need advices before buying an external hdd.. Other Vista Discussions Discuss need advices before buying an external hdd.. in the Windows Vista forums; hi guys.. I'm planning to buy an external hdd.. probably an internal hdd 500gb + enclosure, which both will be bought separately.. I need some advices on the basics.. 1. ...

[kiseki_o_o]

hi guys..

I'm planning to buy an external hdd.. probably an internal hdd 500gb + enclosure, which both will be bought separately..
I need some advices on the basics..

1. can any enclosures hold up any size hdd, even with 500gb? and any kinds, such as ATA, SATA, etc..? or is it that some enclosures only can hold up to certain size and kinds?
I'm just afraid if after I bought an enclosure to find out that it can't hold up a 500gb internal hdd

2. are any size and kinds of hdd not a problem for my pc? I'm just afraid if my pc couldn't detect large size or any other kinds of hdd..

3. I'm using it only for storing my data tho, coz my internal hdd isn't big enough,
so I think size is the only thing that matters, or isn't it?


and also, I wanna confirm some stuffs..
anybody pls confirm these?

4. transfer speed is solely based on the transfer method, such as USB2.0, firewire, etc..

5. so whichever I buy, would that be IDE or SATA or SATA300, the transfer speed would be the same which is 480mb/s, as long as I use it as an external hdd USB2.0..

6. from what I read on the net, SATA/SATA300 transfer speed could reach 1g-2g++, and that is only if I use it as an internal hdd, not external..


pls correct me if I'm wrong..

if there are any other basic things I should know before buying an external hdd, please let me know..


thanks in advance..

[Snuffy]

1. can any enclosures hold up any size hdd, even with 500gb? and any kinds, such as ATA, SATA, etc..? or is it that some enclosures only can hold up to certain size and kinds?
I'm just afraid if after I bought an enclosure to find out that it can't hold up a 500gb internal hdd

Read the specs on the enclosure, they tell you what it can or cannot do.

2. are any size and kinds of hdd not a problem for my pc? I'm just afraid if my pc couldn't detect large size or any other kinds of hdd..

More info about your computer is needed before that can be answered.

3. I'm using it only for storing my data tho, coz my internal hdd isn't big enough,
so I think size is the only thing that matters, or isn't it?

Lots of factors involved. Speed and size. Speed is different between ATA (IDE) or SATA, SATA II, eSATA. Are you going to use USB port or Firewire. or esata
A. I recommend eSATA -speed, and USB over firewire .. USB has less problems than Firewire.. and SATA is best (IMHO) if you have the ability to use.

I recommend: External Serial ATA is a very quick data transmission standard, and compared to USB2.0 or Firewire it's better because there is no difference in speed compared to an internal SATA hard drive. (depends on what your computer has the ability to handle.)

speeds: It operates at 3GB/s SATAII or 1.5GB/s SATA, the same as internal hard drives do. (big difference in speed noted here.)

some reviews with stats you might review.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/storage.html

my comparison shows:
firewire = 400 mbs
usb2.0 = 480 mbs
sata = 1.5gbs
sataII or esataII = 3.0gbs

[kiseki_o_o]

ah..
I just learned about eSATA and stuffs..
looks like I can't go with it coz my laptop doesn't have esata port, even no sata, lol.. and I can't afford to buy additional pcmcia card just to add some sata/esata ports..
guess gotta stick with ide and usb

[Snuffy]

OK, well if it saved you some $$$ then OK. make sure you buy the fastest ATA (IDE) HDD you can.. and USB 2.0 works pretty good... then later if you get a better computer.. with SATA or eSata ports, you can adapt the fast IDE to SATA and (wow) see the increase in transfer rate... the adapter to convert IDE to SATA is not so expensive... (some enclosures have this builtin) but that is for later... http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-2-0-SATA-and...QQcmdZViewItem

ENjoy your USB 2.0 and Fast ATA (IDE) HDD.

[kiseki_o_o]

thanks for ur advice..

[felix8406]

You may also want to consider a USB 2.0 + eSata enclosure. It has the advantage of both USB and the faster eSata connection (480 Mbits/s for USB 2.0 to 3 Gbits/s for eSATA). I like the idea of getting an enclosure rather than an all inclusive external hard drive. It's much easier to swap hard drives if you need to. I have one that I use to test and format hard drives, plus I can use it to transfer files and back up my PCs.

Make sure you go with a decent quality enclosure though. You need to consider heat dissipation as a factor. Hard drives tend to get pretty hot with poor ventilation.

[kiseki_o_o]

now that I've bought a 500gb external hdd,
I just wanna know if I should format the hdd,
coz when I plug it into my laptop and after the driver was installed,
the size shows 465gb and seems like it's ready to use without formatting at all..

[crabby]

No need to format, and the formated size is appropriate.

You should never expect the same size formatted as the unformatted drive.

Just go fill it up

crabby

[Snuffy]

Rather a dumb ? on my part ... but when did NEW HDD's come formatted .

[crabby]

Many have been doing it for a while. Most external hard drives now come NTFS formatted straight out of the box. Probably about 18 months this has been creeping in.

crabby