Tango Plus USB 2.0/FireWire 400/FireWire 800 2.5" SATA Hard Drive Enclosure (Black)

Runs hot in firewire800 mode, but still ok. Does not boot my macbook in USB or FW800 modes, but does work well otherwise. Has worked fine without external power for all my applications (except booting the macbook!)

I wanted a firewire housing for my MacBook Pro old hard drive after I replaced it with a solid state. This works well. It was easy to install my old hard drive and it serves as a backup for my macbook. Firewire is very fast and convenient. It does heat up, as expected, but backups do not involve prolonged use so no issues.

When I took it apart to install the drive, the thing looked a little flimsy. But once reassembled, it looks solid enough.Con: it is supposed to work without an extra power source, directly from the usb or firewire port. But it does notnecessarily do so. I have tried it in several computers, with various ports and cables. Sometimes it works, and sometimesit does not [while other drives have no problem]. When it does not work, plugging into it a 5v external supply [not provided,but easy to get] solves the problem. But this is not ideal if you plan to use as a portable external hd for, say, a notebook.Pro: I was impressed by the instructions. Unlike many other products I have bought, they are written in clear English [a secondbooklet in French is also provided] plus pictures. None of the, quite common, annoying/useless bad-drawings-without-words, orinstructions with one sentence in seven languages, followed by the next again in seven languages, ... with probably equallybad grammar across all the languages.After using it for a couple of weeks, I decided to downgrade my review. The power source problem is more seriousthan I thought. Even when the enclosure seems to be drawing enough power from (say) a firewire port ... you cannotbe sure! The darn thing might just "drop out" in the middle of a transfer, ruining whatever was being done. I just losta whole time machine backup this way. This is really bad, makes the thing nearly useless.

I like the firewire connection, but with a 1 TB platter drive it gets too hot and the drive freezes. I literally strap an ice pack to the enclosure to keep the drive running replacing the pack as it heats up. I ended up buying more Lacie Drives to replace the drives I was hoping to use this with. I will get an enclosure with better cooling in the future.

I bought this mainly so I could transfer big files from my Mac to my Desktop. Only problem was that it only would work on my mac and i couldnt get it to come up on my desktop. I still use it for my mac for extra space but doenst really seem worth the buy if I can't use it on any other devices.

I have always had to swap drives and then have an extra good drive - your Firewire drive enclosures are perfect for me and any other Apple MacBook Pro user, as it is low profile, doesn't require additional power adapter and works well with my MBP (knock on wood). Having issues with current hybrid drive (see additional components on this order) but I believe it's the drive that is faulty, not your enclosure.

Own 3 of these enclosures. All run great and are very well built with thick aluminum. Some users have mentioned problems with the USB 2.0 connection; note that you have to plug the drive enclosure into 2 USB ports to give it enough power. The FireWire 800 works with just 1 firewire port of course and is very fast.

Product does not include a power supply and the connection was unstable for use as a startup drive. Most importantly the quality control for this device appears to be inadequate based on other reviews and my experience. When connected via the 800 firewire port the drive enclosure overheated and the 240 GB SSD drive was damaged beyond repair.I would not recommend this drive enclosure to anyone.