SATA + Enclosure vs External Hard Drive

[intense.ego]

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each one?

Since this is for external portable storage, the SATA + Enclosure is connected via USB 2.0 not the SATA connection on the motherboard.

I understand that you only need one enclosure and can just swap out SATA drives, but, out of curiosity, what would be the best place to store them when not in use (outside of the enclosure)?

[LaRoza]

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each one?

Since this is for external portable storage, the SATA + Enclosure is connected via USB 2.0 not the SATA connection on the motherboard.

I understand that you only need one enclosure and can just swap out SATA drives, but, out of curiosity, what would be the best place to store them when not in use (outside of the enclosure)?

You can get eSata also, which is much faster than USB or Firewire, but less portable at the moment.

With enclosures, the drives are not the easiest to remove, so it is best to keep them in there.

I would suggest getting more than one enclosure, Mad Dog multimedia has the best I think.

http://www.mdmm.com/products.php?categoryid=4

The enclosures accept IDE or Sata drives, and have USB and eSata.

Internal + Enclosures will likely be less likely to cause problems. All the externals I see have Windows only software and cause problems when reformated.

Making your own is cheaper, more reliable, and more flexible in my experience.

[intense.ego]

Thanks, LaRoza, but I have a couple of questions.

First, where does the eSATA connector connect to?

Second, is the SATA + Enclosure just as well suited to laptops?

Lastly, what problems are you talking about that external drives face but not internal ones? Higher failure rates?

[intense.ego]

anyone?

[Yes]

If you have an eSATA connection on your motherboard, it would go there. If not, you could get a PCI card for the eSATA connection.

Laptops are much less likely to have a eSATA connection, and even less likely to have an open slot for an addon card. If you want to use the drive with a laptop, you'll need an enclosure that uses USB or Firewire.

[smoker]

out of curiosity, what would be the best place to store them when not in use (outside of the enclosure)?

preferably in a box or container and keep it where the drives won't be bumped around, or subjected to magnetic fields, or high electrical currents, and obviously indoors so not subjected to extremes of temperature!

[LaRoza]

Thanks, LaRoza, but I have a couple of questions.

First, where does the eSATA connector connect to?

Second, is the SATA + Enclosure just as well suited to laptops?

Lastly, what problems are you talking about that external drives face but not internal ones? Higher failure rates?

You can get an eSATA expansion card. But with the Mad Dog enclosures, you can use USB and eSATA. eSATA is much faster and USB would be a bottleneck.

Yes, as the Mad Dog cases come with eSATA and USB cables, and you can use either it will work. The 3.5 in drives will need a power cable to use (it comes with the cable), but the 2.5 drives can run off USB.

For external drives (not internals in enclosures) they often come with software built in, strange Windows only features and they fail in my experience easily if changed. They are almost also formatted as NTFS also.

[p_quarles]

Laptops are much less likely to have a eSATA connection, and even less likely to have an open slot for an addon card.
Many laptops have PCI Express slots, which will do the trick.

[gn2]

Raidsonic (aka Nanopoint) Icybox enclosures are excellent.

External hard drives are often oriented vertically.
This contributes to failure, hard drives are designed to be used lying flat and the right way up.
Leaving them powered on 24/7 if they do not have adequate cooling or are in direct sunlight is also bad.

Another excellent option is a NAS enclosure.
This connects to a router and can be accessed by any PC on the network.
Be careful though because not all NAS enclosures support Linux.

I have a cute little gadget, a Linksys NSLU2 which connects to the router then you connect USB drives to it and it shares them on the network.
It's basically a little PC and can perform a wide range of useful tasks.

[LaRoza]

Raidsonic (aka Nanopoint) Icybox enclosures are excellent.

External hard drives are often oriented vertically.
This contributes to failure, hard drives are designed to be used lying flat and the right way up.


Mad Dog ones lie flat as well, I didn't consider that though.