USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure

[Jabba]

I just found one and its exactly what I've been looking for. Never knew they existed before a couple of days ago until a frient told me about it.

http://www.xpcgear.com/nexstar3blue.html

Basically, you plug an IDE hard drive into this thing, plug the USB from it into your computer and BAM, access to more hard drive goodness! 

Think of it as a VERY BIG portable flash/external drive (a little on the heavy side though)...

Best part, I paid $50 (hard drive not included).

Begone DVD and CD backups! Hello HDE !

[pointdablame]

Glad you found out about them, but you paid about twice what you should have.

[JoyMonkey]

I bought this thing about a year ago and I use it all the time. It's ugly as hell but you can put CD/DVD drives in there too. It's been particularly handy for hookinh up my Playstation2's hard drive to my PC to transfer games easily.

Edit: Forgot link

[pointdablame]

I bought this thing about a year ago and I use it all the time. It's ugly as hell but you can put CD/DVD drives in there too. It's been particularly handy for hookinh up my Playstation2's hard drive to my PC to transfer games easily.

that's what I used mine for a lot as well.  I have a 5.25 enclosure and put in a dvd drive or a hard drive based on my needs.  They are very handy.  I also have a 3.5 enclosure strictly for hard drives.

$50 is a lot for a 3.5" enclosure though.  NewEgg has some for $10

[Dermbrian]

I wish I still had a reason to buy one of these.   

Unfortunately, my daughter broke her screen on her IPOD, so I now have a 20G external hard drive that was only $269.00.


Brian

[JoyMonkey]

I wish I still had a reason to buy one of these.   

Unfortunately, my daughter broke her screen on her IPOD, so I now have a 20G external hard drive that was only $269.00.


Brian

I was at the Apple store (also to get my iPod relpaced because the battery was shite) and there was a 12 year old there that cracked his screen "while I was using it like normal" on a 4G iPod and they just gave him a brand new one. Give it a try, it seems Apple likes handing out free iPods if it'll stop people screaming at the Genius Bar.

[Dermbrian]

I was at the Apple store (also to get my iPod relpaced because the battery was shite) and there was a 12 year old there that cracked his screen "while I was using it like normal" on a 4G iPod and they just gave him a brand new one. Give it a try, it seems Apple likes handing out free iPods if it'll stop people screaming at the Genius Bar.

That might be worth a try if it didn't look abused.  My daughter's was in her backpack for about a month "lost". 

But there are a lot of instances of people pointing out that Apple really shouldn't show people dancing wildly listening to their IPODs.  A lot of screens seem to be break under circumstances you'd think wouldn't break them.   I'm not sure it's worth fixing even at $89.00 for a replacement screen pulled from a dead unit, if she's likely to break it again.

Brian

[Zakk]

I bought this thing about a year ago and I use it all the time. It's ugly as hell but you can put CD/DVD drives in there too. It's been particularly handy for hookinh up my Playstation2's hard drive to my PC to transfer games easily.

Edit: Forgot link

That's the same one I have, works like a charm unless the comp you are hooking up to doesn't have USB 2     Then it crawls like snails on a skating rink

[Havok]

Glad you found out about them, but you paid about twice what you should have.

No he didn't. Did you check it out? That's a pimped out version, which always cost a little more, but look cool. You probably are thinking of a boring, dull version that does the job however looks crappy.

That looks pretty good, I may pick one up: it matches my blue led mouse\keyboard\pc case. Now...

How do I add blue LED's to my monitor bezel...

Hmmmm.....

 

[pointdablame]

Glad you found out about them, but you paid about twice what you should have.

No he didn't. Did you check it out? That's a pimped out version, which always cost a little more, but look cool. You probably are thinking of a boring, dull version that does the job however looks crappy.

That looks pretty good, I may pick one up: it matches my blue led mouse\keyboard\pc case. Now...

How do I add blue LED's to my monitor bezel...

Hmmmm.....

 

oh yeah.. i forgot that blue LED cost $30.... 

No offense... but its just an external enclosure.  I'm not saying $50 is a terrible price, but since he just found out the things existed (by his own admission), I thought he'd like to know that he could have had one (or got another one) for much cheaper.

I'll never buy into the "pimped" version crap if its twice the price.  Take a $3 can of spray paint and a spare blue led to it if it bugs ya that much.

[Harry Potter]

Glad you found out about them, but you paid about twice what you should have.

No he didn't. Did you check it out? That's a pimped out version, which always cost a little more, but look cool. You probably are thinking of a boring, dull version that does the job however looks crappy.

That looks pretty good, I may pick one up: it matches my blue led mouse\keyboard\pc case. Now...

How do I add blue LED's to my monitor bezel...

Hmmmm.....

 

oh yeah.. i forgot that blue LED cost $30.... 

No offense... but its just an external enclosure.  I'm not saying $50 is a terrible price, but since he just found out the things existed (by his own admission), I thought he'd like to know that he could have had one (or got another one) for much cheaper.

I'll never buy into the "pimped" version crap if its twice the price.  Take a $3 can of spray paint and a spare blue led to it if it bugs ya that much.

$50 US is quite high. I can get them in Australia for about $40 (USB 2 models) and $50 (USB2 and Firewire). And for $15, 2.5" enclosures with power on the USB cable.

[sirwoogie]

Yes, I would agree, $50 is a bit overpriced for a 3.5" that only supports SUB2. I picked up this one

It was about $37 with free shipping when I got it. GMG has some decent enclosures. The reason for the high price there was that it's a SUB2/Firewire combo enclosure, so I can float in and out of any connection that I might need. Yeah, it has a bit of baling, but the case is pretty solid on all sides (the aluminum sticks out so if you drop it on edge you just bend that instead). I've been pretty happy with it.

I'd say for 3.5" SUB only you're range should be 20-30. SUB/Firewire should be 30-50.

There are always sales on this kind of stuff.

[Edgedamage]

They are handy but stay away form the cheap no-name ones. A good enclosure should have no problem transferring a 3gig file in under 3 1/2 minutes using usb 2.0
I have had 5 diffrent ones I just got another one from a parts swap it's made by Iomega and has a Hitachi 80 gig drive in it and it is the most quiet drive I have ever used. I am really starting to look at enclosures that support N.A.S those look promsing.

[Jabba]

oh yeah.. i forgot that blue LED cost $30....

[pointdablame]

I've had this one in the past:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817250003


I still own that Bytecc that you linked (your second link) and really like it.  I actually had two of them at one point, and put a DVD burner in it for almost a year so that I could use it on all the computers in the house (this was before dvd burners were about $40 new heh)

They are really great things to have around.  As for NewEgg, it is my absolute favorite online computer retailer.  I have had ZERO problems with them.  I also really like zipzoomfly.com, but don't know what their enclosure choices are like.

I'm in the US so can't speak about shipping to Canada, but both of those sites are pretty reasonable with shipping.  ZZF actually has free 2day shipping on most items, but I think that is US only...

[Jabba]

I just love this thing...Its Pure Music Portable goodliness...

I got a 160 GB hard drive plugged into this thing with all my music on it.

I carry it around in my laptop case and now have my entire music collection at hand!

How many CD's you figure I'm carrying on this thing?

[shmokes]

You will get a second on NewEgg being the best computer parts retailer in the known Universe from virtually anyone who has ever bought anything from them.  Their site could look nicer, but otherwise those guys are perfect.