Question about external hard drive vs adding a hard drive to existing computer..

[TeaTotaler]

Our computer is a Dell desktop purchased in 2005. The hard drive on it is 70GB. We started having major problems with it this summer and after months of frustration we figured out how to add more RAM. We went from 256MB RAM to 2GB. Wow, what an improvement. Should have done that a long time ago especially since we found out how easy it was to DIY.

 

However, we have now run out of room on the hard drive. I suspect it is digital pix and audio files of ds playing his violin. I started looking at external hard drives but the reviews of a lot of them indicate that they are not reliable. Some apparently crash after a few months. We know we need one for an extra back up but we also need more hard drive space. Short of purchasing another computer what are the options?

 

Is there a brand of hard drive that you recommend?

 

Do you back up files on an external hard drive or disks?

 

Would appreciate any help.

 

Thanks.

[Sputterduck]

Just add a new internal one. It's so easy. Buy from newegg.com and look at the reviews. I love that site and every computer guy I know buys from it.

[TeaTotaler]

Just add a new internal one. It's so easy.

 

See, both dh and I are not techies and he is drowning at work so that means I will have to tackle this on my own. I googled a few places to see if it could be done at home. I'm afraid it looks like it is beyond my ability ;)

 

I'll see if I can talk dh into trying. He told me last night that we'll have to pay somebody to do it!!

 

Thanks for your help.

[Spy Car]

I prefer an external hard drive for several reasons. It is far easier to move to other machines. It avoids adding heat to the CPU box. And it doesn't put extra strain on the internal power supply.

 

I also like an external with multiple interfaces. The ones I have (G-Tech) have USB II, Firewire 400, Firewire 800, and eSATA.

 

It's no good having data "backed up" and finding you can't migrate the data because the interface on the "old computer" isn't supported by the new computer.

 

Apple (I use a Mac) is going to (or has?) abandoned Firewire 400 in new machines. If your drives are Firewire 400 only, you are stuck (allowing an added card could be a work around). Same with any interface.

 

Bill

[Sputterduck]

Apple (I use a Mac)

Bill

 

:ack2:

eeeewwwwwww

;)

[Spy Car]

:ack2:

eeeewwwwwww

;)

 

Yea, it's awful. You plug in the hard drive. It works. No need to pay someone to do it for you, so no "economic stimulus" for the tech support community :D

 

Bill

[TeaTotaler]

Bill,

 

I'm afraid your post is putting extra strain on my brain:lol:. I need you to speak in plain language. :D I'm hoping that ds can grow up fast and help us deal with this stuff.

 

Thanks though for posting.

 

I prefer an external hard drive for several reasons. It is far easier to move to other machines. It avoids adding heat to the CPU box. And it doesn't put extra strain on the internal power supply.

 

I also like an external with multiple interfaces. The ones I have (G-Tech) have USB II, Firewire 400, Firewire 800, and eSATA.

 

It's no good having data "backed up" and finding you can't migrate the data because the interface on the "old computer" isn't supported by the new computer.

 

Apple (I use a Mac) is going to (or has?) abandoned Firewire 400 in new machines. If your drives are Firewire 400 only, you are stuck (allowing an added card could be a work around). Same with any interface.

 

Bill

[DesertDweller]

I would recommend an external drive. We just bought a Seagate FreeAgent/Desk External Drive. It has a five year warranty and stores up to 1TB. They do have larger and smaller sizes depending on your needs. Very easy to use. Very easy to set-up. We bought it primarily for the computer that I use for our business, but we have also used it to back-up things on a couple of our other computers too.

[Sputterduck]

Yea, it's awful. You plug in the hard drive. It works. No need to pay someone to do it for you, so no "economic stimulus" for the tech support community :D

 

Bill

 

I was complaining about Macs. I'll never use one because I like to build my own computers from scratch, even my laptop, tyvm. :tongue_smilie:

[Spy Car]

Bill,

 

I'm afraid your post is putting extra strain on my brain:lol:. I need you to speak in plain language. :D I'm hoping that ds can grow up fast and help us deal with this stuff.

