LINDY Mac-mini-style USB/FireWire external HDD bay

[Bob Crabtree]

Read our review and fancy a smart little, space-saving Mac mini Core Duo?

Well, if you can't afford one but want to impress your friends and need an external hard-drive, LINDY sells a Mac-mini-style enclosure that connects by USB 2 or FireWire, uses no fans and is said to work equally well with Windows or Mac PCs.

Find out more in this HEXUS.lifestyle.headline.

[dangel]

"One likkle thing to know - if you are planning to pair this with a Mac mini, we'd advise you not to stack the drive enclosure on top of the mini. We've heard that the mini can have problems if it's not the top item in a stack. What we don't know, though, is whether the drive within the LINDY enclosure will stay cool enough if it's got a mini sat on top of it."

Will the heat from the box not rise up and heat up the bottom of the mini then?

Anyway, nice box - but no firewire 800? eSATA? Either of those would be preferable (well eSATA tbh for me) and the price looks a bit steep next to an ICY box etc..

[Bob Crabtree]

"One likkle thing to know - if you are planning to pair this with a Mac mini, we'd advise you not to stack the drive enclosure on top of the mini. We've heard that the mini can have problems if it's not the top item in a stack. What we don't know, though, is whether the drive within the LINDY enclosure will stay cool enough if it's got a mini sat on top of it."

Will the heat from the box not rise up and heat up the bottom of the mini then?

Anyway, nice box - but no firewire 800? eSATA? Either of those would be preferable (well eSATA tbh for me) and the price looks a bit steep next to an ICY box etc..

Ah, we have a physicist among our number Cough!



Of course, there will be some impact on the Mac mini and - truth is - I don't know what that will be. But a drive within an enclosure that has reduced free-air at the top and is passively-cooled (in part by its ali top), is a bit worrying to me.

Oh, but, apparently, part of the reason why it's a bad idea to stack stuff like this on top of a Mac mini is cos it sods up the wifi.

As for comparative pricing - again, you state a Sybil, but the whole point of the LINDY product, in my view, is that it looks like a Mac mini, so the premium isn't totally unreasonable.

Concerning Sata 800 - that would have only driven up the price.

Personally, I've only ever had BAD experiences with that technology - though they have all been on a single XP Pro PC (the only one I have with IEEE 1394b) and a single external LaCie HDD (ditto). The drive just wasn't seen or wasn't seen reliably.

However, I'm very glad you mentioned the subject because I will now see if things are any different at all under Vista RC2 beta, the next time I boot up into that OS!

But, if they're not, I still won't know whether to blame the built-in FireWire IEEE 1394b in the PC or in the LaCie drive!

eSata? Well, again, that might have increased the price - and definitely would have done if it was an addition to USB/FireWire and not in place of it - but, probably more importantly, it would have massively reduced the potential number of sales LINDY might make since there are, relatively speaking, VERY few PCs out there yet with eSATA capabilities.

[Bob Crabtree]

dangel,

I've now booted into Vista (from where I write this) and done a small number of tests with IEEE 1394b (aka FireWire800), which seems to be working just fine.

Previously, on the same PC, FW800 hadn't worked properly under XP Pro - though, as I recall, that was under a very busy config with rather too many apps and utilities installed than will have been good for the machine.

First test today was to connect a MiniDV VCR using a cable with a FW400 four-pin plug at one end and a FW800 nine-pin plug at the other.

The DV VCR was seen and able to be controlled by Vista's own video-capture app.

I then turned off the VCR and started using a dual nine-pin FW800 cable to test the speed of copying of a backup file from the LaCie to the PC.

The file was 3.12GByte (so about 3195MByte) and copied via FW800 in 1min 22 secs. The data rate, therefore, was around 39MByte per sec.

I then deleted that file from the PC's hard disk, used the "Safely Remove Hardware" tool to disconnect the drive, and switched cables - this time using a standard six-pin-to-six-pin FW400 cable.

