Question about internal and external hard drives

I currently own a Dell Inspiron 1520 with only a 160GB internal hard drive. That capacity is basically depleted at this point. I'm wondering what would be the best bet given me laptop. Should I get an external hard drive or an internal one? Most of my space is taken up from music and media of the like.

 

I would go for an internal drive, unless you like to carry all of your media around and play it on a lot of different computers.

 

My only issue is transferring over all my things from my current hard drive to the new hard drive if I put a new one in internally.

 

If I decide to go with an external hard drive what size and recommendations would you all make?

 

I suggest you buy a new 500GB hard drive; Seagate Momentus XT, WD Scorpio Black or Hitachi 7K500. The Seagate is the fastest by far.

Also buy a 2.5" USB enclosure (about $10-$15). Put the new 500GB in the enclosure (temporarily). Then download the trial version of Acronis True Image. Clone your existing hard drive to the external hard drive. Then switch hard drives and you're ready to go.

(For optimal performance a clean install would be best.)

 

Sounds simple enough. When I clone the hard drive is it pretty simple? And as far as taking out the existing hard drive is there some where that has a tutorial or something of the sort?

My only concern really is making sure I don't lose what I have on my existing hard drive.

 

Cloning with Acronis is very easy.

 

Good to know.

Now say I want to go with an external hard drive around 320-500GB. Which one(s) would you guys recommend?

 

Honestly, I would get both an internal AND an external HDD.
You always need to have a backup.

So, get a 1TB portable external HDD, and a 500-750GB internal HDD.
Image your current HDD to the 1TB portable HDD, put in the 500GB HDD and image it back.

 

If you want to get an external I'd get an Seagate 2.5" 640GB.

But I would recommend upgrading you internal storage instead, it will do wonders for your performance.

You can use the 160GB you have now as external.

 

i'd suggest u upgrade the internal drive.. it will be much cheaper than an external and even way more snapier.

 

I understand. Thing is my laptop is fairly old and not sure if it's really worth attempting to upgrade it right now..

 

I don't know about cheaper. I can find external hard drives on amazon cheaper than internal ones.

 

I understand your concern but WD5000bekt only costs $72.

And did you know that even a netbook with Atom CPU benefits from a 7200rpm hard drive?
Like here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...l-wd1600bekt-review-real-life-benchmarks.html

 

Where are you finding it for $72?

 

I found it on Google shopping: Western Digital Scorpio Black WD5000BEKT Hard Drive

 

So even for the time being before I swap hard drives I can use this WD as an external one as long as I have the enclosure?

 

And if so, does it use a usb port? And if not, how do I clone my original hard drive to the new one?

 

And will this enclosure work?

Amazon.com: 2.5" USB 2.0 SATA Hard Drive HDD Case Enclosure - Silver:…

 

Yes. Good deal too.

 

So will my Inspiron 1520 be compatible with this new hard drive?

 

Can anyone confirm this for me?

 

Yes, it will work.

 

How will cloning work with my "Recovery" partition?

 

You can clone to whole HDD, every partition included.

 

I'd go against the tide and say that if the laptop is already kinda old, get a new external and leave the old internal alone. This is with the assumption that you'll carry the external if necessary. I say this because you can probably offload a fair amount of junk off your internal that you never use and not have to mess with the hardware or cloning if you're not comfortable with the process. A larger hard drive will not extend the life of a laptop or improve performance any more than offloading data and reformatting would.

 

I think I agree with you on that one. I was thinking of getting that WD 500GB and getting the enclosure for it and use it as a external one for the time being then maybe looking into putting it into my laptop once I feel more comfortable doing so. Will the WD work well as an external for the time being? Or are there better ones or better external ones?

 

I play devil's advocate left and right, so make sure you consider what everyone else said as well. One thing I'd be cautious of with external drives is that if you keep plugging/unplugging the connectors to access often used data, at some point either the adapter board or the cable will fail and you'll need to get a new enclosure. 2.5" enclosures don't usually have any kind of an off switch, and also tend to use the flimsiest of connectors. Drives also don't seem to last as long in an enclosure, so putting a brand spanking new drive into an enclosure might not be the best choice. I usually put drives I don't really need anymore or need to access more than once in a while into enclosures.

I'm a tech geek at heart, so I've got bare drives (2.5" and 3.5", from 40GB to 640GB) lying around with the adapter perpetually plugged into one. However, this really isn't practical or advisable for most people.

