USB HARD DRIVE
- Thread starter Gunpowder
- Start date
mrjinglesusa
CP Chemist
Depends how much you want to spend and how big of a drive you want. I have a LaCie USB2/Firewire drive (160 GB) that runs ~$250.00. It's fantastic - whisper quiet and fast.
This isn't the one I have but I can easily recommend LaCie - great products.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...ronics&n=541966
This isn't the one I have but I can easily recommend LaCie - great products.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...ronics&n=541966
mhortsch
Where am I?
If your talking USB, dont waste your time.
If your talking USB2, get firewire.
If you have firewire800, go that round. You'll spend twice the price, but they are nice and compact, pretty portable.
If your talking USB2, get firewire.
If you have firewire800, go that round. You'll spend twice the price, but they are nice and compact, pretty portable.
Western Digital USB2 - 120 Gb, I carry it with me in my work travels.. I maintain about 10 different Dell models of desktops and 4 different models of laptops. I keep images of all the models on the external for extreme cases.
If you don't have a firewire port, but do have USB2, IMHO, don't worry about buying the firewire card for your machine..USB2 will throw a 3 GB image on a machine in about 6 minutes.
Picked up mine for $120.
If you don't have a firewire port, but do have USB2, IMHO, don't worry about buying the firewire card for your machine..USB2 will throw a 3 GB image on a machine in about 6 minutes.
Picked up mine for $120.
moki
el Presidente
As was mentioned, if all your computer supports is USB, then do not bother.
USB2 is better, and can work reasonably well -- but as stated, FireWire (or FireWire 800) is much better, if your laptop has a port.
I have a little iPod Shuffle the works well as a music player, and a small (1gb) portable hard drive.
If you've ever wanted an iPod, and are considering the idea of an external hard drive to back up your computer... sounds like a perfect fit. The larger iPods can go up to 60gb in size, and work great as portable hard drives, as well as the world's best music player.
Some links:
http://www.apple.com/ipodphoto/
http://www.apple.com/ipod/
http://www.apple.com/ipodmini/
All three of them work with both USB2 and FireWire connections.
USB2 is better, and can work reasonably well -- but as stated, FireWire (or FireWire 800) is much better, if your laptop has a port.
I have a little iPod Shuffle the works well as a music player, and a small (1gb) portable hard drive.
If you've ever wanted an iPod, and are considering the idea of an external hard drive to back up your computer... sounds like a perfect fit. The larger iPods can go up to 60gb in size, and work great as portable hard drives, as well as the world's best music player.
Some links:
http://www.apple.com/ipodphoto/
http://www.apple.com/ipod/
http://www.apple.com/ipodmini/
All three of them work with both USB2 and FireWire connections.
Smokin'Tone
I just might be your huckleberry
- Joined
- May 22, 2002
- Messages
- 1,193
Firewire is actually going out of style, and surprisingly enough, even the company that created Firewire, Apple, isn't going with it as the 'go to'. Their new Ipods are all coming with USB 2.x cables, the Firewire cable is going to cost ya extra.
I agree with LaCie drives, I have 4 of them. 250G monsters. The only other one I trust is EZQuest, but I don't remember offhand if they put out USB drives or just Firewire drives. I have had one of their 75G drives for close to 3 years now. Never shut it off and it's still going strong! It's now my home, music, movie and document backup drive.
IMO, I wouldn't recommend using an Ipod as an external drive, they really aren't big enough, even at the highest, 60 gig, you're paying close to 500 for something you can pick up for a LOT cheaper. They're great music players, great for backing up some files, but not really even meant for running as an external hard drive. That's almost like saying that using a TIVO as an external drive is just as good! hehehe, now maybe if you ran Linux.....
I agree with LaCie drives, I have 4 of them. 250G monsters. The only other one I trust is EZQuest, but I don't remember offhand if they put out USB drives or just Firewire drives. I have had one of their 75G drives for close to 3 years now. Never shut it off and it's still going strong! It's now my home, music, movie and document backup drive.
IMO, I wouldn't recommend using an Ipod as an external drive, they really aren't big enough, even at the highest, 60 gig, you're paying close to 500 for something you can pick up for a LOT cheaper. They're great music players, great for backing up some files, but not really even meant for running as an external hard drive. That's almost like saying that using a TIVO as an external drive is just as good! hehehe, now maybe if you ran Linux.....
stevehawk
'Member? C'mon you 'member!
CP... not just for cigars! We now have poker, scotch and tech advice/support! Is this a great place, or what? :thumbs:
Seizure
Member
yup. quite a few of us Cigar Smoking Techies here.
I currently have USB 1 in the desktop but need more USB's so am adding a USB2 card soon.
I found some HD options at Staples but using CNET.COM I found that they all had high failure rates (Maxtor and Smart Disk especially).
Western Digital rated ok by the editor but said it lacked backup software but the review was done in 2002. Feedback said it has reliability problems which seems to be the same story for most if not all brands I have looked at so far.
Horse must have a gem there.
I am also looking at a new laptop for the office. I am tired of Dell India support so am looking at Toshiba (techra line) and IBM (thinkpad) althogh I read that Dell brought back their Business line support to the USA. But that is another post here at CPtech.com
I found some HD options at Staples but using CNET.COM I found that they all had high failure rates (Maxtor and Smart Disk especially).
