Steve TDI Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 There are so many of them about now I have no idea which one to choose.The ones at £80 look the same as the ones at £300!What do you recommend and what should I look out for?I am wanting an External one.I am not good with computers so don't go too technical on me please. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naif Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 Do you need a 1TB drive, or is it a "my hard drive's bigger than yours" scenarioThe more expensive, the higher the spec normally, meaning it will run fasterStill, go for solid state over one of these anyday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve TDI Posted August 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 I've got 2 160gb internals and they are almost full.I'm not into computing but I do have a lot of music (40gb), films and tv programs filling things up. If I get a TB then that should last me a while.I don't even think it's got a good graphics card. All I asked for is that it can play solitare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver! Posted August 26, 2009 Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 I would always go for a good branded model. Be wary of models with Western Digital drives as there seems to be an issue with certain drives....and remember, you will still want to back up your 'data' somewhere as all drives are subject to failure and virus.If you are not going to want the data "mobile" I would consider upgrading one of the internal drives on your PC to 1TB and using it for storage.You could then get a 1TB external and carry out a weekly back up to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDGM Posted August 26, 2009 Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 (edited) I put a Samsung 1Tb (£52) in my desktop at home because my 320Gb and 160Gb drives were getting full. I replaced the 160Gb and left the 320Gb in (C:\ and D:\), partitioned the ITb into three and shifted everything across. Edited August 26, 2009 by IDGM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver! Posted August 26, 2009 Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 I put a Samsung 1Tb (£52) in my desktop at home because my 320Gb and 160Gb drives were getting full. I replaced the 160Gb and left the 320Gb in (C:\ and D:\), partitioned the ITb into three and shifted everything across.GEEK! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDGM Posted August 26, 2009 Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 I must be slowly getting to geekery. I partitioned it off myself without asking teacher, I've switched to Xubuntu on a laptop and run emulators on my Nintendo DS I'll be entering Robot Wars next! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve TDI Posted August 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 Out of this listing, which would you go for?http://www.ebuyer.com/search?limit=50&...elow&page=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2001gti Posted August 26, 2009 Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 I would always go for a good branded model. Be wary of models with Western Digital drives as there seems to be an issue with certain drives....and remember, you will still want to back up your 'data' somewhere as all drives are subject to failure and virus.If you are not going to want the data "mobile" I would consider upgrading one of the internal drives on your PC to 1TB and using it for storage.You could then get a 1TB external and carry out a weekly back up to it.I have to agree with that. im still ruinnin the same 200gb hdd i bought 3yrs which i install my games onto along with an 80gb ive had for alot longer then that which i use for downloaded series' of lost and the entire run of friends. I have a 160gb external HDD in which i store my pictures on. but now i have a HD cam corder im thinkin that i will have to get a bigger external. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigz™ Posted August 26, 2009 Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 My 500GB WD harddrive has been fantastic over the years and its still being used daily (I use it to back up my iMac) so long as you split the large drive into sections (I foget the technical term but it was very easy) its fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver! Posted August 26, 2009 Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 PC Pro A List reckons the Iomega Professional External Hard Drive is the best buy. £92 from www.morecomputers.com, with the alternative being the Iomega eGo Ruby Red.Can't find it on their website though.PC Pro A List has done me pretty well ove rhte last 10 years. Recommended internal is the Samsung Spinpoint F1 series or the Seagate Barracuda range.Ray Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve TDI Posted August 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 Is this the one your on about?http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/iomega-External-Desk...id=p3286.c0.m14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDGM Posted August 26, 2009 Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 PC Pro A List reckons the Iomega Professional External Hard Drive is the best buy. £92 from www.morecomputers.com, with the alternative being the Iomega eGo Ruby Red.Can't find it on their website though.PC Pro A List has done me pretty well ove rhte last 10 years. Recommended internal is the Samsung Spinpoint F1 series or the Seagate Barracuda range.RayThat's confirmation. I am a geek, that's what I have! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver! Posted August 26, 2009 Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 Is this the one your on about?http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/iomega-External-Desk...id=p3286.c0.m14This one... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve TDI Posted August 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 Nice one Ray. Cheers for that. It'll be here next week!