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Which external HD to buy?
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Sep 2000
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I'm looking to replace four 250GB hard drives with a single drive, ideally a 2TB drive. I'd like the enclosure to have both USB 2.0 and FireWire too. In the past I've bought separate drives and enclosures, and I'm not opposed to doing that again, but I've found a number of enclosures with FireWire problems. Can anyone recommend either a branded drive and enclosure, or a good, reliable enclosure for a drive?
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Indianapolis, IN USA
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Could you remove one of the 250s you have from its enclosure you're happy with and put a 1 or 2 TB drive in there? You already have the enclosure. You'd just need a drive.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
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Get an Oxford chipset based enclosure if you care about Firewire.
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Sep 2000
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Originally Posted by tomrock
Could you remove one of the 250s you have from its enclosure you're happy with and put a 1 or 2 TB drive in there? You already have the enclosure. You'd just need a drive.
I could, but the enclosure is IDE-based and I'm trying to get rid of older hardware. It's also easier for me to sell the enclosure and drive together on Craigslist, defraying the cost of a new drive. FireWire is also not absolutely essential, but I'd like to have it to free up USB ports. At the moment, I'm leaning towards something like the WD My Book. Does anyone have experience with the drive or something similar?
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: May 2008
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I can't speak for others, but I've always been very happy with all the Acomdata enclosures I've bought. I just bought this one (got a USB-only 1TB WD MyBook for Christmas, but needed FireWire, so bought a new case to put the drive in). Use it with FireWire 100% of the time (it's my Time Machine backup drive) and I'm 100% satisfied.
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Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Oct 1999
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Originally Posted by mduell
Just to clarify, the enclosure linked above is for 2.5" drives - Rosewill however is a solid brand in my experience - I have a 3.5" USB/FW (IDE) enclosure that I have been using with various backup drives for the past 5 years.
The OWC enclosures and drive kits are also of very good quality but generally cost slightly more than the brands carried by NewEgg.
What type of IDE enclosures are you going to be selling? I might be interested...
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: in front of my Mac
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2003
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I have the 2.5" Rosewill enclosure referred to above, which works great. I'm assuming the quality carries thru to the 3.5" enclosure. Nice not have an internal fan.
The main comment on the 3.5" enclosure is that the internal HD is hard to swap because of the number of small screws and requiring 2 different sized screw drivers. Small price to pay for a quality enclosure, and a good price.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
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D'oh. Look to save a buck and ignore the size.
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Sep 2000
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The Rosewill enclosure certainly looks good and has been reviewed positively. My main concern with it is cost. Is it worth the CDN$86 plus shipping when I can get a generic case downtown for $30. And should I have any problems with the case, I'd be looking at shipping the enclosure back to Newegg, rather than just returning the generic case to a store myself. Basically, is the Rosewill enclosure worth paying nearly triple the price of a generic enclosure?
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
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Do reliable and performant Firewire support matter to you?
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Sep 2000
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Originally Posted by mduell
Do reliable and performant Firewire support matter to you?
Yes, but the question is: is this particular enclosure so much more reliable than a generic case that it can command triple the price? In my experience, any failures with enclosures has been immediate. I've never had an enclosure fail on me during use. Given that, and the price difference between the Rosewill and the generic case, I'm leaning towards the generic case. After all, I can simply return a DOA enclosure to the store.
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Sep 2000
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I ended up buying the generic case and it's worked flawlessly. Saved myself $60 plus the cost of shipping from Newegg.
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