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Help on External Hard Drives

bribren2001 · 2004-03-21 00:37:05

hey all, just wondering any1 out there know anything bout external hard drives. im thinking of getting one but dont no really anything bout them i.e make: price: sizes(gb): any problems with them: also what way do they connect to the pc- is it through usb or firewire ports? any help greatly appreciated!!

21-03-2004 12:37am

#1

bribren2001

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hey all,
just wondering any1 out there know anything bout external hard drives.
im thinking of getting one but dont no really anything bout them i.e
make:
price:
sizes(gb):
any problems with them:

also what way do they connect to the pc- is it through usb or firewire ports?

any help greatly appreciated!!

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Comments

#2 21-03-2004 12:39am

Creamy Goodness

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yeh they come either usb2 or firewire

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#3 21-03-2004 1:07am

Mutant_Fruit

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go for a USB2 one if you can, even if it means buying a USB2 add-on card. The reason being practically every computer built in the last 3-4 years has USB1 or USB2 on it, so you can easily transport the drive between computers, if you have to,

Firewire is a LOT less popular, with very few computers having it.

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#4 21-03-2004 1:13am

drive3331

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Hi,

i purchased an external harddrive to do some video editing work on.
The main thing i needed from the drive was for it to be quick, swapable and relativly portable ie between pc used for video editing and laptop.
I eventually settled on a Lacie external firewire harddrive which had an 7200rpm hard drive in it. Its proven to be quick and reliable.

Something to consider when buying is most external harddrives will need a seperate power connection and hence not as portable as they could be. So if portability is a key buying point look out for those drives that are powered just from their usb/usb2 connections

Hope this helps

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#5 21-03-2004 1:45am

Mystic Fibrosis

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You know the way you can get IDE to SCSI cables to use internal drives outside your case? Is that a good idea? I have a feeling there's something about having that kind of equipment outside a case causing problems, especially with static.

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#6 21-03-2004 2:29am

Adeptus Titanicus

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Hiya,

The job recently got a Maxtor OneTouch 300Gb external drive for about EUR330. You can connect it using either FireWire or USB2.

A colleage runs two of these on a system holding masses of digital (satellite) imagery and it absolutely flys. Looks the biz too .

FYI, Komplett do a full range going from a 160Gb for EUR217 up to the 300Gb @ EUR335.

HTH

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#7 21-03-2004 8:48am

MarkR

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You may want to consider using the 2.5 inch drives (from laptops). Also USB powered, usually no external power source needed. I have one with a 10 Gb drive and it's brilliant. Saying that, i'm also in the market for a 3.5 caddy, so if anyone has one...

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#8 21-03-2004 10:41am

Woden

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firewire external hdds, do they still need to be powered seperately? as i know for example you can charge an ipod thru firewire but not usb, just wondering can firewire supply the power for something like a hdd?

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#9 21-03-2004 2:56pm

Adeptus Titanicus

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Originally posted by Dataisgod
just wondering can firewire supply the power for something like a hdd?

I was thinking about that myself. The Maxtor we got has a power supply.

You can get drive enclosures like this that you can slap a 2.5" drive into and power it from the USB or Firewire port.

overclock.co.uk have some external enclosures, but as far as I can see they all need an additional power supply. :dunno:

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#10 22-03-2004 8:51am

whosurpaddy

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id recommend what ro-76 says here i got the case he suggested and a 40 gb laptop HDD from komplett. ended up costing in the region of 160-170 bucks but ive got a 40gb usb powered TINY hdd which fits in a shirt pocket and it looks classy too. i did a lot of research into this and think this is the best option.

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#11 22-03-2004 8:53am

whosurpaddy

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if you want more info ill post up links of the stuff i looked at. if the physical size of the disk, and being host powered aint that important to ya then maybe one of the maxtor ones would be better

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#12 22-03-2004 10:13am

bribren2001

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hi again folks

thanks all for your replys!
ye what im basically after is a external hd that is relatively small,powered by the pc,preferably connected to usb and in the region of 40gb or less.

im tinking that maxtor one touch could be the one for me

whosurpaddy, if you woudnt mind posting them links id be greatly appreciative!

