Reddit reviews Inateck 2.5 Hard Drive Enclosure, USB 3.0 External Hard Drive Case, Support UASP, Up to 5Gbps,FE2004

This really sucks - Sorry it happened. More frustrating if you had a USB that was full and didn't record on Sentry Mode... While USB sticks are great, we were frustrated having to swap it out or clear it out every few weeks and worried it wouldn't work when we needed it to. If you feel like upcycling and have an old Playstation laying around (we had a broken one) you can remove the hard drive and use it with this from Amazon (reformat the drive, of course) and for under $9 you have a 500GB drive that will record for a while and is small. We've had ours in since July and it's still recording... or a bigger USB works fine too!

Your best bet (and greatest speed increase for your money) is to upgrade your HDD to a SSD. The Samsung EVO series (https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E250B-AM/dp/B00OAJ412U - select a storage capacity based on your needs) is a pretty good bet, though most SSDs will speed up your system considerably.

Installing the SSD isn't too difficult. The most time-consuming part is copying all of your files over. I recommend that you get a HDD enclosure like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Tool-free-Inateck-External-Enclosure-FE2004/dp/B00JQTO8TU/

You'd insert the SSD into the enclosure, plug the enclosure into your MacBook Pro and then use a program called SuperDuper to duplicate the files on your current HDD and copy them onto your new SSD. That way, when you install the SSD, you can plug in and go.

CNET has a guide for upgrading the laptop to a SSD: https://www.cnet.com/uk/how-to/upgrade-your-macbook-install-ssd-hard-drive/

If you don't use your CD/DVD optical drive, you can actually replace it with another HDD/SSD for extra storage. There's a guide for that here: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing+MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Early+2011+Dual+Hard+Drive/8529

Depending on your budget, you can also upgrade your RAM, though it may not be worth it depending on your usage. If you use Virtual Machines a lot, or other memory-intensive applications, this may be a worthwhile upgrade.

iFixit has a pretty good guide for upgrading RAM: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Late+2011+RAM+Replacement/7651

If you want to upgrade to 8GB of RAM, check this out: https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Apple-Certified-Laptop-Memory/dp/B005JRH9V2

If you want 16GB of RAM, look at this: https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Certified-Laptop-Memory-CMSA16GX3M2A1333C9/dp/B006ON5KZC

What sort of stuff do you use your laptop for? That'll give us a better idea of what you may need RAM-wise. Feel free to ask if you have any more questions. There are also guides on YouTube if you want a visual guide for how to do this stuff. Just search for "MacBook Pro Late 2011 RAM/SSD Upgrade" and something should come up.

Here’s the enclosure I bought.

Inateck USB 3.0 HDD SATA External... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JQTO8TU?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

You shouldn’t have to go through the whole windows reinstallation process if you’re transferring all your old data from the hard drive. If you were doing a clean install that’s a whole different story.

No, you can't. But you can buy an USB 3.0 case for your HDD

https://www.amazon.com/Tool-free-Inateck-External-Enclosure-FE2004/dp/B00JQTO8TU/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1486284421&sr=1-1&keywords=3.0Enclosure+Case

I ended up putting the old drive in this enclosure (which is pretty good for the price): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JQTO8TU

I used a 256gb ssd, but have the original 500gb drive for additional storage since steam games can fill up a harddrive fast and not every game is intensive enough to really benefit from an ssd.
I also did a backup onto that same 500gb drive. So I can use it to recover my original alpha windows 8 install as well as hold extra games.

Basically, clone your 500gb drive to the ssd. Then update all windows updates for windows 8 and update all dell drivers as well as hivemind. Wipe out the 500gb drive once you know the ssd and everything is working fine and backup the ssd windows 8 install to it.

Update to windows 10 on the ssd and then use remaining storage on the 500gb drive for additional game storage. The windows 8 backup will save your ass if the windows 10 update goes bad.

Edit: Another avenue to take is to uninstall hivemind and the alpha console software before updating to windows 10, then installing those things fresh on windows 10 after a successful upgrade. The first time I upgraded to windows 10, I didn't update hivemind first and I got stuck in a boot loop. But I just recovered back to 8 and the second time updated hivemind before updating to window 10.

I just bought this one to house a 1TB firecuda for my sons xbox one s and it works great.

