How Delicate Is An External Hardrive

[toddiscool]

Upcoming a longer than necessary lead-in from toddiscool.

Ok so my girlfreind is taking some joke comuters stuff for her advertising course. They recomment her to get a zip disk, they are not aloud to save stuff on the computers there. first year it is general stuff, word, powerpoint what not. Nothing a floppy could no thandle but semester it gets alittle more high end, and she was told that a 256 flash would not be enough. I ask what do they want you to have, she ofcourse does not know, or what apps they are going to be using. She knows some of it will be on a mac.


So i check out the price of zip drives, more than I thought - have not checked used but new they wer like 150-200 (canadian) kike me to flash drives (or usb keys if you prefer) 256mb around 200$ (i could only find one online, in canada)
acceptable, but not to need multiple.

So i start thinking uncoventional - external burner. (FC mentioning one for 60$, i think he is in canada?) Lowest I found was about 100$ issue becomes burning software, not gonna be installed on school PC's.

So I think external HD, 80gig 200$. Now it is reasonable to think that she can carry this to and from school w/o wreking it? She is not an idiot and can appreciate something is breakable, but I know internals are very delicate.

- teaching her about compression is an impossibility as she i thick about that, and aslo I would not be able to get winrar installed on the pc she is using at work her proff is an asshole anit-pirater.

God that is longer than intended, anyways so can an external HD be called portable?

[ilw]

u should look around more for usb memory sticks theres tons of cheap ones around of varying sizes ($40 US for 128MB) and that would probably be a better solution than an external hard drive.

[toddiscool]

Originally posted by ilw@9 September 2003 - 15:35
u should look around more for usb memory sticks theres tons of cheap ones around of varying sizes ($40 US for 128MB) and that would probably be a better solution than an external hard drive.
The problem somes in her second term though, they are to do some video editing. no flash drive is gonna be able to hold any amount of video. so it would be a waste of money to use it just for 4 months.

Do they make mini disks that can hold data yet?

[lynx]

What about cd-rw ?

I suppose it all depends on what is available at the school, but if they have good drives, and software supporting the correct format (I can't remember the name of the format, but it is the one supported by Nero IN-CD) you can get about 600MB on a disk.

Alternatively, use cd-rw to keep the initial copy of the work she is taking to school, and use a memory stick to bring back the stuff she has changed that day. When she get's home the base copy can be updated from the memory stick and a new cd-rw created.

Unlikely that she is going to be changing more than 256MB on any single day, and I know from other posts that you already have fast cd-rw capability.

Edit: our postings crossed, so maybe 256MB won't be enough, but the cd-rw option stll holds.

[toddiscool]

Well i know that the drives at school do not have burners. But you are very right indeed, to keep a cd-rw for her to update at home and keep the flash drive empty and only put the stuff back on at school.

That is why I fuckin love this forum.
I kinda wanted another HD though. haha

[3rd gen noob]

possibly stupid suggestion coming up...

what about an mp3 player (usb2.0 or firewire) with a large hdd (20 gig or so). you can get them pretty cheap...

[FuNkY CaPrIcOrN]

I got my 80 GB Western Digital for $99(after $50 Rebate).I took it to a friends only one time....so I really do not know if they can be carried around alot.I have heard different stories on this.

[toddiscool]

Originally posted by 3rd gen noob@9 September 2003 - 15:57
possibly stupid suggestion coming up...

what about an mp3 player (usb2.0 or firewire) with a large hdd (20 gig or so). you can get them pretty cheap...
Another valid idea. shall be lookd int, she would have it full of music and not the stuff she needs, but that is a woman. thanks guys and girls? not sure about a couple of ya.

[lynx]

Surely the whole point about them being external drives is that they are portable. Someone was asking a similar question a few weeks ago, as far as I remember the cheapest way to do it was to buy a fairly small capacity drive (which you can pick up reasonably cheaply), then if you need to increase the capacity you can open it up, remove the existing drive and fit a larger one, internally they have a standard IDE hdd.

For added safety she could put the drive in a Jiffy bag when transporting it, but I suspect the biggest danger time is when she is taking it in and out of her bag - that is when it is most likely to get dropped.

[toddiscool]

Originally posted by lynx@9 September 2003 - 16:06
then if you need to increase the capacity you can open it up, remove the existing drive and fit a larger one, internally they have a standard IDE hdd.


Really? i did not know that, I do not know why I thought they would be so diffrent but never immagine it would be as easy as swapping. Wow.

[Livy]

or you could buy a standard ide drive, and a usb bay for it, ill go look for what u would need

edit: i found what u need, its a 3.5" external case, http://www.dabs.com quicklink 2CB3WS

its int the uk, but gives u an idea what to look for.

[Pitbul]

Originally posted by toddiscool+9 September 2003 - 08:12--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (toddiscool @ 9 September 2003 - 08:12)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-lynx@9 September 2003 - 16:06
then if you need to increase the capacity you can open it up, remove the existing drive and fit a larger one, internally they have a standard IDE hdd.


