external hard drives (1 Viewer)

[Panda Bear]

hi!

would anyone be able to give me brands of external hard drives coz i want to buy one very soon ..

i did a search for an older thread:

1) no i don't want to build it myself, don't bother mentioning it
2) has to be 200gb +
3) one touch backup thingY

 

[MedNez]

Price Suggestion.

Google the model for a better price if you want =D

 

[loquasagacious]

Maxtor is the only one to do one touch, which is incidetly just a button that opens the software so you can select what you want to copy and start copying.

My advice assemble your own in the old thread I calculated the savings, from memory you save 25% to 50% by building it yourself.

 

[z.co]

buy an iternal hdd. buy and external usb2.0 hdd case. and put the hdd in the case./ saves about 200bucks. my advice. go the Western Digital 8MB Cache series. they are aslo know as the "JB" series. my suggestion.. go 200GB

 

[graphix]

I'd really recommend doing it yourself as well even though you said you don't want to, as you save a ton as opposed to purchasing it ready made.

Only the other day I bought a brand new factory sealed internal WD "JB" 200GB hard drive (3.5"), then bought a 3.5" Hard Disk Enclosure...slide the hard drive into the enclosure, connect the cables that are hanging around together, close the enclosure back up and bob's your uncle - a brand new 200GB external hard drive!

You don't need to be a techie to do it, as all it is is pretty much plug and play! (no real 'building' involved in putting it together, once you have the hard drive along with the enclosure for it in your hands it is as simple as eating pie really )

 

[SashatheMan]

i was just reading this thread, can anyone please tell me the advantage of having an external harddrive , the only advantage i can think of is that u can take it with yuo to quickly connect to other computers is that it?

i think i have an internal harddrive but i got the box that u can pull out , so that good right?

 

[graphix]

Yeah pretty much the main advantage is just that it allows high levels of storage space in a reasonably small portable box, meaning transporting it is pretty easy.

Pretty much any internal hard drive that is taken from inside a computer can become an external one, all you need is the right size casing in put it into (ie:- 3.5" for a desktop computer hard drive, 2.5" for a laptop computer...) Thats the size of the hard drive when installed internally though, so if you have converted those drives to become external by putting them inside a HDD box then for example you can plug the 3.5" sized hard drive into a laptop's usb or firewire port and it will work fine.

 

[Grobus]

i was just reading this thread, can anyone please tell me the advantage of having an external harddrive , the only advantage i can think of is that u can take it with yuo to quickly connect to other computers is that it?

i think i have an internal harddrive but i got the box that u can pull out , so that good right?

Maybe you dont have room in your computer for another HD.

 

[SashatheMan]

Maybe you dont have room in your computer for another HD.

yeh thats a good advantage becuase u plug in through the USB. but wouldnt it be risky to accidently unplug the HHD and corrupt alot fo files, cuase u have it connexted by a wire

 

[sunny]

but wouldnt it be risky to accidently unplug the HHD and corrupt alot fo files, cuase u have it connexted by a wire

I think you're more likely to have a power blackout than to accidentally unplug a USB device.

 

[graphix]

When you finish using the hard drive and want to unplug it there is a icon in the status bar in the bottom right in Windows XP saying 'Safely Remove Hardware', you click on that and then it tells you it is safe to remove the hardware from the usb port.

As for kicking it out while transferring data, unless your a total putz that shouldn't happen. If you somehow do happen to corrupt the hard drive it is pretty easy to reformat it though. Just go to Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management. And from there it will show all the hard drives connected to your computer (be it internally or externally), you can from there just right-click and perform a quick format and partition.

 

[SashatheMan]

also i dont know where but i heard the external harddrives usually have more storage, is that true or are internal basically the same as external.

 

[Grobus]

Nah, internals are generally cheaper for more size, but it depends on the brand.

 

[graphix]

How many GB's a hardrive is has nothing to do with them being external or internal. All of them are different sizes/brands/models, just depends on what you buy.

Since both are pretty much the same thing except one is inside an aluminium box and the other is usually inside a tower case, being external or internal has no bearing on the size capabilites of a hard drive (they are the same thing).

 

[graphix]

Nah, internals are generally cheaper for more size, but it depends on the brand.

Internals are the same product as an external though, just that the internal hard drive is now inside a box. So it makes sense that it is dearer with a fair bit of mark-up added by companies selling them ready made, but it also makes sense for individuals to instead buy the hard disk enclosure and internal hard drive themsleves and stick the hard drive into the enclosure themselves as it takes next to nothing with no computer experience required and you will most likely end up saving a bundle.