Customer Reviews

Coolmax CD-310-U2 3.5" Aluminum Enclosure USB 2.0 Silver

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just installed my new hard drive into this enclosure and it was very smooth and easy. The tray is very useful when installing the drive. It took about 5 minutes to complete the installation. It is very compact and light. Heat dissepation is also pretty good. Computer recognized it immediately, however your hard drive needs to be formatted before you install it or you need PartitianMAgic software to format inside this enclosure. The reason I gave 4 starts is the after installation the hard drive is kind of jiggling inside the enclosure. I put a small piece of paper towel and it got rid of the problem. This enlosure compatible with both 100/133 hard drives and there is no limit to harddrive size you can put in it. Overall I recomend it.

I have 2 of these (earlier model) and they work great with my 160GB EIDE drives. I just ordered 2 more from Amazon.

NOTE: it does NOT fit the thicker (yes, thicker) 3.5" hard drives. My 3.5" 160GB EIDE drives fit fine. However, the thicker (older model) 3.5" 250GB EIDE drive was too snug and rubbed against the top of the enclosure (works but too tight to slide in and out of the enclosure).

I have 8 external drives for video and photo editing. I made 5 of these drive using external cases so I am very familiar with the concept. The case was well packaged and looked like the listing. There are thumbscrews that hold the tray to the case which was very nice although they are very thin and hard to turn if over-tightened as one of them was from the factory. The connections were easy but the hard ATA connection instead of an ATA tether may for a rigid installation which wouldn't have been so bad except that the drive screw holes on the bottom did not line up with the drive. I had to loosen the screws holding the controller to get the drive screws to line up correctly. I was still only able to get 3 of the 4 screws to go in before tightening the case screws. Reassembly was as easy as sliding the tray back in and tightening the thumb screws. I attached the power and USB then turned on the drive and.......nothing! This was a known good drive that I took from another case, already formatted. I took the whole thing apart again and reassembled then, after over a minute of thinking about it I was finally able to see it on my computer. Since then I have removed and restarted the drive a dozen times and the computer only recognizes it about 25% of the time, never without a 30 second or longer delay. It's going back in the morning.

I've purchased other drive cases since this one. I'm ordering another Coolmax! It has great ventilation, the thumb screws are quick and easy, and it just plain works.

These are a great way to convert old drives into backup systems that beat tapes, DVDs, etc.