Any hard drive as small as 40 GB or as large as 750 GB is supported. We used a Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 500 GB with the IcyDock enclosure (ST3500641). This drive offers a whopping 16 MB cache, runs at 7,200 RPM and delivers over 60 MB/s sequential read performance. Although there are even faster drives available today, this model is well suited to show that USB 2.0 creates a bottleneck and that eSATA should not.
You need to remove the drive frame out of the IcyDock, place your hard drive into the frame and push it all the way towards the handle to connect the SATA data and power connectors. Use four screws to securely fasten the drive and to prevent vibrations.
When done, simply insert the frame into the IcyDock bay and you're all set. You can now attach the solution to its power supply and select either eSATA or USB 2.0 to get going.
In case you've installed a virgin hard drive (previously unused) you will have to create a storage partition with Windows. Right-click the My Computer icon on your Windows XP desktop, select manage and go to the storage section to manage your hard drives.
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Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.
