[mcgsxr]

As posted earlier, my USB HD case expired.  Luckily the data survived.

What do you folks recommend, as a replacement unit?

Looking to spend under $40.  Any more than that, and I will have to succumb to Bob in St Louis' dual drive storage device ideas...   

[WGH]

Some things I consider when picking out a new exterior case:

Price
IDE or SATA
Metal or plastic
Internal fan
Capacity
Aesthetics

There are a bunch of single drive cases available these days, my view is one is just as good as an another.
I like cases with an internal fan, a cool drive is a happy drive.

If you can expand the budget a little a dual drive case will allow for future expansion. I have 1 TB of storage in the Roswill case below but it will work just fine with a single drive installed. The on/off switch for the fan is a nice touch.

Rosewill R2-JBOD Aluminum 3.5" USB 2.0 DUAL-BAY External Enclosure
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182144

Wayne

[Philistine]

Don't forget eSATA - I just bought an external case from Newegg with eSATA (the case came with an eSATA card) and its phenomenally quick. 

[mcgsxr]

Decent suggestions so far.

I only use this drive for serving FLAC to my Bolder SB3, so I doubt that speed will be an issue (USB 2 is fine at present).

The two drive capability would be nice, but for a static collection, not sure what value it would bring?  Backup in the same case I suppose, but I prefer some distance between my backups.  More space too, but at an increase in price I am not sure I can stomach.

I would love to just get a cheap one, but don't want to buy them every other year, being silly about the investment.  Perhaps the better built ones are justifiably more expensive.

Fan noise not an issue, as the PC has one anyway, and they are far enough away from the listening chair that it does not matter.  Eventually, they may both be behind a wall, when the basement eventually gets finished.

[Len_Dreyer]

Why not just take your drive and put inside your PC case, most will accommodate multiple drives? You'll get better performance, better heat distribution and save the money on the new case.

[jqp]

Hmm specific brand does not come to mind...the criterion of NOT having to buy one every other year may be problematic

How long do you expect your hard drive to last?

More important than an external enclosure recommendation is to have multiple backups of anything important (as has been stated), on hard drive as well as CD or DVD.

I would put the bare drives in a PC if I could also, or an external drive array system. The problem is that these external arrays don't seem to offer much more than a PC at about the same cost! 

If you need a truly portable drive I would look at a little 2.5" Western Digital Passport drive - they are sweet little drives - small and powered by the USB cable.

[mcgsxr]

I would put the bare drives into my PC, but my audio PC is a small form factor Dell.  It has a 40G IDE in it, and no spot for a 2nd HD, unless I pull out the cd-rom.  I don't feel comfortable with that.

For HD's, I have never had one fail, so not sure how long I expect them to last.  My oldest PC is 5 years now, and both 80G drives in it are fine.  I guess I expect an external enclosure to run for years, why would I not?

I do have 2 backups, and the actual cd's, so I don't feel exposed from a backup perspective.

I know that $40 or so every couple of years is not THAT much, but it seems odd that it would fail.  I look forward to getting another one, hopefully with a similar power supply, so I can determine if that is what failed, or if the IC's in the unit failed etc.

I did see a $40 dual drive unit online at newegg.ca, but the shipping is $20...

[jqp]

Well there are a lot to choose from

http://www.directron.com/externalhd.html

The problem to me is, who can make a good recommendation, that has had one for more than a couple years of "regular" use - they either work or they don't and probably if they last a couple months they are "good". Engineering is everything but how you plug in the drive, lay the cabling in place, plug and unplug the drive can affect "performance"

[MerlinWerks]

I have one of THESE and plan on purchasing more as needed. USB and eSata, < $40, active cooling, metal case is somewhat thin, but it is metal  Side fan may limit stacking options though

[jaywills]

You might consider one of these (no affiliation):

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=sata+hard+drive+dock&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=2997325301&ref=pd_sl_3216jxo4qt_e

Cordially,

[mcgsxr]

Thanks for the lead!

I am strangely attracted to the toaster style - it just seems so funky, and I have to think that being out in the open is good for fanless cooling.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4259603&CatId=2785

[mcgsxr]

Geez, the more research I do, the more options I have!

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2477926&Sku=V13-1113

This looks pretty cool, ability to hook up to various drives, and sizes etc.

[jqp]

Thanks for the lead!

I am strangely attracted to the toaster style - it just seems so funky, and I have to think that being out in the open is good for fanless cooling.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4259603&CatId=2785

Yeah once you have more than one SATA drive you ask yourself, Do I want to compound the effort of picking whatever is the best enclosure, finding desktop or floor space, additional power supply...

The Toaster Dock solution makes sense and that is a good price. The key is to label bare drives and to store them safely. When I ordered 3 250GB drives they sent them in a styrofoam case that holds 20 bare drives! You can even get an eSata version if you have an eSata port.

[jqp]

Geez, the more research I do, the more options I have!

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2477926&Sku=V13-1113

This looks pretty cool, ability to hook up to various drives, and sizes etc.

except for this review - but it does look like an interesting tool for an IT hardware guy.

REVIEW BY:  Reviewed  Oct 12, 2008    
This item worked perfectly for the first day and then died on day 2. Apparently you can not leave the harddrive on the unit for extended periods (say 3+ straight hrs). The unit overheated and quit on me. Oh, by the way, the same WD harddrive still works perfectly in a computer case. Buy full enclosures instead.

Several of us do have the Thermaltake Toaster Dock

[mcgsxr]

Bought one of the "enclosureless" non-toaster/all cable thingies this AM.

I will report back on how it functions and IF it lasts etc.