Recommendations on External Hard Drive...

[Monkeee]

Thinking of getting a external HD to keep my music collection in. Doesn't really have to look pretty but needs to be reliable since i am keeping my entire music collection for back up. Not really sure what to look for since this is my first external HD, any recommendations? Good size for me is 80GB-100GB. Anything more than 100GB is a waste of money for me unless its of really good deal.
:fst:

[clocker]

Is there a budget and does your motherboard support SATA?

[kaiweiler]

^
and eSATA

[Monkeee]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128048

This is my mother board, I'm pretty sure it supports SATA but i'm not sure what eSATA is.

[kaiweiler]

eSATA is a port that allows a SATA drive to be connected externally and offers must faster speeds than USB.
Sometimes a motherboard will come with a slot to put in your case, such as this.
http://www.satacable.com/images/sata-2-esata-dual-pci-port-bracket.jpg

[clocker]

Right then, your board does support SATA- and by extension, eSATA (external SATA).

Rather than buying a "prebuilt" external solution, I'd recommend gettingthis Vantec enclosure. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392002)
It offers the option of either USB (for other/older PCs) or eSATA connectivity (it comes with the breakout panel to install the eSATA on your backplane).
eSATA is definitely what you want to use...your computer will see the drive exactly as if it were an internal drive with the same fast transfer rates (SATAII is 3GB/s compared to USBs 480Mb/s, so basically, 6 times faster...).
This enclosure is also very quiet and nicely built.

Then, you put any regular internal drive you please into it.

I'd beware of the really cheap external boxes that are all around...your data is important.
Also, remember that you will be transferring a lot of files (at least at first) so speed is important.
As an example- I have the enclosure linked above and a 500GB WD drive inside it. I just transferred 385 GB of video files from my RAID array to the external box in 46 minutes (Vista x64).

Another advantage of this setup is that it'll be hot-swappable- i.e., you can turn the external drive OFF/ON at will and Windows will pick it up just like it would a USB flashdrive, no reboots needed.

[Monkeee]

Right then, your board does support SATA- and by extension, eSATA (external SATA).

Rather than buying a "prebuilt" external solution, I'd recommend gettingthis Vantec enclosure. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392002)
It offers the option of either USB (for other/older PCs) or eSATA connectivity (it comes with the breakout panel to install the eSATA on your backplane).
eSATA is definitely what you want to use...your computer will see the drive exactly as if it were an internal drive with the same fast transfer rates (SATAII is 3GB/s compared to USBs 480Mb/s, so basically, 6 times faster...).
This enclosure is also very quiet and nicely built.

Then, you put any regular internal drive you please into it.

I'd beware of the really cheap external boxes that are all around...your data is important.
Also, remember that you will be transferring a lot of files (at least at first) so speed is important.
As an example- I have the enclosure linked above and a 500GB WD drive inside it. I just transferred 385 GB of video files from my RAID array to the external box in 46 minutes (Vista x64).

Another advantage of this setup is that it'll be hot-swappable- i.e., you can turn the external drive OFF/ON at will and Windows will pick it up just like it would a USB flashdrive, no reboots needed.

mother of god.... thank you

[Appzalien]

I don't know, It seems to me that you would be better off with a big internal drive for your music. If you have the place to put one inside the case you would be wise to go that route. For one, and external drive thats encased in a small plastic box, and is on all the time, will certainly get hotter than an internal drive of the same type. And heat is the enemy and destroyer of hard drives. If on the other hand you copy your files to the external drive and then disconnect it, it will last for a long time. Of course the problem is you can't listen to your files unless you reconnect the drive. So I would go for an internal drive if at all possible.

I own two externals for backup purposes only, and I connect them to do the backups and then remove them and store them away for the next backup. I also have a 500gig internal sata drive I use to install my games to (not as C but as a D drive install). This allows me to format out and reinstall XP on C in an emergency without losing my games. Many of them will still play if I create my own shortcuts for them, or I can reinstall to D again and most of the games recognize their files and reinstall in less than a minute, creating new shortcuts and registry entries only.

[mansour]

I have simpletech external HDD and it is so good for me.
also I see that the passport from Western Digital is great HDD