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unheard Posted August 27, 2009 Report Share Posted August 27, 2009 Iomega use Seagate drives you will find inside the caddy there is a Seagate barracuda, well you probably will not as i don't expect you will open it but Iomega have a long-standing partnership with Segate. I have opened my iomega 1TB and can confirm that they are Seagate barracuda drives. The hard drive world is very small now, as of the latest takeover there are only 5 brands in the game. All external drives will use a disk from one of the 5.Its good as they are all a much of a muchness, all the crap brands have either gone to the wall or been absorbed by the big boys still in the running.You do get a few lemons, every company will come out with a bad drive from time to time but that should not really reflect on all of the drives that a brandmakes. I have had many WD drives and not one has ever gone nor do i know anyone that has had a bad WD drive so just because one or two have been a bit iffy it will not really put me off the brand, WD and Seagate are still about the best. The 1TB Seagate barracuda drives have had one of the highest failure rated of a drive for quite a long time but it should not effect any of the new 1TB drives as its a firmware issue that has been resolved.The alloy case on the iomega are very good. If you lay them flat metal to metal on your computer case it will act like an extra heat sink and the drive will runvery cool. If you want to copy large files across to the the drive can i recommend that you use teracopy its a fantastic little copy program that is much better than the windows one. I have been using it for years and it is still the best i have ever tested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2001gti Posted August 28, 2009 Report Share Posted August 28, 2009 are the barracuda drives 10,000rpm? or is that just the raptors? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve TDI Posted August 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2009 GOT IT!!!!It arrived this morning. Took less than 24 hour to get here!Let the transfering commence!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unheard Posted August 28, 2009 Report Share Posted August 28, 2009 are the barracuda drives 10,000rpm? or is that just the raptors?The Barracuda range is 7200rpm Segates 10,000rpm drives are the Savvio range. Just like the VelociRaptor they are 2.5" low power drives,both are mainly targeted at the enterprise market more than consumer. A RAID setup more favourable in an external drive as you can get high capacity at low cost with much of the performance of the faster drives. For most people SSD will be the winner for speed as it provides the best randomaccess time and that is where most people will notice the difference. I don't think faster spin speed drives are pushed that much in the consumer market.I think you will see many more large capacity slower spin speed eco drives coming out and the focus on speed shifting over to SSD more and more. The computer market is the next thing to be hit by tighter regulations over efficiency ... watch this space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve TDI Posted August 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2009 It is now transfering at a rate of 1 min / 1gb.To me (going on how long a download from the net takes) that seams very quick. Is that about right or sould it be quicker? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unheard Posted August 28, 2009 Report Share Posted August 28, 2009 One minute per gigabyte is equal to 143.1656mbps so it is somewhat faster than your internet 143.1656mbps is 17.8957MBpsThat is about right for USB2 although i see about 29MB/s - 33MB/s on my one but you have to take into account how fast the drive that your copying from is and how fragmented the date that your copying is. The more fragmented the harder the head is having to work to retrieve the data.Using the regular windows copy will be super slow for large files and it hammers the hard drive in the process that is why i never use it, If i copy from my C drive to the external iomega on USB it runs at about 29MB/s - 33MB/s but if i am copying from my C to my E that's IDE it will only copy at 21MB/s Are you using the eSATA or USB? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve TDI Posted August 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2009 USB i'm using. I don't even know what eSATA is or that my PC even has it!It's only going one way really. Once it's on there i'll be creating a short cut on my desktop and watching my films that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unheard Posted August 28, 2009 Report Share Posted August 28, 2009 eSATA is the exturnal intaface of SATA the E stands for external. There are a few differences in order to allow for a longer cable run but essentially they are the same. Unlike USB 2.0 or Firewire 400/800 the eSATA interface is the native protocol that the hard drive communicates in so if you connect an external drivevia eSATA its just like connecting it internally. If the computer is post 2003 its likely that your motherboard has an SATA interface and if that is the case very likely it is already using an SATA hard drive inside.If you have not got an eSATA port on the back but have a free SATA port inside all you need is an eSATA PCI bracket that goes in place of one of the blanking pannels giving you the port you need. If your motherboard has not got any SATA ports you can get a PCI cards with SATA and eSATAAs the Iomega Professional has eSATA its well worth using it although USB 2.0 is fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve TDI Posted August 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2009 You know too much! I got my PC in 2006 so it should have it. I'll get one of my mates to translate (read; dumb it down) all you've put then I might get a better idea for future references.Cheers for all your help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unheard Posted August 28, 2009 Report Share Posted August 28, 2009 I can do dumbed down eSATA is faster than USB that's all you really need to know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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