Which Hard Drive to buy

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flgirl

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I want to add another HD to my computer and just wondering if the internal is better than the external, and why. And if I bought a external can it be swapped between my Desk top and Laptop?
 
You're probably going to get mixed opinions here but, in my opinion, an external USB 2.0 would be better than an internal. With an external USB drive you can move it from your desktop to your laptop as long as you have a free USB port. The only downfall with external drives is that they are more expensive, otherwise, you can purchase an external drive that has the same characteristics as an internal...such as size, RPM, cache, seek time, etc.

-Mike
 
If you want to transfer data from your desktop to laptop there is no question that external is the way to go, so i am going to have to agree with mike on this one. Although, like he said its going to be more expensive, but it will save you a lot of time.
 
Thx, guys that is what I figured would be the best the route but wasnt sure if it worked kinda like a really big zip drive or what, as far as being more expensive that isnt a concern I just want something that I can use on both.
 
no i don't agree with these guys. i think internal is better because even with USB 2.0 you get a max 480 Mbps tranfer rate with internal ATA133 you get 1000Mbps, twice the speed.

also the real decision maker is external cost twice what internal does and you can easily buy a removable drive cage for $10-30. why pay $2 per GB when you could pay less than $1 per GB?
 
it would really come down to what you would use it for
> internal drives are faster, and you can network the computers and share the drive, but you cannot take it with you if you want to use the laptop elsewhere (like at your job)
> externals can be swapped around all the time, and also networked. it can be brought with the laptop but is not as fast as internal
 
well what i was trying to say was that you can buy a internal drive enclosure that basically allows you to put a hard disk or optical drive into it and it will convert it to a removable drive that plugs into your USB or firewire.

it is esentially the same thing as external except you can pick any drive to use in it and you could take it out to mount it internally if you change your mind. you could use it with a old hard disk or cd-rom. and most newer enclosures support firewire and usb2 lets see if i can find this.....

ahh here it is, they sell for $30-50, they are very interesting:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...bmit=list&catalog=92&description=&Order=votes
 
I'm new to forums, so excuse me if this isn't where this question belongs. It is related to this subject.

I am looking for an external hard drive, preferably 160GB that I can use with my desktop and my laptop. I have two questions.

1. I see external hard drives and also internal hard drives mounted in external cases. Is one more desirable than the other, and why?

2. I would have to buy a USB 2 or a Fire Wire card, or a combination of both. Is there a significant difference between these two technologies?
 
To answer your questions:
1. As far as I know they are one in the same. Only difference is that with the "external Harddrives" they have a nice looking case that comes witha warrenty with the drive. The other is a wide range of case designs that can support multiple drives if setup for it. Major upgrade to that is if you need more storage, then you just add a second drive. Then the down side is weight. Go with an External drive and leave the external case stuff alone, unless you really have need of it.
2. If you want the speed upgrade then you should go with the USB2. It's about the same speed of Firewire, but has less flackyness to it. Over the years I have used many different external drives, and I can say for certain that the USB drives are more reliable. All the failures aside (firewire controllers died) USB2 or Firewire is needed for doing large data transfers. USB1 is way to slow...
Good Luck.
 
Thanks for the prompt response. Whad did you mean by "leave the external case stuff alone, unless you really have need of it."?
 
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