 

Thanks though for posting.

 

OK. And external hard drive goes outside the computer box. It has it's own power supply, and therefore it's own plug. An internal drive draws power of the computer box's power supply. Power supply failure is a common problem in PCs. They can be fixed, but sometimes drive damage happens when the power supply fails.

 

Internal drives add heat inside the box, because drives produce heat. Heat is bad for computers. Externals remove this problem.

 

The "interface" is the means a hard drive and the computer use to send data back and forth. There are numerous different "formats" that allow "connections" to be made.

 

USB II, Firewire 400, Firewire 800, and eSATA are some of the ways a computer connects to a drive. eSATA is the rising star at the moment, and I'm not sure what PCs currently use internally.

 

So for sake of argument say you had a machine that only had a USB II connection (which is pretty slow, but common) and nothing else. You still would want an external hard drive with an eSATA connection (even though you could not use it now) because when you eventually buy a new computer you will be able to connect it to that new computer (especially if the new computer lacks USB II).

 

Clear?

 

Bill

[Spy Car]

I was complaining about Macs. I'll never use one because I like to build my own computers from scratch, even my laptop, tyvm. :tongue_smilie:

 

Someone posted here recently about building a "Hackintosh."

 

You you could have the best of both worlds.

 

Bill (who likes the people who write the OS building the machines :D)

[TeaTotaler]

Thanks Bill. So how would I find out whether my computer has USB II, Firewire 400, 800 or eSATA? Sorry, if that is a really dumb question.

 

 

USB II, Firewire 400, Firewire 800, and eSATA are some of the ways a computer connects to a drive. eSATA is the rising star at the moment, and I'm not sure what PCs currently use internally.

 

So for sake of argument say you had a machine that only had a USB II connection (which is pretty slow, but common) and nothing else. You still would want an external hard drive with an eSATA connection (even though you could not use it now) because when you eventually buy a new computer you will be able to connect it to that new computer (especially if the new computer lacks USB II).

 

Clear?

 

Bill

[secular_mom]

Dh has ordered several external harddrives from newegg.com

They are pretty inexpensive, and we haven't had any crash so far. We've had a couple for a few years now, but DH is always wanting to store more files so he'll buy another.

[Sputterduck]

Bill (who likes the people who write the OS building the machines :D)

 

 

It makes sense. I will admit that. But it takes all the fun out of it!

[Spy Car]

Thanks Bill. So how would I find out whether my computer has USB II, Firewire 400, 800 or eSATA? Sorry, if that is a really dumb question.

 

If you don't know what the plugs look like, it's tricky. Were I you, I'd gently unplug the machine (noting where any wires go) and take it to a computer store. Or ask a knowledgeable neighbor to take a peek.

 

Someone with a PC background may have better tips. Someone used to computers can tell you what you've got in two minutes, so it is not a big deal.

 

Macs have a control panel to tell you what interfaces one has, I'd be surprised if PCs don't have something similar.

 

Bill

[TheTwinsMom1]

Most pc's will use a USB connection to connect the external drive to the computer. Most pc's also have several extra usb slots.

 

I also suggest newegg.com and if you have alot of pictures and video I would recommend a 1T external drive like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152178 This one has good reviews as well as uses USB 2.0 to connect to your computer.

 

USB connections look like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119034 and all the cables you need will come with the external drive. As long as you do not bang around or drop the drive it should last quite a while.

[TeaTotaler]

[

QUOTE=TheTwinsMom1;1291990]Most pc's will use a USB connection to connect the external drive to the computer. Most pc's also have several extra usb slots.

 

I also suggest newegg.com and if you have alot of pictures and video I would recommend a 1T external drive like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152178 This one has good reviews as well as uses USB 2.0 to connect to your computer.

 

USB connections look like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119034 and all the cables you need will come with the external drive. As long as you do not bang around or drop the drive it should last quite a while.

