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Yeah, that enclosure looks okay to me.

If you want to get into video editing with Final Cut, you might want to consider buying a FireWire 800 enclosure instead and using the drive as a scratch disk for that program.

Or you could use the drive as your Time Machine back-up drive.

Or just use it for any miscellaneous storage you need.
 
I wouldn't sell it or give it to anyone you don't trust. Drives can easily have there data restored and taken. Even a drive that's been reformatted.

What do I do with drives I cant use as backups or don't need anymore?

This may sound weird but I nuke them in the microwave for like 30 seconds. Its fun! It also completely warps the disc, and fries the circuitry. Utterly destroys it.
 
I might upgrade my early 2008 mbp hard drive from 200gb to 500gb 7200. What can i do with my old 200gb drive?

would http://www.usb-ware.com/usb-sata-2-5-drive-enclosure.htm work?

it should work fine, though it has a look of being cheap and probably wont perform well or be silent enough.
Take a look at the 2.5" sata enclosure from rocketfish, here is a link so you can see pictures.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/661948/
the brand new drive can be a bit expensive (in the ~$25 margin) but if you order for a refurbished or open item (like I did, and as you can see in pictures is in like new conditions) you can get it for like ~$10-15 (or less) shipped!
http://cgi.ebay.com/Rocketfish-2-5-...5|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50

This drive has eSATA connectivity which is much faster than USB (in case you might need fast connection) however for eSATA connection it does need an AC adaptor that comes included with the drive (for USB it doesnt.) eSATA express cards can be as cheap as $10 if you do decide to go that way, just make sure the eSATA card does connect to the mini PCI express and not to the USB part of the connection (e.g. making sure it says speeds up to 3Gb/s) However I would not advice eSATA since the 5400rpm HDD is very slow....
 
I might upgrade my early 2008 mbp hard drive from 200gb to 500gb 7200. What can i do with my old 200gb drive?

would http://www.usb-ware.com/usb-sata-2-5-drive-enclosure.htm work?

While talking about a 500g 7200 drive which one did you go with and how to you like it? I know the speed gain, but do you notice any heat, battery, noise issues?

I've been searching a bit for this same type drive. I just purchased a stock MBP 17" uni and looking to move up to this type of drive. Thanks.
 
I wouldn't sell it or give it to anyone you don't trust. Drives can easily have there data restored and taken. Even a drive that's been reformatted.

What do I do with drives I cant use as backups or don't need anymore?

This may sound weird but I nuke them in the microwave for like 30 seconds. Its fun! It also completely warps the disc, and fries the circuitry. Utterly destroys it.

Can be kinda hard on the microwave, too - which probably costs about as much as a hard drive (maybe more).

Why not just burn it. Know a guy who retired as an computer/electronics guy from the U.S. State Department in the 1990's and he first uses one of hard drive nuke programs that writes random data to every bit several times, then zeros everything.... then he burns the drive in a nice hot fire. Not sure about any unfriendly chemicals this might release, but I think it does the job on the drive and the data.
 
Why would you destroy a perfectly good hard drive when you can buy a cheap enclosure and utilize it? Computers fail and backing up information is just smart. It's not like you wouldn't have control over the external drive as it would be in your home or place of business.
 
Macs have secure erasing built in. Go to Disk Utility, select your disk (mounted in an external enclosure or something), then click security options, choose 7-pass, then click erase. You could use 1-pass (zeros) if you are less paranoid. 35-pass is redundant because it has things that match different drive structures, which are basically irrelevant in modern drives. There is still a slight risk that some of your data will be on the drive no matter how many times you erase it because if the drive ever had a bad sector, it probably automatically remapped it, possibly leaving some data there. The ultimate solution is to use full disk encryption on the new drive, which makes erasing basically unnecessary (as long as the encryption still cannot be broken and as long as you trust the NSA not to have a backdoor in the encryption algorithm).
 
If there's nothing wrong with the drive, I'd put it in an enclosure and use it for backup (Time Machine, etc) or just general data storage.

When it comes time to get rid of a drive, I do a 7-time erase, then drill several (the exact number depends on how much fun it is on that day -- usually at least 7) fairly large holes in it using a drill press.
 
If you are really paranoid just trow your the HDD into your backyard nuclear fission reactor. After a few minutes it should have decomposed into hydrogen, then add a bit or oxygen and in an explosion you will have water, make sure evaporate that water into a compress tank, and then pay a few million dollar to NASA so they release the tank into mars, jupiter and the moon. Unless you do that, your data can be recovered, trust me...
 
Can be kinda hard on the microwave, too - which probably costs about as much as a hard drive (maybe more).

Why not just burn it. Know a guy who retired as an computer/electronics guy from the U.S. State Department in the 1990's and he first uses one of hard drive nuke programs that writes random data to every bit several times, then zeros everything.... then he burns the drive in a nice hot fire. Not sure about any unfriendly chemicals this might release, but I think it does the job on the drive and the data.

Or use a shredder ;)

http://www.snotr.com/video/2194
 

No sense, KGB has the technology that if they get their hands on the bits of HDD and in the particular shredder used they can back engineer the HDD to its original conditions and restore the data. Also with magnetic spectroscannoscopysonictrum they can scan the bits and with a large computer make the best 100 logic sequences of data that then can be analyzed to restore the data.

Told you there is only one way to keep your data safe...
 
Yeah, that enclosure looks okay to me.

If you want to get into video editing with Final Cut, you might want to consider buying a FireWire 800 enclosure instead and using the drive as a scratch disk for that program.

Or you could use the drive as your Time Machine back-up drive.

Or just use it for any miscellaneous storage you need.

I've been looking for a firewire 800 enclosure for a while now. Got any suggestions?
 
I've been looking for a firewire 800 enclosure for a while now. Got any suggestions?

FW enclosure are seriously expensive ($50++++) if you putting a 5400rpm HDD USB will do just fine (most 5400 rpm have top speeds of 40-50MB/s while usb top speed is 60MB/s. If you still want speed for whatever reason, i recomend eSATA enclosure:
read this trhead for a nice enclosure
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/661948/
you will also need an express-card eSATA adaptor which will cost you like ~$15 for 1 port or like $20 for two ports.
Total price will be way lower than $50.
Or if you dont have an internal HDD, then get an eSATA or FW external HDD to begin with (3.5" are comparable in price with the only-usb cousins, 2.5 can be ~$30 more expensive than their usb counterparts.)
 
1. put it on craigslist for 10$ more than you think it's worth

2. wait a month and either buy a USB 2.0 enclosure for no less than 30$ OR put it on eBay



i'd probably just put it on craigslist and use it as an Airdisc for my family until it sold - you wouldn't believe how many times they email themselves things like .doc's

:rolleyes:
 
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