soundwave005
New Member
I am thinking about getting one.Dont know much about them so if any one could give me some info that owul dbe great ie what brand is better.I am looking for 500GB to 1 tera
External hard drive
- Thread starter soundwave005
- Start date
The WD MyBook Essential used here is a 500gb usb drive that seems to be quite reliable and not getting hot like some have complained about with some of the new brand names coming out lately just for external. Seagate is another good brand to consider.
With various models you will see 1394 Firewire and eSata as well as usb. The eSata method is simply seeing an extension cable plug into the board from either a pci adapter card or if your case has a port for this and the cable coming from the drive. The board's own sata controllers play a role there for faster access/read/write times as a rule.
With various models you will see 1394 Firewire and eSata as well as usb. The eSata method is simply seeing an extension cable plug into the board from either a pci adapter card or if your case has a port for this and the cable coming from the drive. The board's own sata controllers play a role there for faster access/read/write times as a rule.
massahwahl
VIP Member
I have the iomega 500gig that is fabuluos and very quiet. Its very thin as well so its easy to tuck it out of the way. Also it uses firewire so its ultra fast for music and movies which I use mine for.
Another thing to mention here when buying an external drive is to plan on seeing the factory partition they come with reformatted from Fat32 generally seen for Mac as well as Windows compatibility to NTFS if you are strictly a Windows user. When going to unplug and replug a drive especially a laptop at work to home desktop you would need to run the software installer over and over again if you happen to run either without it plugged at the time.
Once reformatted the software can be replaced from the support site in a zip file you download and unpack onto the drive. But it then generally isn't necessary since Windows will generally detect and install it on the spot.
Manufacturers like WD, Seagate, and others will see this advised. Some models may already see a factory NTFS partition already not being available for Mac. The excerpt here is seen at the WD faq section under the installation for XP/Vista heading.
"Windows XP has the full driver support necessary to support Western Digital external hard drives. The single drive external hard drives ship with a FAT32 partition for the full drive capacity. In most cases, you may simply connect the external hard drive to an available FireWire or USB port on your computer. The dual drive external hard drives ship with either an NTFS (My Book Premium II) or HFS+ (My Book Pro II) partition. Upon connection to the computer, the external hard drive should be recognized and ready for use. Occasionally, the factory partition may not be recognized in Windows. If that is the case, use Disk Management within Windows 2000 to install (partition and format) the external hard drive." http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc...F9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD1WSVNUQQ**&p_li=&p_topview=1
The support site for each brand will usually see a general set of links for installation, how to partition and format in older versions of Windows like 9x-ME as well for 2000, XP, and Vista also using the Disk Management tool.
Once reformatted the software can be replaced from the support site in a zip file you download and unpack onto the drive. But it then generally isn't necessary since Windows will generally detect and install it on the spot.
Manufacturers like WD, Seagate, and others will see this advised. Some models may already see a factory NTFS partition already not being available for Mac. The excerpt here is seen at the WD faq section under the installation for XP/Vista heading.
"Windows XP has the full driver support necessary to support Western Digital external hard drives. The single drive external hard drives ship with a FAT32 partition for the full drive capacity. In most cases, you may simply connect the external hard drive to an available FireWire or USB port on your computer. The dual drive external hard drives ship with either an NTFS (My Book Premium II) or HFS+ (My Book Pro II) partition. Upon connection to the computer, the external hard drive should be recognized and ready for use. Occasionally, the factory partition may not be recognized in Windows. If that is the case, use Disk Management within Windows 2000 to install (partition and format) the external hard drive." http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc...F9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD1WSVNUQQ**&p_li=&p_topview=1
The support site for each brand will usually see a general set of links for installation, how to partition and format in older versions of Windows like 9x-ME as well for 2000, XP, and Vista also using the Disk Management tool.
soundwave005
New Member
more info
Ok I am using mine at the time for my computer as my computer does not ahve enough mem on it for my music production progrm.I use cubase and need alot more mem at this time buying another computer is not really in the questain until a bit down the road.so this will be primarily staying with my current computer.
Ok I am using mine at the time for my computer as my computer does not ahve enough mem on it for my music production progrm.I use cubase and need alot more mem at this time buying another computer is not really in the questain until a bit down the road.so this will be primarily staying with my current computer.
The external drive here is used for storing various updates for two versions of Windows, utilities, music, video captures, and just anything else I want to throw on it. Video files are often 13gb a piece chewing up drive space where a good 1tb drive has been considered here.
For simply leaving an external model plugged in you shouldn't see any problems. If the external drive should go here I'll be looking at another internal sata model namely the WD Green Power line of 1tb drives like the one seen at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
The main thing to remember about external drives is the fragility of the enclosure while dropping any drive is often bad news some have had accidents. Most name brand external drives are simply seeing a regular internal model fitted into a factory sealed external casing with a separate power source namely the ac to 12v wall adapter.