So far I am using a Firecudas in my Pro, PS3 and now my sons Xbox one s. I am using an 8TB drive on my X though.

USB enclosure is a case for a Sata drive that essentially turns the HD into an External drive you can hook up to your computer or in this case your xbox.

Below are the links. These fixed the rendering problems for me. 99% of the time everything is rendered in by the time I hit the ground.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JQTO8TU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071KGRXRH/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I think there's a specific Kingston SSD you shouldn't get, but most are generally about the same. Hang about in /r/buildapcsales if you're US, there's an SSD going cheap there most days, and people giving it a quick overview in the comments.

As for an enclosure, I have this one which works okay.

Yeah.. I'd look at an enclosure if you're wanting a more permanent solution.

Something like this (just top of the search)

[USB 3.0 & Tool-free ] Inateck USB 3.0 HDD SATA External Hard Drive Disk Enclosure Case for 9.5mm 7mm 2.5 Inch SATA HDD and SSD(FE2004)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JQTO8TU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_3oSzybY5BM0Z3

Nope nothing. Everything come with the enclosure.

Example

Also I made a typo and it's 2.5 not 3.5

Maybe? I was thinking of doing it yourself:

Step 1: Buy USB enclosure like this one

Step 2: Buy SSD.

Step 3: Put SSD into enclosure.

Step 4: ???

Step 5: Profit Portable fast storage

just replace the whole case:

http://www.amazon.com/Tool-free-Inateck-External-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B00JQTO8TU/

this: https://www.amazon.com/ADATA-Premier-SP550-240GB-ASP550SS3-240GM-C/dp/B013J7Q338/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1483721941&sr=1-3&keywords=240gb+ssd

inside of this:

https://www.amazon.com/Tool-free-Inateck-External-Enclosure-FE2004/dp/B00JQTO8TU/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1483722004&sr=1-2&keywords=portable+hard+drive+enclosure

basically that setup. works great.

I went nuclear and ordered a full fledged SSD (480 gigs), partially because I plan to build a gaming pc sometime in the future and justified the cost by saying I'll use it with my pc. Here's the one I got-

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00M8ABFX6/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And here's the enclosure-

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00JQTO8TU/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That's what I'd got and it's worked good, but the part 2 to all this is that you can get a SSHD for cheaper and it's likely to work just as well. That's what my good friend did and he tells me he has 0 pop in issues now. Someone in the r/xboxone subreddit did some SSD vs SSHD tests and found the differences minimal, so the SSHD is what I've been recommending to others. Here's the one he bought-

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01IEKG484/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522166973&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=Seagate%2Bfirecuda%2Bsshd&dpPl=1&dpID=51Q5JsfaKQL&ref=plSrch&th=1&psc=1

So, less money for more storage and basically the same performance. He doesn't know what enclosure he got, he got whatever generic one the store had for cheap.

Edit- just because some people have had some confusion about it, these aren't dedicated "external hard drives." They are real hard drives that are turned into external hard drives with the use of the enclosures (saves you money, with the added bonus that they can also be used in your pc should you ever need it). Here's a video that goes over it a bit more.

https://youtu.be/SHmI414ExRs

This is the enclosure I'm using with a 2.5" internal laptop HDD https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JQTO8TU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If I got a powered HUB how would I go about plugging the pi into it? Sorry, I'm super new to PIs.

If you're going to use the SSD as intended (OS, games, programs, etc.), then your plan seems feasible. Check your pricing on the adapter. You might be able to get a case for the same price or less. It will work just as well and give you some additional protection for your SSD.

Assuming that you are cloning to replace the drive, right?

Get an USB 3 enclosure, boot/run the software you trust & don't have to install it, run verification. But you need to boot to confirm cloning was success it doesn't take that longer to remove the software. Depending on the drive mfg you can even leave the software on it = your call and process here.

They are dirt cheap, you can slap your logo/biz card sticker on it, fast enough and you can hand over the old drive in it for the customer to reference should they ask.

