What is all need to make an internal PATA 100, 133 harddrive external and function properly. I realize that I am not really ready now build my computer so I am going to stick with my old trusty laptop, but I need more harddrive space and a good usb wi-fi apdapter kit with the hot spot finder builtin. Any suggestion and advice you guys can give me?
IS that it? What wires do I need? How is the harddrive powered? Can I do the same with a SATA harddrive although I have an pretty old laptop witch obviously has pata harddrive?
the external 3.5 usb case comes with it's own wires & possible built in power supply or uses a power adapter as mine does. i can connect any 3.5" ide drive to the usb case as i don't use the cover on it. i think you can't use sata drives in external cases but not come across 1 as never needed to.
sata hard drive cases are available, but rare. just thought id let you know. If your building a external drive for a laptop you will be better of going with a notebook drive and case to suit as these dont require an external power supply (gets power from usb)and hence a lot more portable. 3.5" drives need a power brick to function
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145342 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817155703 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817155704 Above are three examples of three different case sizes that can work depending on whether you are using a 3.5 or 2.5 HDD. I use a few of the top link enclosures and love them.
If you can get a dual USB/Firewire then I would go for that. Firewire through put is faster than USB 2, even though the quoted speed may not appear to back this up; the way the transfer works on each type means FW is faster. It also does not give the annoying problem of seeing the external drive as a boot drive if left plugged in when the PC is rebooted.
