Does using 3.5 IDE/SATA drives in USB Cases damage them over time?
 

I know this may sound like a daft question but here we go....

Does using a IDE/SATA Drive in an external USB case damage it over time?

the reason i ask is when u turn a PC off the drive spins down before switching itself off where as in a case when u flick a switch it doesnt so could it cause any damage to the drive such as the possibility if a power cut happens which can corrupt data on a drive.

Re: Does using 3.5 IDE/SATA drives in USB Cases damage them over time?
 

As long as you 'Safely Remove Hardware' or eject it I'm sure it won't damage it because the drive is then not having data read or written to it so turning it off would be the same as shutting your computer down

Re: Does using 3.5 IDE/SATA drives in USB Cases damage them over time?
 

By "safely removing hardware" you allow the drive to park its heads, but I never use that option when switching off an external drive, I have a 500gb ext that is 4 years old and just gets switched off when I am done with it.

Still going strong.

Re: Does using 3.5 IDE/SATA drives in USB Cases damage them over time?
 

The other main issue with external enclosures is cooling. Many enclosures have no adequate airflow provision and rely on heat being radiated away from the case. In a warm environment the drive can quickly run up to a higher than optimal temperature which *will* shorten it's life.

Speaking one day to a guy that runs a data recovery business, he said the cheap usb enclosures are a great source of business for him...

Re: Does using 3.5 IDE/SATA drives in USB Cases damage them over time?
 

Hard Drives these days automatically park as soon as the power is removed (they are sprung - that's what the click is when your PC shuts down), so as long as nothing is being read/written then there should in theory be no problem, the main problems i are jolts and movement whilst the drive is spinning and loss of data if it is in the middle of reading/writing as well as heat in those small enclosures which has already been mentioned

Re: Does using 3.5 IDE/SATA drives in USB Cases damage them over time?
 

Can anyone suggest a good enclosure i want to put a 320GB SATA into one.

Re: Does using 3.5 IDE/SATA drives in USB Cases damage them over time?
 

Most only get damaged due to the heat caused by such enclosures, but generally no if its a decent metal one that can dissipate the heat.