Suitable hard disk enclosure?

Hi all,
I've ordered the 2.53 MBP and bought a separate 7200rpm HD for it in order to avoid the potential pitfalls of BTO.
Consequently, I'll have the original 5200rpm lying around pointlessly, so I thought I'd buy an enclosure for it and turn it into an external USB HD for Time Machine, or wh'ever.
Would this enclosure do the trick?
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=543F&SearchType=1&CategorySelecte dId=11026&SearchTerms=enclosure&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&Navigati onKey=11026
It looks right to me, but I'm not expert on hard drives, so any opinions would be appreciated.
Thanks!
J

That will work, but it's not a great enclosure. If you did an online search for it, you will probably find it's also slightly cheaper from other resellers.
To be honest, I find there's a distinct lack of good quality portable SATA enclosures in the UK (I'm assuming you're from the UK because of your link to a UK reseller). There are one or two which I feel are better, but they cost upwards of £60-£70 (too much even for me).
However I have seen the Tsunami eData 2500 with reasonable reviews, including one from MacUser (I think) magazine.
NB: I have no affiliation to the reseller in my link other than that I have purchased from them several times in the past (with no problems at all).

Similar Messages

Hard Disk enclosure, which?

Hi.
My old iMac Flat Panel just died, the logic board doesn't work. Buying a new one was very expensive and I decided to jump to a new Mac. But since only the logic died I decided to save the hard drive, which is a Maxtor 4d060h3.
My question, can I buy a hard disk enclosure 2.5 to plug this hard disk or it must be a 3.5? I don't know how to see which one I must have.
Thanks.

I'd also respectfully add that it needs to be an IDE/PATA enclosure that your get not SATA.
mrtotes

Search for perfect external hard disk enclosure / RAID1

Today, am using stand-alone enclosures connected to a Mac Mini (running SL) via FW400 and USB.
Am storing my media on a 2 TB WD Green HD and am looking for redundancy (RAID1) while keeping the form factor down (wife approval factor).
Plan to add a second 2 TB drive, but need to find the ideal RAID enclosure. Have been looking into this for some time, but when I find what I think will work, the reviews aren't very favorable.
Here are the requirements:
- Supports SATA drives (minimum 2)
- Hardware RAID1 support
- Firewire 400 (800 preferred)
- Low noise/low heat (passive cooling preferred)
- Power Management (turns off when HTPC is off)
- Small(ish) form factor (e.g. under 8" x 8" x 15" (H x W x D)
I'd consider using Mac OS X Software to create the RAID but have read too many reports that indicate it is problematic. Also considered NAS (vs DAS) but want to use the array as a time machine disk also so it would need to be mac friendly.
Can any one chime in with some hands-on recommendations for an enclosure/RAID1 that meets my requirements, or experiences when using software RAID1 on the Mac?

Langley James Rock wrote:
Can any one chime in with some hands-on recommendations for an enclosure/RAID1 that meets my requirements, or experiences when using software RAID1 on the Mac?
Take a look here:
http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-safe.cfm
I have just ordered one. I have two G Safe drives, they work well with the Mac. They go to sleep (or not) according to the Mac settings.
I have ordered a third module so I can always keep a copy off site.
They are available 500 Gig to 2 Tb. Interfaces eSATA, USB, FW 800.
From personal experience I would not recommend software Raid for safety. My two excursions into software raid resulted in tears.

Unable to capture files into external hard disk because of 'drop frames '

I haven't been able to capture footage from my DV camcoder thru firewire to an external hard disk in FCP because i get a message saying 'drop frames were detected'.
This happens when i selected this external hard drive as the scratch disk in FCP.
When i deslect it and select my user hard disk as the scratch disk, the capturing works perfectly. But i just want to capture all my capture files into the external hard disk, not my user hard disk.
The external hard disk's speed is 3500 - could that be the problem? Is it too slow? Its connected thru USB and it is Mac Os Extended Journaled. Its got 250gb of space, so that's not the issue.
Can anybody help me?
Thank you.

No, its a Panasonic gs180, a really good camera.
The camera itself is connected to my computer through firewire. Its the hard disk enclosure that is connected to my emac through USB. Anyway, i'm sure that's not the problem, casue like i said, the capturing works fine when i use my user hard disk as the FCP scratch disk.
The problem i have is when i try to capture footage from my camera to the external hard disk enclosure. When i press 'capture now' and press play, the playback stutters and a messsage appears saying, "drop frames detected" and the capturing stops.
I feel like i need to adjust something in FCP itself - like a preference or something - just not sure what.
Thnx for your suggestion though and if you know what i should do, please let me know.

