Hardware I want to buy an external hard drive...

[ZeWarrior]

Is "safely remove hardware" supposed to make your monitor turn off/on 50 times in less than 4 seconds?

Just a question...


Obviously not.

Hmm, probably need to figure out why safely removing hardware always corrupts it...

Do you let it finish transferring everything before trying safely remove hardware?

 

[kellyan95]

Would that make my screen flicker 50 times in 4 seconds?

 

[ZeWarrior]

Would that make my screen flicker 50 times in 4 seconds?

I'm not sure, I'm trying to figure out the cause, now did you let it finish transferring files or what?

 

[shinji257]

Actually if any files were open at the time that he tried to disconnect then it wouldn't let you do it. It will say that it was unable to do that. If the drive gets unmounted completely you will see a balloon that says that it is safe to remove the hardware.

 

[sekhu]

i have two western digital mybook external hdds, I use one for torrents and the other for music/games, had them for quite some time, and had no problems with them. i hear seagate are pretty good too, though i've read nothing but bad things about maxtor with regards to reliability and performance. maybe they've improved though since I bought mine

 

[War]

So far, I'm pretty much convinced. I really want to get one!

Hhowever, how would it work for games? I would be able to install them on the drive, or what's the deal? Because there's no point in having the game in the drive if I can't install it and play it. :\

 

[4saken]

I believe you can. I'm not an expert on computers, but it will probably be slower if its connected through USB

 

[rhyguy]

would a firewire harddrive work with games without too much loading times added on?

 

[arctic_flame]

It depends on the game. If the game streams data off the drive, use an internal one. Otherwise the only difference you'll notice is a small increase in "Loading" pauses.

 

[FAST6191]

The thread seems to have run its course but I thought I would chime in:
I am a great fan of external drives (I have various caddies, adapters and self contained variants) and have been using them for years.

Speed on USB 2.0 is fine for most things I care about (it is certainly enough to watch video from, encode higher complexity stuff where drive speed is not the limit (transcoding DVDs is not in this for a high end machine) and for the most part games work OK too: assuming the ISO, daemon tools route), firewire aka ie1394 should be able to trump all but the very fastest RAM based stuff if you really need a speed boost (also I do not know about you but firewire ports are far easier to come across on my machines than USB).
Assuming windows drive support can keep up (multiple drives has never been a windows strongpoint) any speed hit is normally negated somewhat by the lack of need to read and write to different sectors of the same drive.

Power can be a pain (especially as they tend to use 12V 2Amp output adapters which like to break on occasion) although for a premium (and hit in speed and space) USB powered (either extra cord or via read cable) is possible. I tend to shy away from these as a plain SD card/USB stick can do this just as well.

This time of year tends to get various shops trying to flog their old but perfectly serviceable stock as well.

 

[superkrm]

grab a western digital passport
i love those little buggers
so convenient no external power supply needed

 

[Louse76]

I agree. They've had deals on the 250GB ones (which are the largest ones out now I believe) for around $110.

Check fatwallet.com, people post the best deals there.

 

[Urza]

It depends how portable it needs to be.

If portability isn't a huge issue, you can get a 500gb My Book or Seagate FreeAgent for about 100 bucks.

 

[arctic_flame]

Another recommendation for the My Book series of drives. I have 2 500GB ones... but there's 2 TB ones now

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.as...342&language=en

 

[War]

Yeah, portability isn't a HUGE problem for me. It would be nice to have, but definitely not necessary.

 

[FAST6191]

A minor issue perhaps and easily circumvented (not to mention WD do make some drives that are nice quality) but have a read:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/07/we...pled_harddrive/
Stunts such as this tend to make companies appear on my "do not buy unless absolutely necessary" list (Sony being the first and foremost member of said list).

 

[arctic_flame]

A minor issue perhaps and easily circumvented (not to mention WD do make some drives that are nice quality) but have a read:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/07/we...pled_harddrive/
Stunts such as this tend to make companies appear on my "do not buy unless absolutely necessary" list (Sony being the first and foremost member of said list).

I wouldn't pay an extra (£10) $20 for the drive with the inbuilt Ethernet card. I'd get the one I linked to earlier.

 

[Rizsparky]

i once bought a hard drive for my cousin and all that came in the post was the crytal case. I went crazy!!

 

[arctic_flame]

¬_¬
Are you sure you didn't just buy a case?

 

[Rizsparky]

im sure i didnt friggin scammers these days