External Hard Drive Case

Hi there, I currently run 4 x 500GB external hard drives off my MACBOOK for storage, as I am a photographer. I have been thinking of putting them into one case so I can have one power supply and preferably one connection to my MAC.
1/Does anyone know of a good reasonably priced case to do this with that has a built in fan to help with cooling. Preferably with a firewire connection?
2/ Most of the cases I have looked at have eSata connections and my MACBOOK only has USB and Firewire 400. How would I connect?
Any help would be great.
Cheers ;o)

dopeshots.com:
Other World Computing has several of these enclosures for multiple drives, although I have not seen any for 4 drives. I suggest that you call them directly (800.275.4576) and ask your questions.
cornelius

Similar Messages

Are there certain external Hard Drive cases that aren't compatible with Mac

I have a new 160gb Hitachi hard drive and connected it to a Vantec NexStar usb 2.0 hard drive case (borrowed from a friend).
Disk Utility sees the external disk...however, whenever I try to Erase or Partition, the Disk Utility hangs. In Activity Monitor, it shows up as "not responding". I even left it over night to see if it recovers itself but no luck. I've tried the MacOS Extended (journaled), MacOS Extended, and MS-DOS types.
I'm wondering if this case is incompatible with Macs? I would prefer a case that has firewire though...so I might just buy a new case to try?
Has anyone run into something similiar?
Thanks!

Thanks for the idea...not sure why I didn't try that.
My new iMac recognized the drive immediately and asked if I wanted to initialize it. Took about 2 minutes. When I connected it to my MBP, it saw it right away...
I'm still not sure why the MBP couldn't initialize the drive when I tried...
Oh well, important thing is..it's working now..and I've backed up my iTunes and iPhoto libraries.
Thanks again!

Just bought External hard drive case I need an adapter

I replaced the old harddrive in my HP Pavilion ze4900, laptop. This was an IDE type but I had to remove an adapter / plug with male pins from the old to install the new. Both hard drives had only a male flat buss type slot arrangement.
Since the old drive was usable I ordered an external IDE with USB power and transfer plugs. However the units came with IDE pin HOLES so I need to find an economical adapter to attached to the hard drive which will give me the needed IDE pins and female slots to fit the HD.
Can I get some direction where I can buy this or any alternatives?
Thank you in advance!

I think this may take pictures for me to see what you are talking about. What do you want to convert/adapt to what? If you have a SATA hard drive like this:
There is no adapter to convert it to an IDE (PATA) like this:
Just guessing the only thing I can think you might mean is that you have an external adapter made for a desktop type drive so you need to adapt the 2.5 inch laptop drive to a full-sized IDE connection. Yes, these types of adapters are dirt cheap and readily available:
2.5 to 3.5 adapter
As you can see that allows connection of the big ide female cable to a laptop drive and also adapts the molex power connection. And they cost about a buck. At Frys it might be 3 bucks.

Is a WD My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive bootable with my Powerbook G4 12" PPC 10.5.8?

Sirs or madams,
Is my Powerbook G4 12” PPC 10.5.8 'bootable' with a Western Digital My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive? Western Digital says officially no, but that it MIGHT be. I primarily live in China and bought a datastorage.com.cn Clearlight s400+ external hard drive enclosure with a 320GB disk drive a few years ago in China. My computer 'boots' fine from it, but since I got it in China all the paperwork, etc. is in Chinese; my Chinese isn't quite sufficient enough yet to read it. But there are references to something called "SATA", whatever that is.
My level of computer 'under the hood' knowledge is extremely low. I've been told that SATA has some relationship as to whether or not an external hard drive will boot a computer via the Firewire connection, something relating to 'interface', which I assume is how separate electronic gadgets work, or don't work, with each other.
I frankly don't care much for computers, the internet, or their related gadgets such as all these fancy phones. I longingly reminisce about the days when there were no such things. I use a computer & the internet because I have to, and unfortunately unlike a car where one doesn't have to have 'under the hood' knowledge to operate it, just knowledge of the steering wheel, brake, gas, etc., one seemingly must know a ridiculously great amount of 'under the hood' knowledge, including jargon, to operate computers.
So, please try to respond accordingly; thank you.
If this particular external hard drive won't, for certain, be bootable with my computer, can you advise as to what readily available brand/model would be in the 3TB range for a similar price, roughly $150ish??
Thank you very much.

