IDE to external?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Miss Perspicacia Tick
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Miss Perspicacia Tick

I have a Hitachi DeskStar 120GB just sitting around doing nothing. I would
like an external drive to store DI7 images. Can I purchase some kind of unit
I can mount the drive into and hook up via a free USB or FireWire port? Is
the drive robust enough? Or would this be false economy and I'd be better
off purchasing a 'proper' external unit?

Thanks
 
Miss Perspicacia Tick said:
I have a Hitachi DeskStar 120GB just sitting around doing nothing. I would
like an external drive to store DI7 images. Can I purchase some kind of unit
I can mount the drive into and hook up via a free USB or FireWire port? Is
the drive robust enough? Or would this be false economy and I'd be better
off purchasing a 'proper' external unit?
Click to expand...

Look for drive enclosures. Firewire will work a bit better than USB.

If you do go USB, make sure your PC and encloser run USB2 or it will be slow
as a dog.
 
Noozer said:
Look for drive enclosures. Firewire will work a bit better than USB.

If you do go USB, make sure your PC and encloser run USB2 or it will
be slow as a dog.
Click to expand...

Nah, I have USB2 ports, I'm just unsure about the robustness of the drive, I
know Hitachi (formerly IBM) aren't exactly in the top 10 most robust drives!
 
Miss Perspicacia Tick said:
Nah, I have USB2 ports, I'm just unsure about the robustness of the drive, I
know Hitachi (formerly IBM) aren't exactly in the top 10 most robust drives!
Click to expand...
Just don't bang it around. Handle it easy.

Bearman
 
DaveW said:
No such animal. Purchase a pre-designed USB 2.0 or Firewire harddrive.

--
DaveW


Yes there is. Save a hundred bucks or so and look for an external drive
Click to expand...
enclosure.

Bearman
 
No such animal. Purchase a pre-designed USB 2.0 or Firewire harddrive.
Click to expand...

huh? You've seen all the various firewire and/or USB2 enclosures that
have been out for years, no?

I'm working on pulling the circuitry from one and modifying it to work
as part of an internal removeable drive which doesn't support
hotswapping.

Firewire is faster then the IDE/ATA100 interface, so performance
shouldn't be a problem, and it's not as though I'll be using the for
boot or swap.
 
huh? You've seen all the various firewire and/or USB2 enclosures that
have been out for years, no?

I'm working on pulling the circuitry from one and modifying it to work
as part of an internal removeable drive which doesn't support
hotswapping.

Firewire is faster then the IDE/ATA100 interface, so performance
shouldn't be a problem, and it's not as though I'll be using the for
boot or swap.
Click to expand...

Firewire is not faster. 480 megaBITS = 60 megaBYTES (per second). Even
that is only a theoretical max, never realized. Certainly firewire is the
best removable enclosure bus, ignoring SCSI, but ATA66 or higher is
noticably faster in use.
 
I have a Hitachi DeskStar 120GB just sitting around doing nothing. I would
like an external drive to store DI7 images. Can I purchase some kind of unit
I can mount the drive into and hook up via a free USB or FireWire port? Is
the drive robust enough? Or would this be false economy and I'd be better
off purchasing a 'proper' external unit?

Thanks
Click to expand...

True economy. First you buy one of those USB to IDE converter kits, which
includes the cable and the power unit for the drive. The beauty of this is
that you can use it for other drives including CD/DVD drives as well if
needed.

Then you don't necessarily need any enclosure at all if you're careful. But
what makes a good enclosure on the cheap is one of those removable drive
racks, the kind that normally mounts in a case. Some include little fans,
too (get the kind that includes front fan), which would be perfect for your
DeathStar, as failures have been suspected to be owing to heat. Sometimes
you can buy the remove part, the part that encloses the drive itself,
separately, which would be even cheaper.

Some of those DeathStars have proven as reliable as any. Do some testing on
it (get drive fitness program from IBM/Hitachi), check the S.M.A.R.T
indicators (can have alert monitor running in the tray). Google and you'll
find discussions of what might indicate an imminent failure. There may be a
firmware fix, too.

Any drive can fail at any time, so anything important should be backed up
on other media as well anyway.
 
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