A house for your homeless 2.5" SATA drive

I stand corrected! I've mixed and matched a few 2.5" SATA drives (of various sizes) and single-USB enclosures in the past and never had problems, so didn't know of such issues. I think my enclosures were always originally cheap external drives I bought off EBay, etc. so I assumed any enclosure-only would work similarly.

Won't anybody talk about how they use the spare external? For which purposes?

That thing looks nice - but is it aluminium or just plastic crap?


So far this was my favourite nice aluminium enclosure .. allmost the same size:
http://tr.im/lS4k


If that OWC Express ain't plastic, it's a WIN! :)

Yes you have to be careful when going with a USB bus powered HDD enclosure. It requires and low power SATA HDD.

I pulled the 160 GB out of my 2.33GHz 17" MBP and put it in one of these and it didn't work because the internal drive required more power than the single USB connection would allow.

And using 2 USB ports for one drive is just dumb. Firewire is more expensive but you'll never have these kinds of problems.

@Stephen Lang

Actually, most MacBooks have underpowered USB ports, and can't run a USB-powered drive through only one port. Interestingly, though, I just discovered that the MacBook Air is quite able to, because its USB port has been over-powered to be able to run that external DVD drive.

As for the enclosure question, I just did exactly this, swapping my MacBook 60GB hard drive for 500GB. But it just didn't seem worth while to spend even $10 on an enclosure for it, when I can buy a 1TB drive for $100. I already have a series of older hard drives of exponentially decreasing size, and usually all but the most recent add up to less than 10% of the newest model.

No, most USB 2.5 enclosures only need the single USB connection for both data and power.

I guess thisTUAW post was meant for you. ;-)

These little "Omata" babies work great. They're around $12 with free shipping, only need one USB plug, come with a free mini screwdriver AND a carry case. Plus they're are blazingly fast.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11914~r.33147568

Crucial has an enclosure for SSDs that also works for 2.5" SATA drives:
http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CTsk01 (its under SSD in the top menu). it has a double headed USB cable in case you need the extra power, a carrying case, and a drive bay kit that you can install in your PC so you can dock it instead of using the USB. $30

i ended up with a spare 80gb one after i upgraded my macbook and i now have a 60gb lying about after my first ps3 went poof thanks to a lightning strike

i bought a usb enclosure for the 80gb and will soon buy one for the 60gb even if just to give to my dad - its a good way to recycle and i find them faster than my usb pen.

fortunately unless you need lots of connectivity or functionality you can opt for a generic enclosure which will work perfectly well with macs

Finally, a case that's aesthetically pleasing but not horribly overpriced. Most of the dirt-cheap enclosures on NewEgg, etc are just plain butt-ugly and usually have a giant logo of a weirdly-named Chinese company you've never heard of that made it.