GoOB 0 Posted August 20, 2003 So, I am sitting here thinking about getting a new external harddrive. The old 40 gigabyte one is getting really full as of late. So, I would like anyone to share their opinions and or experiences regarding external harddrives with me. I want an external harddrive since: A) I can manage my digital photos better, instead of burning five or so CD-R's filled with photos just to get them to my dads workplace for storage. B) It will take the load off my "normal" harddrive were I will only store the things I use the most. C) Lot's of portable storage for quite an O.K sum of money. And i won't have to spend hours backing my important files up on CD's. But please give me your opinons and advice regarding this subject, I don't want to throw my money at something that isn't worth having money thrown at it Oh, almost forgot. The one I am considering is this: Maxtor 3000LE 120 gigabyte external, it goes off for 2 368 SEK (256 €) at the place I checked (although it is probably cheaper down at my local retailer) So, bring it on Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Badgerboy 0 Posted August 20, 2003 Personally I would just go for a 7200rpm internal drive (Or the 10k Raptor if your feeling flush! ). Do you ever need to carry around 120gb of data? Get an internal drive, and pick up a 512mb USB memory stick. I have one, and I rarely fill it up. Additionally its dead easy to use, and cheap to buy. If you do get a new hardrive, it might be worth installing a fresh OS on it (Win XP Pro), and transferring your data from the old drive. That way you have a nice fast HD with a clean OS running. The 40gb can then be also used as a paging drive by windows. This will increase your performance. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
acidcrash 0 Posted August 20, 2003 why not get another internal? if you havent already got one, just get an IDE ribbon with twin slots instead of a single (example) edit: badger beat me to it Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mister Frag 0 Posted August 20, 2003 I use an external 120GB 7200RPM Maxtor 5000DV FireWire / USB 2.0 drive for backups, and I love it. The drive is extremely fast and quiet -- I can't hear it even when accessing the drive. I used to back up onto tape, but that started to take too long. With the Maxtor, I can backup at about 25MB/second (>1GB/minute) when using the FireWire connection; read speeds are even higher. I have also used the USB 2.0 connection, but despire it's higher peak transfer rate, FireWire still beats it for sustained throughput, so I use that at home. I have the drive partitioned into two volumes, one 10GB FAT32 volume for when I need to move the drive to a system that has Windows 98/ME running on it, and the rest is an NTFS volume for real operating systems. Having a drive that also supports USB 1.1/2.0 is nice because it allows for nearly universal connectivity -- just plug it in and go. That has been really useful when having to work on friends computers and having to bring Windows Service Packs, Ad-Aware etc. Incidentally, because of USB mass storage support in newer versions of Windows, you don't need any drivers unless you want to take advantage of the One Button backup feature that is triggered by the button on the drive. The only downside is that the drive / power brick don't have a on/off switch. Since it's not my primary drive, I prefer to leave it off when it isn't in use, so I wind up having to crawl under my desk to unplug the power brick. If I were to do it over again, I would also spend the extra $100 and get the 250GB version. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dauragon 0 Posted August 20, 2003 is there anyway to get more then 2 cd rom drives and 2 internal hd's on a comp? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
acidcrash 0 Posted August 20, 2003 yep, get another IDE controler or RAID (both use PCI slots) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Badgerboy 0 Posted August 21, 2003 is there anyway to get more then 2 cd rom drives and 2 internal hd's on a comp? Any PC can have two CDROM drives and two hard drives without using any extra controllers like raid. Simply setup the two Hard drives as Master and Slave on one IDE channel, and the two CDROMS as Master and Slave on the other IDE channel. Job done. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Die Alive 0 Posted August 21, 2003 is there anyway to get more then 2 cd rom drives and 2 internal hd's on a comp? Any PC can have two CDROM drives and two hard drives without using any extra controllers like raid. Simply setup the two Hard drives as Master and Slave on one IDE channel, and the two CDROMS as Master and Slave on the other IDE channel. Job done. BIS should sell a CD ROM drive that has no eject button but has OFP2 sealed inside it. I'd buy one. -=Die Alive=- Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shashman 0 Posted August 21, 2003 You could get an internal HD and fit it to a carrying rack This way all it takes is the turn of a lever and the HD becomes a portable one. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