Overkill for Pi OS + Pi-Hole only, but it can be done. Lucky on a Pi 3B+ you can boot to SSD without having to make any changes depending on the enclosure used to house the SSD drive. I ran a cheap 60GB SSD in an (eta: oops wrong enclosure, right one) Inateck 2.5 Hard Drive Enclosure on a Pi 3B+ for a while. Had Raspbian Lite with Pi-Hole running. No issues. Found the SSD to provide a snappier response/speed over the 32GB Microcenter microSD card I used previously. Currently run Raspbian Lite, Pi-Hole and Plex Media Server on a 32GB Sandisk USB f2.0 lash drive as I repurposed the SSD drive for another project.

Found that the Pi 3B+ is really picky about what it will power and what it won't through it's four USB ports. It would power the SSD in the Inateck USB 3.0 enclosure, but would not power that same SSD in a old generic USB 2.0 enclosure. When using a unpowered USB 2.0 enclosure, I had to use a powered USB hub (didn't have a powered USB 2.0 enclosure). SSD drive also worked in a powered USB 3.0 docking station with the Pi 3B+.

http://www.amazon.com/Tool-free-Inateck-External-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B00JQTO8TU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425710033&sr=8-1&keywords=2.5+in+hard+drive+enclosure

This Anker one is nice, has both USB3 and eSATA. This one just does USB3 (which is probably all you need) and is half the price.

Ah, easy. buy something like this

Yup! Should be pretty easy with one of these guys.

Also, why not just replace the battery? It's pretty easy.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2012+Battery+Replacement/10365

These seem to use M.2 SSDs instead of SATA SSDs.

M.2 is a new standard that basically allows flash storage to have direct access to PCIe lanes(improving transfer rates to several times faster than SATA, which already is the speed bottleneck for higher-end SSDs such as Samsung's 850 series). Unfortunately, it has the issue of being limited to a motherboard connection, limiting the number of ports(most laptops with M.2 only have one M.2 port) and its physical dimensions, which ultimately limit their capacity to lower than SATA SSDs. Intel's been working on a U.2 connector that allows using cables at M.2 speeds and allows for SSDs with capacities you'd only be able to fit in a SATA bay before. Unfortunately, it hasn't gained any significant traction in the laptop market because of its increased height and has only gotten a significant market hold in the enterprise storage market as of now.

This doesn't mean you can't use another SATA SSD you can get at the prices listed above as their HDDs tend to be SATA devices. 128GB isn't enough storage for more than Windows(which can take about 64GB depending on installed features such as a factory reset image) and a Smart Response cache, which is an Intel technology that attempts to increase apparent HDD speeds by dynamically keeping a small part of the HDD's contents (specifically, the contents accessed more often) into the SSD.

Keeping a lot of data in a small SSD is bad for its lifetime, though. SSDs support a limited number of writes before they fail, and that figure is currently somewhere from 350~1000 for each sector(small fixed block of data used for IO operations, usually between 512 bytes and 4 KB). Manufacturers have introduced ways to get around such limitations, such as allocating additional space in the SSD to be used to replace sectors that failed, or support for TRIM(which marks the blocks as deleted instead of physically overwriting them), but the most important method is wear leveling - essentially managing unused space so as to make sure its sectors get an equal amount of use in order to prevent overused sectors from failing prematurely - which is why you don't want to fill the SSD more than about 75%. a 128GB SSD will still happily support at least 50 TB written to it over its lifetime, though(about 28GB/day every day for 5 years), assuming these measures are taken.

a 500GB or larger SSD will let you store your data directly into the SSD without needing to swap it in and out constantly.

You could get this laptop(6700HQ/960M/8GB RAM) for $750, a 1 TB SSD for $230, and use the laptop's 1TB SSHD as an external HDD with a $10 enclosure, which sums up to $990.
The laptop also comes with a M.2 port and an additional DDR3L slot for further expansion, and some good upgrades over its lifetime would be getting another 8GB RAM to take advantage of dual channel memory(currently at $40) and a M.2 SSD once they get affordable enough to justify their additional performance.

Do you need all of those things?

You can buy the drive much cheaper and a drive enclosure is $10. I imagine you have a standard phillips screwdriver laying around, and you can get a much bigger/nicer USB stick with the money you saved.

I'm basically looking for something like this but one that doesn't block off the sata power and data cables. This would be for purely aesthetic reasons. I want to display the drive at the bottom of this case but I don't want it to look like a standard HDD. Is this a question that would be better to ask in /r/pcmods?

