I have been looking for the best brand of external hard drives, & I keep noticing people are suggesting building your own, if this is so, can someone suggest the best brands of hard drives, & enclosures, where are the best places to get these components? I am in USA California, would prefer to get something from USA.

I am totally new to making your own, could someone give me step by step instructions for this, I have never worked with computer hardware, just use computers & some software. I would be basically going into this blind, really need help, is it simple to do? or with my total lack of experience working with hardware am I better off buying a rady made external hard drive?

This has arisen from my recent problem with my iomega 250 gb external hard drives;

recently I wanted to burn some files, but windows or my USB port is having trouble seeing my drive contents; the 1st time, I plugged my external hard drive in, windows did not see it at all, usually the auto play starts & a window pops up with options for me to choose, so I know it is being seen, but this did not happen. I then shut down my PC & restarted it, plugged in my drive, & this time got the auto play & options pop up window, & windows could see it but gradually it could not see all the folders on my drive, the drive & its letter shows up, but when I click to open its contents, there is nothing, & I have dozens of folders on it. I also kept getting a yellow triangle with an exclamation point in it on the task bar at the bottom. I right & left clicked the triangle multiple times to open a window to see what it was about, but it would just go away & then pop up again.

I have windows XP home edition, service pack 2, am working with iomega 250 GB external hard drives, & I plug them into the 2 usb ports at the front of my PC, the back is too difficult to reach & I need to be able to plug & unplug them. for one of the drives plugging & unplugging is the only way I can shut it down, to turn off, I have to unplug it first from the usb port & then press a button on its side to shut down, this would be awkward to do this if it were plugged into the PCs back usb ports.

up until this point all was ok, when I 1st got the drives there was no problem, & when I plug them in, I hear them start up like before, are my drives failing or is it the usb ports?

for now I have come to a stand still, I cannot access my files on my drives to burn

I have posted on another forum about this & they suggested getting new power cables or an enclosure.

If I build my own, I would like an aluminum enclosure with fans & an on off switch, so I can leave the usb plugged into the PCs usb port, unlike one of my iomegas, that has a plastic enclosure, & a little button that powers the thing off, the only way to power off is by plugging & unplugging the usb cable from the PCs usb port, which I read is bad, also, with this, I have to use the front usb port, because plugged into the back usb ports would be awkward having to plug & unplug all the time to power down.

am looking for something in the 500GB to 1 terabyte range.

Sossity

Okay since you said that you live in California newegg.com might be a place to look into.

Okay here are a few options to look into for building your own external hdd.

USB external case with fan and on/off button and supports up to a 1TB hdd:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817145044

This would be my first choice for a hdd to go in there:
Seagate ST3640323AS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148335

or maybe this one here:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3750330AS 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148298

okay last but not LEAST:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148274

or you could shoot the works and go for this one right here.
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148337

Building your own external hdd is a very easy thing to do.

1ST buy the external case and hdd obviously

2ND open up the case most have 2 or more screws holding the together.

3RD place the hdd in the case and plug it into the connectors inside the case.

4TH screw the drive in tight with the screws that come with the case most go in from the bottom side of the case
but some don't, but each case comes with specific directions on how to do it.

5TH reassemble the case and plug it in and initialize and format the drive in Windows or what ever OS you are using
and presto you are done.

I looked up all these items, & I saw the seagate 1 TB hard drive, the same model you suggested on e-bay, they also had one that was Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340NS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

it was identical except that it had NS insted of AS, what is the difference? which would be better for my needs? for my desktop & it will be moved to a windows vista machine but be hooked to an XP now will your suggestions work with vista? is e bay a good/safe place to get a hard drive?

also does interface matter on the enclosures? what about a firewire? does that make for faster transfer? or camcorder hookup? is usb crucial ot just a power cord & switch?

