Hard Drive Enclosure

I have a 10-year old dell dimension 4800. The internal HD is a 40 gig ide drive.

I'd like to continue using this computer as a backup, but need more disk space. Can I use an external enclosure with a sata drive and then connect to the computer via usb 2.0? Or would I have to use an enclosure that accomodates an ide drive?

Tell me if this is a dumb question - i can take it

Thanks,
Len

 

Some external enclosures can accomadate both types of drives. Try this, im currently using this enclosure and it works great.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._re=startech_enclosure-_-17-707-180-_-Product

 

Thank you - I will take a look at that product. I'm not sure if you answered my question. The computer currently has an IDE internal hard drive. Is it okay for me to buy a sata drive and place it in an enclosure that will except the sata drive and connect to the computer via usb2.0? Or would it be necessary for me to use an IDE drive (in the enclosure)?

 

As long as you are connecting the enclosure to your pc via USB you can use either a SATA or IDE drive inside of the enclosure. Either way the pc will simply see it as an external usb drive. What OS are you Running?

 

Thank you - that's what I thought but wasn't quite sure. I am running XP home

 

NP, you shouldnt have any issues with XP.