SANOXY USB 2.0 External 2.5-Inch IDE HDD Enclosure Case for Laptop - Blue

This case worked great for what I wanted it to do. I replaced the hard drive in my laptop and needed to transfer my old files to the new drive. I used the free trial version of Western Digital's Acronis software to migrate the files. I placed my old drive in this case and installed the new drive in the laptop. The transfer was flawless, with everything moved to the new, bigger drive with no problems. Now, I keep the old drive in the case and use it to back up my files from time to time. I suppose it could serve as a portable drive enclosure, too. But if I was going to use it for that, I would find a thin strip of rubber to pad the drive inside the case. That's because the drive is just a little loose when it's installed. It certainly works fine for replacing the hard drive in a laptop, or other occasional use, but I would question its durability if you were toting it back and forth to school or the office. The fit and finish is OK, especially for how inexpensive it is. And, while it's no work of art, it's definitely functional. The bottom line is, this case does exactly what it's supposed to. And it does it very inexpensively. I'd recommend it to anybody looking for a light duty, occasional use hard drive case.

This thing is really as simple and easy as it gets, and actually does more than most people need. My primary hobby used to be computers, and even though I've moved on to different things, I still help people with their computers if need be. As long as you're careful to ground yourself (so that static electricity doesn't kill your hard drive), you don't even need the enclosure (though don't keep the hard drive exposed for too long). This makes it quick and easy to test drives or use old and oversized laptop hard drives, or hard drives with built in heatsinks etc. (This is why another reviewer had to file down the tabs) There was one small hiccup that I ran into, but it was on the software end, not the hardware one. If you buy a new or pre-formatted hard drive to use in this, it may not come up in 'My Computer', even though the computer will report that everything is working alright. What you need to do is to go to Device Manager -> Disk Drives -> ::Your harddrive:: Properties and under the Volumes tab, click Populate. Finally, right click on a link for 'My Computer' and click 'Manage'. This should bring up Computer Management. Under 'Disk Management' on the left, find your drive and right click and select 'Add new partition'. After that, follow the brief wizard to format it appropriately (I recommend NTFS unless you really know what you're doing). Let the formatting run - you can do this all through this enclosure, unlike some where you have to get an adapter and plug in the hdd internally. Once it's done it should pop right up in My Computer ready to use. Other than that, the usb cable doesn't care which direction it goes in, making it pretty fool proof. The manual is relatively useless though - a lot of words got lost in translation, calling different menus by the wrong names etc.

I have a bunch of spare 2.5" laptop hard drives sitting around and decided I needed to do something with them rather than having them collect dust in the drawer. This is a no frills 2.5" external enclosure. It comes with the bare necessities to get you running: - Cheap Aluminum enclosure with cheap powdercoat finish. Has the tactile feel of spraypaint on aluminum siding. This will wear easily. - Tiny baggy with two small screws to fasten the USB to 2.5" IDE adapter to the enclosure - Tiny screwdriver - Cheap faux leather sleeve made out of some weird stinky synthetic material - 14" USB cable with splitter for daisy chaining devices. - Slip of paper manual that I didn't read That's actually quite a lot of loot for $6.00. Considering Prime got this to me in 2 days for free, the price point of this really works on so many levels. The box this item came shipped in was way too big for the item- about the size of 3 stacked dvds-- wasteful! Installing this is very straight forward, albeit I did a tiny hack to improve the quality of the device. When the hard drive is installed as intended, there is a bit of wiggle room and play in the drive-- this will eventually wear and loosen the IDE connection and cause the drive to jostle needlessly, reducing its life. To resolve this, I cut out a piece of the cardboard box the enclosure came in, and squeezed it between the exposed PCB (the belly) of the drive, and the aluminum enclosure. This provided a tight snug fit and ensures the HDD's PCB will never ground out on the case. Sweet. It's neat that they included a tiny screwdriver, but if you have a small philips head with a magnetized tip, I recommend you use that instead, as YOU WILL drop or lose the screws using the included screwdriver. The sleeve is stinky and cheap feeling, but I recommend using it if you have nothing else, as the cheapness of the paint will have it rubbing off on your pocket or fingers. I intend to either wrap the enclosure in duct tape (it'll look like a small improvised plastic explosive), or if I'm bored one day, sand and polish for svelt appearance. There are no vents on this enclosure, albeit there are some small gaps toward the plastic end caps. Hasn't gotten hot enough to warrant it, but I may a drill a hole in the enclosure, approximately where the HDD breather vent is (the HDD has a label to never cover that hole, yet the case does exactly that). I don't recommend daisy chaining USB hard drives; there is probably only enough juice to safely power one hard drive. Overall, this is a fantastic buy for the price. It's not fancy, but it's not meant to be. If you want fancy, easy, and something to show off, there are plenty of enclosures available that are 5 times the price that do more or less of the same thing.

When I opened it, the color was not right, but I really don't care the color. The item was not in the proper box. It was in zipper plastic bag. I put my 40G hard drive in the enclosure and connect to my PC with the USB cable, but the PC did not find the drive. So I tried with a different USB cable, and it works. I tested the original cable with my another hdd, and the cable worked fine with that. But the cable does not work with this enclosure even it came together. So Weird!!