written all over them. When it comes to data, I just don't like to take chances. My Thermaltakes are all solid, and pretty cheap to boot.

 

[James Colbert]

pretty cheap to boot.

 

[strollin]

Doc, gotta link to that all-in-one?

Is this the same one? NEON all-in-one Dual HDD dock