Do you have a usb hard drive enclosure? Does it like linux?

[NNNNNNNNNN1515]

I'm making one of those "hard drive in a funny case" projects. You know, like hiding a hard drive in an NES case, or putting a thumb drive inside an old shoe. I've got a little IDE laptop hard drive I salvaged from a broken computer. The IDE is a problem of course. Any respectable "hard drive in a funny case" project will use usb to make the drive totally portable.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=BLK-CX-HD2504AU&cpc=SCH

Well check this out! A USB enclosure for IDE laptop drives, and it doesn't require an external power supply. I could just swap out their ugly black case for something more humorous, like an outdated history textbook, or a stuffed squirrel. But I'm a little nervous about that "driver cd" that comes with the thing. It says it only works on mac and windows. Not linux!

HOLD UP! You mean I can't just plug this in? It needs drivers? I sort of assumed that the enclosure would meet standards for external usb drives, and just show up as a generic usb removable drive.

Then again, companies are always throwing in crap you don't need, like useless drivers that are only necessary on very old operating systems. Maybe this thing will show up as a generic usb removable drive. And if that is the case, then Ubuntu should have no problem recognizing my hard-drive-in-a-stuffed-squirrel. But if not, I'm stuck with mac and windows (eewwww).

So I'm asking you folks: Have you ever used an ide to usb enclosure? in general do they show up as a generic usb drive, or do they require the use of special drivers. What has been your success using ubuntu with these types of drive enclosures?

Also, what wacky case do you think I should hide my drive in? A cookie tin? A teddy bear? A larger, uglier looking hard drive? Tell me your ideas.

[grim4593]

I have a maxtor external harddrive enclosure. It shows up as a removable drive in linux without any extra drivers. The orignal 100 gig drive it in died and I threw in a 250 gig and that works fine too.

[4Orbs]

A toilet seat would be quite ugly and offensive. But you wouldn't look like a wimp carrying it around, as opposed to carrying a teddy bear.

[NNNNNNNNNN1515]

What about a toilet seat shaped like a teddy bear? That would cancel out the worst of both. Nobody would call it ugly or wimpish, right? And when I tell them it's actually a hard drive, I get nerd cred.

[4Orbs]

And regardless where you were using your hard drive, you would have plenty of elbow room.

[Ripfox]

All my "plug and play" enclosures work fine with Ubuntu

[LaRoza]

No, only legacy systems need special drivers.

If your USB works now, it shouldn't have any problems.

[steeleyuk]

I have an IcyBox which works perfectly well. Transfer speeds are pretty good as well.

[earthpigg]

house it inside an old rusting partially-crushed beer can that looks like it's been left out in the elements for 5 years.

[mips]

Just buy something like this, http://www.byterunner.com/byterunner/category=USB+2.0+to+IDE+Adapters,+USB+2.0+to+IDE+C ables

If you search you will find even cheaper ones. There are also simpler ones that will only support one type of interface, ie 2.5" ide, 3.5" ide & sata.

A 2.5" drive will take its power from the USB port. The USB port however cannot supply power to a 3.5" drive or cd/dvd rom.

Oh, no drivers required.

[3rdalbum]

I have a SATA to USB, and an IDE to USB. The driver disc only has drivers for Windows 98. They both work fine plug and play on Linux.

Remember that hard drives get quite warm; it's best to have as much ventilation as possible in your case. That's why the HDD in most PVRs are at the top of their case right under the air vents.

[C.S.Cameron]

NNNNNNNNNN1515 I like your style, I recently stuck an Intel DG945GCLF mini ITX mobo inside a cigar box, had room for a 2.5" sata drive also.
I also am running Ubuntu from a 2.5" ide located in a cheap external enclosure. how it shows up in bios depends on the computer.
It uses 2 usb slots for power, and needs no extra drivers.

[gn2]

Word of warning, not all USB sockets will provide enough power to run a 2.5" hard drive.

[C.S.Cameron]

Mine seems to work ok on the DG945GCLF mini ITX, powered by a 120W brick.
Probably good to check your total load vs power source capacity before proceeding.

[NNNNNNNNNN1515]

Thanks everyone! I'm definitely going to shop around for one of these kits then.

Thank you for your funny case ideas. I still haven't decided what to put it in. Perhaps when I'm done ill post pictures here and you can all see what sort of wacky thing I decided to use.

[richg]

I have a kit I bought off of ebay for about $10.00 which consist of a USB to IDE connector and a small power pack. I can plug in a hard drive or CD drive and it works very well with Linux/Ubuntu. I use it quite often for transferring to my Linspire laptop or Asus EEE 4G PC.

Rich

[markp1989]

i have a unbranded 2.5" ide enclosher, and it works fine. got it from ebay for 4 pound

if i was to do this id do it in a black book , like the ones people keep phone numbers in

[aaaantoine]

Mine's a Dynex 3.5" PATA enclosure that I bought a few years back, and it works just fine in Ubuntu.

I am satisfied with it. It has an external power brick the size of my laptop's brick (which seems excessive for the drive, but maybe I'm missing something). I'd rather not plug the bits of the drive into a custom enclosure, unless that enclosure is decidedly awesome, yet portable.

[oldsoundguy]

Yes, I have Kingwin POWERED USB enclosures using IDE drives. BUT .. all of the drives are extra drives for storage, etc. I keep the OS on the C drive and it is screwed into the chassis on all of my computers. No problem as external storage .. am listening to tunes from one of them that is hooked up to another computer as I type this.