Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

Re: Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

You could also look at an eSATA external. Exactly as fast as an internal (it's SATA bus, not USB/Firewire) while being external. Most also have other options (like USB) when you do take it to a PC without eSATA.

Re: Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

You can do anything with an external drive that you can do with an internal one. And that does include installing an OS onto it and sharing it over a network. I would say that if you have any intention of moving the drive around at all, just go ahead and get an external one.

As far as what hard drive to get, I usually just look for where the price break is and buy at there. A quick glance at Newegg makes the 500's look the best.

Re: Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

Hmm, well, this one has *a lot* of good reviews, so it's topping my list:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817145656

I really like that built in 80mm fan to keep the drive cool.

Re: Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

Personally I'd recommend a case without a fan, but made out of Aluminium. All-metal cases dissipate heat better, and no fan keeps the noise down. A 7200rpm drive doesn't really get THAT hot, unless you do something profoundly dumb like burying it under a lot of other stuff or some such.

Just pay attention to what the case is, ie if it is a sata case or a parallel ATA case. If it is the latter (like the case linked to above here) you must also get the PATA drive to go with it, not sata.

Re: Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

I like the MyBooks because they are pretty. Only the more expensive ones are metal though, the cheaper ones are plastic.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136047

Re: Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

eSATA is really what you want if you can get it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817145167

Most of the enclosures linked above are USB/Firewire. So they will have the same bottleneck as the USB bus (pooled) or FireWire (better, as Point to Point, but still much slower). eSATA is BY FAR the fastest, and because it's native SATA, you get all of those benefits as well.

http://news.com.com/2100-1041-6144673.html?tag=tb

So, eSATA almost 10X+ faster then USB2.0.

Which would you prefer?

Re: Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

Meanwhile, USB2 has no problems pushing data through at 30+MB, and most hard drives themselves can only go somewhat higher than that - and that is under optimal conditions with large files on a system that does nothing else.

Yes, SATA with or without e is a lot faster, but since they're still moving data to and from a clunky mechanical device like a hard drive it doesn't really matter more than very very slightly, and USB2 is a lot more ubiquitous and for that matter user friendly.

Re: Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

I bought a Seagate external hard drive a couple of months ago.
Plugged it in via the USB and changed it from fat32 to NTSC and it works great for playing HD movies off of it.
I was thinking if I bought a internal drive I'd have to upgrade my power supply.
Now I see the externals are even cheaper this month . I might just go for another one.

Re: Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

These older Seagate eSATA only drives, if you can find them, come with a PCI/PCI-(X, i think it was) card, quite handy for desktops. There's a 300gb and 500gb model. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...611774-4077438

Re: Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

Look into the Seagate Barracuda series. They are great quality, fast, quiet drives. I can't even hear mine, unless I put my ear up to it. And I'm 16, with perfect hearing, so hearing loss isn't a factor in it being quiet.

Re: Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

If I may borrow this thread for a related question...

I've bought a new computer, a Mac laptop. I'd like to pull the 160GB IDE drive from my old computer, put it in an external enclosure and use it as a USB external drive.

The links given so far have been helpful, but are there any details or issues to watch for in getting an enclosure for a normal, 3.5" internal HD?

What about forward compatibility? If I fill the 160GB drive and want to buy a new drive to swap with? The world has gone SATA or PATA or something?

Re: Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

ATA or PATA is the same thing. Also, ATA-100 or ATA-133. They differ mildly on top speed (the latter two) but a drive will work on either. Also known as IDE. Your basic ribbon cable with a wide connector.

SATA is the newer format. Still, the older ATA type drives are still available now. I'm considering buying a new 750GB drive in the parallel format myself to fill an external case that used to hold a 100 gig drive. In time, the choice in the ATA variant will definitely drop a lot, but it will be some time still before they cease making them entirely.

Since a cheap external case will set you back a few tens of dollars, it's not like it would be the end of the world if you wanted a bigger external. You'd probably be better off in fact just leaving the 160 in the case you get now and buy a new external drive or drive+case later.

Re: Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

The issue, though is that USB is a shared bus. You have 480Mbps divided amongst all the items on your bus, so if you've got a ton of USB devices, USB polling kills you. Plus, USB CPU usage is way higher then eSATA.

Re: Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

SATA hard drives are also a lot faster than ATA and PATA.

Re: Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

Actually, no, the SATA and PATA drives of the same generation have the same mechanical components in them, the only difference is the bus type. The bus type is faster, but since the bottleneck is essentially in the mechanical performance it matters a lot less than one would think for sheer performance reasons, at least for current generation 7200rpm drives.

SATA has many other advantages - it is hotswappable, so you can plug and unplug one without causing damage, and the cables are much smaller so they don't clutter up a computer as much, but IMHO USB2 is fine for external drives.

I'm not knocking eSATA either, but if one has USB2 but doesn't have eSATA, there seems to be little reason to go out of ones way and pay money to get eSATA in the machine first and then an eSATA enclosure for the majority of people.

Re: Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

Yes. Considering that you're pulling the drive from a laptop, I'd say that you want a case for a normal, 2.5" internal HD. (Standard laptop size is 2.5".)

That gives you some smaller cases to choose from ...

Re: Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

Jean, glad you like the MyBook! I took advantage of that sale myself, so I finally have a drive dedicated exclusively to automatic backups (running Retrospect Express HD in "copy" mode twice a week). It is my second MyBook.

You know, the Essential edition MyBooks may have fewer kinds of connectors, but they have the lovely green illuminated circle on the front. You may get more connectors if you buy the Premium edition MyBooks, but the Premiums have an ugly blue illuminated circle on the front. Green is better. For me, anyway.

Re: Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons)

I only have experience with Retrospect Express HD, so my description is limited to that product (which I bought online from Retrospect's website). I looked at many other backup programs before choosing this one.

I first chose whether Retrospect Express HD should "back up" in a proprietary format (which has an advantage of being very compressed and of having multiple "restore points"), or whether it should simply "copy" files. I decided I'd like it to simply copy files, because that way if my computer ever got stolen but my MyBook was left behind, I could simply plug the MyBook into a new computer and everything would be available without needing to buy another copy of Retrospect to decode the proprietary format. And I don't feel a need for multiple restore points because my intention here is simply to be protected from hard drive failure, not from computer viruses.

The first time I ran it, I assigned which drives I wanted it to back up -- C, D, and an external F (my other MyBook, a 320GB) in my case. All of which could easily fit on the 500GB MyBook. You asked if I was backing up media/documents or applications, the answer is everything. I believe you could specify individual folders if you don't want to copy entire drives, but there was room enough that I did not have to be choosy. Besides there are always things you don't realize you need -- saved games, fonts, wallpapers, stuff like that tends to be forgotten if you don't choose it all.

It took a few hours to run the first time, as you can imagine it was copying everything. But then from that point forward, it only takes a few minutes since it only looks for what has been changed; it runs in the background and I honestly have not noticed it runnings its check on what files have been added/modified/deleted. I have it set to check twice a week.

If I look at my MyBook, it has folders named "Backup of C", "Backup of D", "Backup of F" on it. It is just a reproduction of what it on my computer and my other external hard drive. Simple enough.