I need advice about external USB 2.0 HDDs (for a laptop application)

C

Canon

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Aug 12, 2004
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Background and situation:

Ok. I'm going to College in September in an IT program. We will be running VMware with a lot of large images etc. I also want to be able to store all my personal stuff (pictures, music, downloads etc.).

I have a Toshiba Tecra S1 notebook computer:
1.4 Ghz Centrino
768 mb PC-2100 DDR
30 GIG 4200 rpm HDD
Windows XP professional

Now the system is capable of USB 2.0 so an external hard drive shouldn't be any slower than the internal HDD i'm thinking. (or at least not painfully slower).

Questions:

1. Now. If anyone has had experience with VMware. Can you store and run the images off of the USB drive? Or would I have to copy it over to the internal drive when I need them?

2. What can you reccomend in terms of an external HDD solution?
-I'm looking for a reliable external drive (needs to be able to hold up to 3 years, hopefully. I know this is a bit of a challenge for any HDD these days, especially when they are moving a lot).


I was looking at Maxtor, Western Digital and the Ximeta Netdisks so far and i've been waiting for those to go on sale. I am looking for something idealy around 160 GB but the size will depend on how much money I can afford to spend of course.

Would there be any advantage/disadvantage to trying to find an external enclosure and buying an internal HDD for it? Are the hard drives contained in the external hard drive enclosures from these companies designed specially to withstand frequent transit? Kind of like laptop HDDs is what I'm thinking.


I know this is a long post but I'd appreciate some input because 30 GIGs isn't going to be enough. Especially once I start College. I've stripped tons of stuff off it and I am still using roughly half the disk space. From what i've found internal laptop hard drive upgrades are way more money than they are worth and you can't get large HDD sizes.


As a last note. I live in Canada so NewEGG is out of the question. I'm looking to spend ideally $200 before tax on something but I may be able to swing $300 but I hae to be careful because of all the little hidden expenses that crop up from moving out on my own and starting College.
 
www.tigerdirect.ca
all prices in CDN
200Gb maxtor HD
$180-$40rebate =$140

Kingwin aluminum 3.5" external usb2.0 enclosure
$55

total cost after shipping $210


ive been using the same HD in the same enclosure since november of 03
it travels with me and my lappy to Work and Uni every day
and on buisness travel as well
so far ~46,000 miles since getting it

as for performance i have used it on my powerbook running virtual PC 6 on OSX 10.3, booting 98se, 2000, XP, win 2000server and solaris x86. there is no noticable speed difference between using it and using the internal 4200rpm HD
 
Last weekend put a 160 GB WD HD on my brother's laptop. The USB2.0 drive is faster than his or you're 5,400 internal drive. Compressed video plays much smoother from the external 7,200RPM drive, as opposed to the internal one. Maxtor is not a name to consider, too many horror stories here on the forums. WD and Seagate are the names to look at. I have 14 WD's, and none have failed me yet. Seagate makes great drives, and the loyalty among forum members is just as great. Either will will serve you well. We paid $118 for brother's 160GB drive. My credit card, his money. Keep an eye out at pricewatch, and you may manage to beat the deal we got. Paid for formatting service, didn't get it, still ticked. Very simple to do, but I paid for a service not rendered.
 
Yea, formatting, no big deal just takes a couple minutes.

So you guys think it'd be woth my while to go for an enclosure and buy the drive separate then?

I was thinking that may be the way to go since it'd be easier to upgrade that type of drive as opposed to those pre-fabbed units and I guess you wouldn't really know what kind of hard drive is in those.


BTW are you guys all in agreement on the Maxtor issue? I've heard some people saying to stay away from Western Digital and that in the last year or two Maxtor has improved quality a lot.

What HDD manufacturer is still offering more than a year warranty on their hard drives? That's Western Digital isn't it?
 
This drive setup is still working great, i'd highly reccomend it to anyone else looking for an external drive solution.
 
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