BleepingComputer.com: A Qestion About External Hard Drives For Xp

Hello,
I have a windows XP and its just a general standard about 37.2 gbs with only 971 mbs of free space left. I like to play games on the computer which at minimum are 2gbs and I currently have none on there because of the space issue. I've been told getting an external hard drive would be easier than getting an internal hard drive. The reason I want one is to be able to put games on there that would take up 8gbs of space. Would buying a seagate external hard drive USB 2.0 250gb-320gb allow me to put these games on my computer?




also what is :

an IDE or SATA interface.
& FAT32

thankyou

FAT32 and NTFS are the file systems used in Windows. XP USUALLY is formatted NTFS
IDE drives use the flat ribbon cable. SATA is smaller round cable
There's nothing hard about adding a 2nd internal drive, if that's your choice
If you purchase a SATA external case, you need a compatible SATA drive. The same goes for IDE. Both will connect to the computer with a USB cable
Mark

This post has been edited by garmanma: 19 December 2007 - 02:46 PM

You actually get a better buy if you just add a drive internally to your existing system.

It's not hard, only requirement is an existing cable connection or an IDE or SATA port that supports an IDE or SATA hard drive addition to the system.

SATA drives are faster than IDE/PATA drives and (probably) are relatively cheaper now.

You need to look at your system and the manual for it to see whether or not it supports SATA drives, before buying any for internal additions.

You also need to ensure that your system supports USB 2.0 if you are going the external drive route. Only reason I add that is the fact that I haven't seen a 40GB hard drive in some time as standard equipment on anything but a laptop.

Louis

the only thing that matches the IDE thing mentioned earlier was IDE ATA/ATAPI controlers and i found that under device manager.

I'm thinking i may like the internal drive better, if you guys think it would be easier to put games on there.

For additional storage, one method is just as easy as the other.

But direct connection within a system will be faster data transfer and slightly less of a hassle (since you don't have to consider whether the external drive is connected or not).

The key thing is to make sure that you have an empty IDE/SATA slot (or an empty place on an existing IDE cable) to connect the drive to the motherboard...and that you have a power supply that has leads capable of attaching to the drive.

There's probably some other consideration but that's all I can think of .

FWIW: Your IDE/ATAPI controllers are for any PATA/IDE hard drives and CD/DVD devices which are connected to the motherboard.

Louis

ok thanks