External Drive Enclosure Questions

[Snakebyte1]

Hi...

I was considering getting an IDE External Drive Enclosure to use with an Internal IDE DVD Burner, as well as with an IDE Hard drive (ie swap the burner for HD when needed).

I would want/need at least IEEE1394 connection. USB 2.0 as well would be nice but not essential.

Are there any particular problems or issues using these enclosures when burning DVDs?

Can you easily swap out the burner for an ATA100 or ATA130 IDE Hard drive (I realize I'd need drive rails as the HD is 3.5")?

Any information regarding make and model would be appreciated.

Thanks
D.

[redwudz]

I've used the external boxes. I recommend a Firewire/USB2 combo for the best compatibility. Firewire is way ahead of USB as far a being trouble free for your type of application. Swapping is another matter. It would be great if you could use something like a HDD mobile rack. I have these with my tower PC. Just pull out the drive and plug in another. With Firewire 'Hot unplugging' is possible (Though not recommended.) I haven't
seen external boxes with the capability of the mobile racks. Probably exist, though. The option then is to have a different external box for each drive you want to use. You might look around the net a little more to see what's available now.

[KTL]

Which chipset do you recommend? NEC or Ali? I'm thinking of converting my WD 100GB to a portable to make file archiving, transferring easier.

[Capmaster]

Hi...

I was considering getting an IDE External Drive Enclosure to use with an Internal IDE DVD Burner, as well as with an IDE Hard drive (ie swap the burner for HD when needed).

I would want/need at least IEEE1394 connection. USB 2.0 as well would be nice but not essential.

Are there any particular problems or issues using these enclosures when burning DVDs?

Can you easily swap out the burner for an ATA100 or ATA130 IDE Hard drive (I realize I'd need drive rails as the HD is 3.5")?

Any information regarding make and model would be appreciated.

Thanks
D.

I've been using an external IDE/firewire enclosure for about 2 years now. I use it for my DVD burner and I've burned over a thousand DVDs on it without incident. It has the Oxford 911 chipset. The box also has USB1.1 which I never use. I've also had an IDE ATA66 HD in there with no apparent speed decrease.

[Snakebyte1]

Thanks for the feedback Capmaster...

What's the make enclosure you use?

[jawgee]

Although this is hardly ever mentioned, I believe it is an important topic. How does one easily upgrade their external DVD drive's firmware? Some companies have firmware flashers that operate in the Windows environment, but others only work in DOS, which means that the external drive won't be recognized. Without hooking the drive up to an internal IDE slot, is there a where around this limitation? Also, even though one can upgrade the FW through a Windows flasher, is there a higher chance of FW corruption when interfacing through USB2.0 or Firewire?

Hmmm...

Thanks,
jawgee

[Capmaster]

Thanks for the feedback Capmaster...

What's the make enclosure you use?

It doesn't have a brand that I recall ....it's a generic unit I bought from Computergeeks.com. They have much better units now for less money

Go here:

http://www.compgeeks.com/products.asp?cat=CAS

and scroll down to "Drive Cases" and you'll find something you can use. The prices here are very good.

[jawgee]

Although this is hardly ever mentioned, I believe it is an important topic. How does one easily upgrade their external DVD drive's firmware? Some companies have firmware flashers that operate in the Windows environment, but others only work in DOS, which means that the external drive won't be recognized. Without hooking the drive up to an internal IDE slot, is there a where around this limitation? Also, even though one can upgrade the FW through a Windows flasher, is there a higher chance of FW corruption when interfacing through USB2.0 or Firewire?

Hmmm...

Thanks,
jawgee

Any firmware masters out there who can answer my questions?

Thanks,
jawgee

[sullen]

I put my DVD writer in an enclosure so that I can use it with both my computers instead of needing two burners or always opening the case. I have an ADS firewire/USB 2.0 enclosure. Paid $75 off Ebay a while back. The one problem I ran into was using the external with Exact Audio Copy trying to burn a CD with a cue sheet. EAC will only recognize drives that are attached through the IDE connections and not the firewire or USB. It was a real pain until I figured out that I could just cut the wave using the cue sheet and burn the individual tracks. An extra step, but a problem solved.

[Capmaster]

Although this is hardly ever mentioned, I believe it is an important topic. How does one easily upgrade their external DVD drive's firmware? Some companies have firmware flashers that operate in the Windows environment, but others only work in DOS, which means that the external drive won't be recognized. Without hooking the drive up to an internal IDE slot, is there a where around this limitation? Also, even though one can upgrade the FW through a Windows flasher, is there a higher chance of FW corruption when interfacing through USB2.0 or Firewire?

Hmmm...

Thanks,
jawgee

Any firmware masters out there who can answer my questions?

Thanks,
jawgee

I've already flashed my external drive. It's a Panasonic LF-D311 and I flashed it with the A128 firmware while it was in the external box. No problem ...I just used the firmware flashing utility that shipped with the drive

[Vanderlow]

I believe there are some burner flash fine in the ext box. if not you may have to put it in a case to flash. You shouldn't have to flash that often.

The oxford 911 chip set for ext closures I heard are good. here's one that uses it.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-146-176&depa=1

[DTSL06]

I flashed

USB 2.0 Plextor 708a (now internal) stock factory and using Dangerous Brothers hax FW
USB 2.0 NEC 2500a stock factory and using Dangerous Brothers hax FW
USB 2.0 LG 4040b using stock factory
Firewire Pioneer A05 (didnt work with USB 2.0) stock factory and using Dangerous Brothers hax FW

Could not flash LG DVD-ROM in USB case but no real need to.

[jawgee]

Thanks for sharing your experiences, folks. It should help other newbies wondering about flashing external burners.

Thanks,
jawgee