OVERVIEW

If you want a high-quality, high-performance external hard drive, you should consider this enclosure.  If you have never built a computer or assembled an external drive, don't worry.  You can do this, save money and have a better external hard drive!

Many of the external hard drives you see on display at retailers appear to be bargain-priced.  What isn't apparent on the labels is the fact they are only 5400 rpm hard drives inside.  In other words, they are slower than the typical hard drive in your computer which spins at 7200 rpm.  It doesn't matter whether they offer Firewire or USB 2.0 speeds.  Those are only theoretical numbers.  If the drive can't pump the data, it doesn't matter how wide the pipe is.

The Macally G-S350 SUA drive enclosure is a mostly aluminum drive enclosure that will handle any standard SATA 3.5 inch internal hard drive.  That means for the $40 price of the enclosure, you could add a 750GB of data storage for another $85 or less.

It has been noted by some users that this unit is not properly powered for 1TB or more.  Power consumption depends on the drive size, speed and other factors.  We have used this drive with 640GB Western Digital HDD with excellent results.


The strength of this unit is that it will connect via standard USB 1.1 or 2.0, Firewire or e-SATA.  All three cables are included.

This is a well constructed, solid enclosure that dissipates heat and holds up very well.  Its sleek design mimics a G5 desktop with an "Apple-style"  On/Off button on the front that not only lights up when it turns on but blinks to show data transfers.

One drawback you need to know up front is that it requires a separate power source.  It comes with its own "wall wart" you can plug in, but you need a 110-240 volt power source to use the drive.  Any external enclosure that uses a 3.5" drive requires external power, so it's not a design flaw for this unit. 

The only way you can get 7200 rpm performance without an external power supply is to use a 2.5" drive.  For the record, a 2.5" 60GB drive that runs at 7200 rpm and doesn't need external power costs around $350.  We'll gladly save the money and suffer the inconvenience!

We use this drive enclosure to transfer large video files between editing computers and to store backups of our photos.

WHAT COMES IN THE PACKAGE

The Macally G-S350 SUA drive enclosure ships with the following items...

• Aluminum Drive Enclosure with plastic backplate
• Aluminum Stand to support upright positioning
• Attachable Aluminum 'Feet' that also support upright positioning
• Silicon 'Pads' for the 'Feet' to dampen vibration
• Auto Switching 110-240 volt power adaptor
• IEEE 1394 Firewire Cable
• USB Cable
• eSATA Cable
• Drive Screws for mounting drive inside the case
• User's Manual and Backup Software

This is a very complete kit.  You don't have to go out and buy additional cables unless you need more length.  It comes pretty well protected in its own cardboard packing case. 

There is no internal fan.  We have used this with great success with 7200 rpm hard drives but not with 10,000 rpm drives.  The aluminum enclosure dissipates heat well, but we would expect that mounting a 10,000 rpm HDD within this enclosure would make for a pretty warm case!

SETUP

It's not difficult for a beginner.

Ensure that when you buy this enclosure, you shop online for an internal SATA II hard disk drive.  While the enclosure supports SATA I, most drives available today are SATA II and have a theoretical data transfer rate of 3.0 Gb/sec.  

Simply open up the drive enclosure by removing the two screws on the backplate and sliding out the drive tray.  Carefully align the drive into the tray and slide it so the SATA connector slips into the enclosure's SATA interface.

Do use all 4 screws to mount the drive firmly in place.  The only time we've seen this drive fail was when we were too lazy to do that and thought 2 screws would be enough.  A few hard knocks later and the drive had to be disassembled and remounted before it would work. 

The final step, of course, is to reassemble the drive.

Format the Drive

Once you are connected, you will have to format the HDD drive.  Doing a low-level (instead of 'Fast Format' in Windows) is highly preferred.  Yes, it will take a long time.  But you will know you haven't formatted defective sectors and won't lose data later.

Take a moment to decide how you will format the drive.  There are some basic considerations, like whether you are using Windows, Mac or both types of computer file systems.

Using Windows, NTFS is undoubtedly the way to go.  Mac has its own file systems.  But what if you want to share the files between both types of computers?

 FAT32 is a way to format the drive so it can share files between Mac computers and PC's.  But there is a 4 GB file size limit if you use FAT32.  Since our video files are typically much larger than that, we used Mac HFS file system and equipped our Windows boxes with software to handle that.

