Hard Drive Case?

I'm finally getting around to replacing and upgrading my OEM HDs I now have but want to keep them as external and backup drive.

How do I go about finding a reliable HD caddy that will give me the maximum usability from the drive? How will I know if the case will hold the amount of the HD? And do I need to order any other cables/connectors/etc. along with the case?

 

For your notebook drives, any enclosure/caddy/dock that will fit a 2.5" SATA drive should do. The question at that point becomes what sort of interface you want to get for said caddy. Your HDX X18 apparently supports USB 2.0, eSATA, and Firewire, so any case with any of those outputs should connect just fine. The case should come with the appropriate cables.

 

Excellent! I know I'll need the fastest connection for video transfer, but I haven't been able to find any with the eSATA yet. Any suggestions? Links? You guys have been excellent with the suggestion so far.

 

Check out this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/NewProduct.aspx?Item=N82E16817193058

Connects with USB and eSATA. Good price and free shipping too.

 

Note that eSATA usually requires two connections. One to USB for power, and one to the eSATA for data. That's the downside of eSATA. There are some very new laptops coming with eSATAp ports and only one enclosure that I know of that has eSATAp compatibility, so your options there are very limited at the moment. I don't know if your HDX 18 has any eSATAp ports (combined USB/eSATA port it may be listed as)

 

The ones I would recommend are:

USB & eSATA with power adaptor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...cm_re=vantec_enclosure-_-17-145-167-_-Product

USB & eSATA & FireWire 800 & 400 with power adaptor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...cm_re=vantec_enclosure-_-17-392-026-_-Product


Check both 'specs' tabs to see what comes with each kit (basically - everything, including an eSATA bracket for a desktop with no eSATA port.

Also note that you should be able to plug in the USB cables and the eSATA cables to your notebook and the USB cable will provide 'power' and the actual connection will be only through the eSATA.

 

HDX18 has e-SATA/USB port... and so does all of hp pavilion laptops from Dv5...

 

Those are for 3.5" hdds. Why not get a 2.5" hdd enclosure and make it that much more portable. With a 3.5" enclosure you'll need to use a dc power cord to power it. "The drive can lie horizontally or stand vertically, and is powered by a bundled power adapter"

2.5" will run off usb.

I recently purchased a Vantec with usb and esata.

 

Ooopps! Sorry, my mistake.

See:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...cm_re=vantec_enclosure-_-17-392-009-_-Product

 

Generally speaking, external hard drive enclosures can theoretically support any hard drive capacity as long as that hard drive capacity can be recognized by your operating system.

Thus, if you were to purchase a 3.5" external HHD enclosure and stuff a 2TB hard drive in it, your computer will recognize that hard drive's capacity as long as it has the ability to do so. In essence, it is your PC's operating system that limits the recognization of hard drive capacity, not the external HDD enclosure.

In any case, I had the opportunity to review Silverstone's RVS01 2.5" external HDD enclosure. Excellent enclosure, comes with USB 2.0 and eSATA, along with all the cables too. I highly reccomend it. It's going for about $30 street. Feel free to check out my review:

Editor’s Choice: Silverstone RVS01 External HDD Enclosure Review

If you're looking for a 3.5" external HDD enclosure, try this one out for size:

Silverstone MS03 External Hard Drive Enclosure Review

 

Thanks for all the great advice on the HD enclosures gentleman. After careful analysis, and checking through the vast array of HD enclosures, I decided that the Acomdata-tango-25-inch-usb-20-esata $19.99, would suit my needs best. It received lots of high praise for compact size and reliability. And also is one of the few HD cases that comes with the esata that I like. The only negative is that it DOES NOT come with an esata cable. I had to order that separately ($2.98) from Amazon.

 

congrats on your selection.

Here is another solution for anyone else looking for an enclosure (I just mentioned this product in another thread). It allows usb, firewire 400, firewire 800, and eSata connections... and it can hold 2.5 or 3.5 drives:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/FWU2ES2HDK/

or if you only care about eSATA then consider this much lesser expensive version...
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/U2ES2HDK/

with these you can have as many drives as you want and just plug them in when needed. No need to have a bunch of seperate enclosure for each drive or mess with opening a single enclosure all the time to uninstall/install other drives. Just plug them into the "toaster" when needed. Couldn't be simpler. It's not ideal for portability though since it's meant more to sit on a desk than lug around in a laptop bag.

 

If that's the case, this is the only external enclosure I've found that is compatible with that, powering the drive and using SATA with a single cable:

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=HE-2521B&cpc=SCH

I just bought one. Pretty inexpensive at $14. Not the best build quality, but it seems solid and the cables are nice (comes with both the eSATA/USB and dual-connector USB cables). Crappy leatherette case thingy with it. But it'll be the fastest transfer you can get with a single cable that's not USB3.

 

So, just to be clear, this case has the newer SINGLE eSata/USB port on it, capable of working off the combo eSATA/USB port on the HP with a SINGLE cable/connector? Or is it some sort of single cable with split ends that go to eSATA and USB, separately? If the former, does it come with that COMBO/All-in-One cable? The pictures I can find of it are low res and the cables are not very visible, hence I cannot tell for myself.

Thanks for the info!

 

It's the newer single-cable connector thing, power and SATA data on the same cable. Powered eSATA, eSATAp, however you describe it. It has the appropriate cable for it. It also comes with the standard 2-connector USB cable for machines without that. The only way I was sure when I ordered it was because of the Powered eSATA label on the box art... the description itself is very vague. As soon as I get my Envy next weekend, I'll let you know how it all works out. The USB connection is perfectly fine, though.

 

That's a heck of a deal then! Gotta get one (or three!)...thanks!

 

Got the enclosure and cables (USB were included), and they work fine. Next, I tried eSATA and it also was recognized immediately and responds as normal too.

I still have to test for accessing the drivers data for transferring video but I don't think that will be an issue when I combine the WD320 and eSATA. If it all works out, I should have the same response as I do with internal drives. I'll keep you updated.