[geeks] external USB hard drive cases

[Michael Parson]

On Thu, Jun 08, 2006 at 06:51:50PM -0400, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> Tue, 06 Jun 2006 @ 19:35 -0500, Bill Bradford said:
>
>> On Tue, Jun 06, 2006 at 06:32:17PM -0400, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
>>>> I've got a bunch of these "bare kit" USB2-to-IDE kits in service and have 
>>>> yet to have a problem with any of them, or find a drive that they didn't
>>>> work with:
>>>> http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=USB2IDE-N&cpc=SCH&srm=0
>>> Neat.  I wonder though, by the time I buy a case, I might be better off
>>> getting a full unit.
>>
>> I have a ton of Sun external 5.25" drive enclosures, so thats why I did
>> that. 8-)
>
> You followed the packrat rules properly I see... 
>
> I *have* thought about converting my old 4-bay SCSI case to Firewire or
> something.  That way I don't have to deal with a wal-wart.
>
> I guess you could re-use a lot of old cases.  The only really hard part
> is getting a solid mount for the USB/Firewire/whatever connector on the
> back, and maybe the convert board inside.

They make IDE->Firewire bridges that have mounts for fitting in old SCSI
cases.  I've been looking at them for doing just what you said, putting
some drives in a 4 bay enclosure.  Right now, I've got 3 external
firewire drives, would be nice to have them in one enclosure.  The
cheapest one I can find is $55 for one, which will drive 2 drives
(master/slave).  So, $110 (+shipping) to finish out that part of the
project.  Another $15/drive so I can put them in hot-plug removable
sleds.  Sadly, this is still cheaper than a ready-made 4 bay firewire
enclosure (that I have been able to find).

> Sadly, I violated packrat rules and got rid of a lot of stuff I was not
> using.

I need to violate that rule here before too long.  I'll try and keep
what I can really see using.

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson at bl.org