External hard drives - the basics?

Howdy

I've just realized that my laptop is turning 5 years old this year.  It's been getting more and more bogged down lately, so perhaps now is the time to invest in an external hard drive.

I've spent a few minutes looking around Amazon.co.uk and my questions are these:

- Do I want a portable or not?  I plan to use it to hold photos and my MA work (lots of PDF files and such)  I'm currently working on building my MP3 collection, but don't forsee having loads anytime soon and I don't own an iPod.

- Name brand or no?  There seems to be an abundance of brand names that I'm not familiar with, and I do tend to prefer to get a brand I know for larger ticket items.

- Voltage?  Do most of them come with the dual capacity (like my laptop and printer) or will taking it back to the US be an issue?

- How much memory?  Right now 500GB sounds like more than I'll ever need, but maybe I'm just not anticipating how much memory things take.  What is a TB anyway?

I'm really not technically adept, so any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

I've just gotten an external hard drive for Christmas, although I haven't tried it out yet, so I can't offer much advice on it .

It has a dual voltage adapter (100-240V) and connects to the laptop via a USB cable although it's not the smallest or lightest drive, it looks pretty easy to carry around (it's 4.6 x 7.6 x 1.8 inches, but weighs 950g).

- How much memory?  Right now 500GB sounds like more than I'll ever need, but maybe I'm just not anticipating how much memory things take.  What is a TB anyway?!

A TB is a terabyte... 1000 GB (or a trillion bytes!) .

My new drive is 1 TB... I don't really need that much space (my laptop only has an 80 GB hard drive), but it was a good value buy compared to the prices of similar 500 GB or even 250 GB drives (the box says that 500 GB will hold 135,000 songs or 550,000 photos!).

- If you intend on taking it with you, then you'd probably want portable.  Some portables run off power from the USB connection; therefore, you wouldn't have to worry about voltage.

- I recently bought 1TB Iomega Prestige Desktop hard drive for about £65.  Works a treat.

- It's not memory; it's disk space.  500GB may sound like a lot now, but worth getting as much space as you can afford.  Remember, these external drives are great for system back-ups too.  I have three of them on my desk, running rolling back-ups.

- TB = terabytes.  1TB = 1024GB.

I bought this portable hard drive a few months ago.  It was cheaper at the time, and I bought it on a trip back to the US.  So far, so good!  It's very small and light.  Basically, it's just a big flash drive, which is what I wanted.  It doesn't have massive capacity, but suits my current needs for picture and important document backup.  It connects via USB and doesn't need any external power, so there are no voltage issues.  

My dad just got this the other day.  He's not techy at all, so the one step system backup was a good fit for him.  

Get more than you think you need. You will eventually. You might get a new laptop with more memory at some point and need to back it up in a pinch (this happened to me!) 500gb is about to be too small. I think the TB ones aren't too much more and are the newer size (meaning they should last a while). I wouldn't go too off brand. If you are looking online, you can look up customer reviews.

I have a Seagate FreeAgent and it works perfectly. It's basically a huge flash drive. There are plenty of other fairly known brands. Most are around the same price anyway.

Now, portable vs. not- depends on what you do. Will you need access to these files often? For example- your MA files. Will you be working with them outside the house? Or will you be backing up stuff on a work computer that you can't bring home?

Hope this helps! I'm in the market for a new on myself. If you can believe it, I've filled up my 300gb one already (mainly because I have loads of downloaded stuff on there and I've backed up my old desktop on it, as well as my current laptop.)

Now, portable vs. not- depends on what you do. Will you need access to these files often? For example- your MA files. Will you be working with them outside the house? Or will you be backing up stuff on a work computer that you can't bring home?

Nope I really don't forsee having to do major work on an external computer - nothing more than I can put on a jump drive and bring home.  So portable drives offer convenience (portable, no external power source) but are limited in terms of disk space?

