External USB enclosure?

ramkuma

ramkuma

Well-known member
How does an "external USB enclosure" differ from an "external hard drive"? Do you put the hard drive in an enclosure? And if so, what for?
 
An external enclosure is exactly what it says it is. It's basically an external shell for internal hard drives. An internal hard drive is generally cheaper than a comparable external, so an external enclosure allows you to buy internal hard drives and treat them as externals. And when it fill up or for whatever reason you need get a new one, you can just easily pull the old drive out and put it in storage.
 
You can also make sure that the drive inside is exactly what you want. If you prefer a certain brand, or if you want 7200 rpm for video editing, you can customize it. There are also enclosures with Firewire, eSATA, Ethernet, you name it.
 
edinc90 said:
if you want 7200 rpm for video editing, you can customize it. There are also enclosures with Firewire, eSATA, Ethernet, you name it.
Click to expand...


Why not just buy an external hard drive so you don't have to monkey with putting an internal hard drive in an external shell? Thanks for your response.
 
Last edited:
ramkuma said:
Why not just buy an external hard drive so you don't have to monkey with putting an internal hard drive in an external shell? Thanks for your response.
Click to expand...

Because it's cheaper. Also, I have a USB 2.0 enclosure. USB 3.0 is out... so rather than buying much more expensive USB 3.0 drives, I can get a cheaper enclosure and use my existing SATA hard drives I've been using with the 2.0 enclosure. It's also allowed me to recycle older drives that were actually inside my computer that got too small and would otherwise be thrown out.

Yeah, the dedicated external drives are simpler, but I've found using an internal drive/external enclosure combo to be more cost effective and versatile. Besides, it only takes a minute to swap drives.
 
The main advantage is in building what you want.

For example I built a 2TB USB 3 drive for the same cost I could have bought an off-the-shelf eSATA 2TB drive for. Actually at the time I built mine, I checked manufacturer websites and you could not buy a 2TB USB 3 drive from any of the major manufacturers. WD had a 1TB 7,200 rpm drive but that was it. Not sure if anyone makes them now, but you can.

Note for USB 3 you also need to buy a compatible USB 3 card for your computer that supports it. They are not expensive. Works great, by the way.
 
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