external hard drive

richi1

Hi All,

I have a basic dell PC (optiplex GX150) with a small hard drive - approx 18.6GB

I wish to increase the hard drive and think my best option is to buy a extenal hard drive but I know little about them.

My operating systrem is windows 2000 and I think I only have USB1 connections.

Can I buy any or do I need a specific type, are there any good offers around at the moment.

PS Did a search on hard drives and could not find a thread. if i have missed the obvious please advise

Thanks

everythingblogcast

All external hard drives can run under Windows 2000 and can be accessed from USB v1

albertross_2

A cheaper option would be to fit a new internal one, and copy the data from one to the other.

USB 1/1.1 is a bit slow for hard disk access.

BillScarab

Is it a desktop machine or mini-tower? If it is a desktop machine it may not support a second hard drive as they have pretty small cases so an external one may be the only choice other than replacing the existing internal drive.

Although I agree that USB 1 is slow for accessing a hard drive.

At least with an external one it will be straightforward if you buy a new PC.

Idiophreak

albertross wrote:

A cheaper option would be to fit a new internal one, and copy the data from one to the other.

USB 1/1.1 is a bit slow for hard disk access.

Yeah, what he said

I wouldn't worry about installing an internal one - it's normally pretty easy and saves an extra box on the desktop.

USB1 really would make it pretty slow to use.

richi1

Thanks for your speedy posts.

The PC case is a flat desktop one with limited space inside, I originally thought get a new larger internal drive but thought I would have to copy all my programmes and reinstall operating system. Did not feel confident enough to do this. Also was advised different types of disk eg PATT , SATA? which to be honest I know nothing about.

So as speed is not the highest priority I think it’s the external drive. But which one?
On ebay I see some drives that seem to be powered via the USB cable and some that plug in the mains,

Is there any mileage in changing the PCI card on the rear to a USB2 connection – Just seems to plug in motherboard.

Thanks again for your advice so far

Idiophreak

Yeah, you could get a PCI usb2 card and that would make life a lot more pleasant.

How much more space were you after? There's a thread kicking about saying there's a 400gb drive in maplins for £89.99 or something - take it that's more than you need?

richi1

Thanks Idiophreak.
Yes thats much more than I will ever use - I was thinking of 80 - 120 GB.

Will order a PCI card and a ext hard drive probably from one of the sellers on ebay but will also look at Maplins.

Once again thanks to everyone for their replys.

j_davies

albertross wrote:

A cheaper option would be to fit a new internal one, and copy the data from one to the other.

USB 1/1.1 is a bit slow for hard disk access.

Yeah I would go down this route, just use it as a slave drive to put all your pictures and documents onto.

albertross_2

Most manufacturers provide a utility for you to copy from one disk to the other, so you just attach the drive either as a slave, or to the second channel on the motherboard, and then run the software, copy the drive image from old disk to new, then remove the old drive, and put the new one in it's place.

Older optiplexes are usually [P]ata/eide not SATA, but you can tell by the type of connector.



This is the Maxtor software.

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.3c67e325e0a6b1f6294198b091346068/?channelpath=%2Fen_us%2FSupport%2FSoftware+Downloads%2FView+By+Category%2FDesktop+Storage%2FDiamondMax+Family%2FUtilities&downloadID=19

Another option would be to cleanup and compress what you have already, unless it is all movies, and already compressed pictures.

https://www.ccleaner.com

If you go down the external route, make sure you get a card that will fit, they are small form factor PC's, and the external HD will need to be mains powered.