Anyone using a USB 2.0 or firewire hdd enclosure?

Chazam

Chazam

Apple Virgin
My brother has an 80GB IBM Deskstar HDD he isn't using and i was wondering if it was worth getting a USB 2.0 or Firewire HDD enclosure for our iBook. Would it be compatable with our iBook? Any links or info on how to do this?
P.S Whats the maximum HDD sixe OSX can support?
 
The maximum size hard drive OS X can support is in the terabytes, I believe. You can't buy a hard drive today that would be too large for OS X.

Hardware, on the other hand, has limitations. For example, any computer without LBA (large block addressing?) cannot use hard drives larger than 137GB. Well, they CAN use them, but only 137GB would be available to use (that's even if you create multiple partitions -- only 137GB is available TOTAL). My computer doesn't support 48-bit LBA. Most computers released since 2000 or 2001 support 48-bit LBA. This also only applies to the internal IDE chain -- if I were to get a 250GB drive and slap it in a firewire enclosure, I could use all 250GB -- as long as the enclosure supports 48-bit LBA.

I would recommend getting a FireWire enclosure for the drive. Just about any generic one will work, but for guaranteed compatibility, visit here:

http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Page.cfm?Parent=1087&Title=&Template=1

Great company. Everything I've purchased from them has worked 100%.
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
The maximum size hard drive OS X can support is in the terabytes, I believe. You can't buy a hard drive today that would be too large for OS X.

Hardware, on the other hand, has limitations. For example, any computer without LBA (large block addressing?) cannot use hard drives larger than 137GB. Well, they CAN use them, but only 137GB would be available to use (that's even if you create multiple partitions -- only 137GB is available TOTAL). My computer doesn't support 48-bit LBA. Most computers released since 2000 or 2001 support 48-bit LBA. This also only applies to the internal IDE chain -- if I were to get a 250GB drive and slap it in a firewire enclosure, I could use all 250GB -- as long as the enclosure supports 48-bit LBA.

I would recommend getting a FireWire enclosure for the drive. Just about any generic one will work, but for guaranteed compatibility, visit here:

http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Page.cfm?Parent=1087&Title=&Template=1

Great company. Everything I've purchased from them has worked 100%.
Click to expand...
WOW thanks for all the info! I would have used the site but i'm in the UK. :( Is there any benifit over firewire compared to USB 2.0? I suppose the real advantage is that i can have 2 external USB devices installed without doing too much swapping.
I'll be looking out for one now! :D
 
Well, you can have more than one FireWire device connected to a single port as well -- just make sure the enclosure has two firewire ports of the same kind (ie, two FW 400 ports). You can just chain FireWire devices together, just like USB!

FireWire is slightly faster than USB 2.0, no matter what they say. FireWire maxes out at 400Mbits/sec, while USB 2.0 maxes out at 480Mbits/sec, I believe, but FireWire is definitely faster no matter what the specs say.
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
FireWire is slightly faster than USB 2.0, no matter what they say. FireWire maxes out at 400Mbits/sec, while USB 2.0 maxes out at 480Mbits/sec, I believe, but FireWire is definitely faster no matter what the specs say.
Click to expand...

I second that, apparently USB2 is a bit faster for burst transfer, but firewire is a hell of a lot faster for sustained transfer. Firewire all the way!
 
Hi,

ora said:
I second that, apparently USB2 is a bit faster for burst transfer, but firewire is a hell of a lot faster for sustained transfer. Firewire all the way!
Click to expand...

it seems, either, that USB 2.0 performance depends on the system configuration (processor speed??) but FireWire is "system-invariant".

(info found google-ing on the web... may be totally wrong).

byez_
 
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