External Hard Drive

Fat_Cat

Hi all,

I've been looking to get an external HD for my laptop to put all my music and photos on. I was looking at Amazon and saw that there are lots of 2.5" hard drive enclosures. Can i then purchase a plain hard drive and insert it in the enclosure and make my own cheaper version of a standard usb drive, or am i missing something?

thanks,

philnicandamy

Thats pretty much what they do....remeber though 2.5" drives are from laptops PC hard drives are bigger

superjaggybunnet

Spot on! My boy did this and now has extra external capacity.

20000RPM

Remember to make sure you get a drive that fits!

Also, unless there's a space-saving reason to have a 2.5" drive, you may find you get more for your money with a 3.5".

Donnie

Save your cash: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000F5CWD8

Fat_Cat

I did see that, and it is great value, but i did want something a bit bigger. Is there any difference between SATA and IDE drives for this purpose?

But do i really need more than 80gig for my music and photos :rolleyes:

Donnie

No.
Ask yourself and then come back again.

threedee

BEWARE:
If you're buying an enclosure for SATA drive be warned that most dont support capacities over 120GB.
I've been screwed out of ~25 pounds by tw@ts on ebay, who sold me 2 enclosures (on separate auctions), that had "320gb max" in the description.

I have a 160gb drive and none of the 2 enclosures i have support the drive. One of them doesnt even support 80gb. So, now i have a properly working drive kicking about... (prolly will stick it into my laptop then...)

moonrakerz

20000RPM wrote: »

Remember to make sure you get a drive that fits!

Also, unless there's a space-saving reason to have a 2.5" drive, you may find you get more for your money with a 3.5".

Not necessarily !

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/6752895/Trail/searchtext%3EHARD+DRIVES.htm

Just got one as a backup for my Photoshop stuff - great little drive.

toasterman

From personal experience, I have to say that the WesternDigital/Seagate/etc branded drives are noticably quieter and run cooler than the caddy+own drive method.
Plus there's very little saving to be had really, if any.

For example.. a quick search finds me:
Western Digital 250GB 2.5" Hard Drive SATA150 5400rpm 8MB Cache - OEM
51.73
+
2.5" SATA TO USB 2.0 HDD (caddy) 15.75
Total = £67.48

OR

Western Digital 250GB Portable Hard Drive USB2.0 - Retail My Passport Essential = £68.85

Why bother with recreating the wheel? Make life easy for yourself and buy one that's already put together

chris667

Maplin is doing a special offer on the enclosure I have.
It's £29.99 at the minute, which is half what my ex paid for it at Christmas.

It has USB connections, a remote control and can play back media files through a TV/amp, or record pictures and sound from a TV input.

Quite big, and a rather noisy fan. But cheap!

It supports PATA drives to 500GB.