Need some basic hard drive advice

[DebBrown]

My son is asking for an external hard drive for Christmas. I have two for my computer but I only use them as backup. They are a bit slow with retrieval.

The question is whether or not the newer ones are fast and affordable? Would we be better off just adding another internal hard drive for him?

He will be using the drive for music, movies, photos, etc. and will want regular access, not just backup access.

Deb

 

[Icarus]

External drives are very affordable, even in large sizes these days.

For photos, videos, etc, it shouldn't really matter, but you can look for drives with 5400 RPM speeds, and it may be a tiny bit faster. Even that's not going to matter that much with an external drive.

You're really effectively limited by the speed of USB, so you really need a USB 2.0 port to make it work at a decent speed. Any computer purchased in the last several years is certain to have USB 2.0 ports.

If it doesn't have to be portable, the Seagate FreeAgent Pros come in large sizes, they are cheap, and are pretty nice drives.

-David

 

[DebBrown]

Thanks, David. I can see that they are affordable. I was just hoping that the affordable ones were fast enough. If speed isn't really an issue, then I'm shopping!

Deb

 

[dfjkl]

They should all be fast enough...what David said is pretty much the case, the interface is the most important. Otherwise...a drive is a drive is a drive pretty much. Buy what's cheap. If it's a "generic" branded external enclosure, I'd bet you there is a "name-brand" drive in it if you cracked the case.

 

[tlwmkw]

How do you back up you data with an external drive?

We have a Mac computer. How would you do this back up? I think this would be a good thing to avoid losing data (music and pictures). Anyone have any suggestions on how to do it? Thanks. tlwmkw

 

[Kal]

My son is asking for an external hard drive for Christmas. I have two for my computer but I only use them as backup. They are a bit slow with retrieval....

As an idea, it might be cheaper to network the two computers together. That way the network is available for backup and you create some separation for storage purposes. A router is probably cheaper than the external drive. Matter of fact, if both computers are on a single cable connection you may already be networked together.

 

[Icarus]

We have a Mac computer. How would you do this back up? I think this would be a good thing to avoid losing data (music and pictures). Anyone have any suggestions on how to do it? Thanks. tlwmkw

If you have a Mac, you should be using Time Machine, which is part of the system software.

-David

 

[Icarus]

Thanks, David. I can see that they are affordable. I was just hoping that the affordable ones were fast enough. If speed isn't really an issue, then I'm shopping!

Deb

Deb,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148235

They also come in 750G and 1TB sizes for not much more than that.

-David

 

[tlwmkw]

Thanks Icarus

I thought you would know about this. I intend to run out tomorrow and get a back up hard drive now. This web site is great!
tlwmkw

 

[3kids4me]

We use memory sticks at work to back things up. What's the difference between that and a hard drive? Is it just the amount of memory? Sticks are so easy to use!

 

[maddaug]

I have a Seagate Freeagent go for all my music for my Ipid and pics. It's fast, I love it and can't say anything else more about it.
One of my girls asked for one for her music, pics etc. I just ordered this one this morning from Newegg for her. I figure with college etc. she would like the smaller one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148339

Hope this helps.

 

[Icarus]

We use memory sticks at work to back things up. What's the difference between that and a hard drive? Is it just the amount of memory? Sticks are so easy to use!

Not much difference except for size and cost. Per GB cost of disk is much cheaper than flash memory.

Also flash memory has a limited number of writes, but it's large enough that it shouldn't make any difference to you. Usually it's around 100,000 writes, depending on the type of flash memory they use.

-David