Yes, the all plastic enclosure was a shock for me but I think there is some solid metal inside. Cost cutting .

The fans are so noisy that the brushed aluminium plastic needs to be replaced with... aluminium.

------------

On RAID 0.

I'm normally not a fan as it's so risky, especially with these WD consumer boxes. Great speed boost for READs but increased risk for data loss.

But I think my use of RAID 0 is legitimate in this case. I need the speed as my iMacs don't have FW800 and eventually I'll be doing some massive data churning.

But more importantly is I have an exact copy of all the data on the RAID 0 enclosure saved on tape. And the work I'm doing is script based and saved on my work computer and not with the data. Thus if I lose the RAID 0 enclosure then all I need to do is reload the data.

In this case and only this case I say: go for it with RAID 0.

When this project is done I'll convert both WD boxes, all 2T into one 500GB effective RAID set with RAID 0 and RAID 1 together. Technically called a RAID 0+1. OSX's Disk Utility can handle these. Don't know how I'll go overriding the presumably rudimentary RAID controllers in the WD enclosures. I think the WD HDDs / enclosures will be up to it.

I just thought I might add this little item to the external hdd discussion - I just came across an interesting little device, a hdd dock that you just plug your spare hard drive into. No need for an enclosure, just slot your spare 2.5 or 3.5inch hdd into the dock, copy away via USB and then pop it out of the dock.

See it at Welcome to Usb.brando.com.hk

If this little thing works it could allow you to use all those old spare disk drives that you may have that don't have an enclosure. And it is very cheap at only $US69 delivered. There's also a version with a 4-port hub for $US82.

Yes - pointed out by Brains couple of weeks back - it certainly looks like a cure all solution for storage and testing.

Can't see specs. Anyone know if it has a FireWire Port so the HD in there can become bootable?

My concern with something like that is EMP/ EMF (Electromagnetic pules / electromagnetic force). I have an ICYBox enclosure for old IDE hard drives and when I used it without screwing the lid closed on the hard drive my hi-fi amplifier volume was increased sequentially until it was at full volume. It took a bit of trial and error to figure out where it was from but it narrowed down quite quickly.

My apologies, so it was. And in answer to your question, no it doesn't have firewire.

But this does!

Hands on the Super Combo Stage Rack HDD : Akihabara News .com

Seems to be a brand new unit with USB2, FW400, FW800 and SATA to swap HDDs as you wish. As to being bootable...?

I'm currently looking at the WD Mybook Studio I and II 1TB drives. Both the same price and much the same features. What is the better choice? Is the ability to RAID two 500Gb drives worth it? I need 1TB of space, so I'd be using RAID 0 (despite not liking that idea a whole lot) due to costs I can't afford a second 1TB drive purely for backups (yet).

Thanx

so, anyone with any horror stories on the LaCie Rugged 320gb fw800 drive? need more portable storage.

is this a good option? other options. / opinions?.

See here.

And here.

Personally, I recently bought myself a 2.5 inch WD 320GB SATA HDD (bare drive) and a mini G2 SATA enclosure (USB2/FW400) for a total of $280.

Did research on this forum, a bit of running around to get the items, 15 min assembly time. A bit more hassle, but this way I got to choose the HDD brand, and enclosure properties (fanless, metal, good heat dissipation). I am happy I have a quality product, with little issue regarding overheating.

I note that the Rugged 320GB HDD is listed for $319 at Streetwise - pretty similar in price.

Do you want FW800 specifically? Does limit your choices.

editing a lot of raw images (+10mb each file) i want it to be fast.. not for backup, for additional storage in the field.

I've got my nice $100 M9 Pod enclosure for my serious video editing hard drive...

Now I need a cheap as chips external powered USB drive for my TAM, having inherited an 80GB 3.5" drive...

Have seen them for as little as $15 inc postage on eBay... what would people recommend in the cheap stakes?