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Customers most agreed on the following attributes:
from Morgantown, Pa on 8/6/2008
"This enclosure supports ANY 3.5" hard drive"... Not really. I drove 45 minutes (each way) to purchase this device for my 3.5" Hitachi 80GB hard drive. When I arrived home and opened up the box I immediately started looking around for the cameras, I thought I was on Candid Camera or something. THIS ENCLOSURE DOES NOT WORK WITH "ANY" 3.5" HARD DRIVE. IT IS NOT COMPATIBLE!! BUYER BEWARE!!
So I go to call the number for "tech support" and much to my suprise it's NOT Mad Dog tech support, it's just some random guy's cell phone number. (At this point I again began to scan the area for any signs of a video camrea)
Upon reflecting about the whole situation, I'm grateful that I'm just another person that wasted some of his time due to a pis* poor, inacurate product description... as opposed to being the unfortunate guy who inherited the deceased companies phone number. I feel quite confident that he is worse off than I seeings how he must recieve 100 calls a day from unhappy people wanting to vent major frustration.
Bought the Mad Dog yesterday at Radioshack and within 15 minutes was retrieving all of my data from my old hard drive. It is well worth the price. I would recommend this product to anyone.
This was so quick and easy to set up and to use. I pulled an IDE drive out of an old computer, put it into the Mad Dog case, and, 2 minutes later, I was browsing files on the old drive from my new PC.
Well worth the price!
from Joliet, IL on 6/20/2008
Recently my desktop's motherboard went down and I needed a means to connect my out of date hard drive to my new SATA machine. After searching around some competitors stores I stumbled acrossed this web page and this product. Within one hour I had made it out to my local Radio Shack[...] After arriving home the hardest part of the product turned out to be opening the box. 1 - 2 - 3 and you'll be sending your old data into your new machine. Must buy.
from Cincinnati OH on 6/18/2008
I used this to upload my old files onto my new laptop. It worked fine for the first 10GB and then it started smoking. NOT COOL! I opened the case up and burnt myself. I tried to use it again but the hard drive would not work and continued to smoke and catch fire. The product did not work for me and it ruined my hard drive. I lost very important files and pictures. Proceed at your own caution.
I use it to access an old drive from an old computer. The case is sturdy, and quiet, and it is fairly easy to install. The power adapter that comes with it however was supposedly recalled in Germany and has burnt out on me. I haven't had any trouble with the replacement yet though.
I bought a 160 Gb hard drive 4 months ago 4 an older desktop. When I bought my Laptop recently and was trying to decide the best way to swap files over I stumbled upon this enclosure close out [$]. Popped the drive out of my desktop into the enclosure and plugged it in. Very simple. Transferred my files and now I have a cheap back up drive for both Laptops in my house. Compared to a $40 dollar transfer cable or waiting for the files to transfer over a wireless network (both of which don't provide me with the back up drive I now have) I'll take this option any day.
The good...
It was easy to put together (I didn't have to read the directions)
It works well without the drivers (which i thought were pointless to install because I planned on using it like a bulky, stationary flashdrive)
I only have 2 complaints...
1. When I put it together one wire was stripped of its plastic coating because it had gotten stuck on its way back in. I fixed it with electrical tape.
2. I tried to boot a hard drive from a dead machine but the BIOS of each PC I tried refused to load it.
Pro's:
- solid case. Enough metal to make it durable and solid.
- nice blue LED on front.
possible Con's:
- if you need to swap drives frequestly
(like if you work at a Help-desk), there are a couple screws involved in opening the case. Then you slide out the tray that holds the drive.
This would not be a possible Con if you install a drive once, then use as a backup for your regular PC.
Only reason I give it 4 stars is that some chassis makers (like Rosewill) offer a unit without chassis screws. You simply squeeze 2 tabs on the unit and the tray then slides out.
If that is un-important to you, this cwould be a 5 star unit.
I was pleased with how easy it was to install my hard drive in the enclosure. And after that, just plug in the cables and go. There was no software to install. Im running Vista Home Premium. When I plugged the USB cable in, it automatically installed drivers in just a few seconds, and a new hard disk drive called "Local Disk" showed up in My Computer.
All the files that were on the hard drive were right there.
