 Need Advice On Buying A Good External Hardrive |
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 Jul 1 2008, 10:24 AM
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 Forum Regular  Group: Members Posts: 219 Joined: 15-February 07 Member No.: 111,874  |
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?s...o%3D2&fgtp= This post has been edited by chugg: Jul 1 2008, 10:46 AM |
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Jul 1 2008, 10:34 AM
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#2
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 Forum Addict Group: HJT Junior Classmen Posts: 3,283 Joined: 7-January 07 From: UK Member No.: 105,123 |
Hello chugg,
There are many places to purchase an external hard drive, you could even buy an internal and convert it to external. I wouldn't recommend using ebay as you don't know what state the disk is in to start with or anything about its history. For that reason it is usually best to go with an online retailer or an electronics shop/store. http://www.ebuyer.com/ http://www.newegg.com/ -------------------- Regards
Alan |
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Jul 1 2008, 10:48 AM
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#3
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Forum Regular Group: Members Posts: 219 Joined: 15-February 07 Member No.: 111,874 |
Thanks for the advice. But I am actually looking for advice on what unit to actually buy since I am not computer savy.
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Jul 1 2008, 10:55 AM
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#4
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arachibutyrophobia Group: BC Advisor Posts: 4,187 Joined: 4-March 05 From: Northern CA. Member No.: 13,532 |
Because you are going to be connecting this to a laptop I would suggest that you purchase a external drive that has it's own power supply, like this one at Newegg.
I wouldn't shop on ebay, from what I've seen you can better deals on new components from Newegg or Tiger Direct. If you have a problem with what your purchase from ebay it can quickly become a hassle. From personal experience I know that Newegg's customer support is one of the best, they RMAed my optical drive that was a month out of warranty! -------------------- May we please have a little chlorine in the gene pool?
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Jul 1 2008, 06:21 PM
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#5
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 Bleeping Hacker Group: BC Advisor Posts: 1,881 Joined: 14-April 04 From: Texas Member No.: 151 |
I really like the Western Digital stuff so I will point you to this:
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/...asp?DriveID=391 Maxtor One Touch Mini: http://www.maxstore.com/product.asp?sku=3847588 On a personal note, I don't know what data you will be using this drive for, but 500G seems like overkill. -------------------- |
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Jul 1 2008, 07:19 PM
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#6
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Forum Addict Group: Members Posts: 5,011 Joined: 3-September 05 From: Killeen, TX Member No.: 33,068 |
I will only add that...hard drive prices are (IMO) very inexpensive now and to me it makes little sense to pay almost as much for a smaller drive...as you would pay for a large one.
When reflecting on the amount of hard space you want, you should remember that...many of us (at one time) thought that a 120GB hard drive was very large and would never be used to capacity. That all changed when users became adept at saving music files, video files, and system backups (all of which will result in accumulating a series of files considerably large). Consider your habits now...and what they are likely to be in the future...and then decide whether it's wise to buy a smaller hard drive. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Ca...ame=Hard-Drives FWIW: SATA drives will be faster than IDE drives in terms of accessing and moving data. This may or may not be significant for you. I would never buy a hard drive on eBay, considering how cheap and available they are from reliable retailers (with a warranty). Louis This post has been edited by hamluis: Jul 1 2008, 07:21 PM |
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Jul 2 2008, 03:49 PM
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#7
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Forum Regular Group: Members Posts: 219 Joined: 15-February 07 Member No.: 111,874 |
That is some great advice! Thats why I ask the experts : ) Very good point Hamluis. Thanks again guys!
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Jul 2 2008, 06:45 PM
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#8
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Forum Regular Group: Members Posts: 219 Joined: 15-February 07 Member No.: 111,874 |
Wow thats a great site thanks! I bought the
Western digital 250gb passport .59 thick 3.13 with Length 4.96 Order – p9917133 Then they had great prices in gps systems so I got the Garmin StreetPilot C550 GPS Navigation Thanks guys for everything! |
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Jul 11 2008, 08:34 PM
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#9
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Forum Regular Group: Members Posts: 219 Joined: 15-February 07 Member No.: 111,874 |
Ok now I cant figure out how to backup my whole computer with the and the instructions do not tell you. Does anyone know how I can do this?
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Jul 11 2008, 08:40 PM
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#10
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Forum Addict Group: HJT Junior Classmen Posts: 3,283 Joined: 7-January 07 From: UK Member No.: 105,123 |
These may prove useful.
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/ http://www.disk-image.net/ http://www.drive-backup.com/home/personal/ http://www.symantec.com/norton/ghost -------------------- Regards
Alan |
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Jul 11 2008, 09:05 PM
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#11
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Forum Regular Group: Members Posts: 219 Joined: 15-February 07 Member No.: 111,874 |
There is no free way to backup my whole computer on my new removable hard drive?
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Jul 11 2008, 10:46 PM
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#12
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Bleeping Hacker Group: BC Advisor Posts: 1,881 Joined: 14-April 04 From: Texas Member No.: 151 |
Windows Backup is free.Here's the how-to:
http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/xpbackup.htm -------------------- |
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Jul 12 2008, 08:50 AM
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#13
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Forum Addict Group: Members Posts: 5,011 Joined: 3-September 05 From: Killeen, TX Member No.: 33,068 |
If you could provide a link to the drive you bought, it would be helpful.
Some external drives come with backup software for that drive, but many do not. Many users just use a 3d-party application (e.g., Acronis True Image) to actually do and access the backups. As mentioned, XP has a backup program which works, but has some features missing that other backup solutions offer. WindowsXP Tips, Installing NTBackup on XP Home - http://www.onecomputerguy.com/windowsxp_tips.htm Using NTBackup in XP - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308422 Using XP Backup - http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:u1Ryg...+disk&hl=en NB: XP's backup cannot be made directly to CD/DVD...must be made to hard drive first, then use program to burn to DVD/CD (if you go that route). Louis |
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Jul 12 2008, 10:26 AM
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#14
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 Computer Masochist Group: Moderator Posts: 6,406 Joined: 27-January 07 From: Cleveland, Ohio Member No.: 108,618 |
QUOTE(chugg @ Jul 11 2008, 10:05 PM)  There is no free way to backup my whole computer on my new removable hard drive? If one of the hard drives is a Seagate they have a free tool in the download section of their support site. I think it's called Disk Wizard This post has been edited by garmanma: Jul 12 2008, 10:27 AM -------------------- Mark
 why won't my laptop work? Having grandkids is God's way of giving you a 2nd chance because you were too busy working your butt off the 1st time around Avatar by Handplane |
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Jul 12 2008, 05:28 PM
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#15
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Bleeping Hacker Group: BC Advisor Posts: 1,881 Joined: 14-April 04 From: Texas Member No.: 151 |
chugg posted it is a Western Digital Passport. Unfortunately that drive only comes
with WD Sync, and from the posts I've read it's not very good as it only allows you to "sync" your data between for example your home and work computer. -------------------- |
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