Conversion Kit Gives New Role to Old Drives

If you've got both an old internal drive and a need for portable storage, Belkin is readying a product that could be handy. The Hi-Speed USB 2.0 External Drive Enclosure Kit, scheduled to ship Friday, will let you turn almost any internal drive into an external one that you can plug into any PC's USB port.

The kit works with hard drives and with CD-RW and DVD-ROM, -RAM, and -RW drives. Belkin estimates a street price of $100, although the company is charging $110 at its own Web site.

Do the Math

It's pretty easy to figure out that the bargain occurs if you already own an extra drive. A quick check of PCWorld.com's Product Finder shows that USB drives generally cost from $50 to $90 more than equivalent internal drives--a savings of $10 to $50 over buying an internal drive and a kit.

So Belkin's primary market is people who need an external drive (to share data between PCs or, perhaps, to add a second drive to a notebook) and already have a drive they're not using. The drive might come from a PC that was recently upgraded.

Some Assembly Required

The kit can accept IDE hard drives or ATAPI CD and DVD drives, and plugs into any USB port. Performance, however, is likely to be severely compromised if your port isn't USB 2.0--the faster and newer version of the technology. You'll need the included drivers if you've got Windows Me and USB 2.0 ports, or if you're running Windows 98.

Putting a drive into the Enclosure Kit is similar to installing a drive in a computer. You must plug in both a power cable and an interface cable, and use a screwdriver to attach the drive to the mounting rails. There are two sets of rails--the kit can take either a 3.5- or 5.25-inch drive.

Like a computer, the enclosure comes with a built-in fan to keep the drive from overheating, as well as a built-in power supply. The power supply is necessary for operation because a USB port cannot supply enough electricity for both a fan and the drive.

Partly Portable

All of the Enclosure Kit's components get in the way of the device's portability, however. At 10 by 6.5 by 2 inches and weighing nearly two pounds before you insert a drive, this unit is not something you just slip into a pocket.

With its relatively large size and price (if you don't already have a drive), the Hi-Speed USB 2.0 External Drive Enclosure Kit is not the USB storage solution for everyone. But if you've got a spare drive lying around and want to put it to use, this could be its new home.