HD enclosure vs. USB-IDE cable and power supply?

Question

My old desktop has just been sitting in my room for the past few months since I got my new laptop, so it seems like a good idea to use my desktop's HD as an external drive. I just ordered a USB-IDE cable/plug-in power supply set because it was the cheapest way of doing this, but now I'm wondering if my purchase was a bit hasty. I'm wondering if I should have spend a little extra money and gotten an enclosure instead. How important are the cooling/safety benefits of an enclosure? If there's a danger of overheating when you don't use an enclosure, should I not leave the HD plugged in for too long?

Answer 1

the reason an enclosure has a fan isn't because the hard drive gets too hot, it's because it gets too hot in a small enclosed space. if you don't have an enclosure you don't need a cooling solution (granted you aren't keeping the hard drive in a hot (above 70ish degrees F) or humid space)

the enclosure is good because it keeps dust and other materials out of and away from the drive. what you ordered is designed more for a temporary/troubleshooting use, though there's no reason you can't use it how you want. just keep it clean and don't spill anything! (also keep in mind that you or someone else could electrify yourself if you pull a wire out while the drive is on and you could easily damage the drive if it's turned on and you connect or disconnect a cable. make sure you "eject" or "safely remove" the drive from your computer before disconnecting it and always disconnect from the USB end first)

Answer 2

Just turn the power off is enough, leave the cables in; the adapter's circuitry in an enclosure is indeed better (auto master/slave deal, IEEE1394/Firewire, integrated transformer, etc) but they offer not much extra if all you require is a working USB-IDE drive.

Really good enclosure is made of aluminum but 5.25 size is big enough itself that a plastic in its size matters not. HD is not getting so hot to melt anything anyway.