External Hard Drive which one ??

lol, yeah, typo, was helping a friend setup a external dvd rewritable.

oh yeah, if going for the 500GB, you need to be technically inclined to get the external drive to recognize the drive.

else, stay below a 300GB for now, i think that's the max the external enclosure can support right now.

purelithium wrote in post #2593970
Why get a 5.25", a 3.5" enclosure will do just fine, the 5.25" is for CD/DVD drives...

i like the idea of buying an enclosure to use the hard drive from my old G4 tower as extra storage. are there certain brands that are better than others?

Aaagogo wrote in post #2593995
stay below a 300GB for now, i think that's the max the external enclosure can support right now.

I just bought this drive enclosure this morning
http://www.buy.com …ku=203084790&lo​c=101&sp=1
$20 shipped after rebate. The specs indicate the max capacity is 750MB.

I'd get one that has gets its power over USB. That way you don't have to haul around 2 cords, 1 having a huge AC Adapter. I had a WD MyBook. It worked great, but it isn't mobile. I traded it in for an internal SATA drive since it didn't move for the two months I had it.

Hi everybody,
I bought a 300gb Seagate USB external HD for €129. in PC WORLD in early December. It seems to be working very well. I think it was a 'special offer',
It takes a few seconds to start up when 'called',

Regards, padylyn

Aaagogo wrote in post #2593995
oh yeah, if going for the 500GB, you need to be technically inclined to get the external drive to recognize the drive.

I have made 500's in Vantec USB2/eSATA enclosure they work with no troubles at all.

On a USB port I found the utilites given by the people like Maxtor (and probably WD, Lacie etc as well) to turn off the drive after a time to be very valuable, but only if you want it on line at all times. The external boxes (on USB) do not seem to respond to turn off signals from windows.

I think I'm going to purchase this one when it's back in stock.

http://www.newegg.com ….asp?Item=N82E1​6822154150

Another vote for the WD 250 gig essential. Basically plug it in and you are ready to go. You can then click and drag files onto it, they'll copy and you're done.
Tom

im still voting for portable hard drives.

I also have a WD external and seems to work fine. Didn't work very good as a scratch dish for CS2 so I also bought a 300g internal.

I have 2 Western Digital 250GB external drives. No problems.

Office Max has a 250 gig USB2 for $100 and a 500 gig USB2 for $200 through Saturday.

Another vote for Seagate (for their superior warranty and customer support), although the 500gb external drive I just ordered arrived DOA via UPS. Amazon did a very poor job of packaging, and UPS probably played football with the box. Expecting a replacement within a few days.

My primary PC currently has two Western Digital 250gb hard drives, and they have worked flawlessly the last 3 years.

purelithium wrote in post #2593970
Why get a 5.25", a 3.5" enclosure will do just fine, the 5.25" is for CD/DVD drives...

Most of the 5.25" enclosures come with fans, which helps reduce heat. It also has a greater amount of surface area, which helps to transfer heat from the drive to the surrounding air (if you buy a metal case). Heat kills drives, so keeping them as cool as possible always helps.

I currently have (1) 300GB Western Digital and (2) 250GB WD drives sitting in enclosures. One is for my MP3 collection (all my CDs ripped into digital format) and the others house various files and pictures. Ideally, I'd like to build a tower unit that does nothing other than house HDs for use with backing up files/programs. For now, USB external enclosures will work just fine with my laptop, especially when it comes time to transport them back Stateside when my work in Germany is done.