The same file took 2min dead, meaning that the data rate was 26.6MByte per sec.

So, in that single comparative test, FW800 was bringing over data about 12.4MByte/sec faster than FW400, which is considerably less than the 100 per cent gain that some companies (rather naughtily) tout for FireWire800 but, still, very worthwhile having.

So, thanks for setting me thinking.

Next time I boot this PC into a clean test config for XP Pro, I'll repeat these tests and see if FW800 works any better there than it did under than cluttered XP Pro configuration.

[Bob Crabtree]

I did just that and the was reminded of the fact that SP2 comprehensively stuffs FW800.

The above-mentioned disc transfer via FW800 under XP Pro SP2 took 13minutes dead - a data rate of just 4MByte/sec.

Using FireWire400, the time was 2m 8sec - datarate of 25MByte/sec.

So I installed the updater that Microsoft provides - KB885222 - and did a reboot. This time, the FW800 transfer took 3m 5sec - a data rate of just 17.2MByte/sec.

Part of the update process involves a registry tweak which I didn't do at the outset but after I did that, and then rebooted, the FW800 transfer took a bit longer than before, 3m 15sec, so the transfer rate had fallen to 16.4MByte/sec.

Grrr!

And now, when I go to connect by FireWire 400, the drive isn't seen - even after a reboot. Double Grrr!

But, back again in Vista, nothing has changed, so at least I know the drive's FW400 side hasn't been done in.

[Nick F]

Nice find Bob, I had no idea something like this existed. I have the LaCIE external drive that sits under my mini but I'm always looking for extra stroage and this fits the bill

[dangel]

Blimey bob - it's like you're running this thread by yourself

Firewire 800 - it's newer and backwardly compatable isn't it? Actually not a priority for me.

eSATA - this is a BIG plus for me on any case - my motherboard does support it and having recently copied a 320gb RAID array onto a new 600gb RAID via SATA I was seriously happy with the data rate (minutes rather than hours!). I think the combination of eSATA and USB 2.0 fits the bill for me better than USB/Firewire and there are other external cases offering this now.

As for the physics - if it doesn't have active cooling or ventilation on the top plane of the box I can't see it doing much more than cooking hard drives. In my experience cooled hard drives last nigh forever (I wish dell knew that my work PC cooked 3 drives in as many months before I retro-fitted a fan!).

[Bob Crabtree]

Blimey bob - it's like you're running this thread by yourself

Streams of consciousness, that's all - and I didn't want to forget this stuff, cos I think it's worth working up into a likkle article.

Firewire 800 - it's newer and backwardly compatable isn't it? Actually not a priority for me.

Under XP, FW800 is just backwards!

eSATA - this is a BIG plus for me on any case - my motherboard does support it and having recently copied a 320gb RAID array onto a new 600gb RAID via SATA I was seriously happy with the data rate (minutes rather than hours!). I think the combination of eSATA and USB 2.0 fits the bill for me better than USB/Firewire and there are other external cases offering this now.

Understood - but you are considerably more technically advanced in your knowledge and kit than 99 per cent of the computer-using population (and 99.9 per cent of Mac users - though I exclude most of my own Mac-using friends).

As for the physics - if it doesn't have active cooling or ventilation on the top plane of the box I can't see it doing much more than cooking hard drives.

I think there is some difference between HDDs that are located within PC cases and those that are in external cases. Those in external cases are the only source of heat in the case (electronic gubbins aside).

In my experience cooled hard drives last nigh forever (I wish dell knew that my work PC cooked 3 drives in as many months before I retro-fitted a fan!).

Ah, Sir has never enjoyed the benefits of IBM-hard-disk ownership, then, and experienced the joys of the 'Click o' Death' that they too often delivered, no matter how well cared for the drive?

Bob (turning round to glower at the pile of dead IBM drives he keeps on a shelf as a personal aide memoir!)

[dangel]

Under XP, FW800 is just backwards!

All the more reason not to bother with firewire - it's irrelevant for most PC folk anyway.

