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General discussion

"Home-made" External HDDs?

Feb 3, 2005 2:02PM PST

I was checking prices of external hard disk drives at a mall the other day. The stores I checked offered what looked like standard internal HDDs with variously-designed, separate metal cases. All the cases had required openings in their backs for wiring and small sliding trays on which to screw down a hard drive.

However, most external hard drives I've seen advertised on the Internet seem especially made to be used externally. These often are larger and have heavier cases that look like they were made to be portable and take punishment.

Question: is there any problem with just sticking an internal HDD inside one of these special cases and calling it an external drive?

Discussion is locked

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My question.
Feb 3, 2005 9:49PM PST

How much will you bet that the "made" external drives use the same drives you put in your desktop?

Bob

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A Reply
Feb 3, 2005 10:34PM PST

Exactly! What technically *is* the difference between a desktop internal hard drive and a drive made specifically for external use?

Of the empty cases I saw for sale one was marked "Titanium". If true, then it was made to protect its contents, whatever that may be. However, a different empty drive case was marked "Made in China" which could have mixed meanings as to quality.

But, again, that's my question: what is it that makes "made for external use" hard drives different from internal ones?

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"Marketing".
Feb 3, 2005 11:14PM PST

Seems clear to me, but you must remember I've cracked open dozens and built even more.

Bob

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Difference
Feb 3, 2005 11:37PM PST

No difference other than $$$

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Warranty also
Feb 4, 2005 6:41AM PST

Most externals seem to come with a 1 year warranty. You won't know who made the drive inside without opening it. Seagate drives are now warranteed for 5 years. There might be some value to a stronger case if you tend to be less than careful. But regardless of the case, one should not be moving the external drive around while it's spinning.

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You Might Be Right
Feb 4, 2005 12:28PM PST

At first I thought everyone was just being cynical about the higher prices of external HDs being a marketing ploy. After further checks, I'm still not sure - but you might be right.

Fortress <http://www.4tress.com/> charges a hefty $569 for a 40 GB, 4 ,200 rpm external hard drive. It does look formitable and they offer you "high shock-resistant values (in G forces and milliseconds?)" - operating: 225G @ 2ms and non-operating: 900G @ 1ms. The company claims its "Patented Visco-Elastic Dynamic Dampening System protects your data even when dropped 6 feet (1.83m) onto concrete. All other drives suffer data loss when dropped just a few inches".

Not being able to confirm the truth of that I tried comparing external vs. internal HD prices within just one company - Maxtor. Information is from CNET's own Shopper comparison pages.

Maxtor MaXLine Plus II - 250GB
Internal
Serial ATA (SATA)
$143-$215

Maxtor MaXLine II - 300 GB
Internal
ATA-133
$189-$280
-------------------

Maxtor OneTouch 250GB
External
IEEE 1394 (FireWire) / Hi-Speed USB
$219-$299

Maxtor OneTouch- 300GB
External
IEEE 1394 (FireWire) / Hi-Speed USB
$248-$349

Maxtor (and other major drive manufacturers) don't give any shock resistance values so we might assume the guts of their internal and external drives are similar. However, these Maxtor external drives are Firewire and USB which the internal drives are not.

Still, there are obvious price differences and I wonder if they're worth it for any technical reason (like being able to drop the drive 6 feet onto concrete <grin&gtWink.

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Depends on your EXACT need
Feb 10, 2005 6:37PM PST

When you talk of external hard drive, it solely depends, how you want to use it. Just external at one place or you want to roam it around.

In my case, I just want additional storage place with least movement of the device and so I thought of DIY external hard drive. So I don't need that all 6ft shock resistance thing. Cheaper, working deal will do with me.

There are many enclosures you can find in market (and I am on search of the best among those ones). you can just stick 300gig internal hard drive and its external hard drive. You can also put internal DVD burner and its DVD burner.

So I guess, at the end, it all comes down to how do you exactly want to use it. Being student, can't afford to pay such hefty price but want to get story moving so this cheaper option suits best for me.