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I need advice on enclosure for hard drive

H

hikeNM

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Hello all,

I just had my iMac HD upgraded and would like to buy an enclosure for my old HD.

I've never purchased an enclosure before and would like some advice.

My old hard drive is a 250 GB Western Digital.

Any advice would be appreciated!
 
All enclosures are not the same.

There are 2.5" and 3.5" hard drive cases.
There are different internal and external interfaces.

In terms of quality, there are differences in the mechanics, chipset, and firmware.
 
Just a thought, but have you considered a USB/SATA "docking station" instead of "locking yourself into" a single enclosure?

You can see what they are here:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&x=0&y=0

Granted, they don't offer the "all-around" protection of a standalone external enclosure, and they aren't as "easily portable", but what they DO offer is the ability to connect more than one drive to the computer. They're a very handy tool to have around if you encounter more hard drives.

There are even "paired versions" (can hold _2_ drives). I haven't tried one of these yet, but they look interesting. Great for doing clones, data transfers, etc.

If you need Firewire 400, 800 (or both), Other World Computing has their "Voyager" SATA dock with USB2, firewire 800 & 400, and (I believe) e-SATA as well. It costs more, though.

I have this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Connecla...?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1253062702&sr=1-22

Only cost $30 delievered and I can even boot from it when needed.
 
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hikeNM said:
Are all enclosures the same? Will any enclosure "fit" my hard drive?
Click to expand...
Not to be too obvious, but since HDDs are 2.5" or 3.5" so you'll need to get the appropriately-sized enclosure. I have found that my OWC enclosure matches my Mac mini pretty well, and the fact that it is fanless does not make the enclosure hot when the 2.5" 5200RPM drive is plugged in via USB.

OWC website with 3 color choices
 
hikeNM said:
...
Are all enclosures the same? Will any enclosure "fit" my hard drive?
...
Click to expand...

An enclosure for your drive needs to be:

SATA - this is the internal interface (not ATA, PATA, IDE...)
3.5in - the size of the drive platters (not 2.5in...)

EDIT: see posts below.
 
True. Apologies.

OP - if it's 2005 iMac or later and the 250GB drive is the original then it *should* be a SATA. Post your model details and we can confirm.
 
FourCandles said:
True. Apologies.

OP - if it's 2005 iMac or later and the 250GB drive is the original then it *should* be a SATA. Post your model details and we can confirm.
Click to expand...

Thanks all for the replies. Feel like an idiot for not posting specs. 😱 Here they are:

iMac intel Core 2 Duo purchased in August of 2007

Thanks again!
 
I think your iMac also has FW800, if it's the new August 2007 model (when you bought it is not really an exact indicator).
 
Fishrrman said:
If you need Firewire 400, 800 (or both), Other World Computing has their "Voyager" SATA dock with USB2, firewire 800 & 400, and (I believe) e-SATA as well. It costs more, though.
Click to expand...

That's the one I have. I'm using it with eSata off my Macbook Pro. It's fast! A cool feature that it has is the ability to read 2.5 or 3.5 inch drives. Now I just need to figure out how to store all of these drives that I'm accumulating.
 
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