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
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