External Hard Drive Purchasing Help...

hi guys... i'm thinking about getting a external hard drive so i cna take my data with me... i was browsing aorund the net and have found enclosures for ide hard drives... but can u get ones that support sata ?, thxs, shawn

I've not seen an SATA to USB one that I can remember right off, but they do have eSATA(external SATA) enclosures.

Yeah, they have SATA ones... I just purchased on that works for BOTH SATA and IDE.

This is the one that I picked up less than a week ago:
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16817388006

And so far it's worked great. It's now a permanent part of my list of equipment that I take when I go work on someone else's computer.

If you're looking for just USB to SATA, and don't need IDE, there are quite a few of them here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...k=&srchInDesc=

Oooh... I hadn't looked into it yet, but I figured they were out, or would be soon. The problem with that is your limited to USB speeds. It'd be much better if you could get a true eSATA drive instead.

Yeah, but then you'd have to have a mobo that has an eSATA port... I doubt his does.

EDIT: Or he'd have to buy expansion card. Anyway, I haven't researched them too much, but an eSATA drive would be more expensive, right? So we're talking considerable extra cost, not to mention a USB enclosure would be handy as it could be transfered to basically any computer, not just ones supporting SATA.

Yep, I so wish that a macbook would support eSATA. I guess I'll have to stick with USB, or Firewire if I can help it.

can someone help me find one in ebay for cheap and in canada?, thxs, shawn

ok..i bought one locally at a store... i got a hard drive enclosure sitting right infront of me... but its only ide to usb...and the hard drive i got is sata..anyway to make it work?, thxs, shawn