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Gear / Technical Help => Post-Processing, Computer / Streaming / Internet Devices & Related Activity => Topic started by: Chuck on July 25, 2006, 11:47:38 AM

Title: External HD advice
Post by: Chuck on July 25, 2006, 11:47:38 AM: This 100GB Maxtor drive is $50 now with rebate:

http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=671389&x=52&Ntt=Maxtor%20External%20Hard%20drive&y=17&uniqueSearchFlag=true&An=text

Is this a good deal for back-up?
I want to use it to dump WAV files to from my PMD671 and laptop and also to keep a full restore back-up partition on for my laptop.
Title: Re: External HD advice
Post by: BC on July 25, 2006, 01:17:33 PM: I would personally get something bigger. I usually peep www.salescircular.com for deals on hard drives.
Title: Re: External HD advice
Post by: Chuck on July 25, 2006, 01:22:05 PM: The size doesn't bother me. My laptop has a 4 GB in it and my server only has a 30 GB.
I run lean... ;)

It the brand, product and price ($.50/ GB) workable for what I want to do?
Title: Re: External HD advice
Post by: dnsacks on July 25, 2006, 01:56:54 PM: Chuck:

I too think that 100gb is too small in this day and age. Just saw the following:

Fantom Titanium 200GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive
SAVE $30.00
FREE BUDGET SHIPPING
Buy.com price: $89.95
List price: $119.95
http://enews.buy.com/cgi-bin5/DM/y/egeA0G6Jmw0Ije0BxiF0Go

Another thought -- if you're at all computer hardware-talented, you could always buy the maxtor you referenced and, once you fill the drive, replace it with an internal drive of a more reasonable capacity.

d
Title: Re: External HD advice
Post by: Oysterhead00 on July 25, 2006, 02:00:38 PM: A cheaper option is also to buy an external IDE HD case ($20) and then buy an Internal HD (I see 250GBs on sale for under $100 all the time) and house it externally in the case. THe cases can be USB, USB 2.0, or even Firewire. I have an external Firewire to a 7200rpm 250GB drive and it's fast as can be, can't tell the difference between it and my internal HD.
Title: Re: External HD advice
Post by: Diamond_D on July 25, 2006, 02:16:44 PM: the External Enclosure is a great idea if you don't have one already. It's a cheaper option then buying a dedicated large external drive, but it also came in very handy when my home computer crashed and I was able to recover data on the C: drive by putting it in the enclosure and hooking it up to my laptop, and not having to boot from it. It's a nice option to have

Check out this deal:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/howToGetItTab.do?c=1&zip=27705&oid=70860

is Western Digital a good brand?
Title: Re: External HD advice
Post by: gewwang on July 25, 2006, 02:18:20 PM: The 500GB WD My Book w/USB but no FW was onsale from $300 to $200 this weekend plus I had a 12% coupon at Best Buy. I just couldn't pull the trigger because I knew I'd regret not having FW on it.
Title: Re: External HD advice
Post by: winisp on July 25, 2006, 03:09:58 PM: Quote from: gewwang on July 25, 2006, 02:18:20 PM
The 500GB WD My Book w/USB but no FW was onsale from $300 to $200 this weekend plus I had a 12% coupon at Best Buy. I just couldn't pull the trigger because I knew I'd regret not having FW on it.

I bought the Western Digital 500 GB a few weeks ago for about $260 including shipping. Worth every penny. Now have all music on a single drive that I can move to any of my 4 computers.

Also bought the apricorn ezbus desktop external HD case for $25 including shipping after $15 rebate at zipzoomfly along with a 500 GB internal (western digital?) for about $140+tax at outpost.com (had to pay tax because in-state).

Both well worth the investment....Everything is centralized now and backed up.
Title: Re: External HD advice
Post by: Chuck on July 25, 2006, 03:24:36 PM: I'm worried my lowly Gateway Solo 2150 laptop won't regognize a huge external hard drive. Is that an issue to worry about?
Title: Re: External HD advice
Post by: dnsacks on July 25, 2006, 04:21:31 PM: how old's your laptop? Does it support usb2?

Know anybody else with an external hdd you could plug into your laptop to see if it properly recognizes the size? strongly suspect you'll have the same problem with a 100gb drive that you'd have with a 500gb drive.
Title: Re: External HD advice
Post by: Chuck on July 25, 2006, 04:54:25 PM: Nope USB 1.1 on lappy...
The one I originally posted about is USB 1.1 compatable... according to the literature.
Title: Re: External HD advice
Post by: dnsacks on July 25, 2006, 05:00:49 PM: it's my understanding that usb2 devices should generally be usb1.1 compatible. That said, I suspect you'll find the throughput of an external drive to be unacceptably slow via usb1.1. (think transfer speeds of a jb3 over its usb connection).

You'd likely be a lot better off either looking into the cost feasibility of a pcmcia card-based firewire (or usb2 interface).
Title: Re: External HD advice
Post by: BC on July 25, 2006, 05:25:27 PM: Quote from: Chuck on July 25, 2006, 04:54:25 PM
Nope USB 1.1 on lappy...
The one I originally posted about is USB 1.1 compatable... according to the literature.

It will be slow, but should work...
Title: Re: External HD advice
Post by: Diamond_D on July 27, 2006, 10:26:23 AM: transferring or working with full shows in WAV format on a USB1.1 would be miserable. I took the PCMCIA card route to get USB2 on my old desktop, and it was very much worth it. I think I got mine for around $25 or so