External Enclosure Questions

[S7Tom]

I have an old 80 GB IDE 3.5" Drive from a computer that died out about 4 years ago. I now also have a 200 GB SATA II 2.5" drive from a laptop that died about a week ago.

I had the 80 GB Drive in an enclosure but the enclosure hardware failed. I need to replace that.

The question comes down to whicn enclosure/enclosures to buy. I have found two decent enclosures; one IDE and one SATA II:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182154

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121052

Totals to 39.37$ with shipping and tax. Not too bad but I would love to go cheaper.

I thought that there must be combo enclosures, and of course there were. There are enclosures that support both SATA and IDE.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817801061

That seems decent and would save me some money.
I am aware of the size conflict with my 2.5" Drive but I do not need it to fit properly in the case (I can stabilize it on my own and the enclosure will not be moved with the 2.5" attached). It seems the interface is still the same even though the form-factor does not match up. Also, I am aware of the SATA II performance increase but that should not matter; I just need to access the drive and be able to use it.

It If I am thinking wrong, correct me and please show me the differences in interfaces. Thanks.

 

[Saga Lout]

I have an old 80 GB IDE 3.5" Drive from a computer that died out about 4 years ago. I now also have a 200 GB SATA II 2.5" drive from a laptop that died about a week ago.

It If I am thinking wrong, correct me and please show me the differences in interfaces. Thanks.

Those two look good and where I live in the UK, I'd bite their hands off at those prices. However, I buy quite frequently for customers and have sometimes been able to buy an enclosure on e-Bay with a drive included for less than the cost of the drive itself.

EDIT: I wasn't to sure about this earlier but I just tried one of my 2.5 enclosure sets on a 3.5 drive and it doesn't seem to have to power to kickstart the larger drive so it's worth checking that out before you buy.[/#000ff]

 

[S7Tom]

Those two look good and where I live in the UK, I'd bite their hands off at those prices. However, I buy quite frequently for customers and have sometimes been able to buy an enclosure on e-Bay with a drive included for less than the cost of the drive itself.

EDIT: I wasn't to sure about this earlier but I just tried one of my 2.5 enclosure sets on a 3.5 drive and it doesn't seem to have to power to kickstart the larger drive so it's worth checking that out before you buy.[/#000ff]

Ok I hope there are others on this board who have the equipment to further test. My situation would is the other way around (fitting a 2.5" drive into a 3.5" enclosure) and as far as I know, that PROBABLY would work.

However, probably is not good enough for me. I need to be absolutely sure that the connections would still work and such.

 

[S7Tom]

I hate to bump this topic but I need an answer as fast as possible. Sorry for being impatient.