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Making a Firewire hard drive

B

Bunzi2k4

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 4, 2003
489
0
San Diego, California
I currently have an Acomdata 40 gigabyte hard drive. Do you think it wise to put it in a different case, such as (http://www.coolerexpress.com/byal3hadrexe.html) this one? from what i know, it should work... It is a Usb 2.0 drive, so i am not concerned about the rpm's (5400 rpm i think). The reason why i am doing this is because i need more hard drive space but i have a really tight budget... so... as i've said before, do you think it's wise to do what i'm planning? any experienced people who have tips would be great...

thanks,
Bunzi2k4
 
Seeing how ALL retail ext. USB 2.0 and Firewire HDs are totally overpriced, buying an IDE HD and a USB 2.0/Firewire enclosure's the wisest choice. For most PCs, this is a simple plug & play affair, w/o drivers. I wish the same can be said about Mac OS recognizing the HD, but seeing how some people have to install drivers for OS X to recognize their USB 2.0 flash drive even though it's no required, it's a hit or miss on your enclosure. Good luck.
 
hmmm... thanks for the advice... I'll keep that in mind. If it works, well... I'll post how I did it. If it doesn't work, Does any1 want a external hard drive exclosure? :D
 
as far as external enclosures go (ok, and a lot of other things, too) you get what you pay for. you can go the cheap route and take your chances with a chipset that isn't supported under OS X, or you can go to a reputable retailer, pay a little extra and skip the headache. just do your homework before making a purchase.
 
As far as I know, any FW or USB2 case should work fine under OSX without drivers--I'm pretty sure they all use the same mass storage device protocol to communicate, meaning tha if XP can use it without drivers, so can OSX, and I have yet to see any case for which this isn't true.

That said, you do get what you pay for; I have a budget (~$40) generic FW400 case that works fine, but is slow to mount the drive, cheesily constructed, and has a very clunky power adapter. I also have a midrange FW400/USB2 combo case from OWC (~$65 on sale, if I remember correctly) that works beautifully, and both looks and feels classier.

On an extreme budget (particularly with an ancient 40GB drive), I'd probably get the cheapest case I could find, too, but slightly pricier ones aren't just for show.
 
Do a search in the forums and you'll find many threads with varying opinions on this subject.

Personally I opted to buy a 120GB Western Digital HD for $50 (after rebates) from Frys and this enclosure. Newegg sells them with only USB 2.0 or USB 2.0 + e.SATA as well. I went with the USB 2.0 + Firewire for flexability. So, basically for $100 I got a great 120GB external drive. Installation was a breeze (took about 5 minutes).

I loved it so much I got another HD from Frys at the same price with the same enclosure. I use one for backing up my Mac and one for extra storage for the TV shows I record.
 
0_0... well it looks like i'm gonna take a trip to fry's ^_^ well i'm gonna wait and think about this... 100$ is a little close to my budget (yes, i am that cheap).
 
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