AcomData HDEXXU2E3 3.5-Inch USB 2.0 Enclosure

From Acomdata
	Price: $49.19
Similar Items - Acomdata Samba 3.5-Inch USB 2.0 Enclosure for PATA/SATA IDE Hard Drive SMBXXXU2E-BLK (Black) - Antec MX-100 3.5-Inch USB Aluminum Enclosure for SATA Hard Drive - Antec MX-1 USB/e-SATA 3.5-Inch Hard Drive Enclosure - Tivax DT-01 Amplified Indoor Digital TV Antenna (Black) - Yes	Accessories No Accessories.
Features - 3.5-inch USB 2.0 external hard drive enclosure for Mac and PC - 48-bit LBA; supports highest capacity IDE/EIDE drives - Engineered to dissipate heat efficiently without fan; stacks horizontally or vertically - Includes stand, USB cable, AC adaptor and power cord, hard disk drive mounting screws, USB 2.0 driver for Windows 98SE, user's guide, installation guide, and warranty registration card - 1-year limited warranty Product Description Build your own hi-performance external drive with an AcomData 2163 Hard Drive Enclosure. 2163 Enclosures feature aluminum alloy cases; horizontal or vertical placement; fanless operation; hot plug capability; and a chassis design that makes installing a hard drive quick and easy. Customer Reviews Up and running in a jiffy Date: 2005-11-14 | Rating: 5 My first enclosure purchase--from Amazon for total of $51.00, including shipping. Cheaper enclosures to be found on E-bay and Amazon, but I went with Acomdata because all the Acomdata 160 GB external HD's I've purchased in the last few years (each costing less than the previous one) all work well still. In a matter of a few minutes, put in a new Seagate 160 GB internal ATA 100 HD as per general Acomdata instructions (including positioning a little rubber plug to the 'master" location on the HD--this is not part of the Acomdata product, but pointed out in the instructions and just one of those mysterious, necessary steps that make assembling the enclosure a little perplexing for the electronically timid). Once the power cord was attached, the USB cable connected to a Mac Mini and the power switch then turned on, the HD popped onto the screen as a message--a request to be intialized. For the Mac system, if there is nothing on the HD drive (as in this case), just select "initialize", then "erase", give a name to the HD and a little labled icon will then land on the screen thereafter, as well as on any other Mac you connect it to. Was immdeiately down-loading a few GB's of files and all worked well. Dragging the icon to trash gives a clean disconnect and the enclosure allows you to turn off the HD once the icon is gone from the screen. Nice system--the enclosure let's you use the really robust internal HD's externally, even to fill them up and remove them from the enclosure as a huge file storage system or as back-up, leaving the enclosure to be used with another HD. Also let's you continue to use functioning IDE internal HD's removed from a computer for any reason. Bravo for making something complex seem simple. ADDED COMMENTS, 3/31/08 : Acomdata has changed this model and the item you will recieve ordering here will not be the one shown in the picture above. The newer model is a smaller, tighter fit for a hardrive, with a much thinner aluminum shell--not the substantial aluminum brick I reviewed above. I ordered from this Amazon site and received the newer model instead. I have two of these new models now. The one I've put to use so far works fine, so likley the electronic componets are just as good. FURTHER ADDED COMMENTS, 6/20/08 : The item picture above has been changed now to match what you will get. Also, the electronics are actually a little more sophisticated--the HD will now automatically stop spinning when you ejected the icon to disconnect HD from computer. You still have to turn off the enclosure, but the HD isn't spinning if the icon isn't displayed on your desktop. All in all, the one I'm using still works fine. Quiet, reliable, solid Date: 2006-03-22 | Rating: 5 I purchased this enclosure to replace a cheaper one from Compusa that started failing on me. This one has a solid and sturdy metal casing and also includes a metal stand. You may place the unit horizontally or vertically. It runs silently and does not overheat at all. I installed a Maxtor 120GB IDE drive in this enclosure. You can install a new or used hard drive (HD) as well. Drive capacity is high (over 350GB). The only small detail to be observed during installation is to set the drive as a master. This requires a tiny jumper to be placed on your HD. Usually, the HDs indicate the jumper locations, so this shouldn't complicate things too much unless you dont't have a jumper at hand. Once the drive is enclosed, you must connect it to the USB port on your PC. I'm a Windows XP user and XP doesn't require any special software installation. Your enclosed HD is recognized as a huge USB 2.0 flash drive and Windows assigns a drive letter automatically. For a new drive, Windows will prompt you to initialize (format) it first. My honest recommendation based on my past experience is to shell out a few more bucks for quality, don't go for the cheap ones. I'm very pleased with this purchase. Solid Product Date: 2008-02-18 | Rating: 5 I got this to transfer data from a computer that toasted the motherboard but the hard drives are fine. This is truly an extraordinary product! As follows: -Very well packaged. It was in excellent condition when it arrived. -Instructions are straightforward. -Exceptionally solid construction. The on/off switch is maybe a tiny bit flimsy but should be adequate. -Very easy to assemble/dissemble. The whole thing is very rugged, heavy duty power supply and case. High quality connectors. Even the finish is first rate. The only part that was a little tricky was sliding the data connector onto the drive. But after a couple of tries I got it. I was up connected and running 5 minutes after opening the box. Data transferred very fast even with the USB version. No compatibility problems. Do not expect to be constantly swapping drives in and out: it is really designed to be a semi-permanent carrier, though it is certainly solid enough to stand many changes of the drive inside. It is more the assemble/disassemble that would take too much time. Do remember to set the drive you place in the can to "master" via the jumpers on the drive. If the info is not on the can you can check the manufacturers web site for the settings. (save the jumpers, they come in handy!) A great product, one of the best I have seen in a long time, well made, good documentation. Even comes with a usb driver CD in case you need it. Great Enclosure Date: 2008-01-21 | Rating: 5 The enclosure arrived in only TWO days. It took less than 30 minutes to install my old hard drive, plug it in and have it working. My Windows program had been corrupted, but I knew the hard drive was still OK. When it opened on my laptop with XP) all my data files were there and were easily downloaded. This enclosure has a very substantial case, it will be easy to change hard drives and is well worth the money! Great Enclosure! Date: 2009-09-05 | Rating: 5 If you've had hard drives fail because of heat and the lack of ventilation this is a great enclosure. I've had a couple of hard drives fail because of heat. I picked this one up since it had an open front and back vent. The thing I surprised me was that it had a thick extruded aluminum body that is great for heat dissipation. My hard drives run cool now and even though I'm not so fond of the way it looks I'm completely satisfied.