It's very small and light.  Basically, it's just a big flash drive, which is what I wanted.  It doesn't have massive capacity, but suits my current needs for picture and important document backup.  It connects via USB and doesn't need any external power, so there are no voltage issues. 

Thanks!  I see the benefits of having a smaller more portable one. 


Gonna do this in two posts cuz I can't handle the freakyness of the screen roll on a long post.  Hopefully I'mn not the only oone 

It's not memory; it's disk space.  500GB may sound like a lot now, but worth getting as much space as you can afford. 

Thanks for that!     Good to know the correct term and I will definately go for more.

I've just gotten an external hard drive for Christmas, although I haven't tried it out yet, so I can't offer much advice on it .
It has a dual voltage adapter (100-240V) and connects to the laptop via a USB cable although it's not the smallest or lightest drive, it looks pretty easy to carry around (it's 4.6 x 7.6 x 1.8 inches, but weighs 950g).

Sounds about right to me.  To my understanding, if I'm just looking for something to free up disc space on my laptop and keep certain things secure (in case that my laptop goes dark one day) then I'll get more space for my money.  Does that sound about right?

Thanks all!   

I have an external that is not portable, but since I use my laptop at a desk, I just keep it plugged into my USB hub pretty much all the time. Last year I upgraded from 300GB to 500,. and I'm already considering getting a TB drive because I want to rip all my CDs and all of Tim's CDs to MP3s and then rotate them on/off my iPod.  I also use my external as a back-up for all my documents/settings and my fonts.  I don't worry too much about the programs since most of the programs I use I have on disc or are downloadable (freeware) and can be re-installed.

I didn't feel the need to get a portable external, since I have about 10GB on assorted USB sticks and figured I can always use those for taking files with me. But if I didn't already have a drawer full of USB sticks*, then I'd probably get a portable.

*Okay, probably not an entire drawer, but when you have a best friend who works in IT and who sends you files all the time on USB sticks, you gather a lot of them!

Hi Hollyberry,

Just to take things a little further - When you say your laptop is getting 'bogged' down, do you mean that a) it feels a little more slower and sluggish than previously even when you've just rebooted?   or b) the system itself is responsive enough but you just want to move certain files/folders to an external hard disk for good file management/housekeeping?

If it's the first, then moving files to an external hard disk won't make a change to the responsiveness of the computer. If the second, and reading from your last reply, are you looking to move the files as per housekeeping and practicality? or will you perhaps be wanting to edit and manipulate the files on the external hard disk?!

If you're looking to edit and manipulate - then I suggest going for a known 'fast' performing external hard drive, depending the type of editing, you may want to move the file to you local 'C' drive to do this.

All external hard drives are NOT the same for performance! Read / Write speeds can and do vary greatly indeed!

Good advise above as well, Hard disk drives are getting very very cheap for the amount of storage on offer. The next thing is, are the files you want to move highly important/irreplaceable? or are they less important and if they were to be lost you wouldn't really mind?


Sorry to sound as though I'm over complicating things - but this is now becomeing an increasingly important aspect to consider for home computing. It' used to be the realm of large corporates which I've covered too, however with some good thinking and advise and independant website reviews, you can make a good decision.

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Nope I really don't forsee having to do major work on an external computer - nothing more than I can put on a jump drive and bring home.  So portable drives offer convenience (portable, no external power source) but are limited in terms of disk space?

Well, I don't think they are limited, but due to the convenience factor, they are more expensive than non-portable ones. I've been doing price checks this past week and that's what I have found at least. If portability isn't really important to you, I wouldn't pay more for it. They are fairly small anyway. If I needed, I could easily carry my current hard drive to work. Just my 2 cents!

I spent $75 on a My Passport external hard drive (250 GB) almost 2 years ago, for my daughter.  She's got an 80 GB hard drive on the laptop, and didn't want to clutter it up with her MP3 files.  I had to remove them from my old computer, so it was the best solution for us.  The My Passport is portable, and I bought it at Best Buy.  I saw it in 320 GB and 500 GB sizes back then, so they may offer a 1 TB now. 