Really? i did not know that, I do not know why I thought they would be so diffrent but never immagine it would be as easy as swapping. Wow. [/b][/quote]
yeah but if they have the OS installed on that HDD you&#39;d have to reinstall the OS when u install the new HDD an Extrenal HDD seems like the best idea just carry it in a cusioned bag

[toddiscool]

Originally posted by Livy@9 September 2003 - 16:14
or you could buy a standard ide drive, and a usb bay for it, ill go look for what u would need

edit: i found what u need, its a 3.5" external case, http://www.dabs.com quicklink 2CB3WS

its int the uk, but gives u an idea what to look for.
Would i need an adapter?

just a joke, remember that IBM commercial. For some reason i thought that was the funniest commercial ever, prolly the only one though.

seriously though I will check that out aswell.

[Livy]

im not exactly sure what u would need,
the hdd will slot right in and close it, then u will prob need a usb cable, not sure about a power cable though, but my guess may be yes.

edit: what is the most storage she will need at one time, as you may be cheaper with a 256mb/512mb usb drive and backing up on pc?

[toddiscool]

Originally posted by Livy@9 September 2003 - 16:48
im not exactly sure what u would need,
the hdd will slot right in and close it, then u will prob need a usb cable, not sure about a power cable though, but my guess may be yes.


That adapter part was a joke. clearly a bad one, you know in the uk, need an adapter. God internet humor is not possible for me.


edit: what is the most storage she will need at one time, as you may be cheaper with a 256mb/512mb usb drive and backing up on pc?

I know that she is gonna be doing video editing, but the teatcher does not what he is talking about. Ever taken a remedial computer course in college. The most frustrating thing, god i have stories but anyway. He can not answer the question i send her with, he is an idiot.

Backing up on Pc - you can save a mac file on a pc with no probs right, obviously just not use it.

[Livy]

i would think so yeah. shouldnt be a prob backing up, i mean u can go download a mac file of the internet so why not from a usb drive.
i thought u meant an adaotrer for the drive bay, doh&#33;

[lynx]

I would imagine you would need to format any drive as fat/fat32 to be compatible across systems, but other than that i can&#39;t foresee any problems.

[toddiscool]

Originally posted by lynx@9 September 2003 - 17:23
I would imagine you would need to format any drive as fat/fat32 to be compatible across systems, but other than that i can&#39;t foresee any problems.
Good advice, again thanks.

[_John_Lennon_]

Umm, you said she was doing video editing, but they have Flash drives that can be as big as 512MB that I know of, and U can always get a IBM 1GB microdrive, with alittle reader that you can slip it in, and it acts like a reagular USB mini flash drive.

But the HD thing does seem like a fine option, if she is going to need to carry about a bunch of files totaling over 1GB.

So yeah, if you are in the US, U can get a 80GB hard drive for about 85 dollars, and an external thingy to put it in for about 20, I believe.

Im going to check on that for you, i will post some links for stuff in a bit.

[_John_Lennon_]

okay, well, here is what your looking at.

External Enclosure USB 2.0 HD Case (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?description=17-145-314&depa=1) 31.99 Dollars.

WD 80GB 7200 RPM HD (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?description=22-144-102&depa=1) 72.50 Dollars

And just in case you were wondering,

A 120 HD= 92 Dollars
A 160 HD = 139 Dollars.

So, you can get an external hard drive, 80GB, with enclosure for under 110 Dollars, including shipping.

Any other quesitons?

[toddiscool]

Nope.

I think I am gonna go with a say 20 GB drive, I think i have an eight somewhere around here that would do. As there is a good chance it will get wrecked I am not gonna spen too much on it. 20GB should be more than i should need. Thaks to the link on the enclosure Lennon, definetly what I am gonna be looking for.

[RGX]

when I get my laptop set up, Im hoping to have an 80 gig external shared drive, so I can swap it between my desktop and pc, and still transport my crap around, so i can share from all over the world, as i am usually on the move, alot of this advice has been very useful to me as well, thanks guys

[_John_Lennon_]

Well, if u wanna get say a 20 GB one, just use price grabber or something, query by like 20-39 and minium price 1 dollars.


U can get some real deals sometimes.

[toddiscool]

One more question about external technology, I know that on Xp she will fine fro drivers. It will install them for her, and may or may not need to reboot. (probably not i think)

What about the MAC OSX, will it have the driver support built in. I assumed it would but my ladies comp teatcher (who I am pretty sure is an idiot) said that she will not be able to install the drivers, or she will need the drivers.

I guess if she was limited as a user she would not be able to install the device on any OS so that may illiminate that great idea.

I am so glad I am done college.

[_John_Lennon_]

Well I dont know about Mac OSX, but im pretty sure most EVERYONE in the education field uses Windows in an classroom setting.

As for the driver thing? Well, most of them dont need drivers as far as I know, but u get a CD, that usually has like, USB 2.0 or firewire drivers on it, with the external enclosure.

[toddiscool]

Her&#39;s is a video editing, and even for the MS office suite of programs they are using dirty old macs, which i know nothing about.

[adamp2p]

I actually got ripped off on such a device. Not too ripped off, but I actually went to the local computer shop in LA (PC Club) and purchased this thing that converts IDE to USB and firewire. As I recently set up a RAID 0 configuration and I needed to back up approximately 80 gigs of music and software that I consider precious. I don&#39;t know about you, but the ability to burn CD&#39;s my music collection is vital to personal stability.

Yes it works very well, but I had to pay &#036;100 US for it...more credit debt, just what I do not need...

Here is what I have, it works for ANY IDE device, that includes CD-R and RW drives...it is very portable, but most importantly, I have a backup of all my data.

http://www.usb-ware.com/images/dlx-185-large.jpg