2.5" SATA hard drive enclosure with USB2 & Firewire

Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone knows of any computer hardware sellers that have hard disk enclosures for 2.5" SATA drives that has both USB2 and FireWire connections? I've looked around local stores, to no avail. So I'm expanding my search to be worldwide.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Diego

Hey Diego,
I've bought all my enclosures (5) through ebay. I find all the best option here for a good price. Here are some possibilities
http://search.ebay.com/2-5-sata-hard-drive-enclosureW0QQtrksidZm37QQbsZSearchQQcatrefZC6QQcoactionZcompareQQcoentrypageZsearchQQcopagenu mZ1QQfposZ90041QQfromZR10QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQsabfmtsZ1QQsacatZQ2d1 QQsadisZ200QQsaobfmtsZinsifQQsargnZQ2d1QQsaslcZ2QQsatitleZ2Q2e5Q22Q20sataQ20hard Q20driveQ20enclosureQQsbrftogZ1QQsofocusZunknown
Good luck.

Disk Utility error -9972 with new external hard disks

My Powerbook 15" (1.67MHz, 1.5 GB RAM, 100GB drive) is partitioned into two volumes:
- OS-X 10.3.9
- OS-X 10.4.3
Each volume has its own Disk Utility:
- Disk Utility 10.4.4 v.145.7 (part of OS-X 10.3.9)
- Disk Utility 10.5.3 v.198.5 (part of OS-X 10.4.3)
In order to make backups I use an external hard disk enclosure:
- Macally PHR-100AC, firewire + USB2
Recently I bought two new 250 GB hard disks and built one of them into the external enclosure (jumper setting to master) and connected it with firewire and formatted the drive as Extended Journaled. After that I made Verify Disk and got bad error messages and could not repair the disk.
Funny thing (reproduceable):
Using Disk Utility in OS-X 10.3.9 and formatting as Extended without Journaled: NO errors
Using Disk Utility in OS-X 10.3.9 and formatting as Extended Journaled: volume bitmap errors
Using Disk Utility in OS-X 10.4.3 and formatting as Extended without Journaled: bad errors
Using Disk Utility in OS-X 10.4.3 and formatting as Extended Journaled: bad errors
Using Disk Utility in OS-X 10.4.3 and formatting as Extended without Journaled and verifying using OS-X 10.3.9: bad errors
Bad error messages:
- incorrect key length
- the underlying task reported failure on exit (-9972)
- stopped repairing ... volume could not be repaired
I tried:
- to build the second new hard disk into the enclosure: same errors
- to install new firmware 4.73 into enclosure (compatible to 10.3.9): same errors
- zeroing out all data: same errors
- to use Techtool Pro 4.0.6 (compatible to 10.4): same errors
- to restart the mac using both partitions: different errors as described above
- to disconnect, shut down, restart the external enclosure: same errors
- to use another firewire cable: same errors
- to format the external disk again and again: same errors
- to find any discussion or knowledge base or faq: nothing
Thanks for any suggestions.
ibond

Your post on -9972 was very helpful. Thank you.
In the meantime I bought another enclosure (Macally PHC-500BC) and installed the same firmware 4.73 and tried to use it.
Surprise, surprise! Everything is ok with no errors. All my hard disks are working perfectly.
I suppose my 100AC is a faulty enclosure and needs replacement.
Thanks for your help.
ibond

How to setup external 500GB Hard disk drive in enclosure

How easy is it too setup an external 500GB Hard disk drive (HDD) in enclosure? HDD is a brand new Western Digital 500GB HDD in an enclosure which has FireWire ports. The drive is not formatted.

Plug it in and use the Disk Utility in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder to format it as a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) disk.
(46625)

Compatible USB enclosure for hard disk from a 15-inch Aluminum Powerbook

My old Powerbook finally bit the dust, so I dismantled it and removed the hard disk. I want to get an enclosure to use it as a USB drive, but do not know what size or type of enclosure to purchase.
I tried to guess, and ended up buying:
Connectland CL-ENC25005 2.5-Inch Light Weight USB 2.0 Interface SATA HDD External Enclosure
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0028Y4D9U/ref=oxya_ohproduct
When I got it, the connector in the enclosure was too small for the number of pins on the hard drive. Can somebody recommend an appropriate USB enclosure to use with an old Powerbook hard disk?

