which external enclosures to purchase

i need some assistance, i was looking to purchase a new hard drive for my macbook, i would like to get a external enclosure to transfer old data from my old hard drive to a new one, can anyone recommend a inexpensive external enclosure i can purchase, one that is compatible, make or model would be greatly appriciated, thanks in advance .

 

Why not just look at getting one from LaCie, Maxtor, Seagate, or the like? They are a pretty good value, have warranties, and are often better quality than build-it-your-own-darn-self enclosure kits.

That said.... I like NexStar- I have always had good luck with their enclosures. I had a VanTec enclosure set hard drives on fire TWICE, which stems from them using really cheap power supplies. Whoever makes the 'Metal Gear Box' (sold at CompUSA and others) does a pretty good job.

 

I think he was looking for an enclosure not one with a hard drive in it and certainly not one which if opened would probably void the warranty. he wants to purchase a new drive for his macbook so when he takes the old one out he wants to be able to transfer the data over.

if ur just looking at transferring stuff over and thats it, ie not going to use it anymore then any cheap one will do. this is a 2.5" drive isnt it? if so then the generic seem to work fine, every1 who has a 2.5" external i know seems to have the same one.

 

I think I posted the wrong response to the wrong post here, there was somebody else asking a different question, and I must have gone backwards and posted....

Anyway you'll need a 2.5" enclosure (which run between US$15-40) and are pretty much ubiquitous- you can get a half-decent one at CompUSA, Best Buy, Fry's, etc. If you shop online they are everywhere. Newegg has a TON of options in the 2.5" range- people are usually pretty good there about writing honest reviews of their purchases.

On a sidenote, doesn't replacing the hard drive void your applecare warranty?

 

macbooks are user accessible for HD and Memory upgrades. Too bad the Pros aren't

 

You're kidding. Macbook pro owners aren't allowed to swap ram and hdds?

 

Pros are only Ram Updgradable, according to apples site. I was a little disappointed to read it. But I'm sure the labor for the upgrade is "cheap". It requires opening the top of the system, detaching the Bluetooth i think..and dropping in the new hd..not a hard task...but it will void applecare if you're not authorized

 

thanks all for the fast replies, is this a difference in transfer speeds i seen some enclosures that use usb 2.0 and some that use the firewire input any preference in the two thanks once again

 

amazon.com has good ones for about $10-$40 depending on how fancy you want to get. Anything you buy on amazon.com or amazon.com marketplace is guarenteed by amazon.

 

McNally enclosure

Bam. Thats probably one of the best you'll find. Supports FW 400 and USB 2.0. It can also power 7200 rpm drives without needing a power supply unit or dual USB 2 cables.
Not all external enclosures can power those babies without using dual cables.

I love it, and it's so fast over firewire (god, why are people still using USB for ext. HDD???). I installed Dark Messiah of Might and Magic on it and played directly off the drive. Ran great (albeit slower than from the internal drive).

I've always seen huge performance differences between FW and USB as long as you have quality chips.