I want to buy an external hard drive to store my music and pics on. I would like to buy something that would also be compatible to connect with a DVR or other functions similar to this if I were to want that option in the future. Could someone please assist me in recommending some good brands, good hard drives, or certain features I should look for in an external hard drive? I appreciate any help
My friend I just purchased a 1TB (940 GB approx that you can use) Buffallo Drive Station External USB 2.0 Hard Drive from play.com Ordered on 2nd December and received yesterday (11th) ... so to me ... not the best place to get things if you want quick delivery like me. I got a 1TB sized file as I want to keep mine for a while. Now although it says 1TB (which you would assume means 1000GB) but it doesnt. actually 'usuable' memory is more like 940GB ... the remaining 60GB goes into the software or something(not quite sure ... some one else may knw) ... but I just wanted to let you know that even if it says 1TB or 500GB or what ever ... that DOES NOT mean that you will actuaally be able to use that amount ... worth considering for your needs. i.e. 500GB ... probably means 460GB that you can save to. I got 1TB (940GB) for £80!!! thats cheap. The Buffallo from what I have read online are very reliable and mine is quite! I can hardly hear it. It turns off when I turn computer off and turns back on when I turned computer back on. I reformatted the drive from FAT32 (which is what it comes in) to NTFS using the supplied software ... I thought reformatting would take ages but it literally took 20 seconds!! (Never done reformatting before). Anyway, I did research before I got mine and people say you should reformat to NTFS as FAT32 finds it difficult to deal with files that are over 4GB ... so ... if like me you have lots of avis then NTFS will deal with it better for you and NTFS is supposed to be more secure too. Erm, most people go for Western Digitals which look like the market leaders but what I have read from online reviews abotu them is they are hit or miss ... basically meaning that some work well ... whilst others fail and you lose all your data. BUt then again ... everything is like that. Most Western Digitals have samsung or TOshiba hard drives in them (so i have read). Also it is very easy to acuatlly build your own external hard drive. Type into youtube 'Build External Hard Drive' and you will see how easy it is. You can take the hard drive out in the future and put it in your PC if you want. For mine I only got it yesterday and I so far have LOADS of back upd DVDS that I need to download onto it. 4GB took about 1 min 30 seconds to transfer. 1GB took like 30 seconds to tranfer (and I Aint got USB 2.0 on my laptop). Dunno if that is fast or what but Im happy with those speeds. Finally, They say that you shouldnt move your hard drive around. You should allow air to flow around it to keep it at optimum temperature and that you should allow yous 'remove this hard ware safeely' thng if you want to dis connect it. and turn it off when not needed. Erm I think Iv covered everything that I can think of. I got 1TB for £80 which is pretty cheap. Think the same model as mine was for £74 at amazon (Sale) not so long ago then on play.com went back to £145. So if you want that much memory then have a look quick and get one. I knw that play.com had a toshiba 1TB that they were selling for about same price but tbh I dont like that they take ages to deliver. First time I've really ordered from them and was nitemare thinking if its lost in post. lol Hope some of this cr*p has helped u lol Auravoir
Western Digital drives, surprise surprise, have Western Digital hard drives inside, not Samsung, and certainly not Toshiba for drives any larger than 250GB, as Toshiba do not make 3.5" drives. Krazyasif, you do have USB2 on your laptop, as you can't transfer that amount of data in that time over USB 1.1. USB2 has been around for 5 years, so if your laptop is less than 5 years old, you have USB2. The best way to get an external hard drive IMO is to build one yourself using a desktop drive and an IcyBox enclosure, it costys roughly the same, and is less vulnerable to problems (external hard disks that go wrong usually are just the enclosure at fault, not the drive, and no data is actually lost)
I just got the following external hard drive for Christmas. It cost $80. http://reviews.cnet.com/hard-drives...igned/4505-3186_7-32495364.html?tag=mncol;lst Could you help in answering these questions 1. How does this one compare to the best ones on the market? 2. What are the best brands for external hard drives? 3. What features should I be looking for in a good external hard drive? If the one I received isn't that great, I can return it and put that $80 towards another, but I don't want to be spending much more than $80
