I was looking in the Circuit City ad from this past week and they were advertising a Western Digital 500GB external 3.5" USB Hard Drive for right under $200. Some questions about this and other Externals....
1) If they're hooked up with a usb, is it complicated or a hassle to get the extra drive set up and to save stuff to it? I've only dealt with internal hdd's.
2) Say I put some stuff on the external...when I change computers, can I just unhook the external and take it with me and set it up with my next computer?
3) Does anyone have any opinions on Western Digital, like if it's a good company/product? If not, what are some good External hd's that aren't really expensive?
as always, I look to you for guidance in my tech matters and I appreciate the help/input.
1) It's very easy. I've never encountered any problems hooking up an external HDD. It'll appear just like a high capacity USB Flash-stick. Unless you're running an ancient OS, you won't need to install any software.
2) Again, not a problem. You can take it around like a Flash-stick. Just don't bump it around quite as much. And make DAMN sure, you don't knock it about while it's running.
3) I don't know their external enclosures, but the internal Western Digital Caviar series — one of which is probably inside your box — is among the best in its price range.
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pinc_noiz Deactivated User
758 Posts 6/05
Posted - Dec 26 2006 : 5:30AM
Personally I use 4 ext.HD's, all from LaCie. Oldest one is some 4 years, youngest 3/4 yo. Three oldest are using cooling-fans (very low-noise) and are used over USB, the latest I bought is a 500G BigDisc Ethernet fan-less one.
ad1/ - The ext.HD (used with USB) will basicly install itself, asking only for a file-system (NTFS when solely using XP, FAT32 when used on XP and W98 systems) as it has to get formatted before use: you choose file-system and give 'go' and that's basicly it (like with other HD's, there're more options, like splitting it in more than one 'virtual HD' (don't know how this is called officially). Installing software to manage the ext.HD isn't needed. - The ext.HD will work like every other internal-HD (and showing in 'My Computer' and 'Folders' like all other drives): like those, you can drag-drop files like you're used to. Drive-letters are given when HD is plugged in (so no fixed letter, although it may look that way when only one ext.HD is used, or more than one is used but plugged into your PC using the same sequence of plugging). LaCie has his own 'Automatic Backup'-software (as said, no need to install it), which works great for me (used on one ext.HD, flawlessly from day one).
ad2/ Yes, remember to choose file-system careful then (NTFS when solely using XP, FAT32 when used on XP and W98 systems). Take note that USB2 on a modern PC will be faster than a 'standard'USB on older machines though.
ad3/ IIRC LaCie uses or used Western Digital in their gear, but I'm not a PC-buff, so I can't tell you pro/cons of WD drives (if LaCie does use them, all I can say is that I've been completely trouble free using LaCie (daily use, often physically transported, sometimes using prototype cabling: no fun-life for an ext.HD I think ...)
There were some threads about this earlier: eg. here and here, in case you'd missed them.
I have had trouble with my Western Digital internal drive. There was an issue that they were apparently sued for. I won't be getting another. No data loss, it would sometimes give a sprongy 'click' and lock my computer up.
But it's worth bearing in mind that (AFAIK anyway, and if I'm wrong, I'd like to know) no version of Windows will format a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB, so you'll need to partion the drive into small chunks to do it.
There are non-MS tools to format multi-terabyte FAT32 partitions, but Win98 won't read them. 2000 and XP will, though. I don't know about Apple OS-X if that's a concern.
If all machines that need to read the drive are running Win2k, XP, Win2k3 or Vista, NTFS should be the way to go. But 98 won't read that, and no other OS will be able to write to the drive without jumping through more hoops than a circus poodle.
Vendor lock-in sucks, and not in a good way.
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pinc_noiz Deactivated User
758 Posts 6/05
Posted - Dec 26 2006 : 4:21PM
FAT32 can't deal with files >32GB IIRC (I've heard this story too, when editing movies, but I started doing this on XP, so I'm not sure; isn't one HD= one partition too?, and there're lots of FAT32-HD's >32GB)
On other sites, and I can't remember just where right now - I've read that it is important that you always use the software to 'disconnect' the external drive before you physically unplug it. I don't own one, - yet. But I this caught my attention, so I'm filing it away to be remembered.
I'm sure someone else here can explain to you what you risk if you just pull the plug out.
It is just a matter of creating a good habit.
With internal drives, I've had only good experiences with WD and prefer them.
Honestly though - sometimes I think comparing Seagate, WD, Maxtor, etc. is like comparing Ford, Chevy, and Dodge. It all boils down to what you like - there is probably very little real difference.
