External HDD

[dman32]

Hi everyone

I'm looking into backing up certain programs,files,etc and I'm thing of purchacing and external HDD but I'm notsure if its even worth it the money maybe theirs something better. Any feedback comcerning this would be appreciated.

Thanks :)

[Paul Komski]

It all depends but if you are not talking about more than 1 or 2 gig of data then usb 2.0 pen/flash/thumb drives are very fast, robust and easy to use and move from place to place. I think they are just superb (as long as you are using windows 98 or above).

[dman32]

HEHE... I have one of those and it works great, I'm running XP PRO w/SP1. I'm looking at more then 80gig+ appox. I'm looking for something I can keep adding to.

[Paul Komski]

In that case either an external or a slaved internal HDD should do the job for you. Externals can obviously be ported more easily but are more expensive.

[dman32]

have heard of anything bad with external HDD? Plus I have 2 HDD in my computer already master and slave. Thats why i'm looking into external info.

[cyber_surfer]

You can buy an enclosure (with fan and it's own adapter) for $30.
Check www.newegg.com

Add any 3 1/2 inch hard drive of your choice. I use a seagate 160GB which was $59 after rebate.

$60-100 (depending on drive selected) could have you up and running on USB 2.0 (assuming your machine supports 2.0 without adding it via PCI upgrade).

[Paul Komski]

If there's no space for an additional drive inside the case you could of course get a larger case. If you have used up all the four available positions on the IDE/ATPI channels with HDDs and CD/DVDs but do have enough space you could install a PCI card to attach additional drives to - but bear in mind if you keep adding to the number of components you may also need to get a more powerful power supply. If, by any chance, your mobo is a modern one with connectors for SATA drives you could add two of these inside.

I haven't heard anything bad about external drives from any of the 'big names' but I would ensure that you have support for USB 2.0 if you want the best transfer speeds.

[dman32]

I do have the USB 2.0. HAve you guy's heard of sleeve that you can mount into one of the 6" popout slots in the case for a removeable internal hdd?

[Steve]

I've been using one of these (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-122-004&depa=0) for a few months and have been happy with it.

I've also been using one of these (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=22-144-208&DEPA=0) and have had no problems.

They both work real good... :)

[jlreich]

I have been using a 120GB external USB HDD for backups for about six months now. I really like it because I can do a clone of 35GB in about 45 minutes, and a clone of 10GB in about 15 minutes.

I am able to backup the C drives on three different computers, with plenty of space left to backup important files from data partitions on all my computers.

If something happens to one of my C drives, I can be up and running like nothing happened in less than an hour. :) Note that you will need a third party partition manager or backup utility to do this.

[dman32]

with these external hdd, do you have to partition them before transfering files to them?

[jlreich]

Yes they do need to have a Partition and a file system. Mine came formated in FAT32 on one partition. I changed it to NTFS and multiple partitions so I could backup multiple computers. If you are just going to copy data onto the drive, then either FAT32 or NTFS(win2000, XP only), and one partition will do just fine.

[dman32]

Cool... you guys gave me alot of help advice. The main thing I'd be saving is baby pics and baby movies, maybe my whole OS if i get the right hdd.