What the thread title says. 
I'm looking to buy ASAP a new HD enclosure (or two).
Thing is I don't know much about what is available, even less about what to avoid or look for in a modern external enclosure.
Just as a sort of pointer for your upcoming kind advices
, here's the list of features I'm currently checking while browsing online catalogs -- in no specific order (those between brackets are not mandatory, ie. all the others ARE! 
):
* 3,5" case (thus supporting both 2,5" and 3,5" drives)
* Power status LED indicator (just hate not having a clue when I look directly at it whether it's ON or not!)
* Activity (Read/Write) LED indicator (same thing here: not being able to tell whether a drive is currently working, resting, or stuck -- which happens! -- should always be a _NO GO_! It is for me anyways...
NB: these 2 LED indicators can perfectly be replaced by just one: lighted=ON, blinking=Working)
(* ON/OFF Physical Power switch)
(*Automatic standby/restart (Not contradictory to the above feature, this only allows the enclosure WHEN the switch is ON tu be able to manage itself according to the state of the computer it's plugged to: automatically putting itself in standby mode whenever the computer itself is being turned OFF or into standby mode, and restarting itself automatically along with the comp...))
(* Cooling fan (Not mandatory but damn near necessary for me since a few of my -- admittedly older -- drives can overheat past 55°C sometimes. If the enclosure doesn't come with its own fan, I'll have to use a third party one anyway...))
(* Easy HD-swapping (Just the overall ease of use of the enclosure and how fast it is to remove an HD and plug another one into it -- which I tend to do a LOT, as I have 8 big storage drives, each dedicated to its own type of content))
* Support: - USB3.0 (rather than eSATA)
- SATA III
- UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol)
- >2 TB (NB: I could well assume that most if not all recent enclosures must now support above 2 TB capacity, but assuming being the shortest path to getting all wrong, I'd rather have it confirmed. Plus what about even greater capacities? 6 TB drives are available nowadays -- is there even bigger?, so are these well supported in general by recent enclosures too?)
- SMART technology (same comment as above -- it most prolly IS standard to all enclosures nowadays, but what do I know? Only that at least 3 of the enclosures I bought in the past just DIDN'T support it, which tended to infuriate me to no end BTW: how can you be supposed to be ok with being left blind concerning the health of your drive, therefore your data?)
All kinds of advices are welcome here:
- Does my prerequisite feature-list above lacks something important, useful (or just geeky-cool) in your opinion?
- Do you know of an enclosure matching my requirements you'd like to recommend?
- On the contrary, do you know of an enclosure, a series or even a manufacturer that should be avoided at all cost?
Thank you so much to anyone pointing me in the right direction(s) for my purchase!!
I'm looking to buy ASAP a new HD enclosure (or two).
Thing is I don't know much about what is available, even less about what to avoid or look for in a modern external enclosure.
Just as a sort of pointer for your upcoming kind advices
, here's the list of features I'm currently checking while browsing online catalogs -- in no specific order (those between brackets are not mandatory, ie. all the others ARE! ):* 3,5" case (thus supporting both 2,5" and 3,5" drives)
* Power status LED indicator (just hate not having a clue when I look directly at it whether it's ON or not!)
* Activity (Read/Write) LED indicator (same thing here: not being able to tell whether a drive is currently working, resting, or stuck -- which happens! -- should always be a _NO GO_! It is for me anyways...
NB: these 2 LED indicators can perfectly be replaced by just one: lighted=ON, blinking=Working)
(* ON/OFF Physical Power switch)
(*Automatic standby/restart (Not contradictory to the above feature, this only allows the enclosure WHEN the switch is ON tu be able to manage itself according to the state of the computer it's plugged to: automatically putting itself in standby mode whenever the computer itself is being turned OFF or into standby mode, and restarting itself automatically along with the comp...))
(* Cooling fan (Not mandatory but damn near necessary for me since a few of my -- admittedly older -- drives can overheat past 55°C sometimes. If the enclosure doesn't come with its own fan, I'll have to use a third party one anyway...))
(* Easy HD-swapping (Just the overall ease of use of the enclosure and how fast it is to remove an HD and plug another one into it -- which I tend to do a LOT, as I have 8 big storage drives, each dedicated to its own type of content))
* Support: - USB3.0 (rather than eSATA)
- SATA III
- UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol)
- >2 TB (NB: I could well assume that most if not all recent enclosures must now support above 2 TB capacity, but assuming being the shortest path to getting all wrong, I'd rather have it confirmed. Plus what about even greater capacities? 6 TB drives are available nowadays -- is there even bigger?, so are these well supported in general by recent enclosures too?)
- SMART technology (same comment as above -- it most prolly IS standard to all enclosures nowadays, but what do I know? Only that at least 3 of the enclosures I bought in the past just DIDN'T support it, which tended to infuriate me to no end BTW: how can you be supposed to be ok with being left blind concerning the health of your drive, therefore your data?)
All kinds of advices are welcome here:
- Does my prerequisite feature-list above lacks something important, useful (or just geeky-cool) in your opinion?
- Do you know of an enclosure matching my requirements you'd like to recommend?
- On the contrary, do you know of an enclosure, a series or even a manufacturer that should be avoided at all cost?
Thank you so much to anyone pointing me in the right direction(s) for my purchase!!
Last edited:
My Computer
At a glance
Vista Home Premium 32bit2 Gib
- Computer type
- Laptop
- Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
- Compaq/HP Presario C750
- OS
- Vista Home Premium 32bit
- Memory
- 2 Gib
- Hard Drives
- Western Digital WD30EZRX
Western Digital WD40EZRX
