Portable Hard Drive

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BarkingPup

Member
I'm new, just bought my laptop (who has been named WILBUR. I have a habit of naming my electronics) and am considering getting a portable Hard Drive so he won't become overloaded and run a lot faster.

I DO have a few questions so here I go:

Will getting the hard drive impact my battery life. I'm considering getting a new, more powerful battery because he only has three hours of life on him and, being an author, I need a few more than that.

What do I stick on it? HOW do stick stuff on it? I'm pretty sure it would be bad to put the WHOLE laptop on the hardrive but stuff like my documents, pictures (Of which I have flash drive backups), music and games?

I have an Acer Aspire 5100-5300, does it require a special one?
 
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No any USB drive will do. Some batteries cannot be upgraded... more batteries should help, or if your in an plane an 12V to 120V adapter. And yes there may be an impact on battery life. the fast the drive, the more drainage. Only store FILES on that HDD. Storing an whole operating system on USB will probably drain your battery even faster and load even slower.
 
Thank you:)

I didn't really consider more batteries but... well, DUH. It should have been pretty obvious. Maybe my brain went missing.

So, the faster the portable the more the power drain? Does it depend on what hard drive is on him right now? (If it does, WILBUR has 160GB of hardrive and "up to 256MB ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 HyperMemory." I honeslty have no idea what that is but it sounds like it has something to do with either RAM or HDD)

I suppose getting a slow hard drive would also impact his power, but what about an average speed? What IS an average speed?
 
it really depends what you are into. 160gb is plenty for most. things to put on an external: backup data, old files, movies, files that you would share with other people/computers, and lesser used stuff that you may want to use later. things not to put on an external: an OS, any installation, frequently used files, critical system files, files associated with an installed program.

"wilbur" is going to experience noticable drain regardless of what speed you get (5400 rpm is average), since HDDs use a considerable amount of power. the ATI radeon you reffered to is the graphics card. the external hdd will appear as another hdd in 'my computer'. it will probably be seen as drive D or E.
in the end, i would only recomend getting an external if you want to easily share files with friends, or if youre running low on disk space.

i almost forgot! there are 2 types of externals: the 3.5" which requires external power supply, and the 2.5" which can run off the laptops battery via USB. 2.5"s are usually more expencive and have less capacity.
 
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Thank you, luckeyedboy66. I mostly require an external one becuase WILBUR is filling up quite quickly and I'm no longer using a desktop. I would really only use it when WILBUR is plugged in and on full performance. Mostly, I would like to put the Sims2 on it and play it off WILBUR, is that possible?

For files, pictures, etc. I currently back those up on my flash Drives becuase I consider them to be more important so they would be on flash drives AND the External HDD.

Most of the stuff is music, pictures, games, and files that I would like to take off WILBUR becuase I only work with it at home, not at school.

If the 3.5 is less expensive I might look into that:)
 
it seems like it would work. no reason not to try it, but i imagine the possibilities of corrupted files would go up. also, it might get slow and laggy due to the slower data rate. like i said, store your important files on the system HDD. (i think im gunna try installing something on my portable hdd now :D)
 
Erg, a laggy sims game :( that's like throwing your sims into the middle of the road and saying "wave hi to the cars!"

Well, I geuss I can try it out and see what happens. Thanks for all your help!
 
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