External hard drives?

[Silverfc88]

I wanted to see if anybody could recomend an external hard drive for my computer? Just recently my computer crashed and I lost everything. I guess I didn't install the microsoft patch for the hole in windows XP in time so I got shut down. I didn't make a backup cd in time, but I do have alot of my pics and everything already saved on disks. But all of my papers that I had from NCO school that I had I lost that I could've used later when writeing EPR's and such

What really erks me is that I lost alot of my favorite links for car stuff, various right ups and military stuff so now I have to research all over again to find everything that I need.


This is the first time that this has really happend to me. If I get an external hard drive and save alot of my stuff that I don't need on the computer for it to run right. Will this help save alot of my important documents. Kinda like save the stuff I want and then disconnect the external and connect it back up when I need it?

Tips and stuff would be helpful. I know a little about computers, but I know there is some people on here that are complete guru's when it comes to comps.

[2point4DSM]

I've got two harddrives in my computer and I swear the whole sysytem runs faster because of it. From what I recall, a second internal harddrive cost a lot less than an external. And if your computer crashes again you really only have to redo the first harddrive and the second is usually spared. Do you really need an external or can you stick another one in your computer. If you need help with it I might be useful since I've done ONE already.

Although I'm a complete noob when it comes to computers, too.

[Twin_Cam]

I have an external for my iBook, because the internal drive is damn small. It's an 80 gig Firewire unit made by Fantom Drives. Some cheapy thing I bought. Works fine for me. Look on tigerdirect.com, they usually have the best prices.

[Silverfc88]

Well I wouldn't mind another internal hard drive to run things, but I still think it would get corupted by the same things that crashed the computer in the first place. I really don't know I'm just guessing right now.

Ivan where you at?

I was looking at the Simple Tech external hard drives. For the 160GB its $159 with free shipping and for $219 I can get the one with 250GB, but I don't think I will ever max out the 160GB one. I think it would be helpfull in using it as a backup.

[BlackBulletTSi]

Alright, I'll be the first techie guy to step up to the plate here. Yes a second internal would be faster then an external for the reason of read speeds. I don't know the specific speeds but its faster to read an harddrive through the internal IDE then it would be to try and read it from the external USB since USB is slower. There are pros and cons to both as there are with everything in our wonderful world here. If you have two hard drives in your computer and your computer crashes due to a virus. It usually only effects the operating system and thats why it don't work its not like the hard drive is PHYSICALLY broke, thats why you can always reformat and your good. However if your computer gets a power surge and it fries the inside you'll probably fry both hard drives and thats no good. Thats why an external is good because its isolated from that. Your USB drives run off its own power source most the time so its cool. Though its still not anymore safe to viruses then an internal. If a virus infects a file it infects it and you have to clean and get rid of it and stuff. I'm sure you know that though ha ha. SO yea any questions feel free to send me a PM or an email at Dex@XFRadio.net, hope I was helpful

[sfd]

2point, it's most likely your imagination about the entire system running faster UNLESS you're accessing files on the other HD. So for example, if you store your movies on the backup drive and load them from there, then yes, that portion of the sequence is faster. But loading some stuff stored on your main drive can't be sped up from another hd.

now, if for some reason windows reconfigured itself (which is 99.9999% unlikely) to use some swap file on the secondary HD, then it would be possible to speed it up. (windows uses a specific portion of your HD as a virtual memory address. Since Windows XP can support up to 4gig, it calculates the difference between what physical ram you have installed and takes that difference and creates a virutal HD memory. In theory, you always have 4gig of ram, but that's not how it works. That's for another day)

OK, onto the external HD. For the sake of arguement, a secondary HD whether it be external or internal is not as likely to be damaged data wise by a security flaw in Windows. Now a virus or trojan can find its way onto it, but that's another story. Generally though, it's a good idea to have a secondary storage device. Not only to store files but even to create full back ups of your primary HD. Harddrives can and do fail, especially when in use all the time.

So how do you decide which one to use? Here are a few minor pros and cons:

Internal ATA Harddrives:
1. USUALLY faster access/transfers (except in cases of new FireWire drives)
2. USUALLY cheaper (although external drives have become cheap)
3. Less chances for accidental damage (i.e. dropping it, stepping on it, losing it)

External USB 2.0 Harddrives:
1. Less chances for heatsoak (just like a motor, they suffer from heat. Inside a case = more heat or chances for other devices to heatsoak it)
2. Less chance (IMO) for failure due to the lack of constant access
3. Can be used on 99% of systems today or on the go at a friends house
4. No need to open your case, decreasing the chances of user mistakes with installing. ALSO, if your system is new, like many companies, simply opening your case voids the warrenty. If this is a concern, an external HD is for you.