Western Digital rated ok by the editor but said it lacked backup software but the review was done in 2002. Feedback said it has reliability problems which seems to be the same story for most if not all brands I have looked at so far.
Horse must have a gem there.
I am also looking at a new laptop for the office. I am tired of Dell India support so am looking at Toshiba (techra line) and IBM (thinkpad) althogh I read that Dell brought back their Business line support to the USA. But that is another post here at CPtech.com
Gunpowder said:
Most all now come with Dantz Retrospect packaged. But we're using Ghost 9 Enterprise because of the new chipset for usb2 on the Optiplex 280. Most of the field techs working for the county carry county issued Iomega 120 gig usb2 but since I'm a sub-contractor, I had to buy my own. Got the WD a few months ago and have not had any probs with it. Good luck in your research.
mhortsch
Where am I?
newegg.com
newegg.com
and... newegg.com!!!!
I might have to disagree with the firewire comment however. Apple didnt create firewire, they just played a big role in making it popular.
The reason they dont include a firewire cable, is partially because of a cost cut (they used to include both). You'll notice they cut the included accessories in half.
The other reason is becuase the majority of iPod users are PC owners, and since macs have usb2 and firewire, it made more since to include a USB2 cable over firewire.
newegg.com
and... newegg.com!!!!
I might have to disagree with the firewire comment however. Apple didnt create firewire, they just played a big role in making it popular.
The reason they dont include a firewire cable, is partially because of a cost cut (they used to include both). You'll notice they cut the included accessories in half.
The other reason is becuase the majority of iPod users are PC owners, and since macs have usb2 and firewire, it made more since to include a USB2 cable over firewire.
moki
el Presidente
mhortsch said:
Apple did indeed invent the FireWire technology -- they then brought it before the IEEE and had it turned into a standard (IEEE-1394), bringing other companies like Sony, etc. on board.
http://www.span.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=23_507
moki
el Presidente
Smokin said:
FireWire is actually used by more companies in more products today than ever before; far from going out of style, it is used in all serious high-bandwidth applications, such as digital video. Your throughput to and from a FireWire drive (and obviously a FireWire 800 drive) is significantly better than from the same hardware via a USB2 interface.
I've done some USB programming, and I know why this is -- I won't bother with the boring techie details.
The reason BOTH a firewire cable and a USB2 cable are no longer included in the box (as of a few days ago) has already been outlined here. You can still use FireWire with an iPod, and indeed, if you have a FireWire port on your machine, it is recommended, because you will get faster throughput.
More machines have USB2 than have FireWire, that's the bottom line, and the reason the cable is not included anymore.
Smokin said:
That's why I recommended he get an iPod if he was also interested in one as a music player. If all he wants is an external hard drive, certainly cheaper solutions are available. It is nothing like stating that using a TIVO as an external hard drive is just as good; read my original comment.
As for it running Linux, a number of geeks have gotten it to do just that -- booting off of Linux on an iPod. Why anyone would want to do this is another matter.
moki said:
I remember it quite vividly...about the same time that they yanked floppies from new machines
It played havoc with the comp labs I was running at the University I used to work at. At the time, we were 50% mac 50% pc....usage went to hell on the macs from that point on cause students didn't like the hassle of no floppy drive on the mac... since then, the labs went to 90% pc and 10% mac.
Another brilliant decision by apple. (Don't get me wrong, I'll take either machine...)
moki
el Presidente
Horse said:I remember it quite vividly...about the same time that they yanked floppies from new machines
It played havoc with the comp labs I was running at the University I used to work at. At the time, we were 50% mac 50% pc....usage went to hell on the macs from that point on cause students didn't like the hassle of no floppy drive on the mac... since then, the labs went to 90% pc and 10% mac.
[snapback]168390[/snapback]
FireWire has actually been around a lot longer than that -- regarding the lack of a floppy drive, that was just on the iMacs at the time. It certainly did create a lot of unnecessary hassle for people, both at home, and in labs.
Interestingly, they were certainly right that the floppy was a ridiculous, dated technology, but totally missed the real world implications of removing it. DOH!
mhortsch
Where am I?
moki said:
I stand corrected kind sir!!!
jaxstraww
New Member
I read a few articles that USB2 is faster than Firewire in speed. If there is allot of information to move Firewire was more "stable" (whatever that means) over a longer period.
As far as an external drive goes I bought a Iomega 120 gig that came with Norton Ghost 2003. I can't tell you how much time having a ghosted image of my drive has saved me over the last few months. I take an image anytime I do a major update that goes flawless. No longer with a reformat do I have to get SP2 over again or all my Norton Antivirus updates. I also play allot of games and Photoshop can be a pain to call in everytime I do a reformat.
Whatever drive you get spend the cash and get Norton Ghost. Best damn add on application out there.
As far as an external drive goes I bought a Iomega 120 gig that came with Norton Ghost 2003. I can't tell you how much time having a ghosted image of my drive has saved me over the last few months. I take an image anytime I do a major update that goes flawless. No longer with a reformat do I have to get SP2 over again or all my Norton Antivirus updates. I also play allot of games and Photoshop can be a pain to call in everytime I do a reformat.
Whatever drive you get spend the cash and get Norton Ghost. Best damn add on application out there.