Drive enclosure for old iMac hard drive

[Simonmiller]

I've got a new 2012 iMac on order after my old late 2008 iMac died earlier this year (the geniuses thought it needed a new logic board so I decided to wait for the new model).

I had my old machine backed up to a Time Capsule but rather than connect this to my new iMac to restore my music and movies via Ethernet (which means I lose my wireless connection to the net) I was thinking of connecting my old iMac drive and restoring from that.

Can anyone recommend a good hard drive enclosure that will work with my old drive? Am I right in thinking the fastest transfer I'll get with one is USB3?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[flatfoot]

Yes, go with USB3. Any 3.5" external USB3 enclosure will work.

 

[hideous cheese]

I have a USB3 ICY Box

 

[Fishrrman]

If you don't mind spending $20-25, I'd suggest one of these gadgets instead:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...ords=usb3+sata+dock&rh=i:aps,k:usb3+sata+dock
(many items shown, they all work the same, just pick one you like that's cheap)

The dock will behave the same as would an external "enclosure". The difference is that you can pop one drive out and insert another as needed. Thus, you could maintain a "clone" of your internal on one drive, have another "archive" drive (or two), perhaps even keep a "scratch drive" around.

You can boot from these, as well.