Why are some 2.5" enclosures only 500gb? Can these hold more Gb's?

[brian3000]

I am trying to find an external enclosure for a 1tb 2.5" HDD. Why are some limited to just 500gb? Do they have to be usb 3.0 to go above 500gb?

I know the ones with 500gb limits are old. Is it because 500 was the largest made back then? Was it solely based upon the physical size of the HDD?

I'm confused.

 

[little_me]

disk size has nothing to do with anything.
the old external enclosures were 500GB most likely since at that point in time, that was around the sweet spot as cost/size rate goes.
said enclosure can hold bigger capacity hard disk just fine. usb2/3 has no real impact on maximum capacity.

provided the disk inside the enclosure has same interface (pata, sata or anything else) as the old disk and same physical size (2.5" 3.5") in there it will pretty much work.

of course, when in doubt, posting links to parts in question will help helping you more.
which HDD are you going to put in which enclosure?

Edit:
Upon looking more at the matter, it is indeed possible that the sata/USB conversion thing they add might not support bigger than listed hard disk capacity.
I've so far found at least one that supports up to 1TB:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817659013
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182313

If you only use it as temporary thing, external docking stations don't (usually) have the size limit and can fit both 2.5" and 3.5" disks:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0VN-0003-000H5

 

[brian3000]

It's easy to find enclosures over 500gb.

I was asking why some are limited to 500gb.

 

[little_me]

because makers likely were cheap and though.. well... no one has more than 500GB disks. lets save and do sata/usb conversion only with 40 bits.
meaning 512GB and 1 bit left for "poop, this went over my limit, abort!!" checksum.

Without knowing exactly which chip the external enclosure has, it's capabilities are unknown. it could work with bigger disks or not.

General concensus on the net seems to be that most adapters should work fine and told limit is based on the biggest drive size they could test it with when it entered the market.

 

[jsmithepa]

This is one of those posts I'd like to reply: SOLUTIONS, FREE; EXPLANATIONS, YOU WILL BE CHARGED.

 

[brian3000]

I am expecting a 2.5" 500gb rated enclosure in a couple days. A buyer has told me he's used a 2tb drive in it.

I'll report back whether a 1tb drive works in it.

That should answer my question as to whether the 500gb limits can be exceeded or not...on a 500gb rated enclosure.

 

[brian3000]

I received the 2.5" Insten external drive enclosure (100% silver finish, no black ends). It was about the cheapest you can buy and it was rated for 500gb.

It worked fine with my 1tb drive.

So I guess you have a pretty good chance that these enclosures only rated for 500gb can be greatly exceeded.