I need a hard drive enclosure for my internal drive

I have a 40 GB Maxtor internal desktop hard drive that I want to use as an external drive for my notebook for 1) to get some suff off my hard drive and 2) to tranfer files to so I can reinstall Windows. I need an external USB 2.0 enclosure. I need something cheap, and that is sold at retail stores. I'm not really sure what kind of drive it is, I think it has an IDE connector, i think that's what it's called. I really don't know much about hard drives. I haven't had much luck finding anything lower than about $50.

 

Do you have any circuit city, compusa, or best buy around you? They do have some IDE 3.5" enclosures for around $30. Buying online you could probably save an extra $10, like at newegg. All enclosures will work just fine, only difference from one to another is how cool they keep the drive, fan or no fan, some have extra features like USB hub or flash memory readers, but when it comes to the main function they are almost all equal.

Most likely you have a parallel ATA (PATA) drive, also known as IDE.

If you are not sure check the link to the image below. If you use the larger connector type then it is PATA, the smaller connector type is SATA (Serial).

http://www.maadiran.com/persian/images/sata-pata.jpg

 

Just run into any local computer store. They should have quite a few to choose from. I picked up a 2.5" enclosure for $25 from circuit city not too long ago, so I can't really see the desktop versions being much more.

 

Ok, thanks. It has a PATA connector. I have a best buy close, so I will probably go there when I get the chance. I think Comp USA has really expensive prices, I was looking for a notebook last year, and Comp USA had the most expensive prices for a similar spec notebook at other retail stores. I just wanted to see if there was anything cheaper than $50, I looked on bestbuy.com and didn't find much lower than $50. I didn't look at circuit city yet though. I can't buy online, I'm not old enough yet, my parents don't like using the credit card over the internet much.

 

They have better deals now than "last year". But, they do have enclosures for low prices
http://www.compusa.com/products/pro...SB_2_0_3_5_inch_External_Hard_Drive_Enclosure
I don't own one though, and would never recommend it but you can pick it up, test it and see.

I have this enclosure, and it's nice
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817173010

 

I bought two of these from Radioshack:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...kw=hard+drive+enclosure+3.5&parentPage=search

It is under $40.

I like it. When a 300 GB is transferring 200 GB of files, it does get hot.

I don't recommend the Aluminum Compusa versions ($19.99 to $29.99) which have NO heat dissipation.

 

Although I woun't recommend anything made by compusa, mainly because they're usally made of cheap material. But, the reason for making those enclosures off aluminum is because aluminum's heat dissipation is excellent thus the need for a fan inside the enclosure is minimal. I might be wronng with that exact compusa enclosure though.

 

Thanks again. I didn't think of radio shack having enclosures. I might go to best buy saturday, if they don't have what I need, I'll check out radio shack. I don't think there are any compUSA stores close enough to my house though anyway, 2 Best buys that are about 15-20 mins away, 1 radio shack about 10 mins away (I live in the middle of nowhere).

 

for a 2.5" drive, i wouldn't spend more than 10-15 bux...

check bensbargains.net for deals every couple days. i paid 10 bux for mine

for a 3.5" drive, i wouldn't spend more than 20-25 bux

 

Check out ebay

 

I ended up getting a Dynex exclosure for $51 something from Best Buy. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7291557&st=drive+enclosures&lp=6&type=product&cp=1&id=1118840521901
I had a little trouble getting the drive to work correctly at first though. It's a 37.2GB drive, but it only found 7.88GB of that. I changed jumper settings and then took it off, but it showed the same thing. Then I booted up PC linux OS on llive CD to find that there was only 7.88GB formatted as windows the other 3o something was nothing, I deleted the windows, then I formatted it all as fat 32. Booted back in Windows, and low and behold, it showed 37.2GB, then I just converted it to NTFS. I did run into another problem while converting the first time, the drive just shut off for no apparent reason, I checked the connections, then I flipped the power cord to adapter connection around and it suddenly starts working again. It doesn't have an indicator as to which way to put it in, and for some reason it worked the wrong way for awhile. I marked it so i wouldn't make the mistake again. Now it's been working good since.