What is the difference between an external hard drive and an external hard drive enclosure?
I want to buy an external hard drive for my computer, and one of the products I found was an external hard drive enclosure. Is that the same thing as an external hard drive? If not, please explain the differences. Thanks.
external hard drive enclosure is not the same as external hard drive.
you can buy an external hard drive and plug it into your PC through a USB connection. once that is done you are ready to save files to it.
an external hard drive enclosure is just a case, an empty case with cables, there is no hard drive in it (it’s only an enclosure) you have to buy a hard drive separately. usually these are used if say you have a spare hard drive from an old computer and no space in your new one. you buy a case and stick the hard drive into that, you then plug it all into the usb port.
you should stick to external hard drives (not enclosures).
December 24th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
They are not the same. The external hard drive enclosure turns an internal hard drive into an external hard drive. It doesn’t actually have the hard drive component.
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December 24th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
The "enclosure" is just an empty box. You’d still have to buy a hard drive to put inside it.
External hard drives are really just internal hard drives placed inside a shell with some extra electronics. You can buy both drive and enclosure at the same time, or you can buy them separately and put it together yourself.
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December 24th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
An enclosure is just a plastic shell that you put the actual hard drive in. If you bought an actual hard drive, you would put it inside one of these to protect it. External hard drives are just computer hard drives inside of such an enclosure, so, if you had enough technical expertise, you could make your own external hard drive by purchasing a computer hard drive and an enclosure and putting the two together. You, however, want an external hard drive, not just the enclosure.
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December 24th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
An enclosure is just a extra security measure. To protect from scratches, etc. An external hard drive by itself should be fine, unless your playing football in the same room. If the hard drive falls off a table there is always a chance it could break, but most are pretty good about surviving.
So not the same thing.
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December 24th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
external hard drive enclosure is not the same as external hard drive.
you can buy an external hard drive and plug it into your PC through a USB connection. once that is done you are ready to save files to it.
an external hard drive enclosure is just a case, an empty case with cables, there is no hard drive in it (it’s only an enclosure) you have to buy a hard drive separately. usually these are used if say you have a spare hard drive from an old computer and no space in your new one. you buy a case and stick the hard drive into that, you then plug it all into the usb port.
you should stick to external hard drives (not enclosures).
References :