Amazon.com: Apricorn Drivewire Universal HDD Adapter USB To 2.5IN & 3.5IN Sata & Pata: Electronics

 

So are you advising I get an external hard drive then? (not putting an internal one into an enclosure). And what is the Drivewire used for exactly?

 

And honestly, I can't imagine replacing the hard drive in my inpsiron to be that difficult. I was more concerned about the cloning part, but it seems simple enough.

Bottom line, I need some kind of extra storage. I've really depleted what I have on my current 160GB internal hard drive.

 

This topic can show you how you can free up disk space quickly:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...ws-7-small-possible-freeing-up-diskspace.html

 

That's good to know.

I'm still interested in a hard drive of sorts. Mainly because like I mentioned a lot of my space is consumed by media.

 

My question is will you be transporting the laptop around a lot and be needing to transport an external drive with you? If not, you should just go with an external 3.5" drive. They are a lot cheaper for the space offered.

 

Not too often. My laptop is usally pretty stationary because it's being used as sort of a desktop replacement. Seeing as I have an external mouse, keyboard and monitor. I do take it with me time to time for class/meetings. Otherwise not too often.

 

It still wouldn't be a bad idea to upgrade the internal storage space. It's inexpensive, and it will allow you to carry more of your files with you, and it will speed up your machine significantly. Storage really is the bottleneck of most machines any more, even in the last 4-5 years.

 

So what would your recommendation be for my situation?

 

If you can handle the cloning, and it's really not that bad if you plan ahead and read up in advance, go for it. I just like to push people's buttons and make sure their choices are more informed rather than relying on a one-sided argument (even if I wouldn't necessarily suggest what I discuss).

 

If you have the money, go for a SSD for speed, although getting a larger one than 160gb will set you back a few hundred dollars. If you really just want simple memory that is still quick to access yet affordable. Get the WD Scorpio Black or the Seagate Momentus.

I personally chose the WD Scorpio because of the 5yr warranty and it still shows strong performance for about the same cost as the Seagate. I am putting it in an enclosure that supports power over eSATA so I get the speed of eSATA connection with a single cable. (Most external portable drives either use USB 2.0 which maxes out at under 500mb/s or they use eSATA for data xfer but require an additional USB connection for power. If you want to know more about this check out: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-enclosure-supports-power-combo-usb-port.html

 

I understand and appreciate it. As you can probably tell, I've been asking a lot of questions to ensure that I am informed and choose wisely.

 

Yeah, I too am leaning towards the WD Scorpio for price and performance. So are you planning on replacing your laptop hard drive or is it going to be used as an external hard drive?

As for eSATA, is that something a laptop would need to be compatible with?

 

Yes it is. Your Inspiron 1520 would not appear to come with eSATA, so you're stuck with USB 2.0, unless you got an eSATA Expresscard solution. There's also the option of getting a Firewire enclosure, which might transfer files a bit faster, but the enclosure would almost certainly need to be plugged in to a wall outlet (most PC Firewire connectors don't supply power).

 

Would getting an eSATA Expresscard solution be worth it? Do I lose much with the adapter?

 

I've used both an ExpressCard and a CardBUS eSATA adaptor and highly recommend them. Both much faster than USB 2 by a long shot.

How much faster are they? Fast enough to use a Raptor effectively as a scratch disk for PS on a notebook.

 

So correct me if I'm wrong, the ExpressCard is used when you are using the hard drive externally?

 

Exactly.

The ExpressCard provided the notebook with one or two eSATA connectors - but remember that you'll still need to power the HD externally (eSATA does not provide power - just DATA).

 

I see, and how would one go about powering the HD externally typically?

How would this work:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardware-components-aftermarket-upgrades/349325-esata-external-hard-drive-enclosure-supports-power-combo-usb-port.html

 

You mentioned one possible way (combo USB/eSATA port). This is simply an eSATA port combined with a USB port (which can provide power) to power an appropriate external eSATA drive.

The other ways is simply a 'Y' cable with one being eSATA and the other being USB (no data - simply power).

The third way is a separate power supply for the external HD to power it up. This is what I've used most and has been the most dependable.

 

I see. So what exactly is the difference between the combo and the Y cable? And when you say separate power supply could you elaborate a little?

 

Is Acronis True Image preferable over Norton Ghost? How long does it take Acronis to clone a drive? It sounds like this may be a better solution than backing up a drive then restoring that backup to the new drive.

 

i'd use acronis anytime.. its much easier to use and simpler...