Is it a disk enclosure I need?

the keen edge

I have just purchased a new laptop; my old machine just stopped functioning out of the blue one day. I think the issue with it may have been a damaged GPU.

Is there a piece of hardware, maybe called a disk enclosure perhaps, that I can place my old HDD within and extract my files and download them to my new machine?
And if such a piece of kit exists, are they universal; or do I need to get a specific model to suit the particular HDD of my old toshiba laptop.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Lovely Bloke

It's called a caddy or enclosure, and they are very cheap - look for one that comes with one of the small screwdrivers.

I recently got this one

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/271123995493?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

You remove your HDD from the laptop, and screw it into the caddy, connect it with the USB cable supplied, and Bob's your Uncle, you can see the content of the HDD.

It's really easy - and I'd say if you looked around you'd get one cheaper than that one.

It's a good thing to do, because it essentially leaves you with a free external hard drive. Once you have all the files off it that you want, you can format it to leave it empty - or just leave it as is, no need to even put the files on your new computer.

rubadub

the keen edge wrote: »

are they universal

They are not universal, your link does not say what type of hard drive you have.

Your laptop will be 2.5" and then it could be IDE or SATA, I would guess it is sata and some searching will confirm it, or take it out as the difference is obvious



I got this sata one. $3.79 incl delivery (not a typo!)

http://www.buyincoins.com/new_en/details/usb-2-0-2-5-sata-hard-disk-drive-w-enclosure-case-product-345.html

the keen edge

rubadub wrote: »

They are not universal, your link does not say what type of hard drive you have.

Your laptop will be 2.5" and then it could be IDE or SATA, I would guess it is sata and some searching will confirm it, or take it out as the difference is obvious

I got this sata one. $3.79 incl delivery (not a typo!)

http://www.buyincoins.com/new_en/details/usb-2-0-2-5-sata-hard-disk-drive-w-enclosure-case-product-345.html

Yeah, its a SATA just took it out there.

That's a cheap price alright, is it a legit site, as in if I buy products of them will I ever see them in the post!

I don't think that I've ever bought anything from one of those kind of bargin/discount sites, whats the deal with them?
I'd appreciate a review from an anonymous poster on an Irish site like boards.ie; rather an anonymous poster on some foreign site!

rubadub

I got mine from that very site. I am sure there are better quality ones out there. Case was a bit flimsy but it worked fine, and still works OK. If I wanted one as a regular external drive to be carrying around I would fork out for a more robust case.

Some of those sites can take ages to deliver. But I am pretty sure mine came unusually quick from them, like within 2 weeks.

Dunno how they do it for the price, the little screwdriver alone would probably cost more over here! notice the USB has 2 leads on one end. I think this is so you can get power from 2USB ports if the hard drive needed it. Mine worked with just the 1.

EDIT: also if you know somebody with a portable external drive you might be able to simply open it up and swop yours into it to get the data off, if you are in a rush. That's all the external ones really are.

noodletop

I recently purchased the ocz ssd upgrade kits for my pc,Included are 2.5" caddys for sata hdds and brackets for fitting the ssd into pc.
I have 4 of the caddys here new which i will prob never use.If your in a hurry to get one and are in kildare area pm me.