looking for an external hard drive

ok, i dont know if i should just make my own, or buy one already made. but anyways my budget is $200 max. i want a good hard drive, with a good amount of space. ill be using the drive for backing up my dvds mainly, just cause i have a good hard drive in my laptop for papers and things.

it doesnt have to be the smallest thing, but not some huge drive. i also dont need all those extras like lights or anything. please help me out, cause i wanna have something i can put next to my laptop, but not take up an entire side of the desk. thanks for the help

 

200$ is a huge budget. You can get a 500GB hard drive for that price. Most hard drives are the same (choose high GB, high RPM, and high cache, usually 16mb)

Make sure it has a decent warranty. Also, get an enclosure for it.

 

Hmmm...You can get it cheaper if you build it yourself, but if you are lazy like me I would buy it already built. I would defintely go a newest computer hardware store like Fry's Electronics or Best Buy to see the different varieties. And see which one fits for you.

 

what kind of enclosure would i get? all i see is IDE on ewiz.com. and where could i get some other enclosures for pretty cheap?

 

i'm using NexStar 3. It is excellent performance. You can find thatsome of models can support 2.5" and 3.5" PATA, IDE and e-SATA. Not really expensive. This is the website to see:
www.vantecusa.com

 

is IDE Ultra ATA100/133 the same as IDE? and are IDE and S/ATA the same connection?

sorry if these seem like stupid questions

 

this seems good..just need an enclosure

hard drive

i was thinking either a coolmax enclosure, or a vantec enclosure
coolmax
vantec

 

i just thought about something...do all external drives need power supply?

 

I think all 3.5" need external power, however, I believe some 2.5" will run off USB.

I am fairly positive that IDE Ultra ATA100/133 = IDE.

I build myself a 160GB external drive for about 80$.

This is the enclosure I used.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817155211

My HD is a 160GB Seagate, 7200 RPM, 8MB cache.

It works great, was cheap, and lights up blue!

An advantage to buying pre-built though is that you probably get some kind of warranty, which would be nice.

 

Yea all of the 3.5" will need some sort of power supply. And I think most of the 2.5" could run on the USB. But I have seen some with power adapters.

 

Most 2.5" USB enclosures are going to need two USB ports, one for the data and one for power. The 3.5" ones will probably have an AC adapter for power and a USB or firewire for the data.

 

I was thinking on getting one external HDD. I've one question: I know that for 100€ I can get a 200GB with a separate case of 3'5" and mount it or a 80-100GB with a case of 2'5".
I don't know what is the better deal. It'll be at home and only ocasinally to carry with me. I know that 3'5" could be a huge device ( weight and measures) but the amount of GB is welcome.

 

It really depends on how much you plan on moving it around. Personally, I store all my movies and DVD rips on my external hard drive, so the 2.5" is nice because it's smaller and doesn't need an AC adapter to power it when on the road. However, if you're not going to move it much and are only going to store stuff on it that you'll need when near a wall outlet, then I'd go with the 3.5" for the extra storage. I'm considering getting a 3.5" to keep all of my programs and images on it to leave at home.

 

regular drives are 3.5", laptop drives are 2.5"

2.5" drives are slower, more expensive and have lower capacity, but are smaller and do not require external power supply

3.5" drives are faster, cheaper, have greater capacity, but may be noisier, are bigger and require an external PS. 3.5" drives need to be quiet - it is a LOT easier to hear them and feel vibration when the drive is in an enclosure when it's in the PC.

SATA drives will not work in "IDE" or ATA/PATA enclosures (and vice versa).

I suggest "building" an external drive yourself. It takes 10-15 min at most even if you haven't done it before.

You can have 320GB IDE/ATA133 drive and 3.5" enclosure for way under $150.

Something to look for in an enclosure: 1) Make sure it's aluminium 2) Make sure there's a power switch on it

I have a 200GB Seagate in a generic USB2 aluminium enclosure. Seagate is very quiet and does not vibrate at all. Speed is limited by the USB2 interface, not the drive. Seagate is much better that Maxtor/Quantum/WD I've tried before.

 

yea, i was looking at a seagate, with an enclosure. pretty hard to find a good one around $20-30

 

Best Buy has an excellent deal on a Maxtor 300GB Drive 7200 RPM, 16MB Cache, USB/Firewire. It was normally $280 but its on sale this week for $150. I just went out and bought one for backing up my DVD's and it works great!

 

Leshii summed it up great!

I would recomend a 3.5 if your not going to carry it around with you.
If you want something portable, get a 2.5" portable drive.

I use a network share to backup ALL my data.
I use a 120GB 3.5" for stationary backup.
And when traveling, I use a 40GB 2.5".

GL

 

thats nice. i might run by best buy later today, and pick it up

 

In CompUSA, I got an accomdata 250GB 7200rpm USB2 External HDD for only $99...last week.