External Hard Drive

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I have been shopping for an external or pocket hard drive now for 5 months now, yet seem to not be able to make a decision as there exists a plethora of drives and types of drives. What I am seeking is something around 60/80/120 GB that can be simply attached and automatically recognized as a drive for the purpose of backing up everything.

I am asking Loungers to perhaps share their experiences or their advice based on personal use, including associated caveats.

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Maybe FISH will jump in here but if he doesn’t, he made this post recently. I don’t have anything like this but I would think USB would be a good way to go.

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Bruce:

Have just purchased and set up a 40GB Kanguru USB external HDD. It has worked without a hitch. Although it utilizes USB2 it’s backward compatible with USB1. Works with different interfaces … controlled by connecting cable applied.

Have also used Orb Removable 2.2 MB media drives for the last 4 years with no major problems. They function “like” a Jaz drive but both the media and the drives are considerably less expensive.

The Kangaru drives are marketed by Interactive Media Corp. Drive price at their web site was ~$160US; USB cable connector (others available) was ~$40US. Higher capacity externals are available.

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I’m using a 40gig Maxtor USB drive. Works great so far.

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You are the first person I have heard of that said that the ORB drive was without any major problems. I bought a 2.2 gig IDE ORB soon after they came out. At first it was a really great drive, fast, easy to use and with the removable 2.2 gig cartridge, was good for backups and temporary storage. BUT, then the troubles started. I went through five (5) drives with various problems and then defective cartridges also. A buddy of mine also got one and he had the same experiences. Castlewood was good at taking them back and replacing the drives and cartridges, but I think my ORB’s were amassing more frequent flier miles than I was ! Finally the warrantee period ran out and when I called to see what the OUT of warrantee repair charge would be, it turned out to be almost the same a whole new drive. I then removed the drive and use it as a paper weight now. My friend still has his and it is still racking up FF miles. I have noticed that (Castlewood) doesn’t advertise them like they once did. I wonder why? Got any use for a few cartridges?
It seems a shame that they could have beaten out ZIP drives easily, especially when the cost of 2.2 gig cartridges were only about $30.00US.

Bob

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Bruce

I am using two different enclosures. Both are USB, and one can also support Firewire. I have one for 2.5 or 9mm hard drives, typically seen in laptops, and the other is for 3.5 or regular HDs that you typically see in desktop machines.

These are kit-like products, and the true advantage of these is that you can pick and choose what drive goes in. Any drive on the market is a candidate, and you just need a screw driver to work with the kit. BTW these enclosures do come with drives as well.

I started when I found my laptop dying, and I needed to get my data off of it. I had removed the HD, and all other “reusable” parts, and I got the enclosure from FirewireDirect Plugged it in, and I was up and running. This one also come with Firewire support, as if the name was simply picked. It comes with cables, and a power supply.

The other one is from Cyberguys.com and it is made by BAFO. This one I got because I found myself owning a whole lot of HDs from 540 MB all the way to 40GB. So I elected to have all these drives reusable by having these enclosures, and just switching drives in them.

So I hope I gave you a starting point, and if you need any more help, just ask.

Best of luck.

Wassim
in the

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Wassim,

Just like you I have an inventory of old desktop drives. It makes sense to utilize them for backup purposes. Can you elaborate a little more on the kits that you mentioned. I looked at your link to Cyberguys and tried searching it for the kit but I could not locate anything close to a kit for the drives.

Thanks,
John

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John

There are two types of hard drive enclosures, ones for laptop 9.5mm hard drives, and ones for desktop 3.5cm hard drives. Don’t quote me on these sizes .

I have both types of hard drives and thus I need both types. I got one for laptop from Firewiredirect.

But for you, and the desktop hard drives, you most probably need the one from BAFO.

I have elected to use the ones that I can, meaning large enough, 40 GB and 7200 RPM, in my enclosure, and use the obsolete ones, meaning 80 MB, to open up and play with and look at how hard drives work.

I have two 80 MG Western Digitals and I opened one up by smashing it, and then learned about it, and I opened the second one with extreme success and now I can show it to friends. Very neat stuff, and the disk is as polished as a mirror.

I hope I gave you enough information here, please come back with any questions .

Wassim

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If only you had videotaped yourself smashing the first one. It might have become very popular as a web download.

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NOW YOU TELL ME!!!

You are right, this would have been a great download. But to be honest, there wasn’t much smashing, more like prying and twisting.

Eat your heart out Dancing Baby

Wassim

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I use a KAngaroo 40 gig USB 1.1 and an Iomega 20 gig USB 2.0. Both are ok, but after the initial new toy feeling wore off they sit until needed. The 40 is for data backup (large formulas) and the 20 for my stuff, shareware, freeware, custom documents I wrote et al.
The Kangaroo had a install problem with Win 2k but it was a quick fix.
The Iomega installed a bunch of junk software automatically that I removed.

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