For simply leaving an external model plugged in you shouldn't see any problems. If the external drive should go here I'll be looking at another internal sata model namely the WD Green Power line of 1tb drives like the one seen at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
The main thing to remember about external drives is the fragility of the enclosure while dropping any drive is often bad news some have had accidents. Most name brand external drives are simply seeing a regular internal model fitted into a factory sealed external casing with a separate power source namely the ac to 12v wall adapter.
G25r8cer
Active Member
^^ Good suggestion
Get a decent hdd and get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817173040
It is an enclosure and Sata to usb adapter and wall plug. It also has an internal fan.
Get a decent hdd and get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817173040
It is an enclosure and Sata to usb adapter and wall plug. It also has an internal fan.
If you are working with video captures or simply large volumes of files the answer to that is quite simple. Your drive space will get eaten up fast!
After a few days of caprures I saw some 420gb immediately taken up out of the 465gb avaiilable on a 500gb sata here. Yikes!
That's when I decided to grab an external drive to simply free up some space by storing some of that along with various updates for both versions of Windows run here.When the prices come down even further on the WD GP 1tb model seen at the link there I will likely grab a pair of those while planning out the next build while the external will still be available for large file transfers between systems.
double b26
New Member
my advise is that you buy a hard drive and enclosure separately.
the thing with pre-build externals is that if any part of it breaks, you have to send it all back. if you buy separate components, you can send back only the damaged part. that way you wont lose the actual hard drive if the enclosure fails.
the thing with pre-build externals is that if any part of it breaks, you have to send it all back. if you buy separate components, you can send back only the damaged part. that way you wont lose the actual hard drive if the enclosure fails.
I considered ordering an external closure for simply sliding in a 250gb ide drive as additional storage but went with a 500gb sata external instead. So far it's been quite reliable despite the slight delay you see through the usb bus. Eventually I'll get around to plugging it in through the eSata port.
And just like Wi Fi internet be prepared to lose about half of your data when the signal winks on you during a large transfer. 
no thank you!
An actual hard wired setup with a cable is always going to be the preferred method. The idea of the Wi Fi with Apple is likely due to having multiple students in a school able to access the same data since Apple is pretty much the dominant pc manufacturer seen there.
With an external usb only or usb, eSata, 1394 capable, or even one that is strictly eSata if the external casing goes you can pop the hard drive itself inside the system itself if you have a spare bay, power connector, and sata port or ide cable connector(depending on drive type) available. You'll be surprized to learn that most are simply your typical 2.5" or 3.5" drive tossed into a self contained housing of it's own.
no thank you!An actual hard wired setup with a cable is always going to be the preferred method. The idea of the Wi Fi with Apple is likely due to having multiple students in a school able to access the same data since Apple is pretty much the dominant pc manufacturer seen there.
With an external usb only or usb, eSata, 1394 capable, or even one that is strictly eSata if the external casing goes you can pop the hard drive itself inside the system itself if you have a spare bay, power connector, and sata port or ide cable connector(depending on drive type) available. You'll be surprized to learn that most are simply your typical 2.5" or 3.5" drive tossed into a self contained housing of it's own.
double b26
New Member
same here. i went with the stuff down there in my sig.
the enclosure works great, and i really like having the fan to keep the drive cool. it does need its own outlet, because its not pc-powered... which is both good and bad, depending on your needs. the enclosure is usb and esata, but i use usb. my rig is old, and it doesnt have sata. i figured that i can utilize that feature down the road, when i get something new.
now, as for the drive, it was great... until it failed last week. it has great reviews on newegg (90-some % give it 5 stars.. out of about 1000 reviews), so i guess i just got unlucky. it was only 9 months old, and only turned on when i was reading or writing to it... which was less than half of the time. it has a 3 year warranty though, so ill get a new one. that doesnt help me with the lost data though.
That's always one thing to remember there. Having files and anything unreplaceable backed up in more then one place can bail you out if a drive lets go.
With an external anything plan on seeing a separate power source. The self contained drives simply use a typical ac adapter.
The fan part on a separate enclosure does beat the typical complaint heard on usb, Firewire, eSata self enclosed drives since heat is one of the big ones! Yet the WD MyBook Essential model used here sees a room temp when touching the casing. Some apparently are not properly vented where drives will run warm.
With an external anything plan on seeing a separate power source. The self contained drives simply use a typical ac adapter.
The fan part on a separate enclosure does beat the typical complaint heard on usb, Firewire, eSata self enclosed drives since heat is one of the big ones! Yet the WD MyBook Essential model used here sees a room temp when touching the casing. Some apparently are not properly vented where drives will run warm.