God hates us all, you know it's true, God hates this place. - Slayer 1726 Posts 10/03
Posted - Dec 26 2006 : 8:50PM
There's definatly a difference on internals. Just look at their warranties. I think Seagate offers a 5 year warranty - it's been a while since I looked in on them, I think some of the WDs do too. Like I said, not sure...
"The universe is hostile, So impersonal. Devour to survive." - Tool
Based on some advice I got in this forum, I purchased a Seagate 300GB external hard drive a couple of months ago. It came with excellent back-up software.
thanks to everyone for the tips and opinions. I found this one on Amazon that looks pretty good. It's got what I need and it's right at $230, which isn't bad. I'm gonna try and get it within the next month or so. I just need more memory, because the 160GB I have now just isn't enough. I'm not really fond of burning pics onto cds/dvds because if you try to scroll through them somewhat fast, it'll kinda have a lag in it, where as that doesn't happen on a HDD, to me at least. Plus, that's more room for music and movies, which is a big deal. Thanks again for the help.
The filesize limit is 2GB. That's because the implementations use a signed 32 bit integer to indicate file sizes and current positions in open files. 32 bit signed integers can only count as high as 2'147'483'647.A hard drive contains one or more partitions. AFAIK, no version of Windows will let you format a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB. But if it's been formatted with 3rd party tools, Win2k and XP have no problems using FAT32 partitions in the terabyte range.
It should be pointed out, though, that the larger the partition, the larger the cluster size. A cluster is a group of sectors, and is the smallest allocation unit in a FAT file system. A FAT file system can only handle a limited number of clusters/allocation units, so the larger the partition, the larger the smallest possible cluster size.
Partitions larger than 32GB use a cluster size of 32kB. If you fill up a drive with ~300kB files, you should expect to waste around 5% on that score.
Not that important on its own (who has 1.5 million JPEGs laying around?), but with NTFS being generally faster and more robust, FAT should only be used if the drive is to be connected to an OS that doesn't support NTFS.
Yes. On Windows, you should click on an icon in the system tray (IIRC, it's got a small, green arrow), and "stop" the drive before unplugging it. Otherwise, Windows may still be holding uncommitted data in its write cache.
XP commits writes to USB drives a lot faster than Win2k did, but it's still recommended to stop the drive first.
Stating the obvious here, I know, but shutting down Windows also flushes the cache, so you don't need to "stop" the drive before shutting down.
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pinc_noiz Deactivated User
758 Posts 6/05
Posted - Dec 27 2006 : 1:48PM
And so it is that I learn; slowly but steadily. Solely by visiting ADT.
Thanks for the info, K!
p_n
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pinc_noiz Deactivated User
758 Posts 6/05
Posted - Dec 27 2006 : 1:52PM
Confirmed from personal experience. ('disconnect' icon is slightly different, but that's hardly important I think)
ok, I was thinking and came up with a question. It's about speed. Say I put a bunch of stuff on the EX, like 300GB. Since it's hooked up to my computer, will that much stuff on it make my computer lag, speed-wise? Because I've had experiences where you almost fill a hard drive and it becomes slow.... conversely, if i take all the crap that's filling up the computer's internal HDD and put it on the EX, won't that speed up the computer? I'm the only one that uses the computer that has any stuff on the hdd, so taking all of that off, shouldn't it speed up the computer any? thanks.
Most likely no, or very little will be gained and quite possibly slow it down. Increasing the RAM is a more surefire way to speed a system up. At a minimum a GB is recomended if you want to run more than one app at time.
If a full harddrive slows all of Windows down, it could be because of a severely fragmented swapfile/pagefile. Do some Googling for that, and see if you can come up with some recommendations for how to defragment it and lock it down. There may be an older thread right here in Tech Talk on the subject.Oh, "disconnect"? I wonder where I got that "Stop" nonsense from. Ah well, never mind.
If it's in the "My Book" series, I have the 250 GB one. I've had it for a few months.Not complicated at all. Choose a spot, plug in the power, plug in the USB and you're ready to go. The default file format is Fat32, I think so be prepared to reformat to NTFS if you use XP.I haven't tried it but I don't see why not.Yes. I've had three Western Digital HDDs (including this one). Never had one die on me yet. The old 40 gig one makes a weird clicking noise when it's running. It's kind of annoying but it's been doing that for years and hasn't died or given me any problems whatsoever with crashes or anything.
Several manufacturers make external drives but I've only had experience with Western Digital and Seagate. I've never had a hard drive die. But I don't carry mine around, either. If you move a hard drive around a lot, you're probably gonna have a greater chance of malfunctions. They operate under extremely tight tolerances that leave virtually no room for mistreatment. It's certainly not a band brand name...particularly for the capacity versus price.
Posted - Dec 26 2006 : 2:40AM
