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Is It Fine to Use A 3.5" HD In An Enclosure as an External Hard Drive?

I've been hearing myth from my friend that if we buy an internal hard drive (in this case 3.5") and put it in an enclosure (not a fancy one, say a $20 one), it would be more likely to fail than if we buy a hard drive that comes with an enclosure (like those WD ones that you can buy from target or elsewhere).

The thing is, internal hard drive is very cheap (in my country probably about 40% cheaper than one that comes with an enclosure). So is it worth it to buy an internal hard drive and buy a separate enclosure? Can someone give me a reference to something that bust/prove this myth?

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closed as exact duplicate by Joe Taylor, ChrisF, studiohack♦ Feb 3 '11 at 16:21

This question covers exactly the same ground as earlier questions on this topic; its answers may be merged with another identical question. See the FAQ for guidance on how to improve it.

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I wouldn't be surprised if internal hard drives in an external enclosure were more prone to failure, but I suspect the reason is nothing to do with the fact that it is an internal hard drive, for the simple reason that most - if not all - external hard drives are simply standard internal drives pre-installed in an enclosure. Some higher-end external drives (particularly those that use multiple drives in a RAID) even give access to the drives, allowing them to be replaced.

I suspect the reason that internal hard drives in a separate enclosure are failing is simply that they are inferior drives. A cheap, brown-box internal hard drive will likely have a shorter lifetime than an equivalent high-end, branded internal hard drive from a big name, so you're not comparing like with like when you compare a cheap hard drive in a separate enclosure with a more expensive hard drive (if bought separately) that comes with a case.

In any case, all hard drives fail eventually, no matter what they cost, so I'd buy the cheap ones and make sure I back up (on to another drive) anything I couldn't afford to lose (or better yet, get two and RAID them). Even if you do need to replace them slightly more frequently, you'll be able to re-use the enclosure, and will likely save money in the long run.

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Ok, so you're saying if I buy a WD internal drive with say this enclosure: msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=1878. It wouldn't have a worse failing rate than a packaged WD external drive? – Enrico Susatyo Feb 3 '11 at 12:55
Yes and no. What I'm really trying to say is: don't get too worried about failure rates. Unless you're buying hundreds of hard drives for your server farm, the difference won't be that significant. Instead, focus on not losing anything important when the drive does fail, which it will do eventually, no matter how expensive it is. – Scott Feb 3 '11 at 13:21
I don't know whether it's true or not, but a key part of the question is "put it in an enclosure (not a fancy one, say a $20 one)". I think this is really a question about whether a $20 enclosure is worse for your drive than a more expensive one. My guess is yes, as the cooling and power delivery are likely to be better with the more expensive enclosure (no guarantees though!) – Chris Feb 3 '11 at 13:29
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I think you misunderstood the_great_monkey. They weren’t saying that they are concerned about their cheap drive failing if they put it in an external enclosure, they were saying that in their country, internal drives are significantly less expensive than external ones (which is true everywhere), so they want to know if “building their own” external drive is more risky. Presumably they would use a decent drive if they do build their own. In fact, per-assembled external drives often come with cheap drives inside them, so the answer to their question is actually no. – Synetech Feb 3 '11 at 21:18
Thank you. I think I understand now. Lucky you answered before they close my question ;) (I needed to know this, which isn't available on the other question) – Enrico Susatyo Feb 4 '11 at 1:27
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