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Buying an external hard-drive
Mai-Kero
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I need one to go with my laptop. Any suggestions? I'm guessing I should look for one with USB power.
Mai-Kero on
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if you want one powered buy USB only, you're pretty much limited to 2.5" external drives, which are basically notebook hard drives in an enclosure. they are (generally) slower, and have a lot less capacity for the cost.
If you *need* something USB powered, then a 2.5" drive will do, but if you can, I'd higly recommend a standard 3.5" external drive, as they are much more cost effective.
it's a notebook, unless it's like, absolutely brand new, it won't.
Well it's a brand new Dell Vostro that hasn't even shipped yet, do you think it would?
How much are we talking for a standard 3.5 external?
They are pretty cheap nowadays. Generally, the cheapest way is to buy a Hard drive and enclosure seperately, and just toss the HDD in the enclosure. internal HDD's are cheap now, and USB enclosures can be had for $20 or so.
I'm pretty sure vostro's won't have eSATA, Dell doesn't like to put nice things into their laptops :P
I like the ones where you buy an enclosure and put in your own HDD, but most people I know have had a pretty good experience with the pre-assembled ones. It seems like the cost for an enclosure + internal HDD and a prebuilt external HDD is growing to be the same.
I don't think you can lose in either case, but I like Western Digital, Seagate, and Hitachi for my external and internal HDD needs.
Will I be able to take that hard drive out and put it in an external case and use it on my laptop? What should I look for when buying a hard drive enclosure?
Having a fan is nice.
From the 'tech specs' tab at
http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/vostronb_1700?c=ca&cs=cabsdt1&l=en&s=bsd
Looks like no eSATA on that Vostro notebook.
Yes they do... I'll look around for it and leave a response here or in your inbox.
Pretty expensive... but it's got 500GB with Ethernet on it.
EDIT:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136084
This one's cheaper.
http://www.ecost.com/ecost/category/category.aspx?Category=155436148
This place has a ton of cheap crap.
Examples:
http://www.ecost.com/detail.aspx?edp=37614903
500 gig external hard drives for $79? Hell yes!
I can't locate it now, but this place had a link from the Woot site yesterday where you could get a 320 gig for $44.
Dig around, and I'll bet you can find something you need for half the cost of what has already been suggested.
I have the bigger version to that I just use to keep music on in my house, but I take the smaller external drive with my laptop. It works like a charm.
I'm on Linux which is installed on one (250 gig) right now, matter of fact.
The fact that I have to plug it into both the USB port and a power strip isn't exactly show stopping. I like that it's nice and it works!
I second this, I have a 300 gig My Book that has worked out swimmingly for me. Backing up is very simple, and while not USB powered its pretty compact.
I paid about $140 USD for my LaCie 500GB external drive, it is not powered by USB, so it requires a brick (though a small brick). I do not have any complaints about the LaCie drive, it is small and attractive.
However, if you are more mobile with you laptop, it would be a good idea to look into the 2.5" drives that can be powered by the USB.
It's going to be glorious