External hard disk case

Topic

New Reply

I would like to buy an external hard disk enclosure/case into which I could insert any of the disk types currently available at work, namely PATA, SATA or SATA-II, and be able to connect the resultant external disk via a USB2 interface to any computer. This would normally be for occasional debugging/data recovery/reformatting purposes, and performance is pretty irrelevant.

But faced with an enormous range of possibilities like these here, I’m not sure what I should be looking for.

Pretty obviously the external disk enclosure must have its own power supply, and there would have to be a disk controller card inside which copes with the required range of disks, and has the correct power and data connectors, but is there anything else that I should be checking on?

This can’t be an unusual requirement, and it’s probably just unusual that I’ve never really had to do it before last week, when I had to attach a PATA disk into an ancient PC which fortunately had a spare power connector and socket on the flat ribbon cable…

Thanks!

John

Reply | Quote

Replies

I just started playing with these. I have two for IDE drives and one for SATA. The one I have for IDE drives is basically an empty box, with a standard looking connectors inside, and a power brick and USB connector outside. There is also some strange pin connectors that connect to the outside dip switches. I am assuming that this is so you can switch Master/Salve/Cable Select modes without opening up the case.

One I have tried for SATA drives doesn’t work properly. I just get a “usb device unrecognized.”

Reply | Quote

Have you taken a look at Pilgrim‘s adventure in these two threads? ( post 611,127 and post 619,249 ) He mentions this one: Thermaltake A2395 Silver River DUO Enclosure

Reply | Quote

I don’t think that manufacturer made it across the pond, I’m afraid, Al!

I will have to explore further, but having looked through the complete list of possibilities in my link, I found just two that seems to support PATA and SATA, but that was as far as they went. The difficulty is the lack of detailed information…

John

Reply | Quote

[indent]

---

I don’t think that manufacturer made it across the pond, I’m afraid, Al!

---

[/indent] Try here

The difference between Genius and Stupidity:
A Genius knows their limits.
- Albert Einstein

Reply | Quote