500gb laptop hd enclosure

where can i find the cheapest 2.5 inch enclosusre that supports 500gb? i plan on buying the 500gb 2.5inch hd from newegg for my inspiron 1520 for 150$.

 

any 2.5" adaptor will recognize 500gb.
The external enclosure is basically a plastic or metal box with a usb or firewire to sata adaptor.

If you are buying the Hitachi 5K500 make sure that the external enclosure can handle 12.5mm thick drives. Every other 500gb drive but the Fujitsu is the standard 9.5mm thick.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010090092%201053807124%201054107131&name=SATA

K-TRON

 

I'm not sure about the cheapest, but this would be my pick as it offers eSATA support (HD1-SU2S2) http://www.hotway.com.tw/products/hd1-su2.htm

I use it for my Seagate 500GB harddisk and it's been working perfectly fine although I've dropped it several times.

hope this helps

 

The 500gb drive will only be 150?

 

The SATA interface will negotiate the speed supported by both ends of the connection.

Get the WD 500GB HDD. This is a standard 9.5mm thick HDD which will fit into any of the enclosures and is quite economical on power. I have used it with an Icy Box IB290 enclosure (but that's a German company and may not be available in North America). As already suggested, get an enclosure with eSATA so you can upgrade to a faster interface.

John

 

most of the ones from the newegg link for enclosures say only up to 250gb or up to 160gb. and what is esata for?

 

Ignore what the enclosure specs say about the HDD capacity. They were probably written a year ago when 320GB and 500GB 2.5" HDDs did not exist. Capacity-wise, it is the interface that matters and that supports more than the biggest HDDs.

500GB means that you need an enclosure with an internal SATA connector (some enclosures have IDE / PATA which is needed for older HDDs). The Samsung or WD 500GB HDDs offered by Newegg are both 9.5mm thick so they will fit in any of the enclosures with the right interface (there are also some 12.7mm (1/2") thick 500GB HDDs which wouldn't fit).

eSATA gives you a faster connection to the computer (the same speed as if the HDD was internal). See here for an illustration of the difference between USB and eSATA. Some new computers include an eSATA port. You may need an adaptor which would go into the card slot.

John

 

I have the Rock HD1-SU2S2 (USB+Esata) and a WDC 500GB SATA2.
I am using the HP DV5-1034TX notebook with ESATA port. The notebook is able to "see" the HDD if i connect using USB but is unable to detect the HDD if I connect via Esata (powered by additional USB 5V cable).
What could be the problem?

 

1. What disk access mode have you got set in the BIOS?

2. Have you installed the Intel matrix storage software?

John

 

John, the HP notebook has no special settings in the BIOS for AHCI (if it is there, then i couldn't locate them), and the Vista came already installed with Intel Matrix storage.
In normal situation, will the eSATA drive be detected when you go into BIOS setup?

 

Same problem here!
I tried installing a 3,5" 1TB external HDD installed on external HDD enclosure.
It never recognised it whatever I tried.
My HDD enclosure is a bit particular because it has a SATA connection not eSATA at the back!So I used a SATA to eSATA cable but my HP HDX18 never recognised it.

I thought that the problem is the SATA port so I plan to buy another external enclosure with eSATA but after reading this I am afraid that that the problem is somewhere else.

Anyone can help?

 

Marengo: Have you made any progress on this issue ? I also have an HDX-18t.

I think so far I've just duplicated your efforts and results. My external drive shows up fine when USB connected, but not when connected by an esata-sata cable.

The HP "external devices" manual available at HP (c01596980.pdf) implies that using the esata port is "plug-and-play", but it appears to be a generic manual and not necessarily specific to the HDX-18t.

For what it's worth, I've tried both Vista (64 bit) and Mac OSX (10.5.5), and in both cases the external drive not only does not mount, it does not appear to be visible as connected with any utility I have.

From what I see, it sure seems that the esata port is not enabled...or enabled correctly...in the BIOS. My HDX 18t arrived with the "Insyde H2O" F11 BIOS. Is yours the same ?

I have heard that there is an HP Service Utility that will access "hidden" BIOS options, but have not found a copy.

I'll try next making a direct connection to the external hard drive...don't really expect any difference.

Thanks,
Gulliamo
Sandy Eggo, California, USA