Buy external hardrive and swap with internal?

[mrkgoo]

Is it a good idea to buy an external portable drive, say, a Seagate Freeagent GO, you know all bundled up in an enclosure, and take apart and swap out with your internal drive?

If they are cheap, it's a way to get a case for your hard drive you swap out.

 

[rtrt]

a

 

[GoCubsGo]

You could but why not just buy a barebones drive?

 

[rtrt]

a

 

[brand]

One thing to consider is that when you open the external enclosure it usually voids the manufactures warranty.

 

[kellen]

Usually barebones drives have 3-5 year warrantys, while the boxed versions are around a year.

I would rather choose the case and buy a barebone drive then lose the warranty. Barebones drives are cheaper and you can get a nice case as well for the same price or less than the equivalent size external.

 

[HunterMaximus]

As others have mentioned, it's not necessarily the best idea in the world. Some of the big name (WD in particular) drives are now actually using drives with a direct USB interface, rather than a standard drive with a SATA-USB bridge. Additionally, most of the pre-assembled external drives are actually cheaper than buying an enclosure and drive separately. The only real exceptions to that are some of the higher-end triple or quad interface drives with FW800 (the OWC drives for example).

Chances are you're better off just getting a cheap USB enclosure and a bare drive.

 

[lemonade-maker]

Do it, drives are cheap. Get a big one, 1 TB or bigger won't be direct usb. A seagate 1.5 tb free agent from costco has current firmware, cheap and the enclosure isolates noise well.