I bought mine at Best Buy for the full 60 bucks, but I wanted to say that you don't need to format your hard drive. I had another kind for several years, Movie Star is the name, but the on off switch gave out, and I can't find another anyway, probably just as well, it was cheap, but did the job for some 3 or 4 years. (Over the last month or so, I kept losing the connection, and it would take a little shaking and turning of the unit to turn it on.) The instructions on the Rockfish said to format the hard drive, but I would assume that would be for a new hard drive. I had over 150 GB of pictures and movies on my hard drive, and just put it in, plugged it up, the computer recognized it straight away (windows XP) and it pulled up the info in no time, just like you would expect it to. So, if you have a hard drive with information on it already, rest assured, you won't need to format it, unless you want to of course. I haven't even loaded the CD that comes with it.
The only beef I had was the connections inside the nit were a little tight on space, but it did go in just fine, just a little tight. Sturdy unit, great color. I like it. Rocketfish - Hard Drive Enclosure Kit for 3.5" PATA/EIDE Hard Drives RF-PHD35
Wonderful product. Delivered as ordered and described. Easy to set up as long as you read the directions. Amazing price for the product. I used it to rescue old but meaningful college work off of a dead computer then wiped the drive and now it's an external backup. No geek-work necessary.
Fast service. The product was suppose to be new. However, it appears to have been used or at least opened and returned. Yet, It works fine. So not complaining. Again very fast service. Would buy again from this vendor.
The first one that I received was used and broken, after calling customer service (seller, not Amazon) another was sent that was also an open box and would only work if you formatted the drive 1st. I bought this to see what was on older drives that I had, but it's usless for that purpose if you must 1st format the drive. Cheap price for what is now a back-up drive enclosure.
This item was simple to use and worked perfectly! I was easily able to recover from my old hard drive all my data and burn to dvds after recovering. Simple is an understatement on how easy it was
using the Rocketfish enclosure. Just make sure the contacts are seated properly to the old hard drive, turn on the power after plugging to new PC via USB port and look under My Computer for the info. The only nuisance is that the power will not come on unless I push the power cord connection cord real hard but not all the time.
Be careful connecting the multi-pin ribbon connector. Do not pinch the ribbon between the drive and the enclosure body when you install. You'll have to work it for a minute or two, but proper positioning is easily achieved.
I don't know what all these comments about formatting and power problems are about. The thing has it's own power supply- you plug it in. I connected it to my laptop via USB and my laptop recognized the external device immediately, and I had instant access to all the files on the drive.
Only wish I bought this from Amazon instead of the much higher priced 'Best Buy'.
Good: Looks nice, has an IDE port for those older drives, operates flat or standing up, Price!
Bad: Power on is a little spotty. When connected to my Mac and powered on, the enclosure will not immediately turn on. If I leave it alone, it may start within the next 30 minutes or so. I can sometimes accelerate this by fiddling with the USB connector on the back. I dismantled the unit and extracted the circuit board but I can't find any visible faults with the solder joints or components.
Comments: The power on issue isn't really much of an issue for me. I use this unit for Time Machine backups to a 300GB IDE drive and I only need to fiddle with it once per week. Considering that this unit was well under $10, I'm not bothered by the odd behavior.
Credentials (this is the Internet so take this with grain of salt): I'm a former IT consultant with over 11 years of experience in "support and infrastructure" (desktops, servers, peripherals and network layers 1-4).
Simple to use HDD enclosure. It is great to use to back up files or extra file storage. It works well with my 80G HDD and Win 7. It was missing two screws but I found replacements for 60 cents so it wasn't a big deal. The retail price at the store is outrageous for this enclosure and I recommend buying a return like I did which saves a bunch. Kudos to Amazon and Best Buy Liquidators for handling a smooth transaction at a great price! Shipping was extremely fast. - Great Value - External Hard Drive - Drive Enclosures - Ide'
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