Hi I wanted to by a harddrive for my laptop. Would Buying a internal regular (desktop) harddrive and then getting an external enclosure would be as good as a regular external harddrive (factory built). The price is the biggest concern becuase an enclosure costs about $30 and a 250 harddrive for around $80 on sale. Thanks.
im not so sure that you will be able to do that because if u get a desktop internal hard drive than you'll be needing a 20 pin connector i believe no sure, so i believe that you'll need to get an external hard drive with a usb wire that will be able to attach to your lap top.
im sorry i was thinking about a different kind of external enclosure, it should be fine as there is a 20pin connector for ur hard drive inside the external enclosure box, than you'll just put the firewire or usb into ur lap top, sorry for the confusion.
yes can use an internal hd with an external case but you might have to use external power is i have to on my 3.5" drive. on my laptop drive in an external case, don't need external power.
Yes you can. I have built three and they all work great. I personally have a 250gb 7200rpm 16mb cache drive for $50 on sale at staples. I bought a great enclosure at computergeeks.com. It is called a metal gear box and it's like $39. If you go to there site on sunday at 7pm they have sizzlin sunday deals and you can get the enclosure even cheaper. Oh yeah you will need a power supply but the metal gear box comes with it. I hope this helps.
One thing to think about when choosing an enclosure it is whether it supports both USB and FireWire providing your laptop has both. Personally I prefer FireWire external drives as you don't have to worry about unplugging them when rebooting and some PC BIOS have trouble with a USB external drive when loading up. Also some cheap enclosures have very loud fans which can get very annoying after a while, worth checking previous buyers' feedback before choosing an enclosure.
k thanks and also i have a 1394 firewire port. I already have an external harddrive but thats filled up. I use that with a usb becuase the fire wire doesn't seem to work with it, my laptop has a 1394 port. Do i have to do something to start?? and is 1394 port faster than usb 2.0? Thanks
Maybe look here for a comparison on the speeds. If your PC can't see a Firewire device, the BIOS may be set to have Firewire disabled and will need to be set to enabled, or check for latest drivers on hardwares web site. http://www.cwol.com/firewire/firewire-vs-usb.htm
I have great luck with Bytecc enclosures from NewEgg. I have laptops as well, and, currently, I have a Pioneer DVR 109 DVD Burner, LiteOn SOHW 1693S DVD Burner, SeaGate 120 GB HD, and a Hitachi 180 GB HD in external enclosures via USB 2.0. No problems with any of them!