I just use 2.5" laptop drives, like this one:

http://pcpartpicker.com/product/rTGkcf/hitachi-internal-hard-drive-0j22423


And then get a cheap enclosure from amazon that's USB 3.0, like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Tool-free-Inateck-External-Enclosure-FE2004/dp/B00JQTO8TU/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1480085110&sr=8-3&keywords=3.0+usb+enclosure

Here's a quick example combo:

Enclosure (Amazon Recommended): https://www.amazon.com/Tool-free-Inateck-External-Enclosure-FE2004/dp/B00JQTO8TU/ref=zg_bs_160354011_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=FEB5H3B1HH9ZKJBB1A7N

2.5" 256GB SSD (That I have my eye on, others may say another is better): https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0195B34SO/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492527927&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=SanDisk+X400+256GB+2.5-Inch+SATA+III+Solid+state+Drive&dpPl=1&dpID=41GZ3v2CBPL&ref=plSrch

I tend to use a standard internal 3 TB 7200 RPM HDD (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IEKG4NE/) in an enclosure (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LS5NFQ2/). This isn't the most portable set-up but it's cheap and works rather well if you can find a place to plug power for the enclosure.

Alternatively, I'm looking to get an SSD and a non-powered enclosure for portable backing up. So something like this:
(https://www.amazon.com/Tool-free-Inateck-External-Enclosure-FE2004/dp/B00JQTO8TU/) and any SSD. Within your budget, you probably won't find one for 500 GB though this is close enough: (https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-240GB-SDSSDA-240G-G26-Newest-Version/dp/B01F9G46Q8/).

If you want to go further down in size, you can opt for an M.2 SSD and enclosure set-up.

Hope this helps!

I would take the hard drive out of the laptop, put it in one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/Inateck-External-Drive-Enclosure-FE2004/dp/B00JQTO8TU/ref=sr_1_13?crid=OMM3IYAN1OKG&keywords=2.5+hard+drive+enclosure&qid=1550363273&s=gateway&sprefix=2.5+%2Caps%2C165&sr=8-13

Hook it up to a new computer, see if it recognizes the hard drive. If so, copy the files you want from there.

​

ps: purchase some cloud storage for your pictures, its cheap.

To answer that, we'd need to know what laptop you have.

But generally there will be a removable door on the bottom of the laptop, and the hard drive would be inside. Youd then buy one of These - Assuming its not a desktop size 3.5" drive.

The HDD is a 2.5" drive so if you have a laptop that needs an upgrade you can use it there, even though it's not SSD and only 500GB. Other than that though I have used both of mine as External drives using something like this to use as a backup or transfer videos and screenshots.

They're stupid cheap on Amazon. Use ifixit for a guide if needed.

[USB 3.0 & Tool-free ] Inateck USB 3.0 HDD SATA External Hard Drive Disk Enclosure Case for 9.5mm 7mm 2.5 Inch SATA HDD and SSD(FE2004) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JQTO8TU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_rqiDyb7XSS5ZY

I just took the upgraded SSD out of my mid 2010 MBP and put it in to a USB SSD enclosure. Plugged it in via USB-A to USB-C adapter and it mounted just fine after it asked me for the decryption password. I'd go for the cheapest USB SATA external enclosure you can find.

To be honest the USB enclosure I used was so old it had a mini (not micro) USB port on it; probably about 5+ years old. I don't think anything special is required.

I would expect something like this to work fine:
https://www.amazon.com/Tool-free-Inateck-External-Enclosure-FE2004/dp/B00JQTO8TU/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1484021862&sr=1-3&keywords=usb+sata+enclosure

You can pick up a USB external dock or enclosure, and put the SSD in that. Then you can treat it as an external drive, and copy everything you want off it to a drive in your computer. Most games should still work if you just copy them over, redownloading shouldn't be necessary.

Sure thing!

1. Get this if you want to just connect the HDD to your laptop. But, this one will leave the HDD naked, and tbh that's not really ideal
   
   
2. Or get this one. I'm personally using this too, and the good thing about this is that it's a metal enclosure. Not tool-less though.
   
   
3. This one would probably do. I've never tried this before though, but it's tool-less. Might be easier to work with if you don't have any small screwdriver handy

an enclosure might help out more, I have little experience but covering the entire drive will always be more beneficial. This might help you with what you are looking for, for cheap.

edit: This is a usb 3.0 enclosure