Those are just a few situations. If you want to be able to take it to friends houses or don't want to hassle installing it, external works. If you want to go cheaper and have no need to move a drive around, internal works. External harddrives CAN be configured to work as internals as well as internals can be configured as externals, but that requires extra adapters and casing (especially in the situation of internal to external) and really isn't needed in 90% of situations.

[97TurboDSM]

i saw some websites mentioned for computer hardware somewhere above, after you check those, go to newegg.com. they have great prices

[BlackBulletTSi]

Ahhhh I forgot all about the new Firewire drives being that fast. Heh

[wonner]

I use a Ximeta NetDisk external. It has USB and ethernet interfaces. I have it connected to my router, so my whole network has access to it.

[2point4DSM]

Originally Posted by sfd

2point, it's most likely your imagination about the entire system running faster UNLESS you're accessing files on the other HD. So for example, if you store your movies on the backup drive and load them from there, then yes, that portion of the sequence is faster.

Bingo. I got the second hard drive cause for a while I was recording tv shows on to it and then burning them onto DVD. The second drive made the whole process 10x faster (I might be exaggerating 10x... could be 4x but it was definitely much faster).

And for true backup files I burn them to a cd or dvd and also keep files on the 2nd harddrive and if they are really important then I'll leave a copy on a CF card too.

[Raven18940]

Originally Posted by wonner

I use a Ximeta NetDisk external. It has USB and ethernet interfaces. I have it connected to my router, so my whole network has access to it.

Now that's cool, I've got to get me one of those.

Originally Posted by 95nracer

don't think I will ever max out the 160GB one.

"250 MEGA bytes is huge, you'll never fill all that" -the salesman who sold us our 486 many years ago.

I have two 120GB hard drives working as one for 240 GBs, I have less the 10 gigs of free space right now.

By the way, do you still have the hard drive that crashed cause you can recover your info from it if you haven't written over it yet.

[wonner]

Originally Posted by 95nracer

but I don't think I will ever max out the 160GB one.

Yeah, 160GB isn't much....mines is almost filled.

[Silverfc88]

Yeah I had to reload everything. Everything is gone I believe.

I don't think I would fill a 160GB hard drive. I'll keep that in mind. 250GB name brand hard drives on Ebay are fairly cheap. The 160GB SimpleTech's are going for under a hundred. Still looking around to see what I want to do. I might just do both for the hell of it.

How hard is it to add another hard drive? I think mine right now is 80GB and its a Gateway computer. I saw online like companies like Maxtor selling large high speed internal hard drives.

[Raven18940]

Depends entirely on the computer. On some dells I've changed the CD-ROM out in less the 2 minutes and there are some Gateways where it took 30 minutes just to figure out how to open it. If you've got a larger tower PC, odds are good it won't be too hard though.

[Silverfc88]

Yeah the tower is fairly large. I think I might wait until the warranty is out on it before I open it up. Won't be long though its up at the end of this year.

[2point4DSM]

I got a harddrive from circuitcity or bestbuy and it came with an install cd and instruction manual. I am far from tech savvy but I was able to easily install it into my computer. I'm not too sure I would buy stuff off ebay when it comes to stuff like this considering if you hit a good sale they are usually just as cheap locally. And I have gotten a couple things for the computer off ebay and most times they were close to impossible for me to install right for various reasons whether it be compatability problems or missing manual or CD, etc.

my 2 cents.

Btw, when it comes to pics and stuff like that don't you want to save them to a cd anyway, rather than a drive that might still fail for some reason. And important files would probably fit on a compact flash card and become even more handy if you want to bring them into work or to a friend's computer.

[Silverfc88]

Yeah I already save alot of pics to disks, but for some reason there was alot that I didn't. I'm thinking of different things now, I wouldn't mind the external for ease of use and saving space to compliment the disks and as a backup for the disks if I mess them up. A backup for a backup and vise-versa. LoL..

The smaller compact flash cards are a good idea also for work stuff. I'll look into those also and see if thats for me.

Trust me I won't commit to just ebay I'll keep an eye out for sales from different places. Including on base here at Mcguire. If I do the Ebay thing then it would only be the name brand stuff that is brand new never opened stuff.

[Raven18940]

How old is your computer? What model Gateway is it?

[jspek]

i have a smartdisk usb 2.0 portable hd for my laptop. 40 gig. i love it. frees up so much space on my laptop and i dont have to worry about my lap crashing. altho 40gb isnt enough haha.

[Silver04STi]

Originally Posted by wonner

I use a Ximeta NetDisk external. It has USB and ethernet interfaces. I have it connected to my router, so my whole network has access to it.

I have the same setup and it works very well...