SOLVED Need advice on external drive

[catilley1092]

Since buying this desktop, I've relied on a 160GB WD drive (model WDME1600TE) that was bought to backup my laptops with. But now, I'm being squeezed for space on it. I have 2 Win 2K, 2 XP Pro and 2 Windows 7 backups on it. Needless to say, I need a drive solely for my desktop. WD's are popular due to price, Seagate is a little higher in cost, but is backed by a 5 year warranty. My desktop drive is 320GB, but only 200GB of it is used for Windows, 212GB if you count the recovery partition. Would a 320GB drive be fine, and if so, does anyone know if the Seagate is a better option? I don't mind spending an extra $20 or so, this is a small drive here. Then, I could use the other for what I bought it for, my remaining laptop. I'm planning on buying one at Wal-Mart tomorrow, these are my choices there.

 

[Nibiru2012]

If you're going to get a new hard drive might as well get as much bang for the buck and get at least a 500GB to a 750GB. They're not that much higher than a 320GB drive, maybe $10-20 more from I could tell at Newegg.com.

You may want to consider a Samsung F1 Spinpoint or a Western Digital Black Caviar drive. Both those brands, depending on model, usually get 5 eggs out of 5 ratings.

Get as much capacity as you can afford, at least a 500GB. You won't regret it.

 

[clifford_cooley]

One other point to consider.

• Western Digital
• Seagate
• Maxtor

They have a free version of Acronis for a backup solution. If the free version doesn't come with the drive you can download it no problem.

Edit:
When it comes to Computers, Walmart is expensive. Do as Nibiru suggest and order through Newegg or Tigerdirect. There are other places but those are my two favorites

 

[catilley1092]

One other point to consider.

• Western Digital
• Seagate
• Maxtor

They have a free version of Acronis for a backup solution. If the free version doesn't come with the drive you can download it no problem.

My WD drive came with this software, and something else called "sync", where they claim you can take your PC with you to use on another computer, w/o leaving a trace on the other computer. That Seagate looks good for the price, WD has a one year warranty, while Seagate has five years. Nibiru has a point, too. I'll compare prices, if a 500GB doesn't cost much more, I'll go with it. I'll also check with one of those above suggested sites on the price. If there's a significant savings, I'll go with one of them.

 

[Nibiru2012]

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache

$55.99 @ Newegg Free Shipping


Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache

$74.99 @ Newegg Free Shipping

 

[clifford_cooley]

Nibiru has a point, too. I'll compare prices, if a 500GB doesn't cost much more, I'll go with it.

That is precisely why I would not even consider buying a drive less than 500GB

Which is also the dilemma I am facing with the SSD drives. A 32GB SSD drive is just over $100. I'm holding off for them to drop below $80. I'm starting to think they will see the end of manufacturing before that happens. Anyway by the time the price drops for the 32GB drive, the 64GB drive will not be much higher in price for twice the space. After its all said and finished, the 32GB drive is all I'm wanting but I'll probably end up with a 64GB drive.

 

[catilley1092]

I checked at Tiger Direct and Newegg, and Tiger has the best prices by far. Plus, I'm sort of leaning toward Seagate, with the five year warranty. The one I'm looking at is $79.99. I may look some more, but I think I've found what I want. Thanks to both of you.

 

[catilley1092]

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache

$55.99 @ Newegg Free Shipping
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache

$74.99 @ Newegg Free Shipping

Nibiru, these are INTERNAL drives, not backup ones!

 

[catilley1092]

I found and bought one on eBay, it's a new one. A Seagate Free Agent XTreme 500GB for $90. That includes everything, a 5 year warranty, USB and Firewire 400 cables (whatever that is). The dude has over 3,000 transactions with a 100% rating, that's good for me. There was another new one, the same thing, but 640GB. But the dude had only 4 transactions. I don't buy from newbies on the scene. I actually was going to buy one from Tiger, it was $79.99. But with shipping and taxes, it was over $104, and it didn't look as good either. Then I went to Seagate direct, they were even higher there. So I went to where I knew I would get the deal, eBay. I know that there's those who doesn't care for them, but if you're a smart shopper, and stay away from used or refurbs, you can save big. I looked it up on Seagate's site, that model is pushed as one of their better ones. Well, I'll find out sometime next week. That shiny black finish matches my desktop, too.

 

[Veedaz]

Cat wrote

A Seagate Free Agent XTreme 500GB for $90

Thats a very good price Cat well done :beer:

 

[elitetech]

I would say to look for a cheap and affordable hard drive at your selection of brands.. I would check up on slickdeals.net. This forum shows where you can get the best deals on anything!!.. Plus sign up for ebates.com and bing at the same time while your doing this so you can also get cash back.. Walmart is having a .97 deal on shipping. Save the gas and sit on your butt and shop smart

 

[Nibiru2012]

Time to read up on Firewire then. It's also called a IEEE 1394 connection.

