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External enclosure for old macbook HDD

E

ETID

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 6, 2008
148
0
Hi I recently swapped my macbooks 80gb hard drive for a 250gb and now I want to put the old 80gb one into an external enclosure so I can share music, movies and large files between computers. I don't really mind about whether firewire is supported, as I will be using on computers with only USB for some of the time.

Has anyone got any suggestions on what and where to buy because prices seem to vary wildly from ebay to places like overclockers and I was wondering whether this represents quality.

Thanks
 
I bought one on eBay and it was delivered from Hong Kong to UK in 4 days.
Worked perfectly and came with the correct sized screwdriver to mount it, plus screws & carry case.

Search for SATA enclosure or SATA to USB
 
ETID said:
any more from uk dealers
Click to expand...

Why does it have to be a UK dealer ? 2 people have already said eBay from the Far East with delivery time as quick as that of a UK based company...

Try eBuyer, but it'll be far more expensive.
 
I guess it just seems more safe to me to have an actual place to buy from than an ebay deal but it is probably quite an irrational thought in this day and age.
 
There are a lot of large resellers on EBay for computer hardware like this, EBay just happens to be their 'location'. ;)

Just make sure you buy from a seller with very good feedback. You might alternatively find some UK EBay sellers as well, although these sellers that ship directly from HK probably can offer the best prices.

2.5" USB enclosures are pretty cheap either way though.
 
ETID said:
I guess it just seems more safe to me to have an actual place to buy from than an ebay deal but it is probably quite an irrational thought in this day and age.
Click to expand...

I am in the UK and ledshoppe are not - but delivery is as quick as getting from many UK suppliers - honest.

If you really want UK then try Scan.co.uk - the Icy Box SATA enclosures are good - but the postage will be almost as much as the enclosure - (well not quite) but still end up 3 times the price of the $12 ledshoppe one.
 
thankyou for the replies. This may seem like a real dumb question but I thought i will ask it anyway. Many of the enclosures say they are usb bus powered. How does this work as most of the external drives you can buy needs mains adapters to function.
 
ETID said:
thankyou for the replies. This may seem like a real dumb question but I thought i will ask it anyway. Many of the enclosures say they are usb bus powered. How does this work as most of the external drives you can buy needs mains adapters to function.
Click to expand...

Many of the SATA USB enclosures have a "Y" shaped USB cable with 2 usb plugs at one end to use 2 USB ports - one for data and the other for more power. The MacBook USB ports provide more than enough power for the drive from a single port and you don't need to use both.

The external drives that you are talking about are the larger 3.5" inch models which are desktop externals and yes do come with mains adaptors to provide the power.

The small USB 2.5" enclosures are fine when used with the USB port to provide the power.
 
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