Mr. BGreg,
Thank you very much. "...under the covers...". I think you meant "under the hood", as in a car. I suppose "under the covers" would be man/woman interfacing, which I am familiar with!
Actually, I'm back in the US now for a few months. I looked at the OWC web site, but only cusorily so far. I'll contact them; they appear knowledgeable about Apple computers.
As to what you wrote about Western Digital's cases, I certainly wouldn't want a poor case. In China I had over time gotten 3 different external drive cases, 3 different Chinese brands, and separately bought Hitachi brand disk drives that 'simply' plugged into the cases. The drives are roughly 80GB 120GB and 320GB. The two larger ones are in cases that have Firewire plugs/jacks, which are bootable with my computer.
So my understanding, as you wrote, has been that my Powerbook will boot from an external hard drive, provided it connects via Firewire, and the disk drive itself is 'normally' formatted with however my computer's own disk drive is formatted, (HFS OS extended (journaled) or some such??). So I was left wondering why Western Digital would indicate that even though their such-and-so external hard drive case/drive was Firewire capable, that they would then say it would not be bootable with my Apple PPC computer......
Well, anyway, since you indicated Western Digital's case quality is suspect, then I'll try OWC and disregard Western Digital.
Naturally, OWC should be able to address this, but your thoughts are also welcome. You mentioned the OWC cases are good with Apples. Would the disk drives OWC supplied with the cases also be of relatively dependable quality?? From my so far only cursory look at their web site they appear to have various options, including case only options where I could insert my own or their own drives. These sorts of options seem preferable, also along with quality components.
My Powerbook has been in use since 2004. In China I put in a 1.25 memory 'chip' in the bottom and installed the 10.5.8 operating system, which I understand are the maximum workable with my Powerbook. When I inquired with Chinese friends if my 1.33 GHz processor could be taken out and a more powerful one put in, they said it wasn't feasible because in my particular computer my processor was, as I recall them saying, soldered/'permanently' connected with the 'motherboard', that it would just be easier to get a new computer.
I would be with them and they would nonchalantly open it completely up showing me all its tightly arranged 'innards' while at least giving it a good internal dust/dirt clean job for cheap lunch and a beer (& so much dirt/dust/lint there was!)...these are the same folks who build the things of course...fast moving hands with tiny screws flying everywhere, but everything 100% all back in place when finished.
My Chinese friends also said that nowadays Apples are not as well built as when my Powerbook was built, that nowadays an Apple's life expectancy was considerably lower, so I fear that when I get a new computer that, though it will be more up-to-date and powerful, etc., it most probably won't last near as long as my Powerbook has. They also said that in an older computer the fan was often the first component to go bad, and if a new one couldn't be easily found, as they said was my case, then you're just left with having to get an entirely new computer. Part of why I dislike electronic computer gadgets generally is that they are obsolete so quickly.
So, anyway, thanks very much for your information.

Can I convert my internal hard drive to an external hard drive

I have an 80 GB hard drive that was in my MacBook. What do I have to do to convert it to an external hard drive? Thanks

Here's a cheap SATA external hard drive case on eBay http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-2-5-SATA-HDD-HARD-DRIVE-EXTERNAL-ENCLOSURE-CASE-BOX-/120 636286623?pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item1c167ba69f
If you don’t have the tools to open up the MacBook OWC has a set for $5
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TOOLKITMHD/

.exe drivers for external hard drives

I just bought a external hard drive case that supposedly supports Macs. However, the driver on the included CD is an 'Autorun.exe' file - there are no included OSX files on the CD. Is there a simple way that I can get this external drive up and running or do I need to run an emulator, like QEMU, and a copy of Windoze? The enclosure is an Eagle/Consus ET-CSWESU2-BK which accepts SATA drives and outputs them thru USB2.0.

I'd just format the drive. (All the .exe will give you is crapware...)
To format it for a Mac, open up Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities), click the drive (as in the orange icon further to the left than others) and now you have two choices.
1. If you want just one partition, click the Erase tab. Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and give the thing a name. Then, from Security Options choose any of the choices except the first (the 3rd and 4th will take longer but are better, I recommend the third). Finally click Erase and be patient.
2. If you want partitions, do the above, but choose Free Space instead of Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then go to the Partition tab and do what you want there.