thanks for your help so far

Sossity

Okay the difference between the AS and NS is the NS is made for something like a server which runs 24/7 non stop where as
the AS is made for home use but either one would work just fine. The NS is supposed to be more reliable and costs more than
the AS on newegg the price difference is $80.00 more for the NS $139.99 for the AS vs $219.99 for the NS. Now as for moving
the drive from a XP system to a Vista system it should work just fine if you are just going to use it to back-up your files and folders.
As for buying hdd's off of ebay well...........buyer beware!!!!! I'll have to admit that I have bought hdd's off of ebay before but it was
a long, long time ago but I wouldn't even dare buy one on there now days. Why you might ask well the simple truth is you never know
what you'll be getting maybe you will get a brand new drive or maybe you'll be getting a refurbished one instead. I always tried to find
listings of Retail sealed box drives and I never bought OEM drives off of there that is where you can run into trouble at. If you get a drive
that is DOA on there most of the time you have no recourse except to try and get the Mfg. to replace it but most Mfg's if they find out you
bought it off of ebay they do not want to warranty the drive. I can usually get better deals now days just buying from retail/online stores
as the prices on computer parts have gone way up on ebay lately it seems and I have no worries about the warranty either. Okay as for the
interface either one would be fine USB, Firewire, or SATA, eSATA the only big difference being in transfer speed USB1=12Mbit, USB2.0=480Mbit,
Firewire=400Mbit, and SATA1=1500Mbit, SATA2=3000Mbit. With SATA or eSATA you will either need a external plug in on either your mobo
or get a SATA or eSATA add on card same thing goes for Firewire also. Now with a USB connection all systems now days have USB ports on
them so there is no need to buy extra add in cards but the transfer speed suffers. I will take a SATA, eSATA connection any day over any
USB/Firewire connection even if it means spending extra for a add in card.

the ebay ones are from a seller that is 100% positive & said that they had bought too many, there are some that are sealed, & they all say new with a 5 yr warrenty, but would I be better getting drives from a store? do you know of any other good deals/safe places to get a drive from?

Sossity

ebay is a risk regardless if the seller has a 100% rating. I doubt if a manufacturer would honor a warranty for an item purchased from ebay.

There is a new forum for evaluating retailers. Take a look at the posts.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/f162/

am still a little confused on the interfaces of drives & their enclosures, there seems to be internal & external interfaces, which ones are which & which ones are the best? I have an iomega 250 gb external hard drive & wonder if it would work better with a new enclosure? but I want to be sure my that enclosure I get matches & fits the iomegas, the external interface of the iomega is usb 2.0, not sure what the internal interface is.

I would guess the iomega has a IDE internal interface. There is IDE and SATA internal interface as to
which one is best my vote has to go for the SATA internal, eSATA/SATA external interface. You can
have either a IDE internal interface or SATA internal interface and still use USB, Firewire, SATA/eSATA
external interface which ever is the most convenient for you to use and which ever one your external
enclosure supports.

I found 2 1 tb seagates on amazon.com, are they the same seagate 1 tb you gave me a link to to newegg? I notice amazon had 2 of these; which one is the model you suggested?

1. Seagate ST31000340AS 1TB Barracuda Sata 7200 Rpm 32MB Cache 8.5MS Hard Drive
Other products by Seagate
(8 customer reviews) | More about this product
List Price: $567.00
Price: $139.99 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save: $427.01 (75%)
Special Offers Available
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Wednesday, October 1? Order it in the next 12 hours and 33 minutes, and choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. See details

› 14 used & new available from $128.00

&
this;

2. Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 - Hard drive - 1 TB - internal - 3.5" - SATA-300 - 7200 rpm - buffer: 32 MB
Other products by Seagate
(4 customer reviews) | More about this product
Price: $135.99
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Electronica Direct. Gift-wrap available.

› 7 used & new available from $135.99

I notice 1; highlighted in blue has 8.5 MS next to its title, what does this mean?

& the one I highlighted in purple does not have the model number but shows everything else as like the one you suggested, is amazon a safe place to get this from? they seem to be a good deal. If so which one should I get?

what new enclosure do you think would work with the iomega? I bought it in 2005 or 2006 would the enclosure you gave me a link to in newegg work with the iomega?

