External/Internal Hard Drive

[Maguspk]

Just got my hands on a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) and I want to install it on my machine and replace Vista. Obviously this involves formatting my drive, but I want to keep the data on it, mainly my media (pictures, video and music). I'm wrestling between buying another internal hard drive or an external drive. Really, external would be nice since I do need one but I'm worried about performance. Can anyone recommend a good external drive which has a good cost/capacity ratio and performs reasonably well which I can rely on? Or, should I just go with another internal drive?

[SDSD]

internal + enclosure= external

I use 2 750gigs with this enclosure. Easy hot swap.

Newegg.com - Thermaltake BlacX N0028USU External Hard Drive SATA Enclosure Docking Station 2.5" & 3.5" USB 2.0 - External Enclosures

[Maguspk]

Looks good, this sounds like a good way to handle multiple external disk drives should the need arise in the future also as opposed to having to buy multiple external drives. The hot swap feature is nice too so it really acts like an external drive. I'll wait a day or two before I send out the purchase on Newegg, give people a chance to suggest other things or confirm this is a smart move. No rush since a weekend is coming up and it wouldn't ship until Monday anyway.

if I do go with this enclosure, do you recommend any particular maker for the drive? It varies from person to person I've found but Western Digital and Seagate seem like safe bets, 7200 RPM obviously.

[Ruiner]

If you connect with eSATA and use the internal + enclosure combo, it's pretty much the best of both worlds. Go with that, in my opinion.

[mootsfox]

Externals are limited first by their connection type.

USB 2.0 is the slowest, then Firewire400/800 then eSATA/II.

An external drive with the eSATA interface is roughly the same speed as an internal. There are some slight latency increases, but nothing you'd noticed probably.

Sooooooo, buy an eSATA drive, or better yet, pick up a dual bay enclosure, two 1.5TB drives and RAID 1 them for data protection.

[Maguspk]

Externals are limited first by their connection type.

USB 2.0 is the slowest, then Firewire400/800 then eSATA/II.

An external drive with the eSATA interface is roughly the same speed as an internal. There are some slight latency increases, but nothing you'd noticed probably.

Sooooooo, buy an eSATA drive, or better yet, pick up a dual bay enclosure, two 1.5TB drives and RAID 1 them for data protection.

Newegg links? I can get something recommended but it's always a pain deciding what to buy between prices and customer reviews.

[mootsfox]

Newegg links? I can get something recommended but it's always a pain deciding what to buy between prices and customer reviews.

Can't do anything without a price range and/or how much space you want

[SDSD]

Like everyone above, eSATA is the shit. My roommate uses one to back up all the HD stuff he downloads for our home media server.

Because I work in a computer oriented bio lab, I deal with large amounts of data for multiple projects; I like being able to only have one enclosure and swap things out for easy access, both at home or in the lab.

Here's the links my friend gave; great for the job, but a little pricy.

enclosure: Newegg.com - KINGWIN KM-TB235 Front & Rear Panel: Plastic
Outer Case: Aluminum 3.5" USB2.0 & eSATA External Enclosure - External Enclosures
drive x2: Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives - Internal Hard Drives

[Minions]

SimpleTech Duo Pro Drive 3.5'' USB 2.0/eSATA External Dual SATA RAID HDD Enclosure - Fits Two 3.5'' - DUO-PRODRIVE - Buy.com

There is this enclosure for cheap (16 bucks and free shipping), just saw it on slickdeals.

Accepts any 3.5" internal SATA hard drive (drives not included)

Double your storage capacity with this SimpleTech Duo Pro Drive 3.5-inch USB 2.0/eSATA external dual SATA RAID hard drive enclosure! The SimpleTech Duo Pro Drive case enclosure supports two 3.5-inch SATA hard drives (not included) with data transfer rates up to 3.0 Gbps. Once you add your own SATA hard drives into the case enclosure you'll be able to backup your data quickly and easily.

With support for RAID 0 (striping) and RAID 1 (mirroring) you can kill "down time" dead, which is great for all you "power users" out there. The Duo Pro Drive case enclosure features a simple, plug and play set up, and its small, compact size makes it easy to take with you anywhere. Connect to a PC or Mac computer via its USB 2.0 or eSATA interface!

Just add two 3.5-inch SATA hard drives and get ready for massive performance for your storage and backup needs. Order today!


