So on a similar note to my last post about USB flash drives/SDHC memory cards, what's the best USB 2.0 enclosure out there for a 2.5" HD? As background, I mostly use my laptop nowadays (the desktop is just for playing games and surfing the web, and I don't get to play games much, if at all lately! :P) and so most of my needs are centered around that, so I want a portable 2.5" HD for backup and extra data storage (think 100+ GB of music, etc).
Now, I don't want to keep buying new all-in-one external enclosures with HDs in them as I need to upgrade my HD capacity, so I'd rather get a nice empty enclosure and put my own HD in that I can buy OEM from Newegg, etc and upgrade as bigger drives get cheaper. So any thoughts on that? For now (I can still return it), I have the Rocketfish RF-AHD25, which I have to say is rather nice, though I could only find it at Best Buy for ~$55 (yeah, I know, but I needed it now and that was all they had). It has a very slim and sleek form-factor with a nice matte finish, it does USB 2.0 AND eSATA (which is nice to have) and it comes with a great wrap-around leather case with Velcro closure (that has elastic bands on either ends so the drive doesn't slide out) and 2 color (black/grey) cover options, it's own eSATA and USB cables and a screwdriver and screws to put the HD in! It even has a backup button (which I haven't used yet) and a DC in port for power! As you can see, it's pretty complete, and interestingly unlike other enclosures I've read about online, it runs my 120GB 2.5" HD just fine off of *one* USB port; it doesn't even come with the double USB connector that I've seen on some other external enclosures/HD products, and I've never had to use the DC power port/adapter to make it work! Any thoughts about why/when you need the double cable and why some seem to work fine with just one? For reference, my 2.5" HD in the Rocketfish is the Fujitsu MHV2120AH (see http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/computing/storage/hdd/mobile/mhv2120ah.ht ml ), and it does say "lower power" on the page.but how would you know if you need one or two USB cables for your HD (or use the DC power port), if say in the future I decided to upgrade to a 500GB or even 1TB 2.5" HD when those get cheaper? Thanks guys! BINO