Importing old library using external hard drive

Hi There,
My old PC (XP) died. I removed the old HD and stuck it in an external Hard Drive case.
How do I re-import my old iTunes library (with star ratings etc) onto my new PC (Vista)?
Thanks

Assuming that you have installed iTunes on you old PC and not yet added any music.
With iTunes closed, drag the iTunes folder out of music to the desktop.
Copy the old iTunes folder form the external drive into Music so that it replaces the iTunes folder you dragged out.
Ensure that your account has ownership and full control of the itunes folder.
Vista file folder permissions help
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/2464a180-e5dc-45d1-a2b8-3c8a 2b571e9d1033.mspx
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/05/25/how-to-take-ownership-and-grant-permiss ions-in-windows-vista/
You should have your old library when you next open iTunes.
If you did have some music files in the folder you dragged out, you will have to add them back to your library.

Can i use seagate goflex 3tb external hard drive for 2010 27" imac internal hard drive replacment if i take it out of the goflex case.do i need to format it before installation due to it allready having goflex software on it from manufacturer.

i have 3tb seagate goflex external hard drive.its brand new in package.i took it out of case and deleted partitions that were created by manufacturer.so now i have 2800 gigs.its formatted ntfs.will it work for late 2010 27" imac internal hard drive replacement.i found a apple repair place that will charge me 50$ to swap drives for me assuming i have the drive.i will have to install leopard myself at this price.i dont want to have to pay for anything other than the swap.will this hard drive work with this format or do i need to format it differently.

Hello
formatted ntfs
NTFS format not work on mac system , need to be formatted as Extended Mac os Journaled format and partition table need to be GUID
how to do that in video
HTH
Pierre

Hello, I have two questions on time capsule I can only have it on my external hd files and free up my internal memory to my mac I can use an external hard drive, in my case a lacie rugged as shared memory for my two computers

Hello, I have two questions on time capsule I can only have it on my external hd files and free up my internal memory to my mac I can use an external hard drive, in my case a lacie rugged as shared memory for my two computers

I have a mackbook pro and an iMac if I buy a time capsule 2tb airport, I can use it with time machine and what would be the best way to use it.
There is no particular setup required for TM.. both computers will create their own backup sparsebundle which is like a virtual disk.. Pondini explains the whole thing if you read the reference I gave you.
and how to use time capsule airport whit other external hd to use my old lacie airport with the new time capsule
Up to you.. you can plug the external drive into the TC and enjoy really slow file transfers or you can plug it into your computer and use it as external drive.. which is faster than the TC.. and TM can include it in the backup.
Again everything is explained in the reference.. you are not reading it.

Time Machine says both of my external hard drives require reformatting to case insensitive. What do I do?

I have been successfuly using Time Machine to back my iMac to an external hard drive (via usb) and everything has been fine for the last year. I have been using TM to back up to a HD called Terra LaCie via usb.
A week ago, my iMac hard drive was full--so I spulrged and bought a 6 TB external hard drive (Western Digital My Book-Thunderbolt). I set up the new Thunderbold HD to use RAID 1 (mirror) and copied most of my iMac hard drive over to the Thunderbolt HD.
I kept my working photographs (most recent) on my iMac and felt good to know my older photographs are on my new Thunderbolt hard drive.
For a few days, Time Machine seemed to work fine (backing up my iMac to Terra LaCie HD. I haven't been concerned with backing up the Thunderbolt drive (as I feel that mirroring is same as backing up).
Yesterday, Time Machine indicated the lastest back-up failed (for the HD called Terra LaCie). Now, when I go into Time Machine, the dialog box indicates the following message:
"Are you sure you want to erase the backup disk “Terra Lacie”? Erasing will destroy all information on the disk and can’t be undone.
The disk must be erased before it can be used for Time Machine backups because a disk you are backing up is case sensitive, but the backup disk is not."
When I open Time Machine to look at my external hard drives (I also have a third usb portable drive); two of the three drives indicate the following:
"reformat required; case insensitive disk".
The small, portable hard drive (that I'm also using) doesn't say it needs to be reformated (but my new Thunderbolt and my old usb HD both indicate the same message (above).
What should I do? I just spent days transferring my photographs from my iMac to my new Thunderbolt. Should I just not use Time Machine any longer and work from my Thunderbolt drive?
Am I to understand that my iMac suddenly become case sensitive? Sorry if this was too much information about my hard-ware set-up.
Any help someone can provide me would be greatly appreciated. I suppose I need to understand Time Machine and perhaps my Thunderbolt better.

Hi BDAqua,
Bravo, you helped me solve my problem.
The Case Sensitive Disk was the small portable hard drive that I was using termporarily.
I just disconnected it and I started TM machine and everything seems to be working just fine.
Thank you very much!!!!