In the appendix below, we'll point you to a free program that will allow you to read/write those disks on a PC.

PERFORMANCE  

Excellent.    It's important to note that how well this drive enclosure performs depends largely on what internal hard drive you choose to put inside. 

Some of the newer hard drives that feature 1 TB or more of data claim to adjust the speed of the drive to match the demand.  We've heard reports their performance is less than drives that offer a solid 7200 rpm.

While it might take 5-10 minutes to swap out hard disks, this enclosure makes it pretty simple to store away backups of photos, videos and other data.

Daisy-Chain this Drive Enclosure

There are two firewire sockets on the back of this enclosure.  This means that you can "daisy-chain" these drive enclosures and work between several of them at the same time.  That's a handy feature the shows the design considerations Macally put into this product.

We have taken this drive on long-distance trips to Africa, Europe and Asia and found the drive travels well.  But we go out of our way to protect it, particularly in checked baggage.  It's a little heavy, and bulky to take in carry on, but we've done that, too.  You may want to try using the drive without the attachable legs, first.  If you find you don't need those legs, the drive is a little easier to carry around.

You can use many small laptop cases to store the enclosure, power supply and all the cables so you're ready for travel.  It's not a bad idea to add a little padding to protect your internal hard drive from shocks.

We're working on a new computer build that will have e-SATA connectors and look forward to getting that speed in our data transfers.  But even using Firewire, we've found that 60 GB data transfers are typically done in less than 10 minutes.

What Hard Drive to put in it?

As noted above, you definitely want an internal SATA II 3.0Gb/second hard drive rated at 7200 rpm.  You will typically see a 'cache' statistic like 16MB or 32MB.  As a general rule, a bigger cache will help drive performance. 

The size is up to you!  As of this writing, the price/performance ratios are all in rapid change.  Right now, we're happy with the 500-750GB range.

When purchasing an internal hard drive to put in this enclosure, all you want to buy is a bare-bones OEM drive (Orginal Equipment Manufacturer)  All that means is that the drive comes in an anti-static bag without any manual, jumpers, connectors etc. 

We've favored Western Digital for a 3-year-warranty that is always honored.  That isn't to say Seagate or other drives are bad, we've just had good experiences with WD's drives over the years.  (Remember, every single hard drive will eventually fail!) 

One final tip: Never move the drive enclosure while it is connected and turned on.  This has nothing to do with the Macally enclosure.  Moving a hard drive that is spinning...especially if it is trying to read/write data...is the fastest way to destroy it.

CONCLUSION

A top-notch drive enclosure with excellent build quality and good internal electronics.  Versatile 3-way access via Firewire, USB and e-SATA.

We appreciate that the drive shipped with all the basic cable connectors and a power unit that makes this work anywhere in the world.

On the downside, the connector cables are all pretty short.   

Some complain about the "extension" that protrudes from the body of the "wall wart" power supply.  Actually, that comes in handy when you use it with some European power strips that "indent" the power connectors. 

The plate where the connections are made in the back is actually just silver-coloured plastic.  The weakest part of an otherwise solid build. 

All elements considered, this is one of the best built external drive enclosures we've ever used.  Cool running without a fan andd very appealing look and feel. 

The amount of vibration you may hear depends on the drive you have installed.  Macally could have helped by building in rubber pads where the drive is mounted.  You can just place the drive on an old mouspad and you'll never hear it again. 

We're very happy with Macally's sleek enclosure.  While the price is certainly competitive, the build quality, triple access routes and solid aluminum materials make this a preferred choice.

Highly recommended.

APPENDIX: SOFTWARE FOR Mac AND PC TRANSFER

HFS Explorer is a free program that will enable PC users with Administrator Privileges to read and write HFS, HFS and HFSX Mac disks.

You can download it here.

http://hem.bredband.net/catacombae/index2.html

We've tried two $50 programs that do the same thing.  MediaFour's MacDrive was slick and I liked it, but in the end, it wouldn't install.  TransMac costs a little more and works, but it's not much better than the free HFS Explorer above.

While it's a pain to point out the specific hard drive every time (We usually end up with something like "Hard Disk 5 Partition 1") this software works well and costs nothing.

Recommended: Yes