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How do I find a replacement external hard drive casing?

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I need to replace the enclosure on my external hard drive as the USB connection is not working (it started only working if positioned a certain way but now will not connect at all.) From talking to friends and reading through other questions I am to the understanding that it is likely the USB adapter part of the hard drive enclosure so if I replace that it should still work fine. I took the hard drive out of the existing casing but have no idea how to make sure the new one I order is what I need.
it is from a 3TB Seagate Desktop Drive and the hard drive inside is a Seagate Barracuda 3TB ST3000DM001. From what I found online it is a SATA 6Gb/s interface with a 7200-RPM spin speed… the problem is that I am not a huge computer person and I don’t have a clue what that really means or how to translate that into finding an appropriate hard drive enclosure.
My computer is USB 3.0 capable so something that is USB 3.0 would be nice.

Is anyone able to suggest how I go about choosing a hard drive enclosure? or some to look at?

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Clarifications 1443634471

In reply to How do I find a replacement external hard drive casing?

Clarification dummy post @ 1443634471

You need to order a enclosure to suit your HDD

In reply to How do I find a replacement external hard drive casing?

So being a Seagate it’s a SATA Drive so you need a SATA Enclosure.

It’s not really difictult and depending on the size of the drive you can either get a 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch enclosure. The 3.6 inch enclosures have their own power supply and need to be plugged in where as the 2.5 inch ones don’t they just plug straight into the computer and get their 5 V DC Power from the USB Socket. The 3.5 inch drives require 12 V DC so they have a power adapter.

The beauty here is that you can fit a 2.5 inch drive into a 3.5 inch enclosure and run it fine but obviously you can not fit a 3.5 inch drive into a 2.5 inch enclosure and even if you just plugged the drive intot he interface there whould not be sufficent power to run the drive.

makes sense, aluminum vs plastic?

In reply to You need to order a enclosure to suit your HDD

That makes a lot more sense than what I was reading before. Power supply requirements I understand better lol. Likely safer to go with a 3.5 so that it has enough power supply. Seeing as the original casing had a 12 volt power supply I would bet that is what it had before any way.

I read something about the plastic enclosure not allowing for enough cooling in some cases, am I better off looking for an aluminum one or does it not really matter that much? If it helps I use it mostly to store my movie / tv show library so it can be running for a decent amount of time at one go. I have a separate drive for photos and text files.

Well that was correct plastic enclosures do not

In reply to makes sense, aluminum vs plastic?

Shed heat anywhere near as well as metal ones do. However saying that there is a proviso I got 1st degree burn off a metal case external HDD that was not supposed to be in the medical establishment and I have no idea just how long it had been running for but needless to say it had been running quite a long time.

I personally like the Antec MX1 which is a actively cooled enclosure with a great power supply and you can leave a drive running in it virtually all the time if you are so inclined. I’ve never had a drive fail in my Antec MX1 enclosure but saying that it was also expensive about 10 times the price of the cheap ones but from my prospective it’s worth every penny.

If you can get a metal one so much the better but just remember not to pick it up after the drive has been running for any length of time. The thing that kills HDD is heat and vibration so ideally you want an enclosure that sheds heat as fast as the drive can make it and isolates the drive from shocks. While we’ll never see such a enclosure it’s the ideal so you need to keep the drive in a place where it is exposed cooling air and not likely to be bumped around too much.

The fact that your circuit board in the enclosure has failed tends to point to the fact that where ever you have been using it is the right place as what kills HDD also kills circuit boards in HDD Enclosures. It’s much better to kill a USB Interface than a HDD

Enclosure size, power-supply & heat-dissipation…

In reply to How do I find a replacement external hard drive casing?

Assuming it’s a 2.5″ HDD, a 3.5″ case can hold it, but you must ensure it’s well supported within —- conventional HDDs with moving parts should kept as still as possible. This will also help avoid stress on the adapter itself. The enclosure must provide a firm and stable resting point, since any wobbling can adversely affect the HDD.

A HDD shouldn’t be exposed to sudden power-loss, especially during operations. A USB powered drive might be an advantage here; unfortunately, the computer’s USB port may not be able to meet the HDD’s power needs. An ideal solution is an enclosure supporting external power, which can be drown from a UPS point.

For heat-dissipation, just having an ideal case won’t do the job. Whether metal of plastic, you should have a good location for the case — one that allows adequate air-circulation.

Another thing you want to look at is the partitioning, for flexibility & storage provisioning.

Is your issue resolved?

In reply to How do I find a replacement external hard drive casing?

Just wanted to check if you were able to get your issue resolved. If you did, it helps others if you can mark the Best Answer as “Resolves Question”.

Thanks!

– Tammy 🙂

Thanks

In reply to How do I find a replacement external hard drive casing?

Thanks for sharing interesting message for supporters because those people always wait for this.

Param
https://www.miditech.co.in/

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