External Harddrive

[Sam1990]

I'm looking into buying an external hard drive and wanted to ask some questions.

1) Where and how is it connected?

2) Do you access it like a USB device?

3) What brand/make do you recommend I should purchase?

[looqas]

1) USB or Firewire ports

2) In case of USB yes. It's like a memory stick. Firewire more or less the same thing.

3) Western Digital, Samsung are good manufacturers.

In my opinion if you decide to go external get USB 2.0 drive so that you are not limited to firewire and can really use it to transport data. Check you mobo manual where, if not all your ports support USB2.0, is located.

[Kreepy Kitteh =^o.O^=]

external hdd's run off a 2.0 usb port.. and the best brand i could reccomend is Western Digital...

[Eagle101]

agreed Western Digi is good, probably one running @ 7k2RPM, i got an Omega extHDD for my laptop and its pretty good.

[sava700]

Keep this in mind people.... Most External HDD's only have a year warranty...

If you build your own you can setup a very fast SATA drive with a external enclosure in which the Internal SATA drive you use most of them have 5 year warranties!

I highly suggest you do your home work in purchasing a nice fast Sata HDD with alot of space and just get a decent External enclosure to put it in that will do the same job as the pre-built jobs. The logic boards in them just go out faster than the HDD's do so its easier to switch out a 15$ enclosure than a 150$ full external HDD.

I've never purchased one like that I've always built my own and I have 6 of them in different sizes and they have never had any issues..all are still under warranty too! :salute:

[=98=]

I would suggest buying a standard internal 3.5" SATA disk and a enclosure for it with e-sata capability. That would be sexy!

[Sam1990]

$109.99 500GB Internal HD + $29.99 - $49.99 HD Enclosure

$119.99 500GB External HD

Hmmm, difficult choice. I mean, I would just pop a 500GB Internal HD into my PC because I'm not planning on moving it from place to place, but it would cause it to build up more heat inside.

[sava700]

$109.99 500GB Internal HD + $29.99 - $49.99 HD Enclosure

$119.99 500GB External HD

Hmmm, difficult choice. I mean, I would just pop a 500GB Internal HD into my PC because I'm not planning on moving it from place to place, but it would cause it to build up more heat inside.

Your numbers are a little off but here is some help in choosing a decent internal 500Gig drive along with a selection of enclosures.

The warranty differences is what makes the difference in price worth it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136178

WD HDD 94.99$ Internal HDD + 10$-25$ for a HDD Enclosure.... you take your pick:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010090092+50011472+1054107131&name=SATA

[Eagle101]

mines does have an HD enclosure i didn't buy it naked roflrus. u can buy it with the HD enclosure if not mistaken thats how i bought mines.

[Kreepy Kitteh =^o.O^=]

mines does have an HD enclosure i didn't buy it naked roflrus. u can buy it with the HD enclosure if not mistaken thats how i bought mines.

lol we know that already.. the point of buying an internal one then buying the enclosure is it has more warrenty than a premade one.. it is worht making ur own.. but if u couldnt be botherd just buy one pre-built.. unless warrenty is a big thing for you..

[=98=]

ICY Box make brilliant enclosures for internal SATA drives. It's so useful if you get a case with hot swapping capabilities such as mine.

I could just pull out the disk caddy, unclip the drive, put it in an ICY box and it's ready to roll. Takes a minute to go from internal to external.

http://www.raidsonic.de/en/pages/home/home.php

[Eagle101]

lol we know that already.. the point of buying an internal one then buying the enclosure is it has more warrenty than a premade one.. it is worht making ur own.. but if u couldnt be botherd just buy one pre-built.. unless warrenty is a big thing for you..

Oh thnx for the enlightenment :)