Since your laptop's running on 5 years personally I would get a hardrive, whether you want to go with portable or not is up to you and what you want to pay for.  The last thing you want is your laptop to call it quits and everything you've got saved on there to be gone - recovery services are extortionate if they're even offered at all.    

If you're looking for reputable places to buy from to compare prices (aside from Amazon) I can recommend a few:

http://www.ebuyer.com/, they also have an online shop on ebay where they discount items even further (and they keep a record of purchase in your ebuyer account)
http://www.dcs-online.biz/ - they have a physical shop in Doncaster

You can sometimes find good deals at Currys, Comet and PC World, but generally they tend to be more expensive for their convenience factor.

If you buy from the US:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Home.jsp
http://www.newegg.com/

I bought a Seagate Free Agent external hard drive from a Maplin store in Bristol.

Just to take things a little further - When you say your laptop is getting 'bogged' down, do you mean that a) it feels a little more slower and sluggish than previously even when you've just rebooted?   or b) the system itself is responsive enough but you just want to move certain files/folders to an external hard disk for good file management/housekeeping?

Sometimes it works well, but increasingly, it is 'freezing up' (for lack of knowing what to call it) and I have to turn it off several times before it works properly.  I've got a lot of photos, and have been writing papers for a MA programme - so downloading some massive PDF files (18th century books and such).

Part of it is housekeeping, and safekeeping things that would be either a massive loss or PITA to loose.  But honestly I thought that increasing the free space on my laptop (of which there is not much left) would increase the operating speed. 

I often get a little bubble message that says something like "your virtual memory is low.  Windows is increasing the... blah blah blah"  So assumed that that was part of the problem.

If you're looking for reputable places to buy from to compare prices (aside from Amazon) I can recommend a few:

Awesome!  Thanks a bunch 

Hi Hollyberry,

It's as I 'sort of expected' hence why I thought I'd ask first - system 'freezes' and 'having to turn off a few times' is indicative of requiring a re-install of Windows. This is more so the case as you mention you had the machine for 5 years now. 5 years on a single probably original install of Windows is a VERY good innings if you're starting ot recently experienced the 'freezes' - I re-install 2 times a year, however my requirements are different.

I've come across this type of scenario literally thousands of times before - in a nutshell,
1. I'd say get yourself a portable USB powered external hard drive. 500GB is reasonably priced nowadays, 320GB at current pricing levels, should be the minimum size to get.
2. Backup all important files, folders, documents, pics, music files etc etc onto the external disk. You may have to go through with a fine tooth comb to know where all your files are etc.
3. Once you know 'ALL' important files are safely backed up on the external disk - you'll need to 're-install' Windows on your machine - hopefully you have the restore CD's and/or restore partition on the hard drive. Without getting too technical here, this will effectivley put the machine back to how it was when purchased/new. You will have to 'update' the intall, and re-install all your required programs etc. Some of those programs will need the data you backed up as well.
4. Once that's done, the machine is (should) be running well, you can copy back required files pics, music etc - being mindful just 'how much' you copy back for disk space.

5. It's true, when you 'fillup' a hard disk to 'close to max capcity, you will get some warnings on page file size/virtual memory etc etc. and having to trawl through so many files on it's capacity, the read/write heads will have so much of the disk space to scan which can 'slow' the PC down to significant extent. My system drive I keep les than half full, the cutoff point alot of Techies will nmention would be like 75-85 as a max,.

There is more you can do, but that'll take up way too much on this posting. You could for instance buy a new much larger capacity hard drive for the laptop and swap it, add more RAM etc while the machine is in for it's 'Windows Re-install' service! all depends on your budget etc.

PM me if you wish and I can give yo an overview if you like. I fyou let me know the make and model and overall specs of the machine, I can advise a little better.

If you do, give me some time to respond as I'm off to Las Vegas/LA/Cincinnati later on today (crap, it's 212 am!)

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!