I am very pleased with this product so far. Saved me a lot of money using my old hard drive rather than buying an external one.
from Dayton, OH on 4/11/2008
I might buy another one. After hours of trying to set it up w/Vista I found out on my own that you have to set it up like you would w/ Windows XP.
from Texas on 4/5/2008
I spent like 2 hours trying to find an enclosure for my Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 160GB drive. I settled on this one because it was readily available at all of the Radio Shacks in my area, and I could go touch it. I like to touch things before I buy them. Anywho, got it home, plugged the drive in, turned it on, and everything works beautifully. Other users have posted that the case is plastic, which it is not. It is aluminum, which it says on the box. I formatted it on my Intel iMac, partitioned with the Mac disk tool, and everything is smooth. Take care when you get it not scrape wires when closing drive. I think it is a small feat. I would recommend this to anyone. Actually cheaper in-store than was advertised online. Only thing i don't like is the power switch takes a bit of effort to throw, but I'd rater it this way than too easy.
from Memphis, TN on 3/15/2008
Took all of 5 minutes to read the instructions and connect the hard drive to the enclosure. Plugged in the USB and my drive was instantly available. Works great.
from NY on 3/14/2008
I am very pleased with this product and could use another one. I pulled drives from old computers and even the oldest one is compatible and fast. Easy set-up. I'm hopeful it will soon go on sale again - I got it when Radio Shack offered it at 1/2 price. [$] definitely too much.
from Albuquerque, NM on 2/12/2008
I bought this thinking it would be a super cheap feeling and not operate to optimized standards, but boy was I wrong, this enclosure works great for what I need it for, it's modern looking, Aluminum Casing to dissipate the heat (Has no fan, but at least it's aluminum, I wouldn't have bought the enclosure if it wasn't, it's fast and reliable all at the same time, the stand is a great feature and holds the hard drive very well when standing vertical. It seems to be holding up very well for what I need it for. This is a great buy and great quality. Thanks Radioshack.
[2 of 2 customers found this review helpful]
The company seems fly by night, however it has been around a while. I tried this on my vista PC no go, XP it works fine, Vista the driver does not install, nor does the driver cd work, on the web hundreds of people have the same problem with this set of hardware, beware, if you only have XP it might be fine though, I'm returning mine
from Bonaire, GA. on 11/24/2007
Setting it up for my daughter for her games so, I won't have to load every computer in the house. It was reall eay to put together and format for what I am using it for. I am going to pick up another.
[...] I'm using it with a Western Digital 200GB 3.5" IDE drive, formatted in FAT32 for use with my Dell PC, Mac Mini, and Macbook. For [$], the price is right. And this drive is very versatile, as it comes with connectors for pretty much any type of drive you need. No need to read the fine print, or get home and find out it's not compatible with your drive. It just plain works, and if you have another drive, you don't have to go out and buy another enclosure. All the connectors are in the box with this one. No ventilation or fan. But it doesn't get all that warm even transferring over 60GB of music non-stop for almost an hour, and similar tasks. So the enclosure must dissipate heat pretty well. It is a little longer than it needs to be. Also, the little "Mad dog" logo on the front illuminates, and flashes to indicate disk activity. This gets annoying pretty fast, as it's very bright. I'll probably cover it with some tape. Installation was easy, but the wire that goes from the rear mounted PC board to the illuminated logo in the front gets in the way, and you have to be careful not to yank it out. Overall, it's been reliable and was very easy to set up and use. Good price. But I could do without the logo on the front and it would be nice if it was an inch or 2 shorter. But i'd buy it again at that price. For the normal price there are nicer enclosures, but for [$], i'd recommend it.
Got it while on sale, worth the price - as compared to others in features- also waiting to see if there are any heat issues.
Case is all plastic and sealed, haven't had it long enough to find any heat issues. More expensive than comparable models, but it's radio shack, so you pay for convenience.
[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
Great product, hardware setup takes only minutes. However, there's no fan. So keeping it in a cool place is important. One more thing mention is to be careful opening the enclosure for the first time. One of the wires maybe hooked to one of the circuit components.
[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
Slick case design that seems to dissipate heat well. Clunk power brick and cords. Unit will not allow booting from its hard drive, even when connected to a USB 2 port on my iMac G5. Literature doesn't warn of this lack of performance. Must be due to the USB/IDE interface chipset in the enclosure. Disappointing. Otherwise would rate as a 5.
[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
Install HD, plug it in, Windows XP, no problem. Fast, no heat problem, Maxtor 300MB. Going to get two more.
The only downside to this enclosure is it doesn't have a fan. It's aluminum so as long as it's cool where it is being used this shouldn't be a problem. It is hot swappable and works great with both Windows and Linux. No complaints!!