1TB Hard Disks today?

Just out of curiosity, is it good to buy a 1TB Hard Disk for a netbook? The size is 3.5" right now I think, which makes me a bit worried that it's too big. My dad's WD Passport that's 250GB is 2.5", and the size is pretty compact for me to travel, but how about a 3.5"?

 

No 3.5" drive will fit into a laptop. Those are desktop drives, which are massive compared to laptop drives. You need to check out 2.5" drives.

Now, if you are talking about external USB drives...that is another story. External 3.5" drives will work on any computer, provided you use the included power supply for that external drive. But internal drives for laptops can only be 2.5" or smaller.

 

I don't believe a 3.5 would fit.

 

While you cant use it internally (which the others have said) if you have enough storage room in your carrying case its pretty easy to carry around a 1-2TB external drive for data storage.

When i travel i usually have about 2TB worth of movies and documents that i carry around so i'm either stuck with 4 2.5in drives or 1 3.5in drives. I've carried the data both ways but i will typically opt for the single 3.5in drive

 

Sorry, I forgot to mention external. But it won't be that bulky right?

 

Depends on your definition of bulky...

I have a 250GB, 500GB and 1TB 3,5" HDD - all are pretty much the same size...
(externally)

Its a bit larger than your average paperback book but much heavier.

For travelling a 2,5" drivewould be better though as its more robust - however, 2 2,5" drives, each 500GB would be more expensive...

 

Thanks. I'm sure for me, a 2.5" would compliment this netbook more than a 3.5". Maybe a 3.5" would be good just for the house?

 

i have an external 1.8" drive. smaller than a cigarette-package, and half as thick. sorry, dude, but yours are bulky. mine fits into any pocket (and only requires an usb to plug in, no power coord, no second usb, or what ever).

my definition of bulky: if it's bigger than needed, it's bulky

 

So what Dave?

I'm sure you haven't got 1TB on your 1,8" drive.

I have a smll 2,5" portable drive too - only bought it because i was needed at the time.

 

no need for 1tb, so, no. up to 250gb i could have like that, in my pocket.

and this was not the question. you said yours is not bulky. en contraire, it is. sadly it's needed bulk if you want 1tb right now always with you. then again, do you need that?

 

I don't carry it around.
Its set up at home.

I won't even carry them to Germany on my holiday.

I don' need to carry a drive around - ad if I have the 2,5" with only 110GB - its not too new.

But the OP was talking about 3,5" drives.

 

jup and he asked if it's too big to take with you if you have a netbook. simple answer: yes. it's about as big as two netbooks and requires a power coord. so it's not really portable.

at home, i never have external disks. they're just slow, prone to get-dropped-or-kicked-or-what ever and a home server is a much better solution.

 

Dropped or kicked?

Sounds like a mess in you house... mine are stashed away safely behind a USB hub...

(Although I know where the home server comes in )

 

it is an additional physical device => it has an additional chance of getting dropped or kicked.

get a girlfriend and suddenly, nothing is save anymore

 

Hmm.... if your girlfriend can't learn to leave HDDs in peace get another one - yes I am lacking in terms of social competences - don't take offence Dave.

Edit: Isn't this getting off topic?

 

not really. partially, yes.

but he talked both about a portable disk, and now about a disk at home.

the best idea (for usability, too) is a small to tiny portable disk (or nowadays even a big usb stick could be enough), which doesn't require power or more than one usb plug to use, and at home some networked stuff, so you don't have to manually plug anything in. personally, as all know, i'd suggest a home server, so you have automatic backup and other fun features. but else, a NAS could work, too.

 

I am sure that you are well aware that nearly all 2.5" external hard drives require a single USB for power and data connectivity. Other than size, I can't see the benefit of a 1.8" storage device. Personally, capacity > size in nearly all cases.

 

it all resumes to:
how much you want to spend?
is portability a must?
how many gb's you need?

 

and yet several of them died when there wasn't a second, extra usb plugged in on the wrong pc.

it depends on the hdd, and the usb port, but isn't per se supported. i killed once 80gb worth of data (disk was very full) by plugging it into my dads pc, which had a tiny bit too less power on the usb to fully spin it up. a nice uiiiihhhh-*CLICK* and dead.

it wasn't the first nor last 2.5" usb disk dying when only plugging in 1 usb cable (most do have two).

1.8" disks fit the spec of usb 100% so they shouldn't die ever.


edit: and the size makes it so that you can grab it out with one hand and just plug it in with one hand. most 2.5" drives i used didn't had that "handiness"

 

Dave, what 1.8" enclosure do you have? I was actually just looking around for one.

 

The challenge isn't terabyte drives, it's how to repeatably and reliabily back up 1Tb of data.

If you wince now at losing 100Gb of MP3s, how will you feel about losing a terabyte of whatever.

 

laserbullet:



newsposter:

that's why i have a windows home server which takes care of all my data, and of backups of all my systems.

i btw read "if you wince now losing 1000Gb, what about losing 1Tb.." haha