Recommendation for an enclosure that supports flashing.

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Hello everyone, thank you for reading this question.

Can anyone please recommend an enclosure (preferably one that only takes 9.5mm drives natively rather than one that also takes 12.7mm drives) that supports flashing. I am in the UK but am not averse to using the likes of AliExpress or Banggood.

I ask since I am having some difficulty in finding a case that fully and correctly reports the drive to Windows and not just "Generic", meaning that they cannot be used for flashing and so on. I have an old enclosure that has an Initio INIC-1618L USB to SATA chipset that does work but...

1. I am looking for 2 more, and
2. 9.5mm drives go in wonky and are not level with unsightly, dust collecting gaps around the tray facia.

At the more expensive side of the market I can see the IcyBox https://www.amazon.co.uk/IcyBox-Enclosu ... B0CMCYQFZ8 - that seems to fit the bill regarding size but no word on the flashing capabilities, or this generic type here https://www.amazon.co.uk/YAODHAOD-Exter ... B0BKY1RM4D which looks physically similar to my existing dust-trap of an enclosure but has a photo of the PCB inside referencing the 1618L. There are no reviews that mention its suitablilty for anything more technical than basic operation. I've asked the question but at the time of writing no-one has answered.

At a push I could use a USB to SATA adapter but I am having the same problem with those as well. It seems very few of these actually pass the full drive's specifics to the host PC.

In case anyone is wondering what the drives are that are being put in these enclosures, they are the Hitachi-LG BU40N. I have already flashed them using my old enclosure but they deserve better.

I appreciate that sellers may change their suppliers at a whim so this is always going to be a bit hit or miss, but all recommendations would be gratefully received.

Thank you.

(Edits to fix broken URLs).

[MartyMcNuts]

Hello everyone, thank you for reading this question.

Can anyone please recommend an enclosure (preferably one that only takes 9.5mm drives natively rather than one that also takes 12.7mm drives) that supports flashing. I am in the UK but am not averse to using the likes of AliExpress or Banggood.

I ask since I am having some difficulty in finding a case that fully and correctly reports the drive to Windows and not just "Generic", meaning that they cannot be used for flashing and so on. I have an old enclosure that has an Initio INIC-1618L USB to SATA chipset that does work but...

1. I am looking for 2 more, and
2. 9.5mm drives go in wonky and are not level with unsightly, dust collecting gaps around the tray facia.

At the more expensive side of the market I can see the IcyBox (www.amazon.co.uk/IcyBox-Enclosure-Ultra ... B0CMCYQFZ8) that seems to fit the bill regarding size but no word on the flashing capabilities, or this generic type here (www.amazon.co.uk/YAODHAOD-External-Inte ... B0BKY1RM4D) which looks physically similar to my existing dust-trap of an enclosure but has a photo of the PCB inside referencing the 1618L. There are no reviews that mention its suitablilty for anything more technical than basic operation. I've asked the question but at the time of writing no-one has answered.

At a push I could use a USB to SATA adapter but I am having the same problem with those as well. It seems very few of these actually pass the full drive's specifics to the host PC.

In case anyone is wondering what the drives are that are being put in these enclosures, they are the Hitachi-LG BU40N. I have already flashed them using my old enclosure but they deserve better.

I appreciate that sellers may change their suppliers at a whim so this is always going to be a bit hit or miss, but all recommendations would be gratefully received.

Thank you.

There is a nice IcyBox 9.5mm aluminium enclosure that works fine for flashing. I can't view your links so don't know what you are trying to show us.

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Thank you for the suggestion. I would be surprised if Icy Box made more than one such enclosure so I think that we are probably discussing the same product.

I have tried to fix the URL's in my original post. Since there is a delay in that edit showing up here is another stab at the Icy Box URL:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CMCYQFZ8

Interestingly though I did make an enquiry of Icy Box themselves yesterday about the IB-AC640-C3 enclosure being sold on Amazon and received the following response overnight:

Thank you very much for your message. Because it is connected via USB, it appears as a generic drive.

I would like to think the manufacturer would give the definitive answer and it makes me wonder if perhaps they have changed the hardware recently and it no longer works in the same way. I still really like the look of the Icy Box though and might take a chance on it regardless for the drive that will get the most (ab)use.

I had one of these already on order that should arrive today: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CKQYVW5N . I will post back once I have had the chance to test it, at half the price of the Icy Box it's probably "good enough" so long as it doesn't fall into the "Generic" category.

[MartyMcNuts]

Thank you for the suggestion. I would be surprised if Icy Box made more than one such enclosure so I think that we are probably discussing the same product.

I have tried to fix the URL's in my original post. Since there is a delay in that edit showing up here is another stab at the Icy Box URL:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CMCYQFZ8

Interestingly though I did make an enquiry of Icy Box themselves yesterday about the IB-AC640-C3 enclosure being sold on Amazon and received the following response overnight:

Thank you very much for your message. Because it is connected via USB, it appears as a generic drive.

I would like to think the manufacturer would give the definitive answer and it makes me wonder if perhaps they have changed the hardware recently and it no longer works in the same way. I still really like the look of the Icy Box though and might take a chance on it regardless for the drive that will get the most (ab)use.

I had one of these already on order that should arrive today: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CKQYVW5N . I will post back once I have had the chance to test it, at half the price of the Icy Box it's probably "good enough" so long as it doesn't fall into the "Generic" category.

Yep, that first link is the one! Very nice enclosure. I have 3 of those with Pioneer drives in them.

Not the second link (the one you ordered). What an ugly looking enclosure that is!!

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Yeah, you noticed that. That second enclosure was pretty ugly when it arrived but my hopes were not high to start off with. Let's get the good stuff out of the way first though.

This drive enclosure - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CKQYVW5N - DOES pass the drive's parameters so it can be used to flash firmware and be used for a LibreDrive.

There, that didn't take long.

It's designed for 12.7mm drives but sold as being for 9.5mm drives. Let's give the supplier the benefit of the doubt and assume that they have been misinformed and that they are not deliberately trying to deceive. If you should try to fit a 9.5mm drive in it doesn't go in level (the recess for the captive cable fouls on the drive) so although you can get a 9.5mm drive in there, it is at the expense of it being twisted (wonky at best) and putting undue strain on the internal SATA connections. Dust and small pets will find their way in there.



Furthermore it might have USB C and USB 3 connectors on it, but at the other end of the cable is a micro USB connector on the PCB and an INIC-1618L SATA bridge on it (which seems to be the deciding factor in being able to read the drive's parameters so far) which means it is in fact USB 2.

So it's not only cheap, it's pretty nasty as well. I was in two minds about keeping it though and binning the enclosure part and using the electronics as a USB to SATA cable because the "Slim SATA" cables that are everywhere do not work properly in that they always pass a "Generic" ID and not that of the drive. I've taken 3 for the team and they all have the INIC-3639 bridge which is USB 3.2 compatible (yay !) but cannot be used to flash the drive's firmware or be used as a LibreDrive (boo !) because of the "Generic" ID issue.

As you can probably tell the enclosure has gone back and a suitable review left. I have also started leaving some reviews for the "Slim SATA" adapters in case this helps anyone else going forward.



It looks like the Icy Box is the way to go. I will order one shortly.