* SimpleTech Duo Pro Drive 3.5-inch USB 2.0/eSATA External SATA RAID Hard Drive Enclosure

* General Features:
* Silver color
* Convenient, stackable design
* eSATA II 3 Gb/s interface
* USB 2.0 interface
* Supports two (2) 3.5-inch SATA hard drives (not included)
* Supports RAID 0 (SPEED) and RAID 1 (SAFETY)
* Quiet, high-speed cooling fan
* Kensington Security Lock slot
* Simple, plug and play setup
* Lead Free

* External Connectors:
* eSATA
* Type B USB 2.0 port
* DC in
* Power switch


Package Includes:


* SimpleTech Duo Pro Drive 3.5-inch USB 2.0/eSATA External Dual SATA RAID Hard Drive Enclosure
* Power Adapter (Input: 100 - 240V 50/60 Hz, 1.0A Max., Output: 12V --- 4.0A)
* Power cord
* USB 2.0 cable
* Quick Install Guide
* Screws (inside case)

[fishstix]

you don't really -have- to format the computer to install windows 7

[Minions]

you don't really -have- to format the computer to install windows 7

No you really have to format it, really, unless you love increased slow downs.

[fishstix]

can't you just install it without upgrading and then delete everything you don't want to save off of the windows.old folder and then defragment? what's the difference?

well, I guess it can't hurt to format, but I haven't bought a new harddrive in 5 years or so :3

[Blabj]

can't you just install it without upgrading and then delete everything you don't want to save off of the windows.old folder and then defragment? what's the difference?

this.

I'd also go back and second all the post which advise using an eSATA external, but I'm lazy so I'm writing this instead.

[Maguspk]

I partition off my OS so that would not work.

I am looking to get about maybe 1 TB of data so I guess I'll need to buy 2 TB total if I put them into a RAID 1 for mirroring. At that point though I may just go with RAID 5 if I can, are there any enclosures which support this, this would be a pretty safe way to store my data I think. I am also considering maybe keeping my music on this external drive and serving my torrented files off it also, so ideally the enclosure should be well ventilated and not have issues with being on like a normal drive I guess.

[Blabj]

As far as external enclosures go, if you're wanting RAID 5 you're looking at either a Drobo or something like a more upmarket NAS. I'm not sure if HP's Mediasmart server supports raid 5, but I've heard they're very good enclosures.

[Minions]

Raid 5 is pretty insane unless you are doing something where data loss is extremely important not to happen. Though I guess its only 2 more drives than a raid 1, which is 2 drives having the same data on both drives. Raid 3,4,5 are all 4 drives I believe.

[bungiefan]

Raid 5 just requires a minimum of three drives. Data is striped across all three, but you only get two drives worth of capacity, since one drive is used for parity to recover the data if a drive dies. Raid 5 uses one drive for parity, and you get the rest for capacity. It will let one drive fail without losing your data. You can also do RAID setups with more than one drive worth of parity, and each set of parity you have is one drive that can fail and not lose the data. If you have more drives die than you have parity for, all data on the RAID is lost. Home RAID setups are usually only striping with no parity, which means any drive dying kills the data on both, but you get both drives of capacity, or mirroring, which keeps the exact same data on both drives so one can die and you don't lose the data but you only get one drive of capacity. Any form of RAID gives you more speed to read data, but only some give you a speed boost on writing data.

[Fistandantilus]

Sorry to derail but I have a question related to this. I've been looking to buy a new External HD since my current one is full. I was going to go with a regular USB External HD but I keep seeing suggestions about how SATA with enclosures is much better. My question though is, how easy is it to transfer data between computers like this? I use a laptop and a desktop and I like to be able to watch shows on either one depending on what I'm doing. In addition to this, I want to be able to put my downloaded movies and TV shows onto my PS3 so that my roommates can have things to watch as well, would this be possible with the SATA? That's my main concern, since if it is not a USB connection then I don't know if I can connect it to the ps3.

[Maguspk]

Sorry to derail but I have a question related to this. I've been looking to buy a new External HD since my current one is full. I was going to go with a regular USB External HD but I keep seeing suggestions about how SATA with enclosures is much better. My question though is, how easy is it to transfer data between computers like this? I use a laptop and a desktop and I like to be able to watch shows on either one depending on what I'm doing. In addition to this, I want to be able to put my downloaded movies and TV shows onto my PS3 so that my roommates can have things to watch as well, would this be possible with the SATA? That's my main concern, since if it is not a USB connection then I don't know if I can connect it to the ps3.

I'd suggest just getting an external with USB connection that you know works with the ps3. You sound like that's what you want to use it for and the only reason people go for eSATA is for higher transfer speeds. If you can live without higher transfer speeds you can simplify your life and just go with a USB approach. Of course, if you feel tech savvy you could buy a dock which has both (I'm sure they exist) and an internal HD, but really you don't sound hard pressed for time so a USB external is what I recommend.

[mootsfox]

The PS3 can only read FAT32 format, so your drive will need to be formated in that.

Any USB drive will work for that.