hi there, i'm just a newbie here so please go easy!
i'm also the recipient of a rather cheap USB2 external case for 3.5" hard drives. It lacks any cooling fan, and is very snug, so i'm guessing it is a hard drive death trap? yes?
since this drive is pretty much never going to get moved, (i'd like to store non-critical files like music and movies on it and leave it on my desk so i can plug my laptop in when at home), I was more concerned about the longevity of the hard drive than portable perfection. Should also mention there's no shock-absorbing features!
So what I thought was to drill a rather large hole on the roof of the case and place an 80mm fan and some kinda dust-filter on the top and power it from the power-cable used with the hard drive.
Does this sound feasible? Does anyone have any other suggestions? Is it possible to draw power for the fan by just jumping on the back of the hard drive's cables. I'd probably glue a piece of thin foam to the base, to help with vibrations on the desk too.
Thanks for your input in advance!