External Hard Drive

[harmads]

Hi friends

I want to buy and external hard drive. I would appreciate someone enlightening me on what features to look for. Which brands are most reliable and offer longer warantee. Some idea of the prevailing prices. I want to use it for home use...data, music, videos etc to be shared by two users...Will 500Gb be enough ?

Thanks

 

[azaad_shri75]

*www.primeabgb.com/index.php?option...=shop.browse&category_id=71&Itemid=53

check above, 500gb would not be enough for two people, better go with 1tb and look for WD.

 

[ashu888ashu888]

External Hdds or portable Hdds are available either with the standard USB2.0 connectivity option (some with USB 2.0 and firewire 400) or with eSATA (wich is way faster than the prev. 2 i.e USB 2.0 and firewire 400 (a.k.a 1394a)

if u go for external hard disk upto 500GB, then it will NOT require a external power adapter and only the USB port will be required to power it up and also transfer data b/w the hdd and the PC/laptop

if u go for external hdds more than 500GB like say 750GB or 1TB (all 1TB drives come with a power adapter to power it up for data transfer) and also come with eSATA port

if speed (b/w transferring data) is not a priority, then u can opt for a 500GB external hdd with USB2.0 connectivity, wich will also reduce the hassle of carrying a power adapter along with it, but as its USB2.0 the data transfer will be damn slow if u are transferring large chunks of data in the range of 7-8GB per day, will take close to 2hrs (With eSATA, its like i hv done 100GB data transfer in 45mins flat) so u can see the difference...

if speed (b/w transferring data) is a priority and also the space, then u can opt for a 1TB ext hdd with eSATA (provided ur PC/lappy has an eSATA port, ofcourse)..

most of the brands are gr8, i recently purchased a Seagate BlackArmor WS 110 (1tb) ext hdd) With eSATA (the 1TB and eSATA were my main requirement) at the price of Rs.6.8K and its blazing fast and really working gr8... (u can see its pics in the core ix thread , link in my siggy)

so the choice will depend on u regarding:

1.) how much data u wanna transfer,
2.) if speed is a priority or no (wen transferring data more than 10+ GB at a time),
3.) ur budget.

as u hv mentioned tat u want to transfer (i read it at the last moment, sorry for tat) videos, music, data files etc.. then since its NOT tat high of a data transfer (as compared to game ISO's and/or hi def 1080p movies) u can go in for a USB2.0 powered 500GB ext hdd, that wud (i think) solve ur needs..
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Cheers n e-peace.....

 

[static_x]

External HDDs are available in 3.5" and 2.5" (Portable) sizes. The former needs an external power supply and the latter one needs none.

Seagate offers 5 Years warranty on its external drives while Western Digital offers 3 Years warranty. Service vise (and even performance vise) both are excellent.

I would not recommend any other brand for this especially Transcend as their service is extremely poor and you may have to run from pillar to post to get it replaced in case of any failures.

All the external HDDs come with USB connectivity and as ashu888ashu888 said if the data transfer speed is not the primary concern then you can easily opt for the USB connectivity HDDs, as they are cheaper than the ones which comes with USB/eSATA/FireWire etc.

There is one more option of using the Hard Disk Docking stations like :
*manilatimes.net/national/2008/dec/08/yehey/images/hardware2.jpg

These docking stations have both USB & eSATA connectivity options. It will cost you any thing between 1.5K-2K. The main advantage of such thing is that you can use your internal HDDs as an external drive and it is hot swappable.

If you need any further advice...post your question or PM Me...

 

[ashu888ashu888]

^^

rightly said, i think its better to go in for HDD enclosures rather than ext hdds..

to the op: buddy, static_x has good usage of docking stations, PM him so tat he can tell u how easy it is abt using the doscking station with 2 internal HDDs wich will be way cheaper than a single ext hdd..

 

[harmads]

Azaad, Ashu and Static...thanks for your inputs. Appreciate it.

Best regards