Vantec NexStar 3 NST-360U2-BL 3.5-Inch IDE to USB 2.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure (Midnight Blue)

Worked like a charm. A fantastic purchase. Installation was a snap. Justtake your time. The LED wire most mention wasn't connected to the housingso I never risked any damage. I had an old 40Gb IDE drive and within 10minutes I was dragging files to it. A very nice looking, high qualitydevice. On/off switch is easily accessible. Even the drive light lookslooks good. I combined it with my Philips DVD player with a USB port andit works like a charm. I now have 70+ hours of .avi video to watch ondemand. I liked it so much I just bought a second black one with the SATAconnection for back ups to a 500GB drive. 5 stars at any price.

I pulled an older Maxtor 80 gig hard drive from an old desktop PC taking up space in my home office. Within minutes I had it installed in the Hard Drive enclosure, plugged into an electric outlet and the USB port of my laptop. I'm running Vista SP1 64 bit, which recogonized it immediately and gave me no fits of rage. After a re-format to rid the drive of old un-needed programs and documents, I was moving files. No case issues as some have talked about, no excessive heat, just pure ease of use. The case it's self is as I expected it to be and still have not cracked open the manual or driver disk. Life is good.

This is my 2nd case from Vantec - same model - from Tiger Direct through Amazon. The fit and finish are excellent. The packaging was complete, and the documentation - albeit dated and in need of an update - was perfect. I have a red and a blue NexStar 3. They look smart next to my monitor. The fact that the Vantec logo dims itself during drive activity is another plus. When opening the case for the first time BE CAREFUL. The manufacturer tucks the 3 pin connector in such a way as to cause it to catch on the case when initially opening it. There is no mention of which way to connect the white cable to the 3 pin connector. I can only assume it doesn't matter.However, both cases have the same problem: It's virtually IMPOSSIBLE to connect the ribbon cable to the ATA connector on the drive. There is almost no slack in the cable to safely bend it in place onto the pins. I was very concerned that I would bend a pin. I used a bright LED flashlight to ensure that I could see how the pins aligned with the cable. I disconnected the cable from the case BEFORE connecting the drive end first. I found that to be easier than just connecting the cable to the drive. It allowed me to adjust the ribbon cable such that it would tuck in place in a more consistent and neat fashion.Secondly, there is SO little space on each side of the drive as to make it impossible to slide the drive into place during or after connection of the power and ribbon cables before you install the drive screws. Frankly, the connection is SO tight as to almost eliminate any need for the screws. This drive is NOT going to move in the retaining frame. I doubt I will ever remove the drives for this very reason.I have noticed heat build up - especially when I'm running Piriform's Defraggler to defragment a drive. Clearly, this occurs only when the drive head actuator is undergoing high seek activity. Hence, I would encourage you to use the upright, color-matching stand and decline from laying the unit on its side. The units are also made to be stacked: You'll find four small black nibs/feet at each corner of the case. I discourage doing so as the spacing is about 3/16 of an inch making air flow questionable.I've been using one of the drive cases for about a year without issue. Soundly made, well-packaged, nicely designed, and executed. Nicely done!

This unit is poorly designed. It is difficult to install the hard disk in and feels like it is going to break as you do install the drive. Cable connections and frame for drive leave a lot to be desired. Once successful installation was complete, the unit did function well.

There is a big sloppy excessive glob of hardened glue that hold the LED lead into a track. Because it is already a very tight fit to insert the HD into the enclosure, this glob of glue makes it a difficult if not impossible task. I had to carefully pull the LED lead out of the track (breaking the glue seal) and then carefully chip off some of the excess hardened glue before I could install my hard drive into the enclosure. Thereafter all went well and the product works great.

I bought this product because I have a few extra hard drives around and wanted a way to use them externally. This product does the trick for that but does not win me over completely. It is a little more cumbersome than I realized and although I have a place for it, it does take up a lot of room. I was thinking I could hot swap hard drives in this and while you can do that without rebooting your computer, it may take longer than you anticipated to swap the drive out. There are 4 screws that secure the hard drive in place and then another 2 to secure the case together. Because of the different size screws you will need 2 different screw drivers. I run Vista 64 bit and the disc that comes with this product does not support this platform. I was upset because it says Vista Compatible and yet they sent me a disc with drivers that I cannot use. Given the chance to purchase this product again I would not do so. In theory it sounds like a wonderful solution but the practality of it does not equal out.

This HD enclosure is fantastic.. I would absolutely buy it again!It was a snap to get hooked up and XP recognized the drive automatically. Once installed, my drive is in there securely and the whole thing feels very sturdy. The color is not quite as deep as I thought, but it is still pretty sleek-looking and shiny, plus there is an electric blue LED on the front panel that blinks when the drive is working.As far as temperature goes, I've been really impressed so far. I ran my drive overnight and another time while I was away at work, and both times the case was just barely warm to the touch, not hot at all. My laptop gets hotter, by far.All in all, a great buy! I highly recommend.