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Thread ID: 68539	2006-05-02 10:54:00	I want to buy an External Hard Drive ~ Appreciate your Advice...	Princess (7275)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
451498	2006-05-17 08:04:00	:badpc: Ok....now I'll be back some time later, when I've got a CLUE of what y'all talkin' bout!!!!!!	Princess (7275)
451499	2006-05-17 09:08:00	:badpc: Ok....now I'll be back some time later, when I've got a CLUE of what y'all talkin' bout!!!!!! C'mon you guys - put some of this in plain understandable English that Princess will follow !! I get the feeling that you are all feeding off each other and trying to show how knowledgeable you are. You can do better than that and help Princess with her conundrum. Misty :groan:	Misty (368)
451500	2006-05-17 09:29:00	I have a prettyy good amount of experience with HDDs I have had: Quantum Fireball KA Plus 9GB IBM "Deathstar" 75GXP 45GB IBM "Deathstar" 75GXP 30GB Maxtor slim 20GB (not sure what model, died, still waiting after about 1 year for the replacement). Current drives: 7 X Seagate 7200.7 200GB 1 X 7200.9 200GB 3 X Seagate 7200.7 80GB 2 X Seagate Barracuda IV 80GB 2 X Saegate Barracude V 120GB 2 X Seagate Barracuda V 120GB SATA 1 X Seagate 7200.9 300GB You could say I am a Seagate fan, anyway to cut a long story short, I have had both IBM drives die (no surprise there) Out of all my Seagate drives I have had 1 200GB die completely, and another that makes strange squeeky noises when running in RAID 5 but is otherwise OK, warranty is no problem. Out of the maxtor drives I have dealt with it has been impossible to get replacements for a drive that is a year old. Also, when I was working in a PC shop, I dropped a seagate drive down a flight of stairs and it still worked happily, we tested for over a week before selling it. Just some tips for your mobile drive: Don't worry about dropping it too much (see above) however, do not move the drive while it is going! The warranty of the drive will cover any drop not exceeding the rated non operational shock resistance (should be 300-350 Gs) If your PC has Firewire (or Firewire 2), I suggest you get an enclosure that supports both Firewire (or Firewire 2) and USB2.0, Firewire is superior in so many ways to USB, however sometimes you need USB for other peoples PCs. I have a Vantec NexStar 3 with a 300GB Seagate, very nice enclosure with the option of both firewire and USB, you can get them from www.OEMComputers.co.nz Also, you can't go past a good laptop drive for true portability, I have a 40GB Hitachi notebook HDD in a 2.5" enclosure, its good having something that can fit in your pocket and packs 40GB. If you want to go small only get Hitachi or Seagate as they are the only drives that are decent and have a low enough power draw to be used with a single USB connection (no external power) Seagate also now does a 160GB laptop drive.	Deimos (5715)
451501	2006-05-17 09:32:00	Best (read Cheapest) method is 3.5" USB2 case and IDE HD put them together and bingo cheap as external HD. Reason for ntfs is support for large files like ISO's of DVD's or the like, i can move 3 movies to removable in 10 minutes The comp i have now is based on a 650 AMD (slow as). If you have an old PC like mine get a PCI USB2 card and away you go, also extenal case with its own PSU is a good idea. K	Kelem (10339)
451502	2006-05-17 09:37:00	OK you wanted to know about SATA IDE ATA and PIO? forget about PIO and ATA, too much info if you are going to build your own external unit (i.e. get the HDD and enclosure separate) get IDE (this is the interface used for the HDD to communicate with the PC) the external enclosures are mostly IDE and the drives are cheaper, performance is no different. You do not need additional software as long as you have windows XP. Make sure your PC has USB 2.0 otherwise you will need to get an add on card (someone mentioned this earlier) The only thing you need to assemble it is a screw driver. I would suggest that you take your PC to someone like www.oemcomputers.co.nz They can give your PC a quick check over and tell you if you need anything extra to accomodate the external drive. Also if you buy the enclosure and hard drive from them they will put it all together for you for no extra charge.	Deimos (5715)
451503	2006-05-17 09:45:00	Deimos your a harddrive junky :thumbs:	Kelem (10339)
451504	2006-05-17 09:51:00	If your PC has Firewire (or Firewire 2), I suggest you get an enclosure that supports both Firewire (or Firewire 2) and USB2.0, Firewire is superior in so many ways to USB, however sometimes you need USB for other peoples PCs. From the little I know USB2 covers most peoples requirements especially for someone like Princess and myself who have reasonably limited knowledge (hope that is not insulting Princess !). The speed of firewire is not much greater than USB 2. Here is what one experienced user said Backed up a 1.7GB folder full of 2-3MB photos just over 2minutes over USB2 Under a minute with FW800. Seagate 5400rpm 160GB 2.5" drive. Now Princess has got to ask herself how often would she would want to back up a 1.7Gb folder and if it takes a minute longer does it matter !! (Hell, making a cup of tea in the meantime would take longer). I think to help Princess you need to give her responses that do not get carried away by speed and semantics. However you are more on track - so keep with it. Misty :thumbs:	Misty (368)
451505	2006-05-17 10:20:00	From the little I know USB2 covers most peoples requirements especially for someone like Princess and myself who have reasonably limited knowledge (hope that is not insulting Princess !). The speed of firewire is not much greater than USB 2. It really depends on the way you use it, I did say that Firewire is superior in EVERY way, not just speed, and also the drive that guy was using wasn't exactly a fast one. For a novice user I would suggest USB2 just to simplify things, however a power user such as myself benifits a great deal from firewire. Now Princess has got to ask herself how often would she would want to back up a 1.7Gb folder and if it takes a minute longer does it matter !! (Hell, making a cup of tea in the meantime would take longer). That statement tells it all, how much space do you really need? if you have to ask your self "when am I ever going to need to back up 1-2GB of data" then 200GB is probably overkill.	Deimos (5715)
451506	2006-05-18 00:41:00	A 40GB portable USB drive will set you back the best part of $400...When was this? When I got mine (end of last year) it only cost about $220, for both a 40GB 2.5" seagate (4200rpm) & the USB2 enclosure.	Erayd (23)
451507	2006-05-18 00:43:00	When was this? When I got mine (end of last year) it only cost about $220, for both a 40GB 2.5" seagate (4200rpm) & the USB2 enclosure. Seconded. I got mine for about $200 with a hitachi 40GB and what was supposed to be the best enclosure.	Deimos (5715)
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