Good external HD?

[garetjax]

Originally Posted by drew and not u

...but the hard drives inside are still the same speed.

Not true. It would depend if she wanted a 7,200RPM or 5,400RPM external hard drive.

[drew and not u]

No crap goober, I said the difference in speed between the two interface's.

[garetjax]

Originally Posted by drew and not u

No crap goober, I said the difference in speed between the two interface's.

Originally Posted by 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.

If you are using a SATA hard drive and using an eSATA interface, the difference in speed between the two interface's (USB and eSATA) is hardly insignificant. Goober.

[drew and not u]

Originally Posted by garetjax

If you are using a SATA hard drive and using an eSATA interface, the difference in speed between the two interface's (USB and eSATA) is hardly insignificant. Goober.

During large file transfers there will be a difference, but for most people's use the differences are hardly noticeable. I have a usb-power 2.5" drive, Fire-wire ATA drive, and eSATA 7200RPM drive at work, and there's not much of a difference (except in large file transfer like I said before).

[alyssastep]

Hey guyz, don't fight! Haha. I'm not buying an eSATA, I can't be bothered financially. Transfer speeds don't bother me that much, as long as transferring 200 gb doesn't take like 8 hours, in case you want to link me an external recommendation.

[screwballl]

thats the thing.... it may take 2-3 hours to transfer 200GB over USB where it would take 10 minutes over eSATA.
If I copy a 1.5GB file from PC to USB thumb drive using USB2.0, it usually takes 15 minutes or so. Copy the same file from the same PC to the eSATA drive takes around 30 seconds.

Portable USB drives are good for transporting files around but do not expect fast access to large files. I would not suggest working with anything much over 2GB and do not install any programs to the USB drive except maybe portable versions of Firefox or Thunderbird and such...

also this thread needs to go into peripherals, not memory.

[alyssastep]

Originally Posted by screwballl

thats the thing.... it may take 2-3 hours to transfer 200GB over USB where it would take 10 minutes over eSATA.
If I copy a 1.5GB file from PC to USB thumb drive using USB2.0, it usually takes 15 minutes or so. Copy the same file from the same PC to the eSATA drive takes around 30 seconds.

Portable USB drives are good for transporting files around but do not expect fast access to large files. I would not suggest working with anything much over 2GB and do not install any programs to the USB drive except maybe portable versions of Firefox or Thunderbird and such...

also this thread needs to go into peripherals, not memory.

At this point in my life, I've got more time than money, so waiting a few hours for files to transfer won't be a problem. And portability is become more of an issue.. Going to do some research this afternoon on campus on what I can and can't do to my computer. I really don't think I'm going to go with the eSATA. Sure, fast is good, but I'm not terribly concerned about it.

And what do you mean by peripherals?

[screwballl]

This thread is about a hard drive, not memory. Since it is an external hard drive question, it goes into peripherals heading. Thats ok I post things in wrong forums all the time here

[alyssastep]

Originally Posted by screwballl

This thread is about a hard drive, not memory. Since it is an external hard drive question, it goes into peripherals heading. Thats ok I post things in wrong forums all the time here

Oh. Well, I'm sure no one really minds.

[garetjax]

Originally Posted by alyssastep

And portability is become more of an issue.

In that case, steer clear of 3.5" external HDD devices then. They're big, they're bulky, they're heavy. And depending on which model you get, they require AC power to run, not USB.

As a side note, what is your budget (the amount maximum) you are willing to spend on an external HDD enclosure with hard drive?