external hard drive questions

[Shroomster]

1. to transfer from desktop to external all I need is a usb cable right?

2. should I stick with Seagate or Western Digital?

3. what do I need to look for as far as compatibility ( do I need to know what kind of sata hard drives I have internal )? not sure if I'm asking this right

4. anyone know of anything aside from new egg for cybermonday scouting for this type of product?

[Tiddlygoose]

Stick with a name brand, and make sure it has a good warranty. The bigger in physical size, the cheaper they are likely to be. I have on the size of a pack of cigarrettes and it works well. I also have external enclosures that I installed my own IDE drive in.. They work well. They are both USB.

Get one big enough to hold everything on your computer, so you can back up to it. Or better yet, get two. I have three all totaled right now. One just for backups of my music, one just for unbacked up torrent type stuff, and one that backs up the important stuff from my three machines.

In direct answer to your questions:
1) Just the USb cable.
2) Either is good
3) Make sure your PC has USB 2.0 or better ports, Most do these days
4) I got my last two at going out of business sales... One of the office stores I think.

Hope this helps

[id3379]

You don't need USB, you can use firewire, although USB 2 is faster then FW800 currently.

There both great companies, i've always used WD and never had problems.

It doesn't matter what kinda of internal HD you have, anything will work if you plugging it into your computer through USB or FW, you would need a E-Sata card if you went that route on one of your pci slots.

i bought this http://store.apple.com/us/product/TS116ZM/A?mco=MTIxODk3Mw
and i love it, great price and it looks sexy as hell.

[Nigal]

[in my best Jeff Foxworthy voice]

If you think external hard drives look sexy...you might be a geek. LOL!

Now that I am getting the 120GiPod I have my whole music collection on the computer and will probably start buying movies and tv shows for down load I've been thinking about storage. I don't know the first thing so thanks for all the info. $139 for 500G is pretty sweet.

[eTiMaGo]

as everyone said, it's all pretty much plug and play now. USB is most convenient, but if you really want the speed, you gotta go eSATA, which of course ends up more costly :smile:

[Shroomster]

I've been looking on new egg and have found some 1 TB hard drives for under $80 and they have great user ratings....

[id3379]

I've been looking on new egg and have found some 1 TB hard drives for under $80 and they have great user ratings....

is that external or internal ? I found 1 TB external's for $164

[id3379]

If you think external hard drives look sexy...you might be a geek. LOL!


i have no regrets.

[Shroomster]

is that external or internal ? I found 1 TB external's for $164

external but the thing is they're not WD or Seagate....

[Dess]

I have a 200gb external (idk brand atm, i'm on my laptop) that runs perfectly fine off usb.. i know i should probably use it for backup (which some stuff is...) but actually teh most i've used it for is to install/run WoW since it takes f'n 12gb+ and I am outta space on my old ass pc.. Definitely stick with name brand though, the last one my dad at his house died pretty dern quick!, and I told him its cuz he's a cheapskate!

[Altitude]

If your mobo supports eSata - get yourself one of these (also supports USB) and just drop in any SATA drive you want :)

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=thermaltake+blacx&cid=12033332927327034551#ps-sellers