Hi, jakshale, and welcome to Apple Discussions. Your Serial ATA (SATA) enclosure isn't what you need, as you've guessed; your drive is a Parallel ATA (PATA, also called IDE) unit and needs an enclosure designed for that interface. Any enclosure intended for 2.5" ATA/IDE/PATA notebook drives will work. Here's one that's almost as dirt cheap as the one you bought:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817106093
Note that if you intend to use the newly-repackaged drive with a Powerbook, a USB-only enclosure isn't a good choice unless you get one that can use its own AC adapter. This is because most Powerbooks don't supply enough power through their USB ports to power an external drive. The same Powerbooks do supply sufficient power through their FireWire ports, so an enclosure that can be connected via FireWire is a better choice. If you're going to use the drive with a desktop Mac or an Intel MacBook instead of a Powerbook, a USB enclosure should be fine.

Enclosure for hard disk

I have a 410s that is still under warranty and crashed. It doesn't appear to be the hard drive- over the phone support had me run a disk check and it passed. But they want me to return the computer with the hard drive in it and, if there is a problem, they will not do any recovery. Bear with me, I barely know what I am talking about!
i was told to get a hard drive enclosure, put in disk drive and attempt to download files to another computer just in case (these are work files and I need them)
I do not know what kind to get or, from where I can get it quickly. Tried Best Buy today and the young man had no clue.
the drive is Toshiba SSD thns128gg4bAAA nonFDE
i understand the concept and also that if it is a hard drive problem it won't work. But I want to try it and do not know what type of "enclosure" to get as they seem to come in all sizes.
thanks for any help.
kim

Hi Ykckby,
If the operating system is broken but the laptop and drive are more-or-less healthy, you might be able to boot a Ubuntu Linux live CD and copy your files to USB flash.
Z.
The large print: please read the Community Participation Rules before posting. Include as much information as possible: model, machine type, operating system, and a descriptive subject line. Do not include personal information: serial number, telephone number, email address, etc. The fine print: I do not work for, nor do I speak for Lenovo. Unsolicited private messages will be ignored. ... GeezBlog
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Hard disk metal cage/enclosure

Hey Guys, im gonna be upgrading my lenovo 3000 N200 (769) laptop hard disk drive soon. However, the metal casing that houses the hard drive in the laptop has screws that refuse to buldge. I donot wish to damage the hard disk, so is there anywhere i can get a simmilar enclosure/cage, for my new hard disk ?
Thanks in advance.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

For anyone else who may be having the same issue, heres what i googled, Note the use of the word "caddy".
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1B3GGGL_enAE300AE300&q=lenovo+3000+n200+caddy&btnG=S...

How do i retrieve file vault protected files from an external hard disk that used to be my mbp's hard drive? the hard disk got corrupted and will no longer boot. I put it in an enclosure and attempted to copy my files but failed because of FV encryption.

This external hard disk used to serve as the main drive of my mbp. It got corrupted and the OSX would no longer load. I upgraded to a 500gb hd and used the old hd as an external drive. I tried to copy my files but i could not access them because of the filevault encryption. 110gb of hd space appears as used which means that my files are still in the drive. Is there a way to retrieve these files? thanks

According to your post, you're using Leopard, so FileVault only encrypts your user folder (unlike Lion). On the mounted external drive, in your user folder, you should see a file called username.sparsebundle, with username being your user name. Double-click that file to open it and it should prompt you for a password. Type in your password and the file will mount as a volume in Finder. You should be able to copy all of your files over.

How I installed Mountain Lion on Un-repairable Hard Disk.

