[GLLUG] USB hard drive enclosure
Eric Miller
eric.john.miller at gmail.com
Fri Dec 9 13:39:12 EST 2005
Thanks for the very thorough advice! Since it's right in my price range
I'll probably pick up the CD-510B-U2.
Happy Holidays!
Eric
On Fri, 2005-12-09 at 12:35 -0500, Marr wrote:
> On Friday 09 December 2005 11:18am, Eric Miller wrote:
> > I'm looking for an external USB hard drive enclosure. I figure one with
> > a fan is a must to keep it cool. Googling has indicated some are not
> > compatible with Linux so I'm a little gun shy with picking up just any
> > ol' one.
> >
> > Any suggestions?
>
> Eric,
>
> I've had good luck with a CoolMax CD-510. It accepts a 5.25-inch device. It
> comes in 3 models: CD-510B-U2 (USB 2.0), CD-510B-FW (IEEE-1394 [400Mbps]),
> and CD-510B-COMBO (USB2 + FireWire). (I think the 'B' is for the black model,
> which I have, since it comes in silver too.)
>
> It has a single fan (40mm) at the rear.
>
> The frame is all metal (aluminum) with a removable acrylic faceplate.
>
> It also has an on/off switch (at the rear), something that's lacking on my old
> Maxtor external FireWire drive, which required unplugging the DC adapter to
> turn it off -- yuk! I suspect most true enclosures (the Maxtor was just a
> stand-alone external HDD) will provide an on/off switch, but I mention it as
> something to think about just in case that's a "show-stopper" for you.
>
> I've got the CD-510B-COMBO version and I've successfully used it with
> Slackware using both the USB2 and the FireWire interface, although I'm always
> using the FireWire connection these days.
>
> The COMBO version is $54.49 (+$5.99 shipping) at NewEgg. The USB2-only model
> appears to be $37.49 (+$5.99 shipping).
>
> Actually, if you don't need the full 5.25-inch capability (I got it so that I
> could put an optical drive into it if I ever needed to), CoolMax also has a
> 3.5-inch version (CD-309-*). NewEgg doesn't seem to stock the USB2-only
> version of that enclosure, but the silver-colored CD-309-COMBO version is
> $46.49 (+$5.99 shipping). I suspect it uses the same (Linux-compatible)
> chipset as my CD-510-COMBO, but no guarantees.
>
> Here's a link (join split lines as needed, of course) to all the NewEgg
> CoolMax products:
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=GO&Range=1&bop=and&Range=1&description=coolmax&srchInDesc=enclosure&InnerCata=92
>
> I bought mine back in April 2005 but I don't think it's changed
> (hardware/chipset-wise) since then. When mine is connected via the USB2
> interface, it reports this:
>
> T: Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=01 Cnt=02 Dev#= 3 Spd=12 MxCh= 0
> D: Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
> P: Vendor=04b4 ProdID=6830 Rev= 0.01
> S: Manufacturer=Cypress Semiconductor
> S: Product=USB2.0 Storage Device
> S: SerialNumber=DEF108B94F1E
> C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=c0 MxPwr= 0mA
> I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=08(stor.) Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage
> E: Ad=02(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 64 Ivl=0ms
> E: Ad=88(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 64 Ivl=0ms
>
> So it looks to be a Cypress Semiconductor chipset, in case that's useful in
> your search for other compatible devices.
>
> Aside: I actually coupled this device with an inexpensive KingWin KF23-IPF
> 5.25-inch removable "sled" enclosure ("IDE Mobile Rack") and several KingWin
> KF-23-IT sleds ("Inner Trays"). This way, I have a portable, hot-pluggable
> device (the CoolMax CD-510B-COMBO) which can take any of several hard disk
> drives (which I easily swap just by powering the CoolMax off and swapping
> "sleds", after 'umount'-ing the HDD first, of course). Very useful!
>
> Good luck in your search and holler if you have any questions!
>
> Bill Marr
--
Incident Response: Doing something silly right now is better than having
done something sensible last year.
More information about the linux-user
mailing list