[TheTwinsMom1]

Also this is what the normal connectors on a PC look like:

 

These are not my pictures, they were found using google :P

 

Firewire: http://jontrosky.com/images/Firewire_6_pin_port.jpg

 

Firewire in middle, with USB ports to the left and right: http://www.dansdata.com/images/atc600/atc600ports500.jpg

 

Hope this helps. As I said before, most externals are just gonna use USB which you should have several of on your pc. There are usually a few in the front, and several in the back.

[TeaTotaler]

Yes, we have two USB ports on the front of our machine.

Thanks again.

 

Also this is what the normal connectors on a PC look like:

 

Hope this helps. As I said before, most externals are just gonna use USB which you should have several of on your pc. There are usually a few in the front, and several in the back.

[ElizabethB]

We have had bad luck with our external hard drives, we had 3 different brands crash on us and we lost a lot of movies and a bit of data (we had most of the data backed up elsewhere, but the movies were too large to back up elsewhere. In retrospect, we should have backed them up back onto tape.) With one crash, software was able to get the data back, but the other 2 crashes we lost a lot of movies.

 

We now have 2 internal drives mirrored in a RAID array on our Mac.

 

We've only had 1 internal drive crash, with the RAID array, if one crashes, the machine tells you and the data is still on the other drive, you buy another drive and it copies all the info onto the new second drive.

 

My husband is in charge of all this.

[buddhabelly]

Well, I have a Dell (like the OP) and not a MAC, but we had the two internal drives in a RAID array and had to change it. Perhaps this is what your husband did as well? Because in a RAID configuration, I believe BOTH hard drives are used simultaneously, which makes the computer extra fast for gaming and the like. But ours kept crashing, so we reconfigured it so that one hard drive is just backup, and we only use one hard drive for actual work/play. The computer is no longer "awesome" (as the computer geeks kept telling us -- I would reply "It's not awesome, dude, if it crashes every other week"), but it is safe.

 

Julie

 

We have had bad luck with our external hard drives, we had 3 different brands crash on us and we lost a lot of movies and a bit of data (we had most of the data backed up elsewhere, but the movies were too large to back up elsewhere. In retrospect, we should have backed them up back onto tape.) With one crash, software was able to get the data back, but the other 2 crashes we lost a lot of movies.

 

We now have 2 internal drives mirrored in a RAID array on our Mac.

 

We've only had 1 internal drive crash, with the RAID array, if one crashes, the machine tells you and the data is still on the other drive, you buy another drive and it copies all the info onto the new second drive.

 

My husband is in charge of all this.

[Spy Car]

Yes, we have two USB ports on the front of our machine.

Thanks again.

 

USB II is a fairly slow interface, so see if a 16 year old in the neighborhood can check your machine to see if you have something else.

 

I'd still purchase a hard drive with (at least) USB II and eSATA connectors if the slight cost bump doesn't hurt you, as it's a pathway to the future.

 

Bill

[Spy Car]

Well, I have a Dell (like the OP) and not a MAC, but we had the two internal drives in a RAID array and had to change it. Perhaps this is what your husband did as well? Because in a RAID configuration, I believe BOTH hard drives are used simultaneously, which makes the computer extra fast for gaming and the like. But ours kept crashing, so we reconfigured it so that one hard drive is just backup, and we only use one hard drive for actual work/play. The computer is no longer "awesome" (as the computer geeks kept telling us -- I would reply "It's not awesome, dude, if it crashes every other week"), but it is safe.

 

Julie

 

There are different kinds of RAID.

 

Yours split data across two drives (that appeared to be one big single drive to the computer). This made it fast as two different head could be seeking data at the same time. The down side of this type of RAID (called RAID 0 (zero) is that if one of the two drives failed, all the data was lost (as each drive had half of the data).

 

Elizabeth's drives are "mirrored". Meaning they are copies on one another. Good for redundancy in case of failure, but takes twice as many drives with no speed bump.

 

Confusing?

 

Bill