Customer Reviews

Vantec Model#Nst-250U2 Nexstar 2.5 Usb External Enclosure

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

 

 

I upgraded the hard drive in my laptop, and bought the Vantec Nexstar 2.5" enclosure for my old hard drive. The old drive fit right in. (9.5mm) A note for older laptop owners: this enclosure is very slim, and will not fit hard drives any thicker than 9.5mm.

The enclosure is an attractive grey aluminum, with a small green power LED that turns red when the drive is in use. The USB 2.0 cords work well, a main power cord, and a secondary USB cord to draw extra power from another USB if necessary. It comes with a "pleather" padded case. The enclosure also has an AC power adapter outlet, but does not come with the adapter. The enclosure has stayed cool with a Hitachi Travelstar 4200 RPM 30 GB hard drive in it.

I gave this product four stars because it lacks on the support side of things. The minimalist product manual helped a little, but didn't help me when I couldn't figure out how to format a hard drive in the enclosure. It was probably my lack of technical expertise, or a problem with the USB 2.0 PC card I just got, but the instructions could have been better. I have seen some enclosures come with software that will "clone" or "ghost" your existing hard drive. This one does not. If you are looking for that software, search for "hard drive clone" on download.com.

A note on installation: You will need a Phillips #0 (very small, eyeglass size) screwdriver to fasten the hard drive into the case.

Overall, I'm pleased with the product. A lot of power options, good looks, portability and cheap price are a great combination, even if the manual is lacking. Now I have a 30 GB external drive about the size of an iPod.

This is a great product, I highly recommend it. This is probably the smallest enclosure you can get. It means, however, that it has no real cooling system nor any shock protection incase you drop it or something. My family runs five of them (all with different hard drives) more or less continuously with no overheating problems. They never even feel remotely warm. Also, I've banged mine around a few times, but they kept on working. Installation is extremely easy; just slide the hard drive in and screw the end on. It comes with a special USB cord that lets it get power from two ports and still lets you plug a second low power device into the second port. It has a place to plug in an AC power adapter if you only want to plug it in to one USB port, but you have to go by the adapter on your own (specs in manual). If you try to run it off of only one USB port and no AC power the computer will cut the power to that port (to protect against surges) if power consumption exceeds USB standards during heavy hard drive usage.

This is a really smart piece of aftermarket engineering, it turns old notebook harddrives into really handy, very flexible USB storage devices, which work well on both a MAC and other operating systems. The only issue is when you are using it on A PC, it frequently causes an excessive power drain on the USB bus. There is a little socket for a power supply, but who wants to carry around yet another power supply. This problem never occurs on a MAC. Additionally, if you are migrating from one machine to another, you can pull the HD out of the old one and have all your files available to you if you, which is handy if you don't like to just copy everything over.

A great way to make use of an old Laptop drive. Just pop the drive in, screw in the screws (comes with extra screws, they're tiny) and plug it into your computer. You'll need two USB ports to use this with a Laptop (power issues) or you could buy a power adapter. (the specs for a power adapter are in the manual that comes with the case.

This is one of the cheapest and at the same time niciest 2.5 hard drive case in the market. And it works very well.

I bought this product mainly because of the low price and now I can tell you that it is as good as any other external HD enclosures.
I tryed a friend's Hawking HU225HD, but it didn't work well.
This one comes with a superb USB cable and a carring case (though cheap one). It do not comes with a power adapter but does not need it neither with my DELL Laptop nor company's Toshiba Laptop.
The only problem I had is that because I am an international buyer my billing and shipping addresses are different, so Tiger Direct mixed both. I have bought before from Amazon without any problem but if you are international buyer please do not buy from Tiger Direct, their telephone support is bad and attention is rude.
Amazon, on the other hand answered my emails the same day!!!
hope it helps.

The problem here is that that the usb connection to the case is not really the standard usb connection. You wont be able to plug a standard usb cord into the case, and likewise, you won't be able to use the case's usb on anything else besides the case. Its not the biggest deal in the world, but who wants parts that aren't able to interface with anything else? You will _have to_ take the cord everywhere with your case and if you lose the cord, then you'll probably end up buying an entirely new kit.

On the positive side, the case has a nicely streamlined form and is easy to carry around. Everything works as expected with it.

The only really interesting thing about this case is that it is small and looks nice. Do yourself a favor and purchase a different kit that uses a standard usb and has a firewire connection.

Nice, simple, small! Works well! Only one real potential pitfall. The USB cord is proprietary and I haven't found another one that works with it. So as long as you don't lose the cord, you have no trouble. Oh I guess there is a second pitfall. The power requirements sometimes don't work well with a laptop or any underpowered USB port. The good thing is the cord comes with an adapter that lets you draw power from more than one USB and still plug in another device, preferably a low power device. A couple of other reviewers said they had trouble using it on USB hubs, I haven't had that problem.

Unlike my other USB 2.5" enclosures which work with any of my USB cords on any port, this works only with very specific combinations of cords and ports. IE, short, high quality cords on the first port of any port array. Laptop or desktop or usb port replicator doesn't seem to make any difference.

While it will work, it is very annoying and I will be replacing it shortly.