Yo Sossity-

Shopping for a hard drive on eBay is like looking for a wife at a whorehouse - you can never be really sure of what you are going to get-eh!!

I notice the seagate 1 tb drive is an OEM version, & the enclosure you reccomended only has a usb & power cables, will I need any more cables? what about a sata cable? if so what type of sata cable?

Sossity

That enclosure is external USB 2.0 only it doesn't have a external SATA connection
since you said that you were only using USB to start with so no SATA cable or add
on card is required.

[edit] the AS model would be fine as would the NS model either one will do[End /edit]

just received the enclosure you suggested to get, but a little confused, the box it came in said it supports up to 500Gb & on neweggs website it says up to 1TB, which is it? will it work for the 1 TB drive? I have also just ordered the seagate 1 TB barracuda drive you suggested. what is the difference between an enclosure that supports different hard drive capacities? is the enclosure its self bigger? or is it the power supply? inside connectors? will I need any other cables for the hard drive? as it is an OEM it does not come with anything else, does the enclosure have all the needed connections for the hard drive?

how do I go about initializing & formatting the drive? will be plugging it into a windows XP PC.

thanks for your help so far,

Sossity

Yes it is supposed to support a 1TB hdd according to the Mfg's web site here is a link to the Mfg's site
http://www.byteccusa.com/product/enc...U/ME-835SU.htm the reason the box says 500GB is the mfg
uses up all of their old stock of boxes even though the specs are incorrect on them instead of having to
just throw them all away and get all new boxes until they are all used up. To answer your question about
if the enclosure is bigger for larger capacity drives the answer is no not really the reason the box says it
supports 500GB drives is in the enclosure firmware it has been updated to support a 1 TB drive at the Mfg's
factory. The mfg will probably release a updated firmware pretty soon so it can support the new 1.5TB drives
like the one from Seagate that has started selling recently. No you shouldn't need to buy any extra cables as
all the cables is included with the enclosure and it will have all of the necessary plugins for the hdd inside of it.
Ok here is how you go about initializing & formatting the drive follow these steps after you have hooked up your
enclosure to your system and have turned it on.

1st go to Control Panel

2nd click on Computer Management

3rd click the + sign on Storage

4th click on Disk Management

5th look on the right hand side and you should see something like disk number and Unallocated with a black line above it.

6th right click on it and select New Partition and the Welcome to the New Partition Wizard will pop up click on next

7th it will say Select Partition Type you will have 2 choices which are Primary partition or Extended partition default is Primary partition

8th select the size you want the partition to be or leave it at default and click next

9th Assign drive letter or path will come up let it decide which letter to assign it click next

10th Format Partition will come up format this partition with the following settings will have NTFS default and Volume Label leave the first 2 settings as is
Volume label is where you can name the drive to what ever you want to just highlight the Voulme label and name your drive then put a check mark in the
box Perform a quick format click next then click on Finish

11th you will see in the box that it says Healthy then it will say Formating then back to healthy and you're done just close out Computer Management
and you are good to go.

what are partitions? do I need to do this? also can I farmat the drive to FAT 32? I want this drive to be cross platform, to be able to read & write files to it with a Mac as well as a PC. Also there are options that allow one to compress files to make more space, I did this with my older drive & all the files on it showed up in blue, where as the uncompressed files on another drive shows up in the regular black, can I do this with my newer drive? is it a good idea?

also do you know of any free programs for windows XP & vista that can copy large files or whole directories quickly & efficiently? otherwise I will just plug in both my new drive & my older one & move all my files in windows explore, have done this before & it was a little tedious

Sossity

I could not do or get to step 6 the new partion option is greyed out. I am stuck & cannot proceed any further, I also want to format to fat32 not NTFS.

I figured it out, I right clicked right on the disk number & selected initialize, I had to do this 1st before opening up the partition wizard.

thanks so far for your help

Sossity