Removeable trays have two parts.  One fits into a slot on your computer case just like a cd or dvd reader
would.  The other part holds a hard drive and can slide in and out of the part in your case.  They cost
about $30 for a set at CompUSA, with spare internal parts cheaper (for extra drives).  You can get them
at other places, too, but you want a reliable source in case you need more internal parts - different
brands may not be compatible with each other.  I used to use them when I was doing custom programming.  I
would take out the drive that I used to connect to the web or play games with and insert the drive with
my C compiler and customer code.  I don't use them much any more.  But they were nice to backup stuff or
transfer stuff to my wife's computer before we were networked.

A USB enclosure is a box that is external to a pc.  It should be a little more expensive, because it has
to translate data.  You put a hard drive inside of the USB box and connect it to your computer via a USB
cable.  These allow portable, isolated data.  They are likely to be decreasing in usefulness as high
capacity USB flash memory "keys" become available.

Your main problem with using a USB enclose would be if your mb has sufficient ports that support the
level of USB that your enclosure requires.  Also, your operating system must support them.  You would
just plug one in, and your OS would recognize the live connection.  (I have not used one of these - I am
just giving back info that I have picked up reading this list.)

Dean Kukral

----- Original Message -----
From: GeneralStuff
Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2005 10:46 AM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Drive space question


I was interested in your description of what you do with old drives.  What are removable trays, how much
do they cost, where do you get them, can you use them with any computer?   Aren't USB enclosures nearly
as expensive as just buying a new drive?  Or is there an inexpensive source somewhere?  If I have
installed a new hard drive and moved an old one to slave position (following instructions), would I have
any problem installing an old drive in a USB enclosure?  Thanks, AnnaSummers

----- Original Message -----
From: David Gillett
Sent: Sunday, December 04, 2005 1:35 PM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Drive space question


Excerpt:

I would use Partition Magic to copy your current drives to two partitions
on the 120 GB drive (and expand them to at least 40 GB each), and remove the
two small drives.  All of my drives less than about 18 GB now live in
removable trays or USB enclosures, and only get used to move large data
volumes from one machine to another.      --David Gillett

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