Hard drive enclosures

yg17 · 01-23-2007, 05:59 PM

Hello,

I'm not looking to add a full computer to my car. Don't have the time, money or need.

What I am looking to do, is get a headunit that has a USB input for a mass storage device, and rather than use something like a thumb drive, use a hard drive. I've been trying to find something that will allow me to this. Basically, what I need:

Some sort of enclosure. Something that's easily removable so I can plug it into my computer to load music. I'm thinking something along the lines of something similar to removeable drive bays in servers and such where I don't have to mess around with IDE and power cables, it just slides in and out. In fact, if it was DIN, that would be awesome, because my car is double-din and I could put the HD right under my headunit.
Some sort of way to plug into my car's power. I guess some sort of adapter or inverter would be needed.

As far as the hard drive it uses, I could care less. 2.5, 3.5, IDE, SATA, doesn't matter to me. I don't have any extra hard drives laying around my house that would even hold half my music collection, so I'd have to buy a new drive anyways, so size or interface doesn't matter. A 2.5" probably could be bus powered (assuming these headunits put out enough power on the USB port to actually power a drive) which would be handy, but I'd be surprised if anything remotely close to what I want exists, so I won't be choosy.

So, does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks

RedGTiVR6 · 01-23-2007, 06:03 PM

Might look at the Pioneer HUs (Pioneer_man has been on here stating that their HUs can read an external HDD.

Any external HDD case would work for what you need. A HDD takes 12v, but I'm sure it needs to be regulated.

Just buy an external hard drive and be done with it. No need to buy a drive then an external case for it if you don't already have the drive.
USB probably wont have the needed power for the drive. IIRC, they only put out about a half a volt down the USB line by standards.

yg17 · 01-23-2007, 06:17 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by RedGTiVR6

Might look at the Pioneer HUs (Pioneer_man has been on here stating that their HUs can read an external HDD.

Any external HDD case would work for what you need. A HDD takes 12v, but I'm sure it needs to be regulated.

Just buy an external hard drive and be done with it. No need to buy a drive then an external case for it if you don't already have the drive.
USB probably wont have the needed power for the drive. IIRC, they only put out about a half a volt down the USB line by standards.

Thanks.

I've seen some 2.5" drives that run off bus power (I know LaCie makes them, I'm sure others do too) but I just don't know if a headunit puts out that kind of power or not. What would be the best way to get power to the drive if I don't go with a bus powered option? Would a cheap Autozone cigarette lighter to AC outlet inverter work?

RedGTiVR6 · 01-24-2007, 09:10 AM

it would. thing is, there are USB standards. You can't call it USB without adhering to the standards. If they are calling it USB, they have to provide.