Exteran HDD

hi...yeah, im looking to purchase an external hard drive for my laptop, and i'd like to know a few things..
firstly, are there any brands that stand out from the rest? like yesterday, i saw a brand which i hadnt heard of, but it had a hitachi drive...is there anything like that i should look for, or buy the whole thing made by a known brand?

also, wat should i choose between 2.5" and 3.5"? is it purely a portability issue, as i would like it to be quite portable, or are there performance factors too?

the other thing...SATA and..something else, i cant remember wat lol. there's a newer technology than SATA, i believe...is that worth the extra money? would i need it? im not looking for a massive drive..as much as i can get for a decent price, but i require only about 120gigs. please help me out..thanks!

 

If you are looking for a USB solution, then you can get either a 2.5" or 3.5" harddrive because both will be able to max out the USB hub.

If you are looking for a drive which connects to the laptop/desktop through external sata, then you will want a 3.5" drive since they are significantly faster than 2.5" drives.

As far as drive quality, a desktop drive can take more of a beating than a laptop drive, but you should not drop your drive if it can be avoided.
Performance wise, Hitachi usually has the fastest drives, but it will not matter, because the only big external harddrive brands are the Western Digital my books' and such and the Seagate freeagents, both of which use their own drives respectively.

K-TRON

 

3.5" needs external power and 2.5" gets power from the USB.

eSata is faster than USB.

 

The other way round.

 

ok, i dont know if i can connect a drive thru external SATA. will my laptop have a port or something? sorry, im new at this. my laptop is a sony vaio SZ, and i havent got it yet..would i be able to connect thru external SATA? and if i can, would that be recommended over USB, is the performance way better?

so...for USB HDDs, 2.5" will be better coz its smaller, im guessing?
so far, ive read good things about seagate...so do you think i should buy one that uses USB or SATA? and if USB, 2.5" or 3.5" doesnt matter, but for SATA, 3.5" is more suitable? and if 3.5" USB requires external power, i need an external power source? thanks a lot, please try to clear these points up for me

 

You can buy an eSATA adaptor for the PC Card or ExpressCard slot. A few notebooks have eSATA ports and I think we will see more on the new models.

See this thread for examples of the difference in performance between USB 2 and eSATA.

Few of the ready-made external HDDs include eSATA and USB ports (my recommended investment) but you can buy the enclosure and the HDD separately. 3.5" HDDs and enclosures are much, much bigger than 2.5" and are only appropriate if you don't plan to move the HDD much.

2.5" external HDDs usually run on the power from one USB port. A second USB port may be needed in a few situations.

John

 

ok..i plan on buying a ready made external HDD; i know now that eSATA performs much better than USB 2.0. however, is it much more expensive than a USB 2.0 HDD? and is it worth it? do any drives come with a ExpressCard SATA adapter included? coz i believe one of those costs about US$50. im looking for somethign as portable as i can get...so i think 2.5" is the way to go...but someone above commented that 3.5" SATA drives are significantly faster....but 2.5" SATA drives will be almost the same, right? much faster than USB?

 

ok..one of my friends informed me that some drives adapt the SATA port to USB in the casing itself. i was wondering if this particular drive that caught my eye, Seagate FreeAgent Go, is one that does this. is FreeAgent Go a SATA drive, or simply USB?

 

The performance of the bigger 2.5" HDDs is already limited by the USB 2 interface and the same limit (~25MB/s) will apply to 3.5" HDDs.

While eSATA costs almost nothing to implement (it is essentially a pass-through connector straight from the HDD) the ready-made external HDDs usually charge a premium price for this facility. Hence my recommendation for DIY (which takes about 5 minutes to assemble).

I don't know of any external HDDs that come bundled with an eSATA adaptor or cable. If you get a HDD with both USB and eSATA then you have the option to upgrade by getting the eSATA adaptor if the USB performance is not OK.

John

PS: The FreeAgent Go has the standard USB 2 connection but the HDD inside is probably SATA.

Something like this is what you need to be looking for.

 

ok..so the casing which u linked does the same thing wat the seagate freeagent go does, right? i found out that the Go is SATA, and it has a USB-SATA converter built in..so even if i buy a casing like wat u linked here, ur saying the performance will ultimately be limited by the USB 2.0?

EDIT: ok, i think its pretty obvious that that WAS wat u were saying lol. but im seriously looking at the Seagate FreeAgent Go coz its portable, its the right price for me...and i admit, i dont really need fantastic performance, im not gonna be doing very intense tasks using it.

But just in case i do want an HDD that connects to an external SATA port, do u have any portable ones in mind? by seagate or WD etc? the freeagent Pro is too big....any suggestions?

 

ok...can anyone recommend a good portable ready-made 2.5" eSATA HDD? or do i have to build one myself? i checked component prices, and i can assemble one for around the same price as a readymade USB-interface one, or for a bit less.

also, please someone tell me: for average use, does SATA make a very big difference over USB converted drives? or will i notice it only for very intensive tasks (which i dont intend on doing). someone please reply! thanks

EDIT: im currently deciding between Seagate FreeAgent Go (USB 2.0) & a self-assembled eSATA drive. but if anyone can recommend ready-made eSATA drives, thanks!

 

i'd go for firewire as it is faster than USB 2

 

ok...but that doesnt answer my question. can anyone recommend a ready-made eSATA HDD thats portable, a 2.5" drive? or do i need to assemble one myself with the components? thats wat i wanna find out..thanks!

 

It should be easy to make one.Get a case that has eSata and put in a HDD.

Try dealsonic.com

 

yeah, i think i can manage doing that....just thought i'd ask if anyone can recommend a ready-made one, just for curiosity's sake, and to compare

 

im still trying to decide between USB and eSATA. will i, a normal home user, notice much of a difference? i dont really do very intense tasks, i'll probably store movies and pictures on it, probably install virtual PC and its images for my work..thats about it. will eSATA make a huge diff compared to USB? thanks!

 

esata will cost u more (u will have to buy an expresscard to esata adapter) and since u are a normal home user I doubt u'll see a difference. There is also the problem that some laptops such as mine have expresscard slots based on an internal usb connection meaning that there will be absolutely no difference. If you have a firewire port in your laptop that will be as fast as esata, and be completely free. If you dont have firewire, then usb is fine.

 

yeah, my sony has a i.LINK (1394) port. im not sure how my expresscard is connected, and im not sure how to find out.so thanks for that tip but yeah i need to buy an adapter, a harddrive enclosure, and the HDD itself..could be costly. and a waste of money if it doesnt make a difference. how do i find a ready made external drive with firewire? anything from seagate? i'll have a look too, but if u can recommend something..im looking for a portable 2.5" drive..thanks again

EDIT: also, will USB 2.0 be fast enough for me to watch movies on? i mean, if i store movies on the drive, can i watch them off the external? fast enough?

 

u might be hard pressed to find one however:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-Freecom-M...ryZ16178QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

there are a few out there, however you'd just as well by a firewire enclosure and a internal hd. usb 2.0 is fine for watching movies- much faster than using a dvd etc.. if you dont find something cheap enough just message me and I might have one of my ones up for sale-

hope this helped

 

thanks a lot for that. apart from watching movies, i'd probably use it for storage, and taking it to class to run microsoft virtual pc images, and a classmate of mine does that on a USB external HDD, so all in all, i think usb should do for me..seagate freeagent go 160 gigs seems ideal for me..thanks for the help!