Question 1

Will this enclosure work with Mac operating system OS9 and above?

Accepted Answer

It should.  I have an Imac running OSX 10.8.5.  I'm using this external hard drive enclosure with a drive formatted in Linux.  However, I did plug the drive into my iMac to see if it could read the hard drive.  The iMac saw the drive and alerted me to the fact that the drive I had in the enclosure could not by read by OSX.  This tells me that If an un-formatted drive had been in the enclosure that the iMac would have seen the drive and then proceeded to format it..  This of course means the enclosure will work with a Mac.

Question 2

does this package include the cables to connect a Seagate Barracuda 7200.12?

Accepted Answer

I have the NexStar product listed here. I did not have any problems with the unit and it was simple to install my drive. Working fine today. Not sure what drive you are planning to install, but the one I am using is an older model. I had to adjust the dipswitch on the drive so that the computer will pick it up.

Question 3

My Windows 8.1 operating system does not acknowledge that I have connected my hard drive to the usb port using the Vantec Nexstar IDE to USB hard drive enclosure.  Has anyone else had this issue?  I did set the hard drive jumper to master.

Accepted Answer

I think you need to set the jumper back to cable select on the drive.  I've personally never messed with the hard drive jumpers on any of the external enclosures I've purchased they've always just worked.  try putting it back to cable select and when you plug it back up to your computer through USB go to the drive manager and see if it shows up there, as my might have to create partitions or something, just in case, but I'm pretty sure it's just a jumper problem.

Question 4

does this package include the cables to connect a Seagate Barracuda 7200.12?

Accepted Answer

I use two of these, both have Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 drives in them.

Got a Red one to work with a PC.  Got a Blue one to work with a Mac as a Time Machine backup.  Work great; nothing extra to buy, just pop the drive in and close the case back up.

Good way to use the old IDE disks that are laying around...

Question 5

fried the power on a Samsung Ultra case, blew smoke.

1. what are the odds the hard drive is still okay?
2. if i move this to a new case, do i have to reformat the drive?
3. if i have to reformat, is there anyway to get to data first?

any answers appreciated.

Accepted Answer

It depends on what caused the smoke.  If it was the hard drive, then its probably shot.  If it was the enclosure then the hard drive is probably OK and you shouldn't have to re format it.

If the hard drive is shot, a data recovery service may have the ability to pull the data off the drive, You'll have to take the enclosure apart, see if the hard drive will work in another enclosure and go from there.

Question 6

I have an iMac G5 isight with Serial ATA 7200 rpm hard drive. Does this enclosure fit the hard drive?

Accepted Answer

If it is a 3.5 in drive then yeah anything smaller than that it won't fit.

And one more thing if it is a sata drive it won't work it must be a pata drive if your hard drive has a long interface connector then it will work if not then don't bother with it.

Question 7

Is this designed to work with Enhanced IDE drives? Of all my drives it is the only one that will not show up. I hear it power on and see the OS install drivers but the drive doesn't show in Win 7 explorer.

Accepted Answer

Yes I have 2 of them, both work great. What may be happening is for some reason your PC is not assigning it a drive letter. Did you get the 3.5" driver CD? It also has the manual too. On page 13 will tell you to do. If you didn't get it try this.

(1) Right click on "My Computer"
and choose "Manage". 
(2) Under "Storage" on the LEFT panel,
select "Disk Management" 
(3) Windows should now give you the option to
initialize the disk. If not, locate the new drive
by right clicking on the new disk (where it reads
"Disk #") and choose Initialize. (This step may not
be required for some hard drives.) 
(4) Go through the wizard.
(5) Once completed, locate your hard drive in
the bottom right panel. Right click on the
area with a status bar (to the right of the
"Disk #" area) and choose New Partition.

If that does not work you can get partition software like "partition commander 11 to assign & format it correctly. Hope this helps

Question 8

I am trying to connect my device but I don't think I have the right connection on my hard drive.  Please help?

Accepted Answer

Your hard drive must be an IDE interface to use this case. IDE is one connector with a place for 4 medium pins ( power ) and then a 25 pin data connector, two rows of small fine pins. If the back of the drives connectors are flat then that is a SATA interface and this is the wrong case. Your connectors are keyed and only fit one way so if the drive isn't working and you're sure it's IDE and you know you have a good drive, the case may be bad.

Question 9

i have 1 of these units now with a 500gb drive in it. Will the same unit hold a 1tb drive?

Accepted Answer

The enclosure can only hold one drive concurrently. As long as the drive fits into the enclosure and has the appropriate connections it should work.

Question 10

I need an external hard drive to transfer data to a flash disk the old hard drive (out of fried old iMac) seagate  barracuda 7200.7 160 GB, will the above Vantec  be the ticket? and could I recover to a sandisk flash drive for my new iMac

Accepted Answer

I looked up what kind of hard drive mine was online. Apparently there are two kinds. I think it has to do with when they were made. I think that's what the IDE is for. Look up what kind your drive is, and maybe call newegg and get some help. They were able to help me over the phone in getting the correct one. PS I used mine for a Microsoft computer but the technology should be the same for Mac.

Questions & Answers