How to Attach a Hard Drive Storage Enclosure for 2 EIDE

A hard drive enclosure allows you to use an internal hard drive as an external drive. A few models allow you to connect two drives within the same enclosure. This reduces the number of cables required, since both drives share a single power cable and single USB or Firewire connection to the computer. This setup makes it an ideal mobile-storage or backup solution.

• 1

  Open the enclosure per the manual's instructions for your given model. Usually this requires removal of a few screws or releasing clips and sliding the housing off the unit, but the procedure differs among models.

• 2

  Consult the manual for jumper specifications on the drive. A jumper is a small, plastic piece that fits over two of the eight or 10 grouped pins at the back of a drive to produce an electrical connection. One of these drives may need to be set to "Master," while the other may need to be set to "Slave." Instructions for these settings are usually printed on the hard drive itself.

• 3

  Insert the first hard drive into the enclosure and attach the wide ribbon-like connector to the pinned area at the back of the drive. The ribbon only attaches in one direction. Attach the four-pin Molex power cable to the back of the drive.

• 4

  Secure the hard drive in place as described in the manual. This may require inserting a few screws into the sides of the hard drive, or the enclosure might need to be clamped in place with clips or the case housing itself.

• 5

  Repeat the hard drive installation procedure with the second drive.

• 6

  Re-attach the case housing and secure into place.

• 7

  Plug the enclosure into a wall outlet. Attach one end of the USB or Firewire cable to the back of the enclosure. Turn the power on, if the unit has a separate switch.

• 8

  Install any necessary software onto the host computer.

• 9

  Attach the other end of the USB or Firewire cable to the computer and allow it to finalize driver installation. This should happen automatically, but might take a minute or so.