• Welcome to Tux Reports: Where Penguins Fly. We hope you find the topics varied, interesting, and worthy of your time. Please become a member and join in the discussions.

Which external caddy for 2.5 external hard drive is the best?

M

McGonigle

Flightless Bird
Hi, I'm shopping for a good looking and reliable
external 2.5'' caddy. I'll be obliged if anyone could
recommend one . THANKS !
 
A

Al Dykes

Flightless Bird
In article <8lHun.679116$5n1.363705@newsfe01.ams2>,
McGonigle <mcgonigle@eu.org> wrote:
>Hi, I'm shopping for a good looking and reliable
>external 2.5'' caddy. I'll be obliged if anyone could
>recommend one . THANKS !




Reliability is good, but you have to plan for the fact that the *best*
disk can die the day after you buy it and you must plan your computer
procedures accordingly.

I don't know what an "external caddy" is. I've just bought a Seagate
FreeAgent USB disk (500M8).

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/freeagent/

There are several manufactures and I expect that they are all about
the same. It's powered of the USB jack. It doesn't need a wall wart.








--
Al Dykes
News is something someone wants to suppress, everything else is advertising.
- Lord Northcliffe, publisher of the Daily Mail
 
B

Barry Watzman

Flightless Bird
They are all pretty much the same except for differences you can clearly
see. The USB to {drive} conversion is just a single chip, and while
there are different ones, you won't know which one any given product has
and for the most part it doesn't matter.

McGonigle wrote:
> Hi, I'm shopping for a good looking and reliable external 2.5'' caddy.
> I'll be obliged if anyone could recommend one . THANKS !
 
M

McGonigle

Flightless Bird
"Al Dykes" <adykes@panix.com> wrote in message
news:hpfjo8$s4t$1@panix5.panix.com...
> In article <8lHun.679116$5n1.363705@newsfe01.ams2>,
> McGonigle <mcgonigle@eu.org> wrote:
>>Hi, I'm shopping for a good looking and reliable
>>external 2.5'' caddy. I'll be obliged if anyone could
>>recommend one . THANKS !

>
> Reliability is good, but you have to plan for the fact that the *best*
> disk can die the day after you buy it and you must plan your computer
> procedures accordingly.
>
> I don't know what an "external caddy" is. I've just bought a Seagate
> FreeAgent USB disk (500M8).
>
> http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/freeagent/
>
> There are several manufactures and I expect that they are all about
> the same. It's powered of the USB jack. It doesn't need a wall wart.
>
> --
> Al Dykes
> News is something someone wants to suppress, everything else is
> advertising.
> - Lord Northcliffe, publisher of the Daily Mail
>

Thanks ! As they almost the same I'll go for a reasonably priced one.
 
B

Barry Watzman

Flightless Bird
That would be about FIVE DOLLARS (US). Total, INCLUDING shipping. For
an external USB 2.5" hard drive caddy (not including the drive itself).

McGonigle wrote:

>>

> Thanks ! As they almost the same I'll go for a reasonably priced one.
 
M

mike

Flightless Bird
Barry Watzman wrote:
> They are all pretty much the same except for differences you can clearly
> see. The USB to {drive} conversion is just a single chip, and while
> there are different ones, you won't know which one any given product has
> and for the most part it doesn't matter.

I have several USB-ide/sata converters. For me, the chip does matter.
Most won't read the SMART data from the drive. There doesn't seem to be any
way to know until the boat from china actually delivers the unit.
>
> McGonigle wrote:
>> Hi, I'm shopping for a good looking and reliable external 2.5''
>> caddy. I'll be obliged if anyone could recommend one . THANKS !
 
B

Barry Watzman

Flightless Bird
Regarding the matter of whose chip is used in IDE-to-{SATA or IDE} adapters:

Yes, there are subtle differences in some of the chips. But, first:

1. The differences are usually VERY subtle and of no concern to MOST users.

2. Regardless, in general, exactly as you pointed out, you have no way
of either controlling or even knowing which chip is in ANY given adapter
until you have the adapter physically in your hands and can open it and
look (and, in some cases, even then because the chip markings are
sometimes removed).

So the matter becomes academic for most users in most situations.


mike wrote:
> Barry Watzman wrote:
>> They are all pretty much the same except for differences you can
>> clearly see. The USB to {drive} conversion is just a single chip, and
>> while there are different ones, you won't know which one any given
>> product has and for the most part it doesn't matter.

> I have several USB-ide/sata converters. For me, the chip does matter.
> Most won't read the SMART data from the drive. There doesn't seem to be
> any
> way to know until the boat from china actually delivers the unit.
>>
>> McGonigle wrote:
>>> Hi, I'm shopping for a good looking and reliable external 2.5''
>>> caddy. I'll be obliged if anyone could recommend one . THANKS !
 
Top