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#13 22-03-2004 10:41am

rymus

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Got one of those Maxtor One Touch drives from Komplett too. I opted for the 200GB model, using firewire at the moment to connect it to my laptop. It does need the external power supply but thats not a huge issue as mine isn't going to be portable anyway. (Not that with it's hefty weight it's exactly highly portable in the first place). Good thing is that with it's vertical stand you can more or less tuck it anywhere out of sight.. but why would you want to? With it's lovely soothing blue light! Ahhhhh..

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#14 22-03-2004 10:45am

whosurpaddy

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western digi 80gb 3.5
same at elara
western digi 120gb 3.5 at ebuyer

maxtor one touch specs
maxtor 80gb one touch at elara
maxtor 120gb 3.5 at micro direct maxtor 120gb at 3.5 ebuyer

iomega 80gb 3.5
iomega 80gb at elara
iomega 40gb 2.5 at ebuyer

laptop HDDs at komplett

laptop HDD case on ebay. seller 1

laptop HDD on ebay. the guy i bought from

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#15 22-03-2004 10:48am

whosurpaddy

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Originally posted by bribren2001
hi again folks

thanks all for your replys!
ye what im basically after is a external hd that is relatively small,powered by the pc,preferably connected to usb and in the region of 40gb or less.

im tinking that maxtor one touch could be the one for me

whosurpaddy, if you woudnt mind posting them links id be greatly appreciative!

links above. theres a lot of em to wade through. sorted by product.

from what ur saying, i would really recommend going for the option i went for. if ur priorities are that its usb powered and really small/portable, over huge storage space, then consider it. i initially didnt really see it as an option but having got it ive never looked back.

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#16 22-03-2004 11:24am

bribren2001

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thanks for that whosurpaddy,
which one is it you recommend-tiny hd or the internal hd with the case

by the way is the link for that tiny hd there or is it im going blind here

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#17 22-03-2004 11:41am

whosurpaddy

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Originally posted by bribren2001
thanks for that whosurpaddy,
which one is it you recommend-tiny hd or the internal hd with the case

by the way is the link for that tiny hd there or is it im going blind here

what i would reccommend, and what i got is this 40gb laptop hdd from komplett and one of these usb powered laptop Hdd cases from ebay gives u a truely tiny usb powered solution. 40gb is more than enough for my storage needs

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#18 22-03-2004 11:54am

RicardoSmith

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Basically the 2.5 drives Firewire or USB2 can be bus powered. That is powered by the USB or firewire bus/port. So they don't need an external power supply.

The 3.5 drives can't be bus powered so they all need external power supplies. Which makes them much bigger.

The 3.5 drives are much faster than the 2.5 drives and are a lot cheaper and come in much bigger capacities. The 2.5 drives are much more portable though.

I bought an external USB2 case from Maplins €65 and used a old 80GB drive I had from another PC €60 ish. So that was a pretty cheap way of doing it. I wanted the extra capacity and speed. I run all my games from that drive when using my laptop and they load much quicker than if I was using the internal laptop drive.

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#19 22-03-2004 12:44pm

bribren2001

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thanks for that people, ill serously consider that option with the usb case and the laptop harddrive,
is there any problems with joing the 2 up?

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#20 22-03-2004 12:56pm

whosurpaddy

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Originally posted by bribren2001
thanks for that people, ill serously consider that option with the usb case and the laptop harddrive,
is there any problems with joing the 2 up?

nope. the HDD slots into the case no probs. the one thing i should mention is the cable. on the end connecting to the case is a mini usb port, and the end going into the pc is 2 usb heads. u need both to power the hdd so u must have 2 free usb ports, side by side. other than that its worked like a dream

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#21 22-03-2004 1:19pm

RicardoSmith

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If you are using a USB hub make sure that its ports are powered. Not all of them all. In fact not all USB parts are powered. Most of them are. Just something to be aware of. Most of the drives allow you to pull power from a DC supply or the PS2 port if theres a problem with the USB port.

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#22 08-04-2004 8:42am

zedsDeadBaby

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Try this one.
I find this bit of kit fantastic.
Its battery powered or mains powered.
You can copy the contents of various types of flash memory (eg digital photos when your on holiday and fill up your SD or compact flash cards p saves you buying new ones) onto it without a pc or laptop in sight. You can also upgrade the hard drive.

nice and portable too.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...6010318-4268645

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