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Mike
02-05-10, 06:35 PM
External hard drives. Educate me please :) good ones, bad ones etc etc etc

phazer
02-05-10, 07:32 PM
Take yer pic, they are all pretty much of a muchness. Make sure you get one based on a laptop drive (2.5") as almost all of these are bus powered and take power from the USB port. You can get larger capacities with 3.5" drives but they are bulkier and need an external power supply.

Only other choice I guess is the type of drive inside the enclosure, IDE or SATA. A SATA drive should be marginally quicker than IDE.

Just find one at the right price that looks the way you want.

Mike
02-05-10, 07:34 PM
Ahh the USB powered thing is what i was mainly interested in :)

Altho, i have qeustion, do external HD needs to be powered up permenatly kinda thing? Or do have the like an on/off switch or can be turned on/off without problems??

Ill be connecting to a laptop if that makes any difference?

phazer
02-05-10, 07:38 PM
Some have a switch but most don't and those will be powered while ever they are connected to the PC. Oddly on Win XP if you eject an external drive it will power off after a few seconds but on Windows 7 it stays powered though not visible on the PC.

Laptop/Desktop is all the same for ext drives mate.

Mike
02-05-10, 08:21 PM
Super, thanks for help boss :)

Stuart
02-05-10, 09:45 PM
Just avoid anything with a Hitachi/IBM Deskstar drive in there (if its got a Travelstar then its not too bad)

Nova_Tek
02-05-10, 09:51 PM
I recommend LAN/Network drives (what I currently use). They can be connected to a router via ethernet cable and accessed from any pc (they also have USB connection so can be used as a normal external drive). They are normally just a special network enclosure with a normal 3.5" drive so you can easily change the drive for a larger capacity drive in the future.

If you like the sound of the above, I personally use LANDrive brand enclosure.

Seagate drives are normally solid.

phazer
02-05-10, 09:59 PM
I recommend LAN/Network drives (what I currently use). They can be connected to a router via ethernet cable and accessed from any pc (they also have USB connection so can be used as a normal external drive). They are normally just a special network enclosure with a normal 3.5" drive so you can easily change the drive for a larger capacity drive in the future.

If you like the sound of the above, I personally use LANDrive brand enclosure.

Seagate drives are normally solid.

Useful enough but they need seperate power and are a big bigger. Depends on how portable you want to get, occasional use at home then what you have is spot on. I carry one or two to work and back every day so bus powered is the best option for me.

Nova_Tek
02-05-10, 10:03 PM
Yeah true, I use mine at home and use it pretty much everyday. Keep all my mp3's and divx movies etc on it so don't need to be on a particular pc.