Need new Hard Drive, internal or external?

Norman-B

I need more storage to replace/sit along my 80GB HD. I have 35GB of family photos and more on SD cards waiting to add to my desktop.
It seems to me that the prices of a 2TB internal drive is nearly the same as a 2TB external.
Apart from the fact that I won't have to open my desktop (which I'm reluctant to do) with an external drive, is there any disadvantage over an internal one?

InsideInsurance

It depends on what connections your PC and the external drive has.

If it is almost the same price it may only have USB 2.0 connections which are massively slower than sata connection the internal one would have. Ultimately not a major concