Enclosure for Desktop Hard Drive

[Mellusia]

Almost 4 years ago, I bought this Iomega Prestige Desktop Hard Drive:

Amazon.com: Iomega Prestige 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive 34275: Electronics

I only used it to back up my files and only really hooked it up to my PC a handful of times during that entire time. However it recently stopped working. It won't power on, I can't hear an whirring noises, my PC doesn't recognize it. Nothing at all.

So I'd like to remove the drive and try to put it into a new enclosure to see if all my files are alright or not. But I only recently found out about enclosures, and in general, I'm not good with tech stuff.

I'd like to know kind of enclosure I should get for this specific drive. I found a link with some info, but truthfully the important bits (i.e section 3) are going over my head :/

Guide to External Hard Drive Enclosures - SuperMediaStore.com

I was planning to buy a enclosure, but I don't want to waste a wad of money on something that isn't even compatible, so I'm kind of stumped. If anyone could point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate. Here's the store site I looked at first with some enclosures, so if there's one from there that seems appropriate (and cheap), I'd like to know.

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/categ...270655541een01

Thanks~

[wizzogidget]

I hear ya, the same thing happened to my 3 year old laptop's HD. And before I took it out of the laptop I bought an enclosure that was the wrong size. D'oh! Best to refer to Lifehacker's guide Alpha Geek: Turn an old hard drive into an external drive like I did and then check out the hive five pick for best enclosure. The LH post mentioned HDs from notebooks and desktops; my guess is that the external drive is more like the desktops in size? Hope this helps!

[lemur7]

oh-gessh ...yup ...it can get confusing ..
okay in a very simple nut shell ask yourself these two Questions :

1- is the drive small or large sized (like inside a tower PC or like in a laptop)...in your case its large ...
2- is your drive SATA or IDE (it will say so on your drive casing or should ) but most 1tb drives are SATA

and just ask for an enclosure that is for the small(laptop) type or large(desktop) type of drive(it does not matter rpms of your drive ...an enclosure is just a power source for it !) ...also ask if they come with an on/off switch,that way it can stay attached and still be off ....make sure it runs off the house-hold power ...not usb!...so plugs into a wall socket.....if not then add $$ to get an adapter ..its worth the cost!

thats the all of it .....I just replaced my Iomega drive housing myself a few months ago....its very easy to do yourself ....so don't panic while you pull it apart and put it into the new enclosure...if the drive in itself is okay it will work in the new housing.....

TIP : to save yourself money try looking in a local computer shop rather than the big retail stores for your enclosure...plus if your scared to do it yourself they may transfer it into the new one for free and check that it works!