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External Drive Case Technology

2K views 6 replies 2 participants last post by  MacDoc 
#1 ·
This ones for the experts.

I'd like to know the technology behind an external drive enclosure. Basically I have access to a used macintosh tower which has been gutted. All of the internals are gone but, obviously the bays to hold the drives etc are still there. There are two firewire ports on the tower but I don't know if they go anywhere anymore.

So, in a nutshell, if I take an IDE drive and put it in this tower how do I then make the connection from the firewire port in the tower to said drive, and how do I get it recognised by my mac as an external drive?

If you know of a site where I can read up on this procedure or, even better, if you know how to do it and are willing to share the info with me it'd be greatly appreciated. I know MacDoc make their own enclosures so could perhaps shed some light on the process and pitfalls.

Cost is not really the object here, I'm almost certain that building my own would cost more that buying one but I've got that hankering to do it myself. I'm not electronically trained in any way but my father was an electrical enginieer and I'm quite handy. I spent some time wiring home theater sound demo rooms in a large electrical chain so don't be afraid you're giving me the instructions to electrocute myself.

Finally, there are three bays in this box, so if theres a way to turn it into an external bay which supports either three hard drives or two hard drives and an optical drive that would be cool too.

As I mentioned I'm handy but not experienced at this so no ridiculously technical terms without explanation please.

Many thanks, in advance, for your help.

Regards,


Bruce
 
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#3 ·
Yeah, I think the motherboard was fried which is why it was gutted. Powersupply may be available though. Does that mean that with a motherboard and powersupply it might be possible.

Is that what an external enclosure basically is?

Thanks again for your help.

Bruce
 
#4 ·
Well that's all the computer is along with Processor ram and video card.
It's a door stop.
An external firewire drive case has a powersupply for the drive and bridge for the IDE to Firewire and runs $50-70
 
#5 ·
Hey MacDoc,

I just got an email back from the guy who owns it. It has no motherboard but it does have the hard drive/DVD drive ribbon that connects to the motherboard and it does have a powersupply.

Can I do anything with it? Like I said before, I don't mind spending the money in order to build it. It would be nice to build something a little different and incorporate maybe a usb hub using the two usb ports etc.

If it's useless, it's useless, no biggie, I'm really interested in how they work and having a go myself.

Thanks again,

Bruce
 
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