External Hardrive
 

Firstlly to clarify I've never used/built an external drive. I was initially going to purchase a 320GB Seagate External Hardrive but I've changed my mind and I'm going to make my own. The problem is that I need more USB 2.0 ports so I'm going to buy a hub which does not have a power connection.

This is what I have in mind

• 400GB Seagate Hardrive - Click Here

• USB 2.0 Hardrive Enclosure - Click here

• Non AC powered USB Hub - Click here

My main concern is the hub, I'm finding it hard to find ones which do not require a power supply. I've found the one above but will that one be fine or should I choose a different one??

Secondly is my hardrive enclosure choice ok??

Thirdly I do plan mainly to use this for storage instead of constantly burning DVDs, but would this work for playing stored video and music files ok??

Appreciate the help.

The enclosure you've posted does have external power that seems to be required though.

A hard drive requires more power than the USB bus can provide I beleive, and this is why. Don't hold me to that though, It's just a guess ._.

When I bought my external drive I was surprised at the transfer speeds; it'll reach 20mbytes/sec easily and tops off at around 30 I beleive. So you shouldn't run into any trouble regarding that.

Maybe a thread I posted a while ago would intrest you.

I know the enclosure requires a power supply, but I want a powerless USB 2.0 Hub because I already have too many plugs around here. So can anybody tell me will that hub be ok and answer my other 2 questions?

Looks good to me... Enclosure has Firewire,USB. Both devices are ATA. Usb hub looks fine. You should be good to go! I built a 250GB External a year ago, and it works great. I do video encoding and playing over mine Firewire. The only thing that seemed to hiccup is uncompressed Video, but if you are trying to store and play that, just get a tera-byte network drive hooked up 1000mbps ;). Your choices look fine, I'm sure you'll love it!

Double Post:
Also, you can't run internal harddrives (3.5's) externally without a Power Supply. USB puts out a small amount of power, not enough to turn a HD at 7200 RPM.

USB can power 5400 RPM 2.5 laptop HD's. I had a external enclosure that powered a 40GB laptop HD with only the USB cable. 40GB portable HD the size of an iPod... Rocking!!!!

Just to clarify again yes the hardrive will have its own power supply but I want to make sure the non AC powered USB hub will work with it and how will video and music playback fair.

That USB hub should work fine.

Video and music playback very well over external HDs.

It's not rocket science, you picked fine stuff. Now buy it already!! :D

The only thing to watch for is doing multiple things simultaneously that use the USB hub. For instance, plugging in 2 HD's and having one file transfer while one is video playing. Try to avoid situations like that by putting highly unused stuff on the hub first (printer, scanner, trinkets, iPod connector, etc.). Other than an extreme scenario like that, you will not notice a difference between internal and external.

Does anyone know a US site where I can get enclosures?

thanks

I hear www.newegg.com is pretty popular in your neck of the woods.

Did you order your HD? Any luck?

newegg.com is a greate site but where can I find those enclosures there?

Double Post:
Where can I find those enclosures on newegg.com?

Seriously?
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/2...age14ou.th.jpg

If someone tells you about tigerdirect, never go to it. They scam you on rebate deals. It actually gets alot of attention. I learned the hard way. Use newegg always!

Joseph

I get it on Friday will post back on the results, hopefully it won't be faulty/damaged.

Ok i've fitted the hard drive using all of the equipment I've got above.

In the benchmarks it is at 19mb/s, is that respectable and about right for an external caddy drive?

That sounds about right. My external averages around 22~3mb/s and peaks at 30mb/s, though it's connected directly through a small 15cm cable and not through a hub. Have you tried connecting it directly and not through a hub?

Also the HD you're using supports up to ATA 100 and not ATA 133, though I'm not sure if that's any reason as well.

Sorry its connected directly, I connected other devices to the hub, the external drive peaks at 20mb/s.

Sounds about right for ATA-100 through USB. Glad to see you got it working!!

I think I'm going with this one. Is it a good choice?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817146066
and whats a hub?

I was under the impression that external hard drives were not to be used with hubs. I could be wrong, though.

Companies indeed do not recommend the use of hubs for external drives. I've never used them personally, so I can't say either way from experience.

What you can do is get a PCI card that allows for extra USB2.0 ports. I'd recommend something from NewEgg, but they seem to be having server problems right now.

You can use them for external hardrives many people I know at university use enclosed 2.5/3.5 inch drives on their laptops connected to a hub without any problems. But I would tend to think it would be slightly detrimental on the benchmarks.

But its ok, I just connected my Printer, webcam and bluetooth dongle to the hub; items which I rarely use, leaving me a spare USB 2.0 port to hook up my hardrive.

I own this hardrive enclosure:

http://www.misco.co.uk/productinform...0Enclosure.htm

I've had it roughly a year, and for the price you pay for it it works fairly well. I use it with a USB 2.0 connection with an older 120 WD Caviar HD. My two cavats with it: The fan noise is GOD AWFUL loud, almost to the point of a dying cat once in a while. I've heard that putting a drop of WD40 on the fan fixes the problem, so I'm about to attempt that. Also, the plastic covers are a bit flimsy, but hold up well so long as you're not flinging the HD all over the place.

ONE HUGE THING TO NOTE: You cannot boot an OS from it, nor will your BIOS recognize it! I learned this the hard way when my HD died last week (and I'm not sure this is true for all external HDs, but I'm just letting you all know).

Overall, it's...okay. Speeds are quite good on it!

You can boot OS's from USB.