acidcrash 0 Posted August 21, 2003 is there anyway to get more then 2 cd rom drives and 2 internal hd's on a comp? Any PC can have two CDROM drives and two hard drives without using any extra controllers like raid. Simply setup the two Hard drives as Master and Slave on one IDE channel, and the two CDROMS as Master and Slave on the other IDE channel. Job done. BIS should sell a CD ROM drive that has no eject button but has OFP2 sealed inside it. Â I'd buy one. -=Die Alive=- haha you wouldnt believe how many times i have thought the exact same thing! gets annoying having to constantly swap CDs around then going to play flashpoint...realise the CD isnt in one of the cd drives and have to go hunting for it <span id='ME'><center>Acidcrash preorders one </center></span> Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Scope-SWAF- 0 Posted August 21, 2003 is there anyway to get more then 2 cd rom drives and 2 internal hd's on a comp? Any PC can have two CDROM drives and two hard drives without using any extra controllers like raid. Simply setup the two Hard drives as Master and Slave on one IDE channel, and the two CDROMS as Master and Slave on the other IDE channel. Job done. BIS should sell a CD ROM drive that has no eject button but has OFP2 sealed inside it.  I'd buy one. -=Die Alive=- haha you wouldnt believe how many times i have thought the exact same thing!  gets annoying having to constantly swap CDs around then going to play flashpoint...realise the CD isnt in one of the cd drives and have to go hunting for it  <span id='ME'><center>Acidcrash preorders one </center></span> YEA!! Great Idea! so no more fear of a wrecked resistance CD... Im constantly affraid that my OFP wont start 'cos of the scratches in the res CD, so it's been the only CD in my CD ROM for the last 2 months Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dauragon 0 Posted August 21, 2003 is there anyway to get more then 2 cd rom drives and 2 internal hd's on a comp? Any PC can have two CDROM drives and two hard drives without using any extra controllers like raid. Simply setup the two Hard drives as Master and Slave on one IDE channel, and the two CDROMS as Master and Slave on the other IDE channel. Job done. MORE, like 4 cd rom drives and 4 hard drives or more i already have 1 cd-rw drive 1-dvd-rw drive, 1-160gb hd and 1-300gb hd Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Badgerboy 0 Posted August 21, 2003 In that case setup a raid. If you want performance go for a striped raid setup. Two 40gb hardrives will only show up as 1 40gb hardrive, but it cuts your access times in half. (Or use two 10k Raptors, they fly! ). You can buy additional controllers, or shop around for a good board. My AT7 MAX2 can support up to 12 devices with no additonal components. It's bloody useful, although I pysically can't fit any more hardware in my PC! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lobanak 0 Posted August 21, 2003 I have a 30 GB external harddrive with firewire and usb 1.1/2.0 where my MP3s are located. Very nice, cause I can use for my laptop. No problems with it and fast enough for listening MP3s and copy some new when I have downloaded some. If you want more then 4 drives in your comp, try using SCSI (U160 or U320). It costs more money, but the transfer rates are much greater then with IDE drives. You can connect up to 15 devices to the controller. And the SCSI drives live longer then IDE drives. They are made for server use and not for home use like IDE drives. I like my two Quantum 17,3 GB U160/U320 drives and won't give them away. Also you have 6 years of warranty on the Quantum drives. Very nice. I sent one back to Quantum, cause of great errors and got a new U320 drive without paying one cent (only shipping costs to ireland). Greets [CiA]Lobanak Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DPMS 0 Posted August 21, 2003 I want to get an external drive for my laptop. I am running out of space on my drive with all the crap I download, except the ofp addons, they are not crap. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dauragon 0 Posted August 21, 2003 In that case setup a raid. If you want performance go for a striped raid setup. Two 40gb hardrives will only show up as 1 40gb hardrive, but it cuts your access times in half. (Or use two 10k Raptors, they fly! ).You can buy additional controllers, or shop around for a good board. My AT7 MAX2 can support up to 12 devices with no additonal components. It's bloody useful, although I pysically can't fit any more hardware in my PC! yeah but 7200 rpm for me is fine, at my work there is a 15'000 RPM SCSI HD (18 gb) i like the speed but they never have enough storage for my needs Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Warin 0 Posted August 21, 2003 I am totally paranoid about striping on IDE devices. I know three people who encountered stripe errors within 6 months of setting up a RAID 0 array with IDE drives. So if one goes that route, regular backups are a must. That being said, I think I am going to order two WD Raptors next week, and set up a 72gb RAID 0 array. Â Just because it will be SCREAMINGLY fast. Â Then I will set up a nightly backup to mu current 80gb drive. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Badgerboy 0 Posted August 21, 2003 I am totally paranoid about striping on IDE devices.I know three people who encountered stripe errors within 6 months of setting up a RAID 0 array with IDE drives. So if one goes that route, regular backups are a must. That being said, I think I am going to order two WD Raptors next week, and set up a 72gb RAID 0 array. Â Just because it will be SCREAMINGLY fast. Â Then I will set up a nightly backup to mu current 80gb drive. I only stripe on my games machine. That way if I do suffer any problems, I don't loose any data. (Except my savegames), as it's a stripped down Win XP OS with only games installed on it. My server which sits next to my games rig runs a mirrored raid setup, so my precious data is safe! (Hell if you have 4 raptors, you can run a striped/mirrored array! Tad expensive though) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Major Fubar 0 Posted August 22, 2003 is there anyway to get more then 2 cd rom drives and 2 internal hd's on a comp? SCSI Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
