BOB.T

Hi

I need to get all my 'stuff' off a PC, this includes a shedload of large photos, not **** before you ask!

I'm guessing an external hard drive is gonna be the best thing for this? Can anyone recommend a good one that doesn't cost the Earth please?

Bob

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

Really depends on how much a 'shedload' is Also, depends on whether you want a desktop or portable drive.

If portable, this is a pretty good deal at the moment:

Iomega 250GB portable hard drive - Tesco.Direct

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

If it's a bigger desktop drive you're after, I'd recommend something like this:

Play.com (UK) : Buffalo 1000GB / 1TB DriveStation TurboUSB With Power Saving Mode USB External Hard Drive : Computing - Free Delivery

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

I have one of these (well actually mine is the bigger version with more interfaces ) but similar

Western Digital MyBook 2 Office Edition 1TB USB 2.0: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

£118 cant go wrong for that price

I think I am running about 3TB of storage now at home
(and yes there may be some dubious stuff )

MMT WRX

Edited for accuracy

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

Got really upset a few weeks ago when one of my drives failed to mount. Started smacking the crap out of it in desperation. My G/F asked why I was getting so mad and what was on there of so much importance

I didnt have the heart to tell her it was chock block with ****
Anyway smacking it on the floor made it work again


Swiss " First line IT support the old fashioned way-with a hammer" Tony

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

Whats the difference between the office edition and the essential edition then? yours is £118 and the other is £88

MMT WRX

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

Just one is the newer version. As to what differences there are ?
Havent got a clue

BOB.T

Hmm, just had a quick look..I'm gonna need a minimum 100gig for the stuff I have now. I'm gonna want to back stuff up in the future, I guess 500gig would be plenty for me.

So what's the difference with external and portable? I want to save all my stuff off this PC, which is moving out, then put it all back on my new PC (when I build it), cue thread about building a new PC shortly!

Does transferring 100gig via USB take a million years?

ta

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

Best deal at the moment is this 1TB for £70

Iomega 1TB desktop hard drive - Tesco.Direct

MMT WRX

Firewire, I think.

MMT WRX

These are the connections I have on my PC and I think are the most common.

Transfer rates:

Firewire 400 = 400Mbits/sec = 50MBytes/sec

USB2 = 480Mbits/sec = 60MBytes/sec

esata = 1.5Gbits/sec = 375MBytes/sec

There are also firewire 800 and esata11 which I believe both double their predecessor’s rates.

The WD My Book Home Edition Here could be a better option as it has all 3 connections. You may not have the esata connection now but, if you are thinking of buying/building a new PC this most likely will have. USB is most common and although firewire is not uncommon on a pc they tend to be aimed more at Mac fanboiys

HTH

BOB.T

The HD in this PC is SATA...is that the same? Dunno about connectors...just off to work, will look later, actually, what and where am I looking?!

Thanks for the help!

MMT WRX

esata = external sata.

If you have an esata connection it will most probably be on the back near the usb ports. If you do have the esata already then 'Bob is also your uncle'

Here is a pic of an external HDD with quad connection:
Firewire 400
Firewire 800
USB 2
esata

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

If you buy a drive that is internal and it is sata then it does not need to have any changes to it re setting jumpers and master/slave etc so much easier.
You just purchase the drive and a sata cable, plug it in (you should have two available sata ports on the motherboard). If you dont then you are screwed and will have to go external. The sata ports on the motherboard look like this



The beauty of internal is you get the two drives show up immediately as C and D drives and you can copy stuff from one t'other (yorkshire speak for you )

The downside is you cant just extract the drive when you want to and store it somewhere else safe nor can you attach it to any other laptop/pc etc

External wise, well I am sure you have USB2 on your PC, which gives you a transfer rate of 480mps which is quick. USB1 is around 12mps.
That way you can transfer shed loads of stuff quite quickly

BOB.T

Thanks you two

I'll have a poke around this PC when it's not on and I have a bit more time. One more quick question, if I go for an internal one, can I transfer the stuff I want, take the drive out and put it into my new machine (when built)...there's no funky formatting or owt that'll **** things up. This PC is XP, I assume to build summat now I'd have to use Vista?

Ta

Barmyclown

If transfering loads of data in one go Esata is the only answer the theoratical max speed of USb2 is 480Mbit/sec, but realistically only up to around 25 - 30 Mbytes per/sec. Firewire theoretical max is 400Mbits/sec, but will give around 35 - 37 Mbytes per second (firewire is a lot more efficient standard). ESata will give anywhere between 50 - 90 Mbytes/sec depending on the drive. So if you want to fill a 1TB drive with USb2 will take around 9hrs, with fire wire it will take around 7 1/2 hours. and with Esata it will take around 3 hrs. Just a little food for thought.

Jase

Dream Weaver

If it's only for transferring stuff over to another PC, then just buy a portable drive. I have both a powered and portable type, both Maxtor and they have been fine.

The portable one is 250gb and has no power supply, just needs 2 USB connections. That has all my backup files on and I can take it with me wherever I go. Cost about £40 last year so probably cheaper now.

It has about 160gb of stuff on it currently and took a few hours to transfer it over.