My Recommendations for Avoiding Trouble, Avoiding Risk, and Saving Time.
1) Make a boot clone first!!!
      http://www.bombich.com/
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
2) Fix and repair your hard disk with Disk Utility and fsck_hfs before installing Mountain Lion!
    (Otherwise the installer will write-lock the disk preventing repair.)
Mountain Lion Aborted Installation—Claimed Hard Disk Failed, Couldn't be Repaired, and Should be Replaced
I have a 2011 MacBook Pro. Installation of Mountain Lion aborted claiming the hard disk could not be repaired by Disk Utility, should be backed up immediately, and replaced. It didn't make sense that the drive was booting up the computer for installation, but needed replacing. I removed the drive, put it in an external enclosure, and backed up the drive using a working Mac Mini, and Carbon Copy Cloner.
Hard Disk Was Write-Locked—Not Failing
Booting in Single User mode (hold command and S keys down while bootup is proceeding). I then typed in the fsck command given after Single User bootup. It informed me the drive was write-locked and read only. Now things were starting to make sense. Disk Utility couldn't repair the drive because it was write-locked! Maybe it could have been unlocked by the "chflags nouchg /Volumes/volume" or "chflags noschg /Volumes/volume" commands (http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20031017061722471), but I didn't try it. Unlocking the drive is really worht a try because it could save hours of coppying through a slow USB interface.
I formatted my laptop drive after copying it to another large external drive. Then I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone Snow Leopard from my Mac Mini to my freshly formatted original laptop drive. I unsellected the "Users" folder so I would only get the operating system—saving lots of hours copying data I don't need. Then I put the drive back in my laptop, and it booted with Snow Leopard. Checked the volume with Disk Utility and was informed the drive is fine. I removed the drive and connected it externally to my Mac Mini and ran fsck_hsf a few times in the terminal, which showed problems were found and fixed.
sudo fsck_hfs -fy /dev/rdisk1s2
Password:
** /dev/rdisk1s2 (NO WRITE)
   Executing fsck_hfs (version diskdev_cmds-491.6~3).
** Verifying volume when it is mounted with write access.
** Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
** Checking extents overflow file.
** Checking catalog file.
** Checking multi-linked files.
** Checking catalog hierarchy.
** Checking extended attributes file.
** Checking volume bitmap.
   Volume bitmap needs minor repair for under-allocation
** Checking volume information.
   Invalid volume file count
   (It should be 550614 instead of 550591)
   Invalid volume free block count
   (It should be 175459733 instead of 175460263)
** The volume MacBookPro HD was found corrupt and needs to be repaired.
3) sudo fsck_hfs /dev/rdisk1s2
Password:
** /dev/rdisk1s2 (NO WRITE)
   Executing fsck_hfs (version diskdev_cmds-491.6~3).
** Verifying volume when it is mounted with write access.
** Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
fsck_hfs: Volume is journaled. No checking performed.
fsck_hfs: Use the -f option to force checking.
[karl_ihrig] 4) sudo fsck_hfs -f /dev/rdisk1s2
** /dev/rdisk1s2 (NO WRITE)
   Executing fsck_hfs (version diskdev_cmds-491.6~3).
** Verifying volume when it is mounted with write access.
** Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
** Checking extents overflow file.
** Checking catalog file.
** Checking multi-linked files.
** Checking catalog hierarchy.
** Checking extended attributes file.
** Checking volume bitmap.
** Checking volume information.
** The volume MacBookPro HD appears to be OK.
5) sudo fsck_hfs -fy /dev/rdisk1s2
** /dev/rdisk1s2 (NO WRITE)
   Executing fsck_hfs (version diskdev_cmds-491.6~3).
** Verifying volume when it is mounted with write access.
** Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
** Checking extents overflow file.
** Checking catalog file.
** Checking multi-linked files.
** Checking catalog hierarchy.
** Checking extended attributes file.
** Checking volume bitmap.
** Checking volume information.
** The volume MacBookPro HD appears to be OK.
6) sudo fsck_hfs -fy /dev/disk1s2
** /dev/rdisk1s2 (NO WRITE)
   Executing fsck_hfs (version diskdev_cmds-491.6~3).
** Verifying volume when it is mounted with write access.
** Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
** Checking extents overflow file.
** Checking catalog file.
** Checking multi-linked files.
** Checking catalog hierarchy.
** Checking extended attributes file.
** Checking volume bitmap.
** Checking volume information.
** The volume MacBookPro HD appears to be OK.
I put the drive back in the laptop and repeated the fsck commands after a Single User boot. (Omited the sudo commands and used /dev/disk0s2.)
Downloaded and Successfully Installed Mountain Lion on "Unreparable" Drive
I downloaded the Mountan Lion installation application to my laptop, ran it, and had a smooth install.
More Trouble Migraiting My Applications and Directory
I expect to use up more time changing my computer name, migrating applications and rsyncing my User Directory. I will post how I achieve this.
I Hope People Avoid Trouble and Problems are Solved
I hope everyone will avoid trouble by making boot clone of their whole disk before attempting an install of ML and repairing their disk with Disk Utility and fsck before ML installer prevents it with a write-lock. Please see the first section.
I hope this solves other peoples problems with 'unreparable' disks. I believe this proves disks are repairable when ML says otherwise.
Good luck everyone!

