Portable eSATA / USB 2.5 HD solution?

G

Gutspiller

Gawd
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Oct 19, 2005
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I've been looking for something to replace my current removable hard drive that I take back and forth from home and work. I've decided to continue to stick with a hard drive as even a 64GB thumb drive won't do. I've opted for the smaller 2.5 hard drive size and am planning on getting a Seagate 500GB 7200RPM 2.5 sized drive.

I have one concern.

I have eSATA at home, but only USB at work, so I need the enclosure to be able to do both. I had read some short reviews on product pages about a few of these enclosures and it seems there is a small problem (If I'm understanding the users correctly). There are many that use usb to power the drive, but some people seem to be saying in their reviews that this doesn't always work with 7200RPM drives. I guess the power requirements are more than the USB provides? Anyways, so it would seem that I need one that has a USB, a eSATA, and a power connection.

Does anybody know of a decent quality 2.5 HD enclosure that has the power connection as well? Many of the reviews I read noted that the case ends were cheap plastic. I don't mind spending more money for a quality enclosure, and I need a place that hopefully I can order extra cables so I can leave a USB and power at work, and an eSATA and power connection at home.

Lastly, I'm looking for an enclosure that's as thin as possible. Some I've seen are nearly twice the height of a "laptop hard drive".

I've found two that look like they'll work, but I don't know if either are decent quality. Would you recommend one over the other, or a completely different one?

http://www.cooldrives.com/usbesal2hadr1.html
http://www.xpcgear.com/ok250au2sk.html

The most popular one appears to be http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159070 but it has the problem of not offering a power connector, and only provides power through USB which apparently is flaky if you run a 7200RPM drive.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
That one from Newegg is kind of interesting because the Esata spec does not supply power through the Esata cable. You must have to plug in the USB cable too to supply power.

Don
 
What are you doing with this portable hard drive? My 400 GB WD 5400 RPM 2.5 External powered via USB works very well for portable storage. I'm not sure why I would need a 7200 RPM or eSATA unless I needed that data now and fast. Watching 720P via USB doesn't have any problems, and if I'm copying a large file, I can copy while I am getting some coffee or just run it off the hard drive. Staples seems to have a ton of those WD drives on sale for the last month (Passport I think?) and they have a $25 off $75 you can find on ejunkie to make it a really [h]ot deal.
 
FrostBite said:
What are you doing with this portable hard drive? My 400 GB WD 5400 RPM 2.5 External powered via USB works very well for portable storage. I'm not sure why I would need a 7200 RPM or eSATA unless I needed that data now and fast. Watching 720P via USB doesn't have any problems, and if I'm copying a large file, I can copy while I am getting some coffee or just run it off the hard drive. Staples seems to have a ton of those WD drives on sale for the last month (Passport I think?) and they have a $25 off $75 you can find on ejunkie to make it a really [h]ot deal.
Click to expand...

I'm getting the 7200RPM drive for "not for resale" price so it's more of a "why not" situation.
 
DarkOneX said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392012

That's a good one. I just got that the other day, except the 3.5" version, and put a new 1TB WD Black drive in it and hooked it up the esata and it works great and looks awesome to boot.
Click to expand...

Looks like that one doesn't have esata. I found one that does: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392009 but people claim it doesn't support anything larger than a 160GB.

Any other suggestions? Anybody?
 
That's the one I meant, mine has eSATA that's how I got it hooked up. Mine said also that it supported up to 640GB or something but the 1TB works fine. I think those specs are just older from when the larger HDD's weren't out yet. That one should work fine for you.
 
Ebay has a bunch of open box Rocketfish eSata 2.5" enclosures for between $9-$11 shipped. It comes with an eSata cable, a "Y" shaped USB cable, a 5v powersupply, case, manual, black and silver enclosure covers, two software CD's etc.

Using mine with an 80gb 7200rpm laptop drive. Haven't needed to use the powersupply since it can use the eSata port for data and the USB cable for power simultaneously. It was advertised as "open box" but it looks new and it works perfect, i have zero complaints with it. Best $10 i ever spent.

My advice if you're interested: read the descriptions carefully to be sure that it comes with all of the accessories, especially the 5v powersupply and eSata cable.
 
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