VideoHelp Forum




+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 13 of 13
  1. Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Search Comp PM
    I am in the process of buying an external hard drive. I would prefer to buy a 250 GB drive and was wondering what i should look for if anything, regarding features or the different types available.
    Thanks for your help.
    Quote Quote  
  2. Mod Neophyte redwudz's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    USA
    Search Comp PM
    A 5 year warranty would be nice. The Seagate externals seem to be one of the few external drives with that. I would also look to see what sort of cooling the drive uses. Some get fairly hot in a small enclosure.

    If you wanted a faster external, I would look into a eSATA enclosure. It will operate at the same speed as a internal HDD.
    Quote Quote  
  3. Member
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    reality
    Search Comp PM
    I currently use a Seagate 250GB USB 2.0. Very pleased with it's performance to date - 6 months of constant use. Use it mostly for storing and transfering large (DVD) files.
    Quote Quote  
  4. Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Search Comp PM
    for a large drive, and if you are on a windows platform, be sure to format to NTFS and not FAT32
    Quote Quote  
  5. Member pchan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Singapore
    Search Comp PM
    If I am not wrong, only Vista supports hot plug i.e. plug and unplug without reboot.
    Quote Quote  
  6. Disgustipated TooLFooL's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    Opium Den
    Search Comp PM
    my advice.. SHOP AROUND! you can get a 500 gig external for around $100 if you keep your eyes open! all the smaller drives seem to be a rip-off cost wise.
    I am just a worthless liar,
    I am just an imbecil
    Quote Quote  
  7. Member Krispy Kritter's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    St Louis, MO USA
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by pchan
    If I am not wrong, only Vista supports hot plug i.e. plug and unplug without reboot.
    You can Hot Swap USB and eSATA devices in XP.

    Here is a 500GB from Dell for $110: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=A1119278&cs=19&c=us&l=en&dgc...139&lid=644117
    Google is your Friend
    Quote Quote  
  8. Member waheed's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Manchester, UK
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by pchan
    If I am not wrong, only Vista supports hot plug i.e. plug and unplug without reboot.
    The ability of hot plugging is dependant on the SATA controller used.

    My eSATA drive hot plugs fine with windows XP.
    Quote Quote  
  9. Member
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    reality
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by TooLFooL
    my advice.. SHOP AROUND! you can get a 500 gig external for around $100 if you keep your eyes open! all the smaller drives seem to be a rip-off cost wise.
    My 250GB Seagate was $54 on sale...
    Quote Quote  
  10. Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Search Comp PM
    Thanks for the advice everyone but can someone please explain this to me.."The ability of hot plugging is dependant on the SATA controller used" or what is SATA ?....i've never heard of this.
    Quote Quote  
  11. Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Search Comp PM
    OK, i just ran my mouse over the word SATA and i must say i'm not familiar with this...never heard of it before...but it sounds impressive compared to USB.
    Quote Quote  
  12. Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    California,United States
    Search Comp PM
    I have 4 of them ranging from 160GB to 500GB. All USB. All work fine including the WD 250 that I have. However, it is my least favorite because it has its own proprietary shut off software. This software doesn't work as good as the standard XP USB method. Best value for USB drives avail now are the 500GB ones. They are always avail somewhere for the magic number of $99.00.

    Tony
    Quote Quote  
  13. Originally Posted by VEBouto
    OK, i just ran my mouse over the word SATA and i must say i'm not familiar with this...never heard of it before...but it sounds impressive compared to USB.
    SATA is the newer/faster standard for hard drive connections. The older standard being PATA, ATA, EIDE, IDE, etc.

    eSATA is the external version of SATA, for connecting external drives. The interface is much faster than USB 2.0 or Firewire.

    Hot plugging is the ability to add or remove the drive without shutting down the computer. Obviously, you can't do this with your boot drive but you can do it with data drives.
    Quote Quote  



Similar Threads

Visit our sponsor! Try DVDFab and backup Blu-rays!