troca, you certainly helped dtigerbme! Isn't that encouraging?
I recommend you copy your drive as soon as possible. I really don't think the drive is bad, but you may have to format it and copy back to it. Hopefully not. Clone or backup the drive before trying this recipe. Any time you have errors on a drive, back it up. A failing drive has lmited life. However, I don't think these drives are really failing, but that is my opinion and I break a lot of things.
Let's try this recepie for you:
Start in Single User Mode. Power on while holding the Command + S keys.
At the prompt, type "fsck_hfs -fy" or "fsck -fy" and hit return.
Do it again.
Enter the command "reboot".
Just googled "volume count disk utility" and got the same recipe to fix it.
http://counterjumper.com/post/19265700171/how-to-fix-invalid-volume-free-block-c ount-error-in
So my recipe is to try to fix the drive without taking it out of the computer, which requires you can boot it up.
troca it looks like Apple has said that error is benign and can be ignored in 2010.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2028?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_U
I do believe fsck will fix it though.
Some other results from the same search:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1071850
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3635034?start=0&tstart=0

ITunes cannot write to my lacie hard disk

I have an iMac G5 that I recently upgraded to 10.4.10. I've had a 160 firewire lacie hard disk for over a year, and all of my iTunes content is stored and called from that device.
beginning today, I cannot add to my library, I am getting an error that says cannot read from or write to that lacie hard disk.
I've tried manually copying the files over via the Finder, and that is yielding an error (error code -36).
any thoughts? I've also had iChat problems since introducing 10.4.10, wonder if that's part of the problem.

I have an iMac G5 that I recently upgraded to
10.4.10. I've had a 160 firewire lacie hard disk for
over a year, and all of my iTunes content is stored
and called from that device.
beginning today, I cannot add to my library, I am
getting an error that says cannot read from or write
to that lacie hard disk.
I've tried manually copying the files over via the
Finder, and that is yielding an error (error code
-36).
Error -36 is an i/o error. This means that you almost certainly have a hardware problem. This might be with the FireWire cable; replace the cable. It might be with a FireWire port on the disk; put the cable into a different port. It might be with the FireWire port on the Mac; try a different port. It might be with the FireWire controller on the Mac; try a different Mac. It might be with the FireWire controller on the disk; put the disk into a different enclosure.
Unfortunately, what it's most likely to be is with the disk itself. I hope you have a backup.
any thoughts? I've also had iChat problems since
introducing 10.4.10, wonder if that's part of the
problem.
Unlikely.

New Hard Drive Enclosure not being detected by Mac

Hi. I've been having problems with my external hard drive. I went out and bought a hard drive enclosure today at Best Buy for more storage on my eMac. After putting it together, I plugged it into my Windows 7 computer to test it out and it worked perfectly, but when I tried to plug it into my Mac computer nothing happened. I went to Disk Utility to check for the drive but nothing appeared. All the USB ports on my computer work great as I have used them all before, but I am unsure as to why it can't detect my drive. I then tried plugging the drive into the USB port in the keyboard and at least got a "USB Low Power Notice". (Better than nothing, right?) This is a relatively old mac computer (2003?) and the software has never been updated because its not connected to the internet and never has been. The USB hard drive enclosure uses USB 3.0 and the hard drive has been formatted to NTFS. Is there anything I can do to get it to work? I can access it and everything on my Windows computer, so why does it not even appear in Disk Utility or the USB Device Tree on my Mac? The manual says that it is compatible with both Mac and PC. Thanks in advance.

If your hard drive plugged into a Windows machine and worked, then it is probably formatted with FAT32 or ExFAT. For some reason, a lot of eMac's have trouble mounting disks formatted with such file systems. If possible, back up any data on the hard drive, format it to Mac OS Extended, and try it with the eMac again.
Also, it is trivial to try the ports with other devices that are known to work with the eMac, etc, etc.

