Hard drive questions

TKK

A couple of quick questions...

I have a Maxtor 160GB SATA drive in my machine. The time has come to upgrade as I'm fast running out of space.

My motherboard is an Asus K8v. I want to future-proof my storage somewhat so I'm thinking of getting a SATA2 drive. I presume that I can get a SATA2 drive and it will work away at SATA speeds?

I'm looking at getting a 250GB or 300GB. Any recommendations?

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Also I need to get a backup solution in place. I am in the process of re-ripping all my cd's to the pc and as it's such a monster of a task I don't really fancy ever doing it again. Along with that I have about 10GB of documents and stuff that I would also like to have a copy of should my system go bang.

What I'm thinking of doing is getting another hard drive (or possibly using the 160GB I have) to use purely for backups (ie. only connect it up to the system every now and again to sync up and disconnect it the rest of the time). Any comments on this idea?

I was considering getting a case for ease of connection when syncing but I don't know if I'll bother as I could just connect it directly with very little difficulty.

I'm also gonna be getting an iAudio X5 in the next couple of months so if I want to do any data transferring I'll be using that. This drive would be purely for backup. I'll probably store it in the folks place too as an offsite backup solution, bringing it to Dublin every now and again to sync up (no problem seeing as I'm down home almost every weekend anyway)


All opinions gratefully received

retrospect

Hi , from what i have read, I'm not 100% on the compatibility because I think I vaguely remember something quirky about the SATA to SATA2 transition. something like, either the SATA2 hard drive is not backwards compatible with SATA, or the SATA2 motherboard is not backwards compatible ,not to sure .i think it should work .or you could just get a drive with NCQ if your motherboard supports it .

As for moving your drive around alot to back up your data i would buy some sort of cheap hard drive enclosure .just to be safe .
http://www.komplett.ie/k/kl.asp?bn=10095&sortBy=p&minprice=&maxPrice=

homerjay540

you are right tkk, SATA II will work on SATA mobo but max data transfer will be 150MBs not 300MBs. not to worry tho coz the hdd won't be spinning fast enough to even reach 150MBs.

spaczed

I had the same idea for backup (cloning) to a second hard drive, so bought identical hard drives when i was building my computer.
I installed one in a removable tray, so i could effectively "switch it off" (ready it to be removed), and only enable it when I need to run a backup. But to be honest, i found it a bit cumbersome, if I were to do it now I would get an external USB 2.0 case and copy to that, it just seems neater, and easier to physically disconnect from the rig if needs be.

Cerdito

My experience might be helpful...I have just experienced some problems with SATA2 v. SATA compatibility, it was leading me to think I had a DOA hardrive.

I was building a PC for the first time, had a SATA motherboard and a SATA2 drive. No matter what I did the BIOS wouldn't pick up the HDD and, by extension, Windows XP install couldn't see it.

Thought I had a faulty drive until I read on the net that, although it is supposed to be fully backwards compatible, some SATA2 drives have to be jumpered before they will work with a SATA mobo controller (especially Western Digital, what I have). I stuck a jumper over pins 5 & 6 on the drive, thus restricting the drive to 150Mb/s and allowing the BIOS to pick up the HDD.

TKK

Hmmm...

I wasn't aware that NCQ is something you have to check compatability with.

SATA ws relatively new when I built the machine so I may have to go with a jumpered SATA2 or an ordinary SATA. They are the same price though, so I may as well go with the SATA2 so that when the time comes to upgrade the system I'll have a faster drive?

TKK

Hmmm...

Trying to decide what type of hard drive to buy now. There seems to be a consensus that the Maxtor's are not the best? I've not had any problems with mine though and I do a good bit which is disk intensive.

Also for an external enclosure which is quicker, firewire or USB?

robio

u can get nice 250gb drives from komplett.ie alright, id go with the samsung sata, make sure u buy a power to serial ata cable with it aswell.