Why, you might ask, would anyone want a NEWlink USB 2.0 IDE & SATA Hard Drive Enclosure ? And even more to the point, why would such a person buy one, admit it and then go ahead and review it?
The answer my friend, is not blowing in the wind.! It was sitting on my shelf. It was a spare 80GB hard drive, that I had taken out of my PC when I put in a larger drive.
It annoyed me that this major investment when I first built my PC was now sitting idly by, giving me no return for my money. Neither was there much point looking to dispose of it through Exchange & Mart, Ebay or the local shop window ads - who wants a redundant hard drive ? - especially when mine is SATA.
So for a little while, I had looked for an enclosure like this, into which I could place my hard disk, plug it into my USB and
have an extra storage facility for the PC for minimal cost. The problem was that many such enclosures exist for IDE drives, but fewer for SATA. Imagine my delight when I came on this one by NEWlink which can be adapted to either type.
And so, ladies and gents, I offer you a review which may just inspire some of you to realise how utterly easy it is to make use of your full potential when it comes to old disks.!
WHERE ? """"""""""""""
I spotted this particluar model in Maplin, Belfast. Well to be exact, I spotted it in the catalogue in Maplin in Belfast. I had spent quite a few minutes looking through all the enclosures that were on the shelves and none of them was for a SATA hard disk. I proceeded to check the catalogue and discovered one dedicated SATA enclosure is stocked by Maplin and also this dual purpose one. I duly filled out one of their little forms and proceeded to the hatch. A quick stock check on their computer revealed that there was one in store. The assistant headed down the shop like an express train ( approaching the buffers at snail's pace!! ) and eventually found the item in a drawer!! ... doesn't that make sense.?
HOW ? """""""""""
The "how much" part of the question, is £39. Having got it home, checked out what you get, and thought about it a while, I reckon that it is a tad expensive.
The "How To" part of the question is reasonably straightforward, though I did meet one hurdle.! Mechanically, it is simple. Attach the power and data cables to the end of the hard disk, and slot them on to the appropriate terminals - this is demonstrated in the manual very clearly. Then screw the disk on to one side of the enclosure - it can only be done one way, so no risk of mistakes here. Plug in the power adapter provided, link up the USB cable - it is USB2 but will work, more slowly, with USB1. Windows XP spots the drive as removable USB hard drive, and away you go.
I got into a wee bit of bother by not downloading the manual and reading it first - ( this is a male tech thing - we prefer to set things up without instructions whenever we can, and only refer to manuals when we have messed something up.!!) - *** I do deserve a pile of high ratings just for such an admission! *** So what happened, was that I downloaded the SyncQuick software first, and it has a facility to lock access to all your other drives. This meant that when I needed to look at the CD's information in the DVD drive, I couldn't because it was locked by default.! So it took me a couple of hours to figure out why the DVD and CD drives would not operate. baaaaaaaaaaaah !
WHAT ? """""""""""
What do you get for your money? The enclosure is a nicely manufactured aluminium box, which, for me, matches my Lian Li aluminium PC case very nicely. It is stamped in black, on one side, with its full name - looks impressive! The end pieces, one of which can be unscrewed for fitting purposes, are in black ridged plastic, At one of those ends is a switch which glows blue when the drive is switched on. The other end has a socket for the USB cable and another socket for the power supply - both cables are provided in the whole package. You are also provided with a little black stand, which lets the enclosure stand on its side, maximising airflow around the enclosure, and so dissipating the heat from the drive.
You are provided with screws to attach the disk to the enclosure and the internal cables for IDE and SATA drives.
Finally, you have the CD which contains the manual, the drivers for Windows 98, and the synchronisation software, to use this as an automatic back-up system for your PC.
My only concern, is that the disk is a very tight fit in the enclosure. There is very little room for ventilation around it, and I think this could cause problems later on in its life. On the other hand, I think the theory, is that being tight up against the aluminium enclosure, the case itself will act as a heat dissipater and enhance the disk's cooling. If I can confirm one way or the other with the benefit of long term experience, I will update this section later on.
So, in conclusion, this is a nice looking, compact holder for a hard disk of either type, which allows an old disk to become useful again. Nice one.
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