My external hard drive stopped working so I had a tech fix it by moving it to another case since the power supply is in the case. It was working fine till I started getting these messages saying USB over current device, my USB is drawing too much power.

I need to know how to rehabilitate the hub since it gets deactivated as soon as I plug the external drive. By the way the drive contains important information

Buy a drive or drive case that is not bus powered.
Look for help in MacBook Pro forums.
Helps to include what drive and drive case you used and switched to (you didn't need a tech).
You can find good selection and assortment of reliable cases from OWC :
http://www.macsales.com/firewire
Not knowing what macbook whether you can use USB3, Thunderbolt and other interfaces that would be better.
WD My Book 2TB External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0 File Backup and Storage - Western Digital
Direct you to the proper forum for MacBook :
MacBook Series Forums
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks?view=discussions
http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro
Mac OS X Forum
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os?view=discussions
This forum deals with a desktop/tower 65lb Mac Pro
http://www.apple.com/support/macpro

How do I change the Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) Format of my Verbatim External Hard Drive

Good evening.
I have a Verbatim External Hard Drive, currently being used for my Time Machine back-up on my MacBook (Running Mac OS X Version 10.6.8).
I also frequently use a normal Windows laptop (Normal 32-bit OS).
The Hard Drive was formatted to Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) in order for the MacBook to do the Time Machine back-up.
How do I change the fromat of the Hard Drive, as i do not need the Time Machine back-up to be done on the Hard Drive anymore, and I NEED to use the external in both PC's.
Your assistance will be greatly apreciated.

Open Disk Utility, select the external hard drive, select erase, and format it as FAT32. You'll be able to use it with both Mac and Windows.

PSE 8 - Archive on external hard drive including captions and tags

I started my above discussion some time ago with Mark and due to the lateness in my responding the case appears to have been closed. However I am hoping that someone can comment on my intended course of action, see below, based on his suggestions?
Just recapping having successfully migrated my Photoshop Album 2 catalog including captions across to PSE 8 and now my objective is to move my entire PSE 8 catalog to an external hard drive leaving only thumbnail view to remain. Obviously I am anxious to avoid any catastrophe and therefore would appreciate comment on the correctness of the steps involved. I have arrived at these by simply modifying Mark's original steps. Please correct where necessary.
1) Connect my external hard drive where I want to copy the files too. Make sure I can 'see' it in Explorer
2) Open Photoshop Elements 8; click the Organize button on the Welcome screen
3) Displayed in my welcome screen is my entire catalog with each album matching in title and file (photo) content to the folder title and file (photo) content in the folder location displayed to the left of screen.
4) Go to the File menu, and select 'Write Keyboard Tag and Propertise Info to Photo'. In my case most but not all files (photos only) will have tag and caption data. Rather than attempting to select the files that I wish to embed tag and caption metadata does Organiser have a global 'search and embed instruction' so that when it gets a 'match' on .jpg number it will embed automatically?
5) After completion, I go to the File menu, and select 'Copy/Move to Removable Disk...' click the MOVE button to move the files from their current location to my nominated external hard drive.
6) Click the Next button, and select the external drive in order to copy the files to the drive.
Can you confirm?
* On completion of the above steps my external hard drive will allow access to full resolution versions of the file from Photoshop Elements including any existing caption or tag data organised identically to my PSE 8 catalog (only one catalog)?
* Am I correct in assuming that also all original photos from my laptop will be removed and if not can be deleted given their existence on my external hard drive?
* Is the data which now resides on the external hard drive capable of being read on any other PC which may not have Elements software?
Neil

I have 2 laptops an aging Dell and new HP. I have successfully followed your
instruction and deleted 1 & 2 below on both.
The Dell PSE 8 now has:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\PSE 8 (240Mb)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Elements Organizer 8.0 (502Mb)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\PhotoshopElements_8_WWEFDJ.EXE (1.17Gb)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\ PhotoshopElements_8_WWEFDJ.7Z (1.06Gb)
Giving a total of 2,972Gb
The HP PSE 8 has:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\PSE 8 (240Mb)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Elements Organizer 8.0 (502Mb)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\PhotoshopElements_8_WWEFDJ.EXE (1.17Gb)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\ PhotoshopElements_8_WWEFDJ.7Z (1.06Gb)
But a total of 3,894 and I am unable to identify where the additional 1Gb
resides. In Documents & Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Elements
Organizer is 120Mb. I have attempted to delete this but lost the catalog in
the process so had to restore from the Recycle bin and it now appears to
have reconnected correctly. Frankly I can live with these large file sizes
but would like an opinion on their potential adverse impact at sometime in
the future.
I am not sure whether I need to start a new thread for "Are there any known
bugs in PSE 8 surrounding the burning of discs" I have attempted to burn
onto a new CD-RW my slideshow. The process of burning appeared to work but
the written to CD does not play on the DVD. I have also saved the slideshow
as a PDF. I can't recall exactly how but in selecting an incorrect option I
no longer have visibility of projects in 'Folder View'. The projects are a
single slideshow and PDF copy of the same. How do I regain visibility?
Neil

HP SimpleSave External Hard Drive - Can't Access Files, Says to Re-Format

I have had a SimpleSave External Hard Drive for over a year now, and have never had any problems with it.
Recently, I am unable to access my files on the hard drive when it is attached to my computer. It tries to load, and then gives me the error message "You need to format the disk in drive H: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?". I don't want to format it because I don't want to lose all of the files that I have stored. When I press "Cancel" i also get the error message "H:\ is not accessible. Data error (cyclic redundancy check).
I have not changed anything recently so I do not understand why it has all of a sudden stopped working.
I am using an HP notebook (G62 Notebook PC) and Windows 7 Home Premium operating system.
I am connected to the hard drive via USB. I have tried turning off my computer and turning it back on, and unplugging the drive. I have tried using other USB outlets.
My SimpleSave information: model no hp md1000h
P/N HPBAAD0010HBK-00
The blue light is still blinking on the front of the hard drive.
I would like to access my files and get the external hard drive working properly again. Please help!
Thanks in advance!

I too have the exact same problem on my HP SimpleSave (sd500a) external hard drive. I got through to WDC, and they apparently support these devices now. They asked me to send them a copy of my purchase receipt in order to extend my warranty in their system in order to help me (ridiculous!!). I sent the scanned copy of the receipt to [email protected], and got an auto-reply that they will get back to me within 1 day. I also went on their website, and they refer to the device in their system as 'ED Caviar Blue EIDE Hard Drive'. It has the same serial number as my product from HP, so I guess they have acquired these products or at least support of them (?). In any case, I'm freaking out because I have tons of family pictures, video and my entire iTunes library on the device. If any one is able to get help for this, please respond. I am desperate to get this resolved.

External hard drive gone kaput

I have an old Mac mini (1.42 GH PowerPC G4, Mac OS X 10.4.11) with an 80 gig internal startup HD, and an external 250 gig Firewire HD. For the last couple of days, the external HD has not been getting recognized by the Mac. When I run Disk First Aid, the drive shows up, but the disc itself - "disc2s10" - is greyed out. When I run "Verify Disk", and subsequently "Repair Disk", I get the following response:
"Checking HFS Plus volume
Invalid node structure
Invalid node structure
Catalog file entry not found for extent
Volume check failed
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error"
I've tried everything - power on, power off, disconnecting and reconnecting every cable both on the Mac and on the external HD, but nothing seems to work.
I tried looking at solutions in the Apple Support section, but frankly, I've not had much success and am not even sure whether I did the right things.
Losing the disc would be a disaster - not least because I've painstakingly organized 18,000 songs in my iTunes library, and those songs are all stored on the spoilt HD!
The only other thing I can add is that the disk went bad after I Installed the latest Apple security update a few days ago. I don't know whether that had anything to do with this.
Finally, I've had some problems in the past with this HD - which is housed in a casing that has the same form factor as the Mac mini - in that it sometimes did not mount. But I believe that has been due to some loose internal connections between the disk and the casing. At any rate, that has not been a major problem.
Clearly, since the Mac mini says the disc is unreadable, it can "see" the disc.
Could somebody please help? Thanx.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
When you get this message, does is also show a -9972 error number? If so, the Apple disk utility can't repair the drive. As Boece recommended, Disk Warrior, or similar, program would be your next step, and it can often repair what Disk Utility can't repair. However, if Disk Warrior can't repair it, then you want to look at other software to try and recover the data, as the next step would be an erase and restore. And if that didn't work, then the drive is toast. There are services that can recover the data off a dead drive, however, they are not inexpensive.
Some other thoughts ... can you open the hard drive case and pull the short cable off the hard drive and put it back on? Make a difference? Do you have another mac available to you that you could hook your external hard drive up to? Just to see if there's any difference in accessing it? Is it only a USB connection or can you also connect via firewire?

External Hard Drive Case

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