 

[Nibiru2012]

Nibiru, these are INTERNAL drives, not backup ones!

I always use internal drives for backup! I KNOW WHAT I AM DOING! OKAY?

I just put them in an external case and go from there or I leave them in the tower case. I don't want the fancy software and crap that come with these "so-called" backup drives. Plus I USE eSATA connections. I don't like laptops because they're weak in the hardware department and my hands are too big for the keyboards.

I was just trying to steer you in a good direction, whatever gimmick you want to buy is your choice.

Tiger Direct will charge you sales tax because their affiliated with Best Buy

You could have gotten a 500GB internal hard drive, and external case with all cables and power supply for less at Newegg than you spent on ebay!

 

[Nibiru2012]

That is precisely why I would not even consider buying a drive less than 500GB

Which is also the dilemma I am facing with the SSD drives. A 32GB SSD drive is just over $100. I'm holding off for them to drop below $80. I'm starting to think they will see the end of manufacturing before that happens. Anyway by the time the price drops for the 32GB drive, the 64GB drive will not be much higher in price for twice the space. After its all said and finished, the 32GB drive is all I'm wanting but I'll probably end up with a 64GB drive.

Newegg is having a big SSD sale today. An OCZ Vertex 30GB SSD for $79 after rebate and free shipping.

OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX30GXXX 2.5" 30GB SATA II MLC

Sequential Access - Read Up to 230 MB/s
Sequential Access - Write Up to 135MB/s
Sustained Write: Up to 80MB/s
MTBF 1,500,000 hours

 

[catilley1092]

I always use internal drives for backup! I KNOW WHAT I AM DOING! OKAY?

I just put them in an external case and go from there or I leave them in the tower case. I don't want the fancy software and crap that come with these "so-called" backup drives. Plus I USE eSATA connections. I don't like laptops because they're weak in the hardware department and my hands are too big for the keyboards.

I was just trying to steer you in a good direction, whatever gimmick you want to buy is your choice.

Tiger Direct will charge you sales tax because their affiliated with Best Buy

You could have gotten a 500GB internal hard drive, and external case with all cables and power supply for less at Newegg than you spent on ebay!

That's good, if you know what you're doing. I'm not much on building computers or backup drives. I haven't even swapped a drive in a computer yet. Hopefully, it will be awhile before I have to. By the way, that drive that I bought for $89 would have costed $174, had I bought it direct from Seagate. That's a good buy.

 

[Nibiru2012]

If you can change the oil in your car you can build a computer! It really is that easy.

 

[catilley1092]

I got my external drive Friday, and am pleased with it's performance. It has USB, Firewire ports (2), and a eSata port. But my desktop only has USB Ports. The drive came with a Firewire cable. I've seen adaptors to USB for as little a $3. Are these adaptors safe to use? And is there a cable that has an eSata plug on one end and a USB 2.0 on the other? The USB port on it is a 1.1, just as my portable one has. Windows 7 backup completed in 40 minutes, Macrium completed in less than 10 (in XML format), the included software was so slow that I stopped the backup. In five minutes, only 40MB had been copied. But I'm satisfied with Macrium, I restored XP Pro and Win 2K in a matter of minutes with my portable drive, and I'm 100% satisfied with Macrium. There was another member on here that was concerned over the XML format, it's checked by default when running the backup.

 

[clifford_cooley]

I think you are mistaken about the USB 1.1 specs.

The drive you have is a USB 2.0 drive.

Interfaces - USB 2.0|FireWire 400|eSATA , 1 x Hi-Speed USB , 2 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire) , 1 x eSATA-300

Read more here - Seagate FreeAgent Xtreme (500GB)

If you do not have Firewire or eSATA on your computer, using USB converter's will not benefit you any greater than using the USB cable connection.

Ohh and the firewire transfer rates are close to the same as USB 2.0. The true benefit would be eSATA.

 

[catilley1092]

Clifford, you're right, the drive has a 2.0 USB cable that is the regular 2.0 size on my computer, but the end of the cable that plugs into the drive is very small. My portable drive is the same way, and so are a couple of external Wi-Fi adaptors that I've had in the past. Is this the way all 2.0 USB drives and other accessories made? I'm sure that you've seen what I'm describing, the large end inserts into the computer, the small end inserts into the accessory. If this type of cable is 2.0 all the way, then I've mistakenly assumed that small plug is a 1.1 USB. By the way, did you click onto the prices on the page. There were five, the lowest being $99, the highest two were $222.22 & $249.99. And I got it new for $89. It's legit, because I registered the product with Seagate for my warranty. That price was a steal!

 

[clifford_cooley]

The small plug would be referred to as mini-usb. The USB specification has nothing to do with the plug size. The transmitter and receiver must be able to communicate at the 2.0 specification. The size plug used is irrelevant.

The new USB 3.0 however is different because this standard uses extra pins within the connectors for greater transfer rates. Without the extra pins, the connection reverts back to the 2.0 specification.