External HDD Suggestion

[sohaibrazzaq]

I will be buying my first external HDD tommorow, i have never used or purchased external hdd before so i have some questions to ask.

I was in the retail store yesterday and i found that the store dominated by Western Digital My Book Essential Edition, i was searching for seagate actually but i did'nt find it in the capacity i want (either 500 or 750 GB), so i am thinking to buy WD My Book Essential Edition 500 or 750GB. I have only bought seagate or Maxtor HDD's before but i know that WD is also a respected brand so no problem with that.
What i want to know is :

1. Does anyone using this drive? What maximum read/write speed can i expect from it? Official page here http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=353 says Serial Bus Transfer Rate = 480 Mb/s (Max). That is 480/8 = 60 MB/s maximum theoratically. Now i know i will never gonna attain that, but what can i expect? Is that speed too slow comparing to the latest and fastest available external HDD in market. I would be using this HDD for storing big HD videos of sizes ranging from 10-30 GB in size so i don't want a very slow drive.

2. Its interface is USB 2.0, i just want to make sure i don't need any SATA power connectors because my PSU has 3 SATA power connectors and they are already in use, thats one of the main reason i am getting external HDD, else i have rather bought 1TB+ seagate internal drive.

3. I am also hearing a good deal of eSata interface for external drives, can anyone give me brief description that is it significantly faster over USB 2.0? (Which i believe it will be because USB 2.0 is quite old).

4. If it is possible, can anyone provide me a link for review of this HDD, i did search on some sites like tomshardware but did'nt find review for this HDD.

Thats all for now, thankyou for providing any help.
Regards,
Sohaib

[redwudz]

I get about 30MB/s with a 500GB USB external drive. But it depends on what else the computer is using the USB bus for at the time. My external SATA drives operate the same speed as the internal drives, usually about 60 - 75MB/s. That somewhat depends on the MB SATA controller.

My USB external is fast enough for most display, though I haven't tried it with HD video or a MKV. I just use it for portable data storage. It a Fantom box, though I don't know which brand of hard drive it uses. It has both a eSATA and a USB 2.0 connection. Most all of those units come with a power supply. USB is only good for about 1/2 Amp, so only a few small laptop drives can run off it directly.

[rr6966]

I have a 400GB WD Essential, and it works great using usb to my computer. It is plenty fast, and I use it for HiDef video, no problems at all.

[sohaibrazzaq]

Thanks redwudz for replying, your input is invaluable to me. I have also done some research on my part and it seems eSata is definitely a must have even if i don't intend to use it immediately. Here are some of the benchmark results from tomshardware.
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/external-hard-drive-charts/Average-WriteTransfer-Pe...mance,695.html
Now i have shifted my attention towards My Book Home Edition which have eSata interface also. I have also looked at Intel site and it seems my Mobo do have a eSata port. http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/DP35DP/DP35DP-overview.htm

So now my only question is what else will i require to run the drive in eSata mode? Will it be ready out of the box or would i require some other equipment (like cables and connectors) for proper function through eSata port. As i have already wrote, i don't have any free SATA power connection available in my PC.

Edit :
@rr6966
30 MB/s is a bit slow for me i think and especially when you can easily get 50 MB/s + for only 30$ more, so i think i should consider a drive that have eSATA port, and since my mobo supports it also i think its a no brainer to get a drive that only have USB 2.0 interface. Thanks for replying though.

[redwudz]

The drive should come with a power supply and possibly a eSATA cable, but I would order one anyway if you aren't sure. The drives usually do incllude a USB cable if they are a combo USB/eSATA drive.

Check your PC to make sure it has the proper eSATA connector. It looks a bit like a USB port, only thinner. Regular motherboard SATA connectors are 'L' shaped and about the same size. A couple of the last motherboards I bought came with a combination eSATA and SATA external PCI slot adapter. But most all external SATA drives use the eSATA connector.

USB performs fairly well, but if you have to move large multi-gigabyte files, eSATA is the way to go.

The drive may come unpartitioned and unformatted, but your 'Administrative Tools' page in the 'Control Panel' can do that for you, the same as with any other new hard drive.

[Wink Dinkerson]

I also just plunged into the external HDD pool. I went with a 640GB WD, which I have plugged into a USB hub, and a WD 1TB plugged directly into the computer. The speeds of transfer are 20MB-30MB approx. I have no problems with backing up my ripped movies, and playing them directly from the external drives. The WD comes with a power cord and a short USB cord. The drives are quiet, and the 640MB has worked great, since Thanksgiving. I just purchased the 1TB a month ago, and it works great also. The external drives have become so inexpensive, I have all our data stored on several drives, so no worries about data loss or backups.

[gll99]

Are you looking at something like the WD 1tb at BB?

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0926INGFS10097092&catid=26259&logon=&langid=EN

The lower priced ones including that one don't have an eSata external connector. They may have a sata connector inside but only have an external usb hence the 480Mbps max rating. Some drives have a metal case for better cooling while a few might have a fan which, depending on case material and design, may be less necessary. Some are plastic and the problem with those is minimal cooling through the case and heat is a major cause of drive failure and data loss. Some are 5400 rpm and others 7200 rpm but it isn't always indicated. Although some say the WD above is a 7200 rpm drive there are those who are suspicious about that unconfirmed spec. The cache on some drives is as low as 2 mb up to 32 mb so that too may be a factor to consider. These drives cannot be opened without invalidating the warranty so you can't retrieve lost data if there's a problem. Keep in mind that the issue could be with a usb conversion board inside the unit and not necessarily the drive itself but the manufacturer might choose to send you another unit and not return that specific drive so who knows where your data might end up. WD (and others) offer(s) data recovery but the cost is prohibitive. Note that many models like the one listed have only a 1 year warranty while others have a 3 or 5 year (limited). I returned mine after reading a few horror stories. The more expensive external drives might have eSata but it needs to specify it. I decided to buy my own eSata/usb enclosure and and a separate hdd for complete flexibility and no warranty hassles. That's what I'm looking for now.

If all you want is expanded storage and are less concerned about portability and aesthetics, you might consider a hdd docking station. There is no box to open or close to change a drive you just slide it into a drive port and take it out and lock it away when your done. This way you can use multiple smaller drives instead of one large one. The station itself is less portable so it depends on your needs. Some models accept both 2.5 and 3.5 drives.

I forgot to add:
Some drives have a "green" feature where they power down when not in use after 15 minutes or so. This sounds good unless you plan to use the drive as a poor man's pvr/dvr. The drive may not reawaken without physical keyboard or mouse activity. Some have already complained about this. Part of my intention is to use a tv tuner card for timed captures for later viewing on my tv via the usb connector on the Philips dvp5992 or a usb media player I'm thinking of buying. A sleeping green drive would be useless for that if it can't wake itself up when a program requests data writes.