How to Build an External Hard Drive

My friend has been searching for an external hard drive. They are pretty expensive. If you want to save a few bucks, you can build one on your own. All you need to do is to buy a regular internal hard drive and then purchase a case for it. And voila!

Pick up any size IDE hard drive. You can wait and usually find them cheap on sale at Bestbuy, NewEgg, Ecost, etc. If there is a specific drive you want, check the prices by using the pricegrabber search on my blog. It should give you a list of stores and their prices. You can get 120Gb, 250GB, etc.)

What size drive and case do you want? It all depends on whether you plan to carry it around with you or if you plan to just leave it at home. Mobility versus big clunky box. Remember, the smaller the hard drive (laptop size, microdrive) the more expensive it will be. That's the trade-off for mobility.

Once you have purchased your hard drive. Next you have to purchase an external enclosure. You can probably do a search on "hard drive enclosure" on Google, which is also on my blog here to the lower left. ;o) Make sure the case you are purchasing is for the right size (5.25", 3.5", or 1.8") drive that you have.

Now, do you want a case with a USB port? USB 2.0? Firewire? Firewire 800? Or all? Make sure you read all the details of the cases to find the right one that suits your needs. The more ports it has, the more expensive it will be.

POWER! Now, this is important if you want to carry your hard drive around. Or even if you don't. Some cases are "bus powered" meaning it does not require an AC adapter. It is powered by the USB or Firewire cable connecting to your computing. It will be getting power from there. So, it's up to you whether or not you want to lug around a big AC adapter or have a bunch of wires at home. I prefer bus powered. But that also makes the case cost more.

Some cases might have a fan. IMO, I think if your case is plastic, you should get one with a fan. But I prefer the aluminum cases because they act as a heatsink and usually does not need a fan. And again, it may also cost more.

That's about it. Once you have both items, you just put them together. It's simple. It's just like hooking up a hard drive to your inside your computer. You just connect the cables and voila! The case will probably come with instructions anyway. One drawback is that the cases may be ugly. Or just not what you were looking for. But I have seen some nice looking ones. And again, lets all say it together..."They cost more!"

Here are a few sites where you can find external enclosures:

http://www.xpcgear.com/enclosures.html
http://www.cooldrives.com/
http://www.meritline.com/firusben.html
http://www.directron.com/externalhd.html
http://www.addonics.com/products/enclosures/
http://www.firewiremax.com/fire-wire-1394-ilink/hardriven.html
And on eBay.

More extensive articles on how to build your own HD:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdewk/is_200301/ai_ziff35852
http://www.jakeludington.com/archives/000335.html
http://johnvu.net/blog/archives/000112.php


*BTW, anyone noticed anything different about the site? I added something small. Whoever guesses right first, gets a prize! LoL. Whoever out of roughly FIVE people who actually knows about this blog. LoL.