Good external HD?

[garetjax]

Originally Posted by screwballl

what do you mean? they are external enclosures and as long as she has a USB or eSATA port (and in some cases access to a power outlet) then they should work fine...

She owns a laptop which suggests that she is on the move. I don't see how a 3.5" external enclosure (especially those requiring AC power) is going to give her that extra element of portability.

Originally Posted by alyssastep

Hmm..good point. I'd really prefer something powered by USB, and I forgot that limits the memory capacity to an extent.

The use of USB doesn't really have anything to do with memory capacity, it's just the type of connection that is used, the conduit between two devices as it were. Basically, it just means that the transfer speeds of USB 2.0 (480Mbps max) are much slower that SATAII, which is 3.0Gbps.

Originally Posted by alyssastep

All things considered, coughing up the money for an internal HD to replace the one I have now doesn't seem like a terrible option.

I respectfully disagree. There's nothing like having the portability and convenience of an external hard drive enclosure that holds up to hundreds of times more data than even the biggest USB thumbdrive. Think about it: you upgrade to a larger HDD in your laptop, which means you have to take your laptop where ever you go.

With an external 2.5" external enclosure, it acts like a gigantic storage device all its own in that you can use it both on your laptop, as well as its own separate storage entity for the times you don't need to take your laptop with you.

Originally Posted by alyssastep

There are quite a few numbers on the bottom. So, I'm going to take a stab at it and write a random one, and hopefully I've correctly chosen the model number! 8745UN7

Unfortunately, this number doesn't come up with anything. However, try this. You said that your notebook is a Lenovo Thinkpad. These notebooks come with the following prefixes:

Lenovo Thinkpad A##
Lenovo Thinkpad G##
Lenovo Thinkpad R##
Lenovo Thinkpad T##
Lenovo Thinkpad X##
Lenovo Thinkpad Z##

The number signs (#) designate a two (sometimes three) digit number that follows the first letter of the model of the notebook, for example, Lenovo Thinkpad R50.

[drew and not u]

Which is more important to you?

Convenience and portability or high storage capacity?

If the former, than this 160GB Passport is the perfect fit. It's only $85 shipped, US powered, and tiny. I have the 120GB version, that you can look at tonight if you'd like.

If you're more concerned with storage capacity (and getting all of my tv shows and movies and music) than one of the larger 500GB+ models is for you. I would recommend purchasing online for the sake of price (unless the student store is competitive).

Also, I wouldn't recommend upgrading the HD in that school Laptop. You'd have to partition it or risk losing stuff when the OS goes to crap as they tend to do on those UNC installs, and also you'd have less versatility and still be limited to at most 320GB.

[screwballl]

Originally Posted by garetjax

She owns a laptop which suggests that she is on the move. I don't see how a 3.5" external enclosure (especially those requiring AC power) is going to give her that extra element of portability.

understood... thats why I also mentioned the possibility of a setup powered by USB only... one thing that alyssa will need to remember is that any drive that runs entirely off of the USB will drain the laptop battery faster as well

[alyssastep]

The number signs (#) designate a two (sometimes three) digit number that follows the first letter of the model of the notebook, for example, Lenovo Thinkpad R50.

It's a T60p, Core2 Duo, T7200 if that helps.

understood... thats why I also mentioned the possibility of a setup powered by USB only... one thing that alyssa will need to remember is that any drive that runs entirely off of the USB will drain the laptop battery faster as well

If I'm running an external, I'll likely be hooked up to the power adapter. I only really run it on battery when I'm in class.

Also, I wouldn't recommend upgrading the HD in that school Laptop. You'd have to partition it or risk losing stuff when the OS goes to crap as they tend to do on those UNC installs, and also you'd have less versatility and still be limited to at most 320GB.

You're right. Whenever they fix computers at ITS, they just reimage them to save time. It's crap, and they won't save anything except documents. Luckily, I knew a ResNet guy who helped me pull all my stuff off manually when it crashed and burned in February.

Could I still partition it to run two OS's with an external? Say I got a small, 320 GB external for laptops and wanted to install Vista on it...could that happen, and work with XP installed on my internal HD? I'm sure Drew will spiff it up all nice =D

Annddd...yeah. I'm more concerned with the memory capacity than portability.

[drew and not u]

You could do that, but due to the limited speeds of USB, any OS running from an USB drive would be slooowz, especially if it's Vista. Duz you wunt vista on computar?

[garetjax]

Originally Posted by alyssastep

It's a T60p, Core2 Duo, T7200 if that helps.

Does it match the spec's and pictures as indicated in THIS review? If so, there is no eSATA support for this laptop, so you will need an external hard drive enclosure that is capable of a USB 2.0 (480Mbps) connection. However, you can circumvent this by purchasing an eSATA ExpressCard for your laptop. This will allow you to use external eSATA capable hard drive enclosures at SATAII speeds (3.0Gbps).

[alyssastep]

Originally Posted by garetjax

Does it match the spec's and pictures as indicated in THIS review? If so, there is no eSATA support for this laptop, so you will need an external hard drive enclosure that is capable of a USB 2.0 (480Mbps) connection. However, you can circumvent this by purchasing an eSATA ExpressCard for your laptop. This will allow you to use external eSATA capable hard drive enclosures at SATAII speeds (3.0Gbps).

Yep, that's my computer. But is an eSATA really necessary? I think I'm just going to stick with the external that hooks up via USB, but I really want one that runs off the computer's power so there's no annoying adapter.

To get off topic just a bit, does anyone know what the benefits of performing a battery reset on a laptop are? And what are some good ways to keep the battery capacity at its fullest (keeping it plugged in all the time vs not, etc).

Thanks for all your helpz!

[garetjax]

Originally Posted by alyssastep

But is an eSATA really necessary? I think I'm just going to stick with the external that hooks up via USB, but I really want one that runs off the computer's power so there's no annoying adapter.

Is it neccessary? Nope. Is it nice? Yup. I like knowing that eSATA has a transfer speed of (3.0Gbps) that makes a USB (480Mbps) powered external drive look pathetic. Then again, you're right. You need an eSATA data cable in addition to a power cable to connect from the external device to your laptop, whereas with USB, everthing is done through one cable. If you don't care about transfer speeds per se, then an external USB enclosure is probably what you need.

Originally Posted by alyssastep

To get off topic just a bit, does anyone know what the benefits of performing a battery reset on a laptop are? And what are some good ways to keep the battery capacity at its fullest (keeping it plugged in all the time vs not, etc)

You may find THIS to be of some value to you. =)

[alyssastep]

You may find THIS to be of some value to you. =)

Most excellente, it surely is!

[drew and not u]

The eSATA connection has a much higher max bandwidth, but the hard drives inside are still the same speed. eSATA drives aren't tremendously faster than USB. Yes there is a difference, but for basic needs it's irrelevant unless there is no price difference.