Good deal on 2.5" SATA Drive USB2 Enclosure

[Ken Fox]

Anyone who has upgraded the original SATA drive in their X6x, T6x, or Z6x Thinkpad will end up with a spare drive. Some will put them in a drawer, some in an Ultrabay adapter, some will sell them, and others will seek an external USB2 enclosure.

Those who have looked for external enclosures will be familiar with the fact that there are a lot more enclosures available for 2.5" IDE drives than are out there for the newer SATA drives. My own searching has shown that prices are higher and the selection is much more limited in SATA group. The few SATA enclosures out there often get mixed reviews on sites such as Newegg.

I purchased an enclosure from PCMicrostore.com that arrived today, in which to put the original drive from my X60. It is on sale at the moment with free USPS Priority Mail Shipping, at a price of $13.95 if you are in the USA:

http://www.pcmicrostore.com/PartDetail.aspx?q=p:1116005

The item arrived within a few days of ordering. The case is aluminum, with the end pieces made of plastic. There is a mini USB connector on the drive and a Mini-Male to Standard-Male USB cable included, as well as a separate USB power cable in case you have an underpowered USB port (it works fine without the power cable on all my computers). The case has some foam padding at the far end so that the drive fits firmly and does not flop around in the case. The case closes with 4 screws and includes a better-than-average free small philips screwdriver. Quality of machining and the included screws is very decent for this sort of a case. Assembly took 2 minutes.

The drive has a nice included outer case that closes with velcro. The instruction manual is written in better Chinglish than usual.

This drive case is a good deal for those seeking a product like this and I recommend it.

[The Spirit of X21]

That is a nice deal Ken. If only I had an SATA drive.

[pianowizard]

Nice find. I have an external enclosure ($10) that's good only for PATA drives.