External/Internal HD's

[Eternal-Souljah]

Now I know how to use and operate a Internal HD. But after using an External one, that was small and really useful I was looking to buy one. Reason being is that I need to reformat my computer, and I'd rather have a second drive or a External drive rather then partition.

Anyway so I looked up Amazon and they have a Western Digital 60GB 5,200 RPM which is £57/$107:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Passport-External-Drive/dp/B000A1C6F6/sr=8-5/qid=1158247463/ref=pd_ka_5/202-3348343-0521462?ie=UTF8&s=gateway

This looked nice and effective for backing up my stuff which is roughly 20GB worth or something around that area. So I looked around a little more and found another External HD. Western Digital 160GB 7,200RPM but its bigger and it costs £45/$84

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/customer-reviews/B0009F0T0C/ref=cm_rev_next/202-3348343-0521462?ie=UTF8&customer-reviews.sort%5Fby=-SubmissionDate&n=560798&s=electronics&customer-reviews.start=11

So why is the 60GB one cost more money? the only difference is that one is smaller and doesn't require an adapter. The 160GB has a bigger capacity, faster RPM etc.

[Talus]

Re: External/Internal HD's

Thread was empty..it's fixed now.

[Eternal-Souljah]

Re: External/Internal HD's

Thread was empty..it's fixed now.

Lol, ty.

[LT_SE7EN11]

Re: External/Internal HD's

I think you are paying the extra for the small size. The 60 GB one uses a laptop hard drive (2.5) while the other one uses a standard 3.5 HD.

I would suggest getting a hard drive enclosure and hard drive. They are usually cheaper and are a heck of a lot more versital. For example, you can swap out hard drives in the enclosure. The only downside would be, most do not have the one-touch button that allows run backups. But just get SyncBack (freeware) and set some schedules and you'll be all set.

HD enclosure - $30 (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...319&CatId=2213)
250GB HD - $90 (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...963&CatId=2458)
Total: $120

FYI: here's an 250GB external drive for $80 w/ rebate. (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&Sku=B800-1110)

[Eternal-Souljah]

Re: External/Internal HD's

Do you think an internal HD would be better? I don't need massive space just like 20 GB or more but not massive. Internal or External.

Small question. What is the difference between IDE HD's and SATA hd's. How do I know what HD I have so I know what HD to buy and what cable to buy.

[LT_SE7EN11]

Re: External/Internal HD's

Personally, I would go with the internal. While I've only had 1 internal HD go bad, I've had around 4 external ones go bad.

1) External HDs usually are not cooled very well
2) External HDs usually get moved around more than internal

Personally I would just grab a cheap 80GB HD and stick on on the extra IDE cable inside your PC. Or ideally, if you've got an old PC, look into getting a cheap RAID card and get two 40GB (or 80) running a RAID1 which would provide you with mirrored data across 2 drives.

It's all about how much $$ you want to spend and how important the data is to you. I personally beleive that you can never be to paranoid. :)

[Eternal-Souljah]

Re: External/Internal HD's

Personally, I would go with the internal. While I've only had 1 internal HD go bad, I've had around 4 external ones go bad.

1) External HDs usually are not cooled very well
2) External HDs usually get moved around more than internal

Personally I would just grab a cheap 80GB HD and stick on on the extra IDE cable inside your PC. Or ideally, if you've got an old PC, look into getting a cheap RAID card and get two 40GB (or 80) running a RAID1 which would provide you with mirrored data across 2 drives.

It's all about how much $$ you want to spend and how important the data is to you. I personally beleive that you can never be to paranoid. :)

Well I want to back it up. I don't need a mega storage drive considering I have a 250GB Primary HD. So I was hoping to put the 2nd one in the 2nd booster slot and set it as the secondary drive to store backup stuff, so when I reformat C drive I will still have all my stuff on the 2nd drive.

So 80GB is fine, so will this do do you think?

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/-/541/699/-/1131546/Western_Digital_Caviar_Special_Edition_80_GB_Hard_Drive/Product.html?searchtype=genre

I buy all my games from this site, they are very good, cheap and fast and effective, free delivery on everything so it seems a good price £35 which is about $65.

[TheEn|gma]

Re: External/Internal HD's

Small question. What is the difference between IDE HD's and SATA hd's. How do I know what HD I have so I know what HD to buy and what cable to buy.

SATA drives transmit data in serial where as IDE transmits in parallel.

I don't know where to look in the control panel to find out if you have a SATA or IDE drive but to figure out whether you have a SATA or IDE drive you bring up device manager and check what your HDD model number is under "Disk Drives" then Google or Wiki it. (I'm sure there is a way, no doubt someone here will help you out)

Or if you want you can take the side off your case and check to see if any of the IDE cables connect to your HDD.

Check your mobo manual and see if it has a SATA port.

@ you play.com link the last time I had a Western Digital (a fair few years ago) it played me about something rotten. I've had my PC components fromEbuyer and had nothing but perfect service and competitive prices.

Here is a IDE Seagate 80GB HDD. Seagates haven't sent me wrong.

[ConscriptVirus]

Re: External/Internal HD's

i think to find out

right click on "My Computer" -> properties -> hardware tab -> Device manager and select disk drives

and right clikc on ur disk drive and go to properties and then go to details tab and i think it should tell u rightthere

[LT_SE7EN11]

Re: External/Internal HD's

So 80GB is fine, so will this do do you think?

I'm not sure how big each game is, but if it's the same as BF2 (3 CDs) then it's about 1.4 GB. So with 80GB (actauly about 76GB) that gives you space for about 50 games. So yes, I would think for what you are looking to do, 80GB would be enough. (but you can never have too much storage space. )

[Eternal-Souljah]

Re: External/Internal HD's

Not sure man, it says in the device manager and in the HD. On the tab Details it says:

IDE/DISKWDC

and some more stuff beside it but IDE so that means that its IDE?

[LT_SE7EN11]

Re: External/Internal HD's

Yes, it is an IDE drive. Looks like a Western Digial too.