This product is good if you are in a jam where you just need to save a hard drive. It is not a long term solution to keep the hard drive in the enclosure due to it being very cheaply made.
Pros:
Included is the aluminum enclosure, a USB cable with an extra end in case you still have USB 1.1, a mini screw driver to secure one end, and a little slip case for the enclosure.
Cons:
The USB adapter on the drive is mounted in crooked, so when you plug in the USB cable, it comes out crooked. If you are looking to buy this you have at least a mild understanding of computers so you won't need the manual, but read it for fun. There are spelling mistakes, it references two lights on the enclosure when there is just one, and it also references a CD-ROM with drivers on it that is not included, even though you don't need the disc.
I saw another review saying it doesn't have a fan. It does not need a fan because the drive is against the aluminum case, which acts as a passive heater which is completely adequate.
This enclosure is a quick fix to recover some data. I would not keep a valuable drive in this. USB 2.0 External 2.5" IDE HDD Enclosure Case Blue For Laptop
I recently bought this Hard Drive case after using one at work and I got one just in time. My laptop motherboard blew up and i had no way of getting the files from my hard drive back. So i removed the hard drive plugged it in the case and plugged the case into my desktop and almost instantly the hard rive popped up allowing me to copy over my files that I thought where gone forever. This truly is a life saver!
This is a very good product it may seem cheap but it does what it needs to.
I had no issues getting it to work just plugged it in and it worked just fine. It comes with all you need to install hard drive.
Here are the pros
1. cheap
2. slim
3. made of aluminum to help get rid of heat
4. works with Macs and windows
I would have a con list but I can think of any
This is exactly the same car that is sold under the Sabrent name and it's 1/3 the price of that one.
Not a bad damn deal!!!
XP and up don't need to install anything, just toss the disk that it comes with, it's meant for windows 98 and older. These devices are set to USB standards for 2.0 and it's all just plug and play. Before closing the case up and putting the screws in just go ahead and start it up and make sure that your drive is accessible. It it's not just move the jumper until you figure out the right setting for it.
Just make sure that you have the 2.5" drive set to either master or single (the jumper setting, normally single is without a jumper).
Also be careful with the screws for the top of the case they will strip out easily if you try to TIGHTEN them too much.
After my second hand laptop failed I salvaged the 40Gb hard drive and ordered this enclosure. It works great for me and was very easy to install. Fits perfectly to 2.5" laptop hard drives; 1 connection to the front panel and 2 screws - very simple design.
Some reviews complain about ventilation for overheating, but I can only see it getting hot if you use it for a long period of time transferring large files across a USB 1.0 connection. Most of the time its quite cool idle on USB 2.0.
The package comes with a screwdriver to install the screws, a 'Y-cable' for additional devices to connect to the same USB port (which I've never used), a black cloth cover for the case and the external case (silver).
Works great!
This enclosure is an excellent value. Performance has been trouble-free, and it worked right out of the box - no problems whatsoever. After I added my laptop drive (perfect fit) and connected it to two of my USB ports (one for power, one for data), it was recognized immediately by my Windows XP computer. It has a slim lightweight compact profile which works well for travel, and has a very tight USB connection. I would highly recommend this enclosure over more expensive enclosures offered by others.
bought product and it arrived 2 days later. seller was quick, price was amazing. 2 weeks later after using the enclosure half a dozen times the front part of the case where the drive plugs in came apart. the plastic end came unglued from the board. looking at it i noticed it's only held in place by 2 dabs of glue. now it won't stay back on, even tried gluing it back with super glue but the amount of force needed to pull the drive out is too much even for that since the glue just touches the edge of the pcb board.
i decided i needed a firewire enclosure too so i had already bought another one last week before this came apart on me tonight. like i said, seller was great but the product...well, you get what you pay for. not worth an RMA either as i paid $5.66 for the enclosure and $5.49 shipping. would cost another $5.49 to ship it back for a new one.
This thing is really as simple and easy as it gets, and actually does more than most people need. My primary hobby used to be computers, and even though I've moved on to different things, I still help people with their computers if need be.
As long as you're careful to ground yourself (so that static electricity doesn't kill your hard drive), you don't even need the enclosure (though don't keep the hard drive exposed for too long). This makes it quick and easy to test drives or use old and oversized laptop hard drives, or hard drives with built in heatsinks etc. (This is why another reviewer had to file down the tabs)
There was one small hiccup that I ran into, but it was on the software end, not the hardware one. If you buy a new or pre-formatted hard drive to use in this, it may not come up in 'My Computer', even though the computer will report that everything is working alright. What you need to do is to go to Device Manager -> Disk Drives -> ::Your harddrive:: Properties and under the Volumes tab, click Populate. Finally, right click on a link for 'My Computer' and click 'Manage'. This should bring up Computer Management. Under 'Disk Management' on the left, find your drive and right click and select 'Add new partition'. After that, follow the brief wizard to format it appropriately (I recommend NTFS unless you really know what you're doing).
Let the formatting run - you can do this all through this enclosure, unlike some where you have to get an adapter and plug in the hdd internally. Once it's done it should pop right up in My Computer ready to use.
Other than that, the usb cable doesn't care which direction it goes in, making it pretty fool proof. The manual is relatively useless though - a lot of words got lost in translation, calling different menus by the wrong names etc. - Hd Enclosure - Usb Drive - Drive Enclosures - Cheap'
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