External Hard Drive

[Legio]

I'm running out of space on my laptop and decided to git me an external hard drive. How's this? Will it just be something I plug into the USB port and it will work?
LINK
I have a DELL XPS 1530 laptop.

[pchalk]

ive never used the brand but its brand name. my 1TB is offbrand and costed a out the same so id say go for it. its pretty much how u say it. the drives i have just plug in to USB, install their driver on their own and then it works. im betting it has an independent power source tho too so be sure to make outlet room.

[The Dutch Devil]

USB 2.0 interface
A simple connection that offers convenience and compatibility among multiple computers.

For this hard drive yes, but others sometimes use firewire and other interfaces. Just read carefully.

[Freddie]

I'm running out of space on my laptop and decided to git me an external hard drive. How's this? Will it just be something I plug into the USB port and it will work?
LINK
I have a DELL XPS 1530 laptop.

No, your going to need to plug it into the mains as well.

[Legio]

The mains?

[Freddie]

The mains?

Yes the mains - plug into the wall where the power is.

[Legio]

Oh, that sounds easy enough!

[Capt. Fozdike]

You won't be able to use it on its own. You will have to use a power cable as well as the USB. If you want one that will work with only USB I would suggest getting a passbook drive

[Legio]

what is a power cable and what is a passbook drive? do they come with the package?

[Simetrical]

A power cable is a cable you use, for power. That you plug into wall outlets, you know, so the electricity company can transfer power to your hard drive. Some external hard drives have a separate plug for power. Some don't, and draw their power from the computer when you plug them in. I imagine the practical difference is if you have a laptop with no wall outlet handy: the first type of hard drive would become unusable, but the second would still work (although it would drain your laptop battery faster).

I don't use external drives, though. I just keep everything on my home machine and use SSH if I want it remotely.

[Legio]

Hmm. I have a few outlets near where I store my laptop, so that could work. Is the one I linked like that, where I just plug it into the wall?

[pchalk]

Hmm. I have a few outlets near where I store my laptop, so that could work. Is the one I linked like that, where I just plug it into the wall?

yea seems so

[Celsius]

I have a smaller 250GB Western Digital. It has never given me any trouble.

[karamazovmm]

I would go for the 2.5'' drives since you use in your laptop and clearly will want to move things around, so the 2.5'' are going to be your best guess (the tiny ones, that don't use external power) They can go as high as 1TB search the seagate model. I have a 1TB seagate with a 3.5'' HD, so I don't move it around, as it weights the same as my notebook and the psu

[mrmouth]

You could save yourself $20 by simply buying a 1tb hard drive and an enclosure. Really easy stuff. Pop the hard drive in, couple screws, done. Plug into the wall...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817193052

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136490

[Legio]

HELP
i installed it
and idk, how do i revert between my original c drive and this g drive
i dont have any program on this external except for internet explorer and shizzle
is there a way that i can simply switch between the two drives ad hoc. also there is no windows bar or anything here. i wish i could take apicture
for srs idk what i just did
this is like a bare windows but i cant access windows on this
theres no bar with the little microsoft flag or anything
all there is left is my wallpaper, and the googlesidebar
that isttttttt

HALP

[Shiloh]

I would only store files on that external, not work off it.

[Capt. Fozdike]

Yeah I'd use your OS on your internal but store files and programs on your external. Did you install windows on your external? If so, put it back on the internal because laptops don't like to have OS's on external drives

[Legio]

k it works now
how do i do it so that anything i download goes to the G drive automatically instead of c;user/downloads
also, can i run games off of the G drive
also if i can, how to install them there

[mrcrusty]

k it works now
how do i do it so that anything i download goes to the G drive automatically instead of c;user/downloads
also, can i run games off of the G drive
also if i can, how to install them there

You have to change the settings in your browser/download manager to get files to be downloaded there.

So, for firefox, open it up, tools>options>save downloads to and reconfigure it so that it puts downloads into your external hard drive.

As for games, you'll have to install them onto the external hard drive before you can run them off it. When you install games, usually it'll give you the option to choose where it gets installed.