Hard Drive Cases

[Bookewyrme]

So, I managed to completely destroy my motherboard on my Macbook, thus rendering said computer completely useless. In order to save the (hopefully still operational) hard drive, I intend to buy a case for it and turn it into another external hard-drive.

My question is, does anyone have any brand recommendations on cases or tips for doing this? I have a two year old Macbook, and I will be using the said external with a Windows 7 machine.

I've never attempted this before so any tips are greatly appreciated. :)

[kuwisdelu]

Well, I gave you links to enclosures that should work (if you follow my link back in the other thread, anything listed should ensure compatibility with your hard drive and any other computer in existence, but as far as "best" or "reliability," well...see as follows), but having never had a motherboard failure like yours, I haven't actually gone about testing any of them.

To add something more to what I've said earlier, these enclosures are basically just adding a way to connect your hard drive to another computer. All hard drives are basically the same, except for how they connect connect to other hardware. Your drive is a 9.5mm 2.5" SATA drive, which is pretty much the same as most laptop hard drives hardware-wise. Software-wise, yours uses the HFS+ filesystem, so you'll have to use one of the software I mentioned before, MacDrive or HFSExplorer to read it in Windows.

Any enclosure that supports the kind of drive, hardware-wise, should work with yours, but unfortunately, I don't have much experience with brands here. For working with it once everything us connected, there is the software I have mentioned. I'm sorry for not having more experience with the actual hardware in question here. I know this should all work theoretically, but I haven't had to actually try it, so I'm afraid I can't comment beyond what *should* work.

[Medievalist]

Get one with at least a year warranty.

Get one that has USB 2.0 and FireWire, if you think you might ever connect to a computer with FireWire; you might not.

Get one that uses an external power source, and so has an AC adapter.

[Bookewyrme]

Kuwi, you've been an absolute gem. Seriously, your suggestions have already probably saved me ton of money. (And I have all those links saved).

Medi, the USB 2.0 thing has me a little worried, since all our computers are only the old USB, but I don't want to hve to buy all new USB devices in a few years when/if the switch becomes complete.

[kuwisdelu]

Medi, the USB 2.0 thing has me a little worried, since all our computers are only the old USB, but I don't want to hve to buy all new USB devices in a few years when/if the switch becomes complete.

Are you sure about that? USB 3.0 is the new one. USB 2.0 has been pretty ubiquitous for quite a long time now.

Nonetheless, they should all be backward-compatible, and just fall back to the old, slower speed if faced with older hardware. I have a USB 3.0 external hard drive that works fine with all my USB 2.0 machines.

[Medievalist]

Kuwi, you've been an absolute gem. Seriously, your suggestions have already probably saved me ton of money. (And I have all those links saved).

Medi, the USB 2.0 thing has me a little worried, since all our computers are only the old USB, but I don't want to hve to buy all new USB devices in a few years when/if the switch becomes complete.

1. The speed drops down.

2. USB 2.0 is the old one, unless you've got a pre-2004 computer.

3. The powered drive with an adaptor for plugging into an electrical outlet is even more important, honestly.

I've purchased enclosures from Small Dog Electronics, and Mac Connection, and Other World Computing. I tend to avoid Iomega (less than fair warranty practices). Brand name enclosure makers include Seagate, LaCie, and Toshiba, but there are others that are good; check the warranty.

[Bookewyrme]

Are you sure about that? USB 3.0 is the new one. USB 2.0 has been pretty ubiquitous for quite a long time now.




2. USB 2.0 is the old one, unless you've got a pre-2004 computer.



Ah, I see. Well, regardless it's good to know they're backwards compatible. In the very little bit I'd heard about the new USB, I'd gotten the impression it wasn't.

[Medievalist]

Even though it really is slower, the virtue of USB 2.0 is that is IS backwards compatible.

Be wary of someone offering you "restore" service--they'll copy your data onto DVDs etc. and charge you two arms and a leg.

[kuwisdelu]

Aye. The only "restore" services that may worth it are those that may manage to get your data back after it's all been erased or when your HDD is truly fried. If the HDD is okay and it's just everything else that's toast, you may have to learn a little, but it's still pretty easy to get everything back yourself.

Though your Windows nerd friends may be unsure about the software, the hardware is pretty much the same across the board, so the same techniques should work (or require pretty minimal modifying). And when in doubt, the internet is a grand thing to have if you have anything else that can access it, be it a spare computer, a smartphone, or a library terminal. After all, you have friends here among whom, when a main hard drive may have been corrupted a few hours ago, is already up and running again on a new operating system with all old files intact. ;)

[Bookewyrme]

It's been a few months, but I finally bought a HD case, extracted my old hard drive, and plugged it in. It still works fine, so now I have all my old data. Anyway, just wanted to say thanks to both of you, I couldn't have done it without your advice! :e2grouphu