Understood - but you are considerably more technically advanced in your knowledge and kit than 99 per cent of the computer-using population (and 99.9 per cent of Mac users - though I exclude most of my own Mac-using friends).

True, but then there's USB 2.0 connectivity for both groups in my perfect little external case

I think there is some difference between HDDs that are located within PC cases and those that are in external cases. Those in external cases are the only source of heat in the case (electronic gubbins aside).

No doubt - but external cases get bloody hot with 7,200 RPM drives during sustained use (which is usually how they're used during backups) and i've read reports of bad design resulting in drive death.. Thinking about how these drives are used - infrequently and probably for large sustained transfer - and what they are used for (backing up vital data) - cutting corners on thermal design doesn't seem ideal

Ah, Sir has never enjoyed the benefits of IBM-hard-disk ownership, then, and experienced the joys of the 'Click o' Death' that they too often delivered, no matter how well cared for the drive?

Well i've had a few 'deathstar's in my time but like all drives your mileage may vary. There's a good reason why server's have active drive cooling (even in the days before SCSI drives span at 10,000 rpm+) - lower temps = better probability of reliability.
Anway, with a drive case i'm happier with passive cooling if it's sufficiently ventilated or heatsinks some of the heat to the outside. I currently have an ICY box which is basically two metal plates either top/bottom of the drive (heatsink in effect) with mesh around sides which isn't too bad a design. It still gets pretty darn hot in 3-4 hour backups tho..

[Methanoid]

FYI people there are similar boxes from Macpower and also on Ebay there are NAS boxes with same styling around £30.

[Dr B]

Hi,

USB 2.0 Mini NAS Enclosure for 3.5" IDE Drives | NAS | Drive Enclosures | Hardware & Security | LINDY UK

Apologies to drag the topic back to the USB/LAN IDE box BUT I have need of some tecchie help, having upgraded the firmware on it .....the thing is uncontactable...

How do I get talking to it again over my LAN? There was a leaflet with the thing when I bought it 1-2 years ago BUT that is long gone so would greatly appreciate guidance here.... as to what defaults it might be applying etc ..... I got it cheap so it is not so great a loss... It never featured on the routers device list but behaved as a mapped drive with password protection most of the time....

I have tried pugging it directly to my laptop over LAN cable and doing IPCONFIG release restore etc etc without success - DHCP therefore doesn't seem to be working.....

I have it connected now by LAN cable to my router and there does appear to be some comms between them but the old fixed IP doesn't cut the mustard...

Yes I know I am a d**k for flashing the firmware arbitrarily so lets say nowt about that

Dr B
Southampton UK

[Methanoid]

Flog it to me as a "case".. I'll use it to make an Efika machine... (its a low power Linux thing)

[Bob Crabtree]

Dr B,

Thought you don't actually say, I'm assuming that the product you have is LINDY-branded.

If that's correct, then have you visited the company's UK support page to see if you can get the manual?

Er, but one little thing to remember for the future - it's probably NOT a great idea to add a question to such an ancient thread.

Far better, from your own perspective, to start up a new thread with a rather more meaningful title than this one has - that way a lot more people who may be able to help are likely to see it.

Cheers

Bob

[Bob Crabtree]

This is the product's home page.

And LINDY technical can be reached on:
Tel: +44 (0) 1642 754040
Fax: +44 (0) 1642 754049

Or by email on:
postmaster@lindy.co.uk

Bob

[Dr B]

Dr B,

Thought you don't actually say, I'm assuming that the product you have is LINDY-branded.

If that's correct, then have you visited ................. to see if you can get the manual?

Bob

#1 nope, only thing that looks identical

#2 looked & no manual

NB can't start new threads as a newbie!

[Dr B]

Flog it to me as a "case".. I'll use it to make an Efika machine... (its a low power Linux thing)

OK contact me off list john<dot>bullas<at>gmail.com - note it needs 4 base screws and a new fan as I ditched the old one as it got noisy and just ran it without the top on

Dr B