BELKIN Drive Enclosure Kit USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive Solution

Advantages: Fast & Versatile
Disadvantages: Slightly large

...Everyone seems to have a tiny pocket USB drive these days, however they suffer from limited capacity and can be quite slow (especially the older USB1 type). Belkin realise there's a good market to be tapped here... via their USB2 hard drive caddy. I can't remember the last time I was this impressed with a piece of kit. Thanks to a £20 voucher from Powergen, I picked this drive bay up for £29.99 from PC world. In went an old fujitsu 10MB drive and now it's a fantastic portable (just) storage solution. The bay itself can accomodate both 3.5 and 5.25 inch drives to give you an idea of how big it is. Power is supplied via a normal 6A mains lead (supplied) which is identical to your computer power lead (so no problem replacing if you lose it). The drive connector inside is a standard 40-pin IDE ribbon and there's also an analog audio... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Very easy to install
Disadvantages: More back of PC wires to hide

...an email to me with even simpler instructions! (Ahh, the sweet smell of success!) From start to finish, (from installing the cards to browsing the network) total set-up time was 2 hours. This also included drilling a hole in the floorboards and laying the cable. No one warned me though that carpet gripper rods are very sharp and if one places ones wrist on them, they hurt!!! The Belkin Home Networking starter kit costs £39.99 and is widely available in both PC stores and online. It is compatible with any version of Microsoft Windows (I have Win ME downstairs and Win98 upstairs). The product I purchased was the PCI version but is also available for USB connection. My daughter can now share my Internet access, which therefore saves me additional costs for another connection, and I have the added bonus of being able to use some of her hard drive... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Great if you dont have USB 2.0
Disadvantages: USB 2.0 is faster

...A USB peripheral switch are useful items they will allow you to connect items such as camera's, scanners, external hard drives, mobile phones, PDA's etc to your laptop or personal home computer. This USB peropheral switch has only got two ports where most have a minimum of four ports and USB connections on modern PC's and laptops are supplied with USB 2.0 which is a faster system and therefore more efficient. My conclusion is that this is a dated product that you can obtain a superior model unless you need it for connection with an the older USB 1.1 system, then Belkin is a great and trust worthy manufacturer, and this would be suitable to connect to your PC or Laptop and then to any of the items mentioned above. Belkin are renound for the customer service standards though you should not need to use this as there products are extremely... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful