Hard drive caddy

[HowardKennitby]

Hello

I have some old hard drives from PCs that I would like to use if possible. I have found this item and would appreciate any comments about suitability and reliability etc.

http://www.pcworld.co...ure-10928648-pdt.html

The drives are quite old so are IDE interface and size is approx. 6" x 4" so I assume these are designated as 3.5"

I also assume I would need one of these caddies for each drive that I want to use.

All comments and suggestions gratefully received.

Howie

[ChuckFickens]

The caddy will probably be more reliable than the old IDE drives...

Yes, if you have more than one drive you want to use you'd either need one caddy per drive, or if you only want to connect the drive temporarily to get data from it get one of these...
Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

[VHG]

I note this says it supports 3.5" drives, but gets its power from the USB.

I thought 3.5" external hard drives always needed mains power.

[VHG]

Sorry, my post above refers to the device from PC World by the original poster, not the device pointed to by Chuck above.

[ChuckFickens]

Oh yeah.... so it does!

that's not possible, 3.5inch drives need a 12v supply and USB only supplies 5V (and at only 500mA so also not enough current)

The same enclosure here (just in a different colour) states it comes with a PSU, I reckon pcworld have made a mistake.
http://www.kenable.co....php?products_id=4315

[rojash]

"I reckon pcworld have made a mistake. "

PcWorld make a mistake? Wow! that'll be a first then :-)

[HowardKennitby]

Thank you to all who have replied.

I did wonder about the power requirement for the disk.

Would something like this be suitable?

http://www.pcworld.co...RR~Computing~07929962

Howie

[VHG]

Any caddy capable of taking a 3.5" IDE hard disk will suitable.

I think they are all much of a muchness.

[AlBags]

Well I use a powered hub .. the IDE (2.5 or 3.5) or SATA drop straight into it's open bays.
You can mix both drives at same time too.

[BIGDOGY]

I buy mine from Ebay. Do a search and get one fan assisted or they can get really hot when in use.