External HD - what should I look for?

**Legio XX** · August 15, 2007, 08:02 AM

Im in desperate need of more storage space for my laptop so Im going to buy an external HD. Can anyone suggest what to get in terms of good brands, speed etc. Is it possible to connect an external drive through Firewire? I would prefer to stay away from USB since I need all free system resources I can...

[Note to moderators: You can merge this thread with my question about external soundcards ( http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=114984 ) and change the subject line to something suitable. Thanx!]

**Roman Clone** · August 15, 2007, 08:53 AM

External hard drives are like... For Desktops. I think they only come in like... 100s of Gigs, making them to big.

**Legio XX** · August 15, 2007, 09:08 AM

I dont want to be rude or anything, but why do you answer to threads when you aparently don't have a clue about the subject in question???

In the other thread mentioned above you suggested that there aren't any external parts for laptops, and now you suggest that external HD's are only for desktops. On top of that you say that they are too big? How can a HD be too big???? You want 100's of Gigs!!! I wouldn't buy an external HD with less than 300 Gb...

Would you please be so kind to elaborate your theories about modern laptops and their performance, expansion possibilites and external equipment. Im all ears...

**Hellmut34** · August 15, 2007, 10:27 AM

oh dear oh dear

**Freddie** · August 15, 2007, 10:45 AM

If you don't mind carrying around an extra power supply there are plenty of extra external hard disk available.

Ideally you want an external disk that's built around a 2.5" Hard drive (the ones they use in Laptops) as they use less power, are lighter and are easier to carry around. I’ll if I can find any examples, I’m not sure if you can get Firewire powered external hard disks.

**pannonian** · August 15, 2007, 11:25 AM

For absolute flexibility, try an external drive rack (I think that's what they're called). They use USB, and they are bulky by design, but they allow you to use any CD/DVD drives, IDE hard drives, etc. that you have lying around. It takes around 1-2 minutes to swop in or out a CD/DVD drive, while 30 seconds is more than enough for hard drives. Also, they're cheap (not being hard drives as such but interfaces).

Get one of those, put in one of your spare HDs, move out all unnecessary data from your laptop, and you'll have freed up goodness knows how much space. Once you start using them you'll start buying them for fun.

**Legio XX** · August 16, 2007, 01:12 AM

Im not worried about size and weight of the external device, since it probably will stay at home even if I take my laptop out for a walk. Im going to use it for storage of backup audio files, samples, project files and sound banks for my software synthesizers. The sound banks alone use up more than 60 Gigs...

**Freddie** · August 16, 2007, 03:28 AM

Originally Posted by Legio XX

Im not worried about size and weight of the external device, since it probably will stay at home even if I take my laptop out for a walk. Im going to use it for storage of backup audio files, samples, project files and sound banks for my software synthesizers. The sound banks alone use up more than 60 Gigs...

Top end, more them ample space it has UBS and firewire connections or it thats overkill try this one, 320 gigs should provide plenty of space plus its Firewire and USB 2. If you plan to go the firewire route you will need to buy an additional Fire wire cable, these hard drives only come with a USB leads as standard.

**Legio XX** · August 16, 2007, 04:04 AM

Thanx Freddie! The price suits my wallet as well!

**Shaun** · August 16, 2007, 05:58 AM

Freddie, I though firewire if primarily for Digital video and Audio, before the days of USB?

**Freddie** · August 17, 2007, 04:50 AM

Originally Posted by Shaun

Freddie, I thought firewire if primarily for Digital video and Audio, before the days of USB?

Firewire is often found on digital video recorders because of the faster read performance it gives over standard USB 2. The technology now has moved on and now Firewire 800 (most Camcorders are Firewire 400) is almost as quick as ESATA, and can be found on external hard drives. The only thing I not sure of is if it can carry electrical current to power an external hard drive.

To keep costs down in a competitive market a lot of manufactures just stick to UBS 2, hard drives that have Firewire and Esata are a little bit more expensive plus the buyer has to fork out for a Firewire 800 controller as most motherboards come with Firewire 400.

I’ve brought an Esata Western Digital My Book 500Gb, from Dabs’s at the beginning of the month. The read preformacne is top notch, I can copy files from my external HD to my main hard drive over Esata twice as quick as I could if I were using USB 2. The one problem however I do have is that the control card (made by JMicron) I got was a cheap one of Ebay, and I think its causing poor write performance. If you do get an external Hard drive and need to by an additional control card, get a decent one and consult the hard drive website for recommend hardware.

**Mathias** · August 16, 2007, 12:23 PM

You should buy a 500 gig when you first are buying. I first bought a 150 gig, thinking that it would be enough, but then it got full. Next I bought a 250 gig thinking that it would be enough, but that also got full. Lastly I bought a 500 gig less than 2 months ago and already I have stuck 100 gig into it. HDs fill up way faster than one should think

**Legio XX** · August 17, 2007, 04:24 AM

Thanx Mathias! I'll take that into consideration...

**Legio XX** · August 17, 2007, 04:53 AM

Once again - thanx!

**Legio XX** · August 17, 2007, 06:39 AM

Funny... The "Clone" is quick to leave a weird comment in threads like this, and then he vanishes... Im still VERY curious about his "laptop-peripheral-theory" and the technical sources to back it up...

**ProneStar!** · August 17, 2007, 08:07 AM

lol hes just one of many people browsing the webbernet hoping to find places where he can pretend to be knowledgeable to extend his e-peen. anyhoo i'd go with something along the lines of freddy's recommendation though idk if you would need a full TB, but i suggest at least that 320 if not more. My friends and i have a 750gig externalHD that we pass around and it has about 500gigs taken up with movies and music... lots of music, but then again thats all stuff from about 6 different people, im pretty sure you dont have that much crap.

**Legio XX** · August 18, 2007, 11:23 AM

Originally Posted by ProneStar!

im pretty sure you dont have that much crap.

You would be surprised...

Like I said Im producing some music on my laptop and the uncompressed audio data EATS drive space...

**spartan_phalanx** · August 18, 2007, 11:45 AM

I personally like the new Western Digital 750GB drives. They are large and very fast for a 7200 RPM drive. Tom's Hardware did a review on them and they were on par with the Hitachi 1TB and the Raptor in many benchmarks. They cost as much as a Raptor (slightly more), but you get a whole lot more storage with great speed.