# Hard drive case



## wareagle (Dec 20, 2007)

I have an old hard drive in my old computer that has a whole lot of data that I just would like to be able to access from time to time. There are several different hard drive cases available to put the drive into for this purpose. My question is, who's had any experience with them, and what are the pros and cons (really just the cons) on using one? Running Windows XP Pro, the old hard drive is 300GB.

Thanks!


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## shred (Dec 20, 2007)

Do you have USB 2.0 ports? If not, 1394/Firewire? You want a fast link to an external drive or they are very tedious. Otherwise I've not noticed a great deal of difference between the 4 I have of various vintages.

Some of the fancy ones have eSATA ports and such like or networking, but if you don't want those, you'll probably be ok with anything.


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## Cedge (Dec 20, 2007)

Eagle
I use them heavily. When a drive decides to stop booting, I slap in a new drive, load the OS and then stick the old drive in a USB hard drive shell and continue to access the data, just like a using finger drive. I'm accessing drives out to drive "M" these days and no lost data in years.

Steve


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## rwells (Jan 3, 2008)

Have your considered just putting the drive in as a slave. Your primary bus will usually handle 2 hard drives. These problems are difficult to help with as there are many variables.


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## wareagle (Jan 5, 2008)

Well, I guess I am about to pull the trigger on an external drive case. This has been one of those "' 'round to it" projects that has just been sitting. If I could just squeeze out another two or three hours each day....

shred, I have Firewire and USB 2.0 ports. Firewire is great, but I am not going to break the bank on a case if there is a huge difference in price. For my needs, a USB connection should be fast enough anyway.

rwells, my computer already has two drives in it, so the idea of slapping it in isn't an option. I appreciate the thought, it is an easy enough thing to do, and definately cheaper than a case.

Thanks guys! I'll let you all know how it turns out.


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## shred (Jan 5, 2008)

Yeah, you'll hardly notice USB 2 vs Firewire. Now USB 1.0.. you'd be off to the snail-races.


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## AllThumbs (Mar 2, 2008)

wareagle  said:
			
		

> Well, I guess I am about to pull the trigger on an external drive case. This has been one of those "' 'round to it" projects that has just been sitting. If I could just squeeze out another two or three hours each day....
> 
> shred, I have Firewire and USB 2.0 ports. Firewire is great, but I am not going to break the bank on a case if there is a huge difference in price. For my needs, a USB connection should be fast enough anyway.
> 
> ...



Many computers will let you go up to 4 drives. If you alreadt have 2 HDD's, put the third on with the DVDrom.

E


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## jagwinn (Mar 2, 2008)

My storage HD is in the original computer it came in.
It is plugged into my lan and it is an HP8360 with 10GB. It just sits there idleing with Win98SE and I store all files on it from my Laptop (which has a 2GB HD). 
I have thought of putting it in a special drive box, but this is free so far.


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## tattoomike68 (Mar 2, 2008)

I have an old 10 gig that has some pictures from my visit to Mt Rushmore. I need to slave that old drive and save those pics.

thanks for reminding me...


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