Upgrading To A New Hard Disk Migrating Data

Like many old MacBook users right about now, we're all thinking about upgrading our 60 or 80 GB OEM hard drives. Well, I went and did it and I have a few questions after-the-fact, not to mention documenting my experience.
First I chose the Seagate Momentus 160GB 7200.2 (ST9160823ASG). This replaces the OEM Seagate Momentus 80GB 5400.2 (ST98823AS). The reason for this is simple ... the OEM drive worked flawlessly and I was willing to spend a little extra to ensure continued performance. I also chose to bundle it with a CMS USB 2.0 external enclosure data transfer kit to re-use my old drive.
My first surprise was that the CMS auto-transfer software was Windows only, despite the fact they make a Macintosh back-up product. The second surprise was that there was no Apple auto-transfer options. I literally spent an hour searching the Apple website and built-in help and tutorials to find a way to do this. Thanks to all on this discussion website as I ended up choosing a third party "clone" software to copy my old drive.
Which brings me to my first question. Every-time I tried to use Disk Utility to make a disk image of my old disk, I got the response that the disk image failed because resources were in use. Is that normal? Is there a way to make a back-up disk image using included Apple disk utilities? If not, then Apple NEEDS to spell it out, rather than a one line blurb in the disk install manual they publish that says basically: first back up your data. Thanks Apple, big help.
So I ended up using Carbon Copy Cloner, for a variety of reasons. A. it's $5 shareware and B. it specifically got better reviews than SuperDuper ($27). As far as I can tell, Carbon Copy Cloner did an exceptional job of perfectly backing up my old HD. BUT ...
Now here comes the next question ... the CMS enclosure seemed fine, but between CarbonCopyCloner and the USB 2.0 interface, it took over 9 hours to make a disk image of my old hard drive!!! Is THAT normal? Would a Firewire interface have sped this process up? Is SuperDuper faster? I must admit when I then used Disk Utility to restore the disk to the new drive, it took another 6 hours, so my guess is it wasn't the software's fault. Maybe it just takes a **** of a long time to move 80GB data. If the USB 2.0 interface is the bottleneck, then I highly recommend paying extra for a firewire enclosure. Would love to get a definitive answer here.
The process of installing the drive was simple. Thank you Apple (seriously). The new drive booted right up and the system is as zippy as ever ... but you knew it was coming:
The new 7200 rpm drive ran smoothly and absolutely silently in the external enclosure when I was backing up the old HD. Once installed, I immediately noticed a new vibration. Nothing huge, but it's there when now it wasn't on the OEM drive. The whole MacBook vibrates, stem to stern. The drive also seems hotter under my palm. Seeing all manor of these "VIBRATION" issues on other posts, I would suggest that anyone upgrading to a new drive, install the HD first to ***** the level of vibration before going to the lengthy duplicating process. It also seems to spin constantly, which the 5400 may well have done too but was otherwise unnoticeable.
My question here is, since these drives are virtually identical, does the 7200 rpm cause the added vibration & heat not present on the 5400, or could I have less-than-optimal drive which might be improved with a different drive? Also, the last time I had a high vibration drive on my PowerBook G3 it continued to get worse over the course of a year and Apple finally replaced it under Apple Care.
All-in-all it was a simple and relatively straightforward process once I found all the pieces, that is and Apple did not make it easy. I chewed up a lot of time I did not have looking for instructions. I've been using Macs since the original Macintosh in 1984. Ah I long for the days when I could just open a disk, insert another, select all and drag the contents to a new disk and voila! An exact copy of the original. Apple finally gets an A+ for RAM & Drive upgrade accessibility. But they get an F for making the data migration process as complicated as possible, particularly for something as important as our data. I'm sure their strategy is for everyone to take their computers to the Apple Store for upgrades and anyone else should already know how to do it. Well, I would suggest that most of us fall somewhere in the middle. We can put the new drive in and backup our data, but like making a good cake, we need the recipe.

Doug, I appreciate your input, however re-installing OSX is exactly what I DON'T want to do. Not only would it take an extended amount of time to update from 10.4.6 to 10.4.10 but importing files from the old hard disk comes nowhere near copying over every modification I've made to my system. The idea here, as I would think with anyone upgrading their hard drive with a perfectly working system, is to increase disk space and just keep right on going without missing a step. WIth all due respect your suggestion is absolutely the wrong advice in this situation. The last time I took such advice, I found myself missing many of the system helper applications allowing me to access hardware and software and all of it had to be reinstalled as I discovered things were no longer working as they should have. I DO NOT recommend re-installing OS X to anyone wishing to upgrade their drive, unless you are having problems with your system or just want to clean house. Apple should understand this. The bug thing on the install disk is just one of the many headaches involved in this process. My understanding was that I cannot make a disk image from the install disk was well as being unable to restore. However, if that's possible, then I could have done what I wanted without using a third party "shareware" solution. I will check it out and report back. Call me paranoid, but I would prefer to keep my data backup in the hands of those who formatted it originally, i.e. Apple. I would happily use a proven commercial utility, but for something as routine as upgrading my hard disk, I shouldn't have to pay to do it. Time was, if Apple had a bug in their startup utility disk, they would have corrected the error and sent a replacement to all registered users. Time was.

Suitable hard disk enclosure?

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