External HD Update

I hope I am not geeking out on this external Hard Drive but I feel obligated to post an update.

Here's the stats:

External Enclosure: $23
160 Gig Hard Drive: $84 - $50 rebate

Has it saved me money? Yes. Has it saved me time? No. To get this thing to be recognized on my machine, I had to update my OS to Windows XP Service Pack 2. To get there from my original installation took about 2-3 hours of downloading and installing.

Once I got the ting to show up on my machine, I had to format it. That went fine. Mostly.

I also had to assemble the whole thing. That part wasn't too bad. I was able to get it put together while watching TV. But, here's the rub...

The fan in this thing is unbearable! There is a little internal fan that was screaming like a banshee. I say WAS because I decided to grab me Dremel tool and make my own modifications. Basically I mounted the fan externally so it wouldn't rub on anything.

Here's a shot of the fan mounted externally on the back plate.




Note I also had to make a little slot for the fan wires to go back into the enclosure. I also cut out the fins in the plastic to make a clear slot for the air to pull through.




Here's what the whole thing looks like put back together.


It's still kind of loud, but it's better than it was.