USB Hard Drive Enclosure problem

[Ruthless_Edge]

Hey guys I was wondering if any of you could help me out on this.



I posted before about the usb programs thing. I recently purchased a "Creative Futura 3.5" External Enclosure" from Amazon. The reason I chose this item was mainly because I thought it was from Creative, the known computer manufacturer, specifically for sound cards, but among other items as well. When I got it, I found it wasn't the exact same creative I thought it was lol.

Anyways, I was wondering if anyone here uses usb hard drive enclosures, etc and could help me out here.

The problem is I have two hard drives.

120 gb Maxtor IDE

and

80 gb Western Digital IDE

Now, initially I had all of my stuff stored on the maxtor drive, and planned on using it, as it was bigger. But for some reason, once plugged into the usb enclosure, it makes a screeching sound, and nothing gets detected on the pc i plug it into. Tried it on more than one pc as well.

The Western Digital, on the other hand, works BUT when I first power it on, you can hear this click-like sound (i think its from the needle abruptly stopping) and then the hard drive starts up again. this happens 2-3 times before the drive actually stays spinning. I have to actually wait for it to restart those 2-3 times before I plug in the usb cord otherwise the pc's wont detect it. Once its up and running though, the drive works like a charm and with USB 2.0, files are transferred FAST. Seems it works rather well, but then when theres a big ass heavy load on the drive, it restarts. mainly this occured when i tried to reformat the drive, to start off on a clean slate, windows acted as though it formatted it, but you could hear the drive restarting like 5 times while the progress bar in the format window was filling up, then once it got to the end windows said it couldnt format. anyways, i did a quick format and that worked.

Oh, and as for the drives themselves? They both work fine in the pc they came from, even the maxtor after the screeching noise. havent even noticed a messed up or damaged file.

So.....sorry for the long novel-like story, but basically what i want to know is this. is the hard drive enclosure a cheap one or something? Screwed up with probs? Should i return it and try to purchase a better quality one? or is some of this stuff normal?

Thanks for anyone who can help me on this.

Oh yea, the enclosure was brand new when i bought it.

[Ruthless_Edge]

anyone gonna help me out? At least point me to another forum or site that might know? thanks.

[Toasty]

I can't really provide much insight about your problem, but I've had excellent results from this enclosure. I use it with a 320GB Western Digital HD and it works like a charm. It's nice that it has both USB 2.0 and Firewire too, since the computer I had before this one only had Firewire and USB 1.1. (12Mbps would've been painfully slow on the old USB ports. ) Don't know if a new enclosure will help or not, but that might be one to check out.

[Ruthless_Edge]

hey toasty, thanks for the post, but unfortunatley by the time i read the reply, i already purchased This one Tell me what you guys think of it? Personally I think its a steal, considering itll only be $11 after google checkout and rebate. but Its whether or not it will work my hard drive lol. anyways ill let you guys know whats up when i get it.

by the way, anyone know anything about buying stuff from amazon? Im trying to return the other usb enclosure that doesnt work for me, and the seller says they dont do refunds. i havent even had the item for 10 days yet, and its still in the same condition as when i bought it. what should i do to try and return the item to get my money back?