Questions about 2.5" HDD in caddy

[Mithrandir]

I've been thinking about buying a 2.5" Int HDD (something like 20-40gb) and then buying a caddy to put it in.

I have a 3.5" Icybox and it uses an external PSU. However, I have seen some 2.5" portable drives with no PSU. Are these available to buy or are they on prepacked units?

If they are available what caddies are recommended and which ones should I avoid?

I've been looking at IBM Deskstar 2.5" drives. Are 2.5" drives generally reliable or prone to damage from minor knocks?

Sorry for many questions but would appreciate some advice.

Many thanks

[Funkstar]

Most, if not all 2.5" drives will happily run on the 5v 500mA that USB provides. I have 4 of these cases bought over the years and various 2.5" drives that all run happily with USB power only.

3.5" drive draw far too much power for USB to handle. None of them are designed for power eficiency

[Koolpc]

I have an external 2.5 Hard Drive in a great caddy. The Caddy is a 'Hotdrive' One and it has USB, Firewire and a separate power source in case the USB is not up to it. Really pleased with it. Got a 40g Hard Drive in it.

[chrestomanci]

I've been looking at IBM Deskstar 2.5" drives. Are 2.5" drives generally reliable or prone to damage from minor knocks?

I don't know about those IBM drives in particular, but in general 2.5" drives are much tougher than desktop drives.

They are designed to go in laptops that get chucked about a bit, and because they are physicaly smaller the internal parts bouce about less when they are subject to blows. It is not unusal to see on spec sheets that they will withstand 10x the non-operating shock compared with desktop drives.

[Mithrandir]

Thanks for the replies guys. I think I'll go ahead and get myself a cheap laptop drive and caddy. Better value than a Flash drive.
Keep any other info coming!

[ultim8um]

I have one of the Thecus cases (the nano one in black) bought from Scan. Wonderful product as it lets you plug your card readers etc into it and download you photo's etc straight onto it without a pc etc. Also it was fairly cheap at the time as it was on Today Only!!! 10/10

[Mithrandir]

I have one of the Thecus cases (the nano one in black) bought from Scan. Wonderful product as it lets you plug your card readers etc into it and download you photo's etc straight onto it without a pc etc. Also it was fairly cheap at the time as it was on Today Only!!! 10/10

This looks fantastic.

I might wait until its on a today only offer.

The other one I was looking at was the Dynamode unit that was rated 6 stars in PC Pro. Its half the price of the Thecus.

Have been reading a very long forum thread over at dp.

[MD]

I don't know about those IBM drives in particular, but in general 2.5" drives are much tougher than desktop drives.

They are designed to go in laptops that get chucked about a bit, and because they are physicaly smaller the internal parts bouce about less when they are subject to blows. It is not unusal to see on spec sheets that they will withstand 10x the non-operating shock compared with desktop drives.

Tell that to the Dell tech guys I spoke to over the last month, 6 drives all within 2 years of being new - toasted. One laptop has been through three drives in the last 18 months, and it spends the majority of its life in a docking station.

Laptop drives are ok, but you still can't beat them about. Dell tech once told me the manufacturers factor in at least one failure in a 3 year warranty. Every tech since has denied it, of course

[ash_rm]

I've got a cheap 2.5" usb caddy of eBay that I bought for about £4 delivered that’s' been working great since I got it about 8 months ago. I've accidentally dropped it a few times and it's survived every time. I've got a 60GB IBM Travelstar in it.

I bought a 40GB fujitsu laptop drive from eBay before as well. The seller posted it in a standard letter envelope with no extra padding; just the envelope wrapped around it self. I was completely surprised to find that the drive still worked perfectly with no bad sectors and the seller also stupidly left all his data on there.

[Mithrandir]

I ended up getting the Dynamode from Amazon for about £8.50 (tagged it along with the Alias boxset for free delivery).

Not sure I'd use the Thecus OTG feature really. I could always get it on a todayonly (if the price is right )

Thanks for the info though.