External enclosure = portable HD?
 

I'm a little confused about how exactly an external hard drive encloser works, and what you use it for (other than a perminant external hard drive).

I have 2 hard drives in my computer, one 40 gig and one 20 gig. I'm going to be doing a bit of traveling, and would like to take all my files with me and be able to access them on any other computer. My first thought was to see if there was such thing as just some kind of cable that turns IDE into USB. But then I got to thinking, what about an external enclosure?

How exactly does an external enclosre work? Do I just pop my hard drive in there connecting it to an IDE slot, then pop the USB cord into a computer? Will any normal hard drive work, or do you need a special "external" formatted drive to put in there? Is it ok to use these enclosures for a temporary solution (like a week or so) before returning them back into my computer?

Also, would a normal desktop hard drive fit in a 2'' enclosure, or would a 3.5'' be needed?

Thanks a lot!

Basically, the external enclosure is a case/IDE-USB + power adapter. You could use it as a temporary solution and take it apart after if you wished.

Ummm, yes. I just replaced the hard drive in my laptop (4200 rpm, 60GB) with a new one (5400 rpm, 60GB), cause the old one was starting to be twitchy. I bought an external USB enclosure, and actually installing the old hard drive (cause it ain't dead yet) in the enclosure took less time than installing the new drive in the laptop. Plugged the usb plug into the laptop and the drive was instantly recognized, and given a letter. Most external drive enclosures come with two cords, one is a USB for data transfer and one is a power adapter cord. I don't know for desktops, my external came with a USB to 9V adapter, so I get enough power from two USB ports to run the drive.

What Lucifer said. It's quick and easy. I actually like to use USB harddrives for most of my storage anyways since I can take them anywhere and plug them into any computer. And they travel pretty easily, especially the laptop drives.

Awesome, thanks a lot guys. Depending on how much they are at some local computer stores, I might buy two.

For the actual enclosures, you might do better looking somewhere like NewEgg. Hard drives tend to be cheaper during sales at local places though...

Thread tangent:
Could you boot off one of these USB hard drives if your pc allowed USB boot?

Yep, but unless you have USB 2, it'd be hideously slow.

True, but I don't know of any recent systems or drives that aren't USB2.

I bought a case (Mad Dog Megavault USB 2.0/Firewire) and am out of town with my hard drive, on my mothers computer (fresh Windows XP install, 1.6ghz, 1 gig RAM, nVidia MX400 64m eg).

The hard drive I brought is the master drive from my computer at home, which includes a full Windows XP install and a bunch of programs and games that I was hoping to be able to run from this (or any other) computer. However, I have not been successful in running a single program off of this drive. I figured since the drive has a full OS on it alerady, that all the necessary files would still be accessible by the programs and games.

The only problem I can see is that the drive is now labeled as E: rather than the original C:. I tried taking the drive out of the USB case and plugging it in as a slave drive on the IDE cable, but had no better results. I even tried plugging it in as the master, but the computer wouldn't boot up.

Is there any possible way to run these programs and games off of the hard drive? Or am I out of luck? Thanks a lot!

did you change the BIOS to boot from USB instead of the chain? Did you also make the mom's drive a slave since it's currently jumpered to be a master or cable select?

Thanks for the response.

I just checked the boot order in the BIOS, and didn't see anything about USB or external devices. I tried installing the drivers off of the CD that came with the external enclosure, but it said my computer already had them and wouldn't let me reinstall.

When I took it out of the enclosure and put it right on the IDE, it was the only drive hooked up and was set on cable select (which is what it was at home too). Is it normal for it not want to boot up if so much of the hardware is differant? I know the drivers would probably be an issue.

Is there a way to change the letters, or does C: HAVE to be the master?

todd, you may be beyond this but just in case... god I'm full! People keep bringing more food...

Sorry... Anyway...
The location of the settings can vary by BIOS. Phoenix's main screen gives you the usual top left menu as "Std settings". The next down will be "Advanced settings". Somewhere in there you should have a "Boot Sequence" item. It may have multiple options in itself, or lead to another screen. Follow it and look for "First, second, third, other" boot devices. Each should allow you to choose HD0..n, floppy, CD, etc... and USB devices.

Also, check the BIOS for the supported USB level. I've seen some MB's not allow booting from USB if they only had USB1.1 enabled. If you have to add USB 2.0, the change won't be reflected in the boot order options until the next reboot. Save the settings, reset, and then go back into setup to modify the boot order.

Sometimes the USB options are buried as a SCSI option. Enable SCSI, save, reset, and see if USB devices appear in other boot options.

If your MB is more than a couple years old you may not have USB as an option, though a newer BIOS flash may provide it. If it's old check with the manufacturer's site for updates.

No-one seemed to answer this bit - a normal hard drive will fit in a 3.5" enclosure. The 2" enclosures are designed for laptop hard drives, and also tend to be able to be powered via the USB, so you don't need a power point...

My USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure cost $24 and has two USB ports and two memory card readers on the front.

I use it all the time, and it's great.

Is there a problem if two (or more) computers have very different hardware?

If using the OS on the portable drive, will Windows just happily adjust to each computer?

Blashphemy! Enclosure with USB ports and card readers? I must see this!!!!!!!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25.../enclosure.jpg

It has two switches on the back: One powers up the enclosed hard drive; the other activates the card readers. It does have its own power supply, but the HDD is the only thing that requires it.

It's been very convenient, especially for inserting the memory card from my camera.

Gotta go--just realized my desk needs dusting.

Oh, but what a power supply! A Triton V10? How many GB/gallon do you get in that thing?

Will this work with any HD? The motherboard crashed on my pc, can I take the HD out put it in one of these cases and access all my old info? How do I find out if I have USB 2? Will this work with Windows 2000? Sorry for all the questions but this could be very good news for me. I thought I lost all my music.

Yep, it should work just fine.

Yes, any IDE drive.

Yes.

Even if you don't have USB2 it will still work, it will just be slow as all hell. I just used mine to get some stuff off my crusty old iMac with USB1.

Yes.

There isn't a guarantee that you can boot from it, but you'll still be able to access all your old files.

Mine has nitrous oxide injection. Doesn't speed up the hard drive any, but it makes my posts a lot more interesting.


http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...Fer/2rofll.gif

I break myself up sometimes.

Cool, thanks all, especially todd for starting this thread!

I didn't see it mentioned, so to clarify, a 2" enclosure is designed for laptop hard drives. You will definitely need a 3.5" enclosure.

I'm still trying to figure out if there is any way to run pre-installed games and applications off of a slave drive that was originally the master for a completely differant system. A portable hard drive is basically useless to me unless I'm able to access and run the programs and games installed on the drive (originally volume C:, now volume E: ). I had little success over Thanksgiving vacation, but Christmas is coming up and i'll be away from home for nearly 3 weeks and would really like to take everything with me.

Any perminant alterations are not an option; I need a temporary fix only, as the drive needs to be returned to my desktop at home to be used as the primary again. I'm searching Google for solutions as we speak, but if anybody has any ideas I'd really appretiate it as well! Thanks a lot

Probably not, thanks to the wonderful Windows invention known as the registry.

Sailor's right. Depends on the game though. Give it a shot with a couple. Be sure to copy any game related folders in docs & settings to your docs & settings folder on the new system's drive. Look for stuff in application data, local settings, etc. It's still quite possible you'll miss things the game installs in Windows itself.

You'd have better luck opening up the target machine and putting your c drive in as master, repairing your HAL & drivers as necessary. Not pleasant.

I'd take my game disks & install on the new machine. Then you only have to copy over your saved games.

Portability is one place pre-HD consoles have had an advantage.