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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
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451508 2006-05-18 08:50:00 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.



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.
Hi Deimos
You have made me think ! I did think of 1.7GB as quite a big folder, but then I thought - how big are "My Pictures" and "My Music". "My Pictures" is only 748MG so not very big. However "My Music" is 17.4GB, quite a bit bigger. So working on say, 2 Mins 10 secs per BG to do the backup then it would take approx 37.7 mins. This is enough time to watch the best parts of the news and make a cup of tea. Alternatively with Firewire, say 16 mins. It is a consideration ! (hmmm)

However the important thing, to return to the original query - how much data does Princess need to backup ?
Misty :D
Misty (368)
451509 2006-05-18 10:45:00 What are the opinions on something like this? www.pbtech.co.nz mejobloggs (264)
451510 2006-05-18 11:05:00 Thanks every1 . With regard to 'what space or GB will I be backing up' . . . . Well originally, I thought about buying a dvd writer to store camcorder footage on dvd's etc . Then thought an Ext HDD would be better than loads of dvd's etc to store and retrieve etc . . . I have a lot of music & photos I want to move off to an ext hdd when I need extra space on my lappy .

Thought a bigger GB Ext Hdd outright would be better in the long run . . . . . 160GB or 200GB would be more then I need I think . . .
Princess (7275)
451511 2006-05-18 11:16:00 What are the opinions on something like this? www.pbtech.co.nz
Noooooo! Its a Maxtor! :yuck:
pctek (84)
451512 2006-05-18 12:57:00 Hi Deimos
You have made me think ! I did think of 1.7GB as quite a big folder, but then I thought - how big are "My Pictures" and "My Music". "My Pictures" is only 748MG so not very big. However "My Music" is 17.4GB, quite a bit bigger. So working on say, 2 Mins 10 secs per BG to do the backup then it would take approx 37.7 mins. This is enough time to watch the best parts of the news and make a cup of tea. Alternatively with Firewire, say 16 mins. It is a consideration ! (hmmm)

When you are dealing with data in the order of hundreds of GBs thats when it REALLY counts.

Here is something for you to chew on

USB 2.0 = 480 Mbit

Firewire = 400 Mbit

in practice firewire is 30% faster than USB 2.0 because of the way it operates.

Then there is Firewire 2 which is 800 Mbit, this is effectively the same as a standard HDD interface, which is 100 Mbyte (multiply it by 8 to get Mbit)

a modern hard drive can do sustained transfers of 60-70 megabytes per second, which means a 60 70% utilisation of a firewire 2 bus, however USB2 and firewire can't keep up.

Back on subject:

I'm going to stick with my recommendation from before, get your HDD and enclosure from OEM Computers, they will sort you out.

www.oemcomputers.co.nz
Deimos (5715)
451513 2006-05-18 13:59:00 What are the opinions on something like this? www.pbtech.co.nz

I will tell you when or if mine breaks. I'm not in the habit of throwing mine down stairs. :-)
Sweep (90)
451514 2006-05-18 22:04:00 I will tell you when or if mine breaks. I'm not in the habit of throwing mine down stairs. :-)So you have one? Do you like it?

And what is wrong with Maxtor??

Didn't Seagate buy Maxtor a while ago anyway?
mejobloggs (264)
451515 2006-07-13 21:48:00 I suggest an alluminum 5.25 inch with a fan as said before HDDs get HOT.
I have printed out all 17 pages of this thread (in A4). It has lots of good info which I have scrutinised. Want to know, The_End_Of_Reality, why you specially recommend a 5.25 inch drive ? Being alumininium and with a fan makes complete sense but why 5.25 inch ?
Misty :confused:
Misty (368)
451516 2006-07-13 22:14:00 Just extra surface area, I must have been a little blind and off on my measurements (looking at it) when I posted :blush:

But the advantage of 5 . 25 is you can put a CD/DVD drive in there if you want, Now by looking at what Ascent have, the 3 . 5 enclosures, like this ( . ascent . co . nz/ProductSpecification . aspx?ItemID=337997" target="_blank">www . ascent . co . nz) would be better for a 3 . 5 inch drive if that is all it will be used for . I don't know where my head was that day, I got the sizes mixed up :blush:

I hope that answers you question :)
The_End_Of_Reality (334)
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