HD enclosure

[vivimimi]

What is a respectable and reliable hard drive enclosure for t42 (mine is 7200rpm 60 GB)? I am trying to turn my t42 hard drive to a USB external drive for my new t60 Thinkpad.

Thanks,

[gator]

http://www.dealextreme.com./details.dx/sku.780

These are not exzctly authentic. I have one of these, and they are [censored] good for the price.

[Stevesoura]

How is the material? It looks like the IBM topcase texture but looks like it is made of plastic.

[GACrabill]

Everything you ever wanted to know about external enclosures at the Official External Enclosure thread :

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/message ... did=496281

Scroll down to the Quick Summary which follows the first post.

[gator]

The top case is plastic, but the material feels rubbery just like the thinkpad case. It is vey nice, and I like it very much.

[dcouzin]

For perspective, here is a $10 enclosure that is too cheesy: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817155704
It's electronics are OK; it sports the USB 2.0 logo. Its heat dissipation is good, being black aluminum. But its mechanics are poor.
It provides no shock absorption or stability for the drive, which is held just by the connector pins and rammed tight against the box end.
It is assembled by two screws 2 mm diameter X 2 mm long which self-tap into plastic, so it won't allow many ins-and-outs.

On a related matter, the hard drive supplied with the Thinkpad has a sheet of plastic insulation and a perforated metal cover screwed onto its circuitry side. Without it, the drive could be electrically shorted. The "OEM" hard drive I bought from NewEgg doesn't have this. So where is it more important to have the protection, in the computer or in the portable enclosure? Can a spare peforated metal cover be bought?