Confused with this new Enclosure and 500GB HDD

[Evi]

Hey guys. I just bought this SeaGate 500GB ATA-100 hard drive and an enclosure that supposedly supports it. However, the enclosure doesn\'t appear to have come with the appropriate cables to attach the hard drive to it. Now, either I made a mistake and bought the wrong enclosure, or I have absolutely no clue what kind of cable to buy to connect them. I was thinking IDE or Molex, but I\'m royally friggin\' confused. Could you shed some light on what kind of cables I should buy or link me to a site where I can buy them? Thanks. Here\'s some pics below ~>


Enclosure



Hard Drive

You have an IDE hard drive and it looks like the enclosure is for a Serial SCSI drive (SAS).  I don\'t think there is any adaptor or connector that will make that work.

Do you have the box or the manual that says what type of HDD that enclosure is for to make sure?

Not that it helps you now, but SATA HDD\'s and enclosures are the way to go.  SATA is a bit faster than IDE, and the prices are the same if not less for SATA.  SATA has the really thin wire (vs. the super wide IDE one) so it\'s better for case airflow and all that good stuff.

IDE vs. Sata

Correct me if I\'m wrong but Evi\'s pic looks like an SATA enclosure to me.  Short slot is data, long slot is power.  And they are right next to each other.

Besides, I don\'t think there are too many external SCSI enclosures available.  People usually throw those in a server rack case.

woops, yeah... smoked too much crack this morning

a SATA HD would plug right in, like THX said SATA FTW

[Evi]

The enclosure box says it\'s for SATA. And JBean, the link you posted doesn\'t look like the hard drive I got. And am I on crack? Because the HDD drive box says ATA-100 and also says EIDE. The enclosure didn\'t come with any connectors except for the SATA cable...which doesn\'t seem to be able to plug into either the HDD or the enclosure.

ok,

ATA-100 is a speed rating for IDE disk drives.  Basically 100MB/s (IDE drives are also called EIDE)

SATA is different (Serial ATA) Usually marked as SATA-150 (1.5 Gbit/s) or SATA-300 (3.0 Gbit/s)

You basically have to return either the HDD or the Enclosure, there are adaptors, but I wouldn\'t bother because chances are it won\'t fit in an an external drive enclosure.  

If you were to buy a SATA HDD it would slide right into that socket you see in your enclosure (one side is the data, the other power).. you don\'t even need that SATA Cable they included.

You basically have an old school HDD and a new school Enclosure.  I would say return the HDD if possible and get a SATA.

Just an article that goes into more detail here

Well your drive is not a SATA drive so it won\'t fit the enclosure regardless.

It should have looked something like this instead:

[Evi]

Ok, well then I just need to return the enclosure and get an IDE enclosure. I knew it had to be something like that. It just didn\'t look right, lol. And I need to keep the HDD because SATA drives are apparently not compatible with OS X (according to that site you linked to) and I need it for both OS X and Windows.

Thanks for the help guys. I\'ll try and find a decent IDE enclosure. If you guys have any recommendations, let me know.

[Evi]

Thanks again for the help, guys. I got the IDE enclosure today and put eveything together and it works great. The enclosure is smaller than my 300GB Seagate one and is extremely durable. It has a big fan right underneath the HDD, but it runs very quiet.

[§ôµÏG®ïñD]

lol.  SerialATA enclosure for a IDE hd.   As others have said, you have the wrong setup.




now i\'ve read through the entire setup, its good that you\'ve fixed it. Personally, i\'d would have gotten a sata drive instead of a ide hd enclosure..


and sammy, thats a mobile ide rack, not external hd enclosure.

[Evi]

Again...the SATA drives are not compatible with OS X, and I need to use it for both OS X and Windows. And the maximum transfer speed for IDE drives, according to that site above, is 100MB/sec. That\'s more than sufficient for a FireWire cable that only goes up to 400Mb/sec or a USB 2.0 cable that goes up to 480Mb/sec. But again...it was mostly a compatibility decision.

Personally, i\'d would have gotten a sata drive instead of a ide hd enclosure.

Aside from faster transfer speeds, what would be the advantages?

Personally, i\'d would have gotten a sata drive instead of a ide hd enclosure.

Yeah, it happens. Won\'t happen again though, lol.

and sammy, thats a mobile ide rack, not external hd enclosure.

Heh, I know what it is, but I couldn\'t find a decent pic of an IDE enclosure w/ connectors.

[§ôµÏG®ïñD]

Again...the SATA drives are not compatible with OS X, and I need to use it for both OS X and Windows. And the maximum transfer speed for IDE drives, according to that site above, is 100MB/sec. That\'s more than sufficient for a FireWire cable that only goes up to 400Mb/sec or a USB 2.0 cable that goes up to 480Mb/sec. But again...it was mostly a compatibility decision.


Aside from faster transfer speeds, what would be the advantages?  


Yeah, it happens. Won\'t happen again though, lol.

you just said the advantages.. it\'s quicker, most mobos use sata these days. So if u ever decide to put that hd back into a pc. You\'re not using sub-par technology and generally u can use a sata pci plate / sata PCI card (if needed) to run the e-sata supported enclosures straight into your pc. Bascially making it work like a internal hd.

[Evi]

Alrighty, thanks. I just wanted this exclusively as an internal + enclosure setup. I\'m not going to transfer it into a PC. Plus it was only 90 bucks for 500 GB. It was hard to pass on that. The computer I\'m building for my office will be a SATA drive or drives...probably a RAID setup. Thanks for all the advice and whatnot. Ignorance is not bliss in this case. I guess the more you do this stuff, the more you learn.

SATA is excellent for all the reasons Souly listed, but in this case I think you made the right choice. It\'s not like IDE drives are suddenly bad or anything, and as you said, you just need an external drive and compatability (sp?) with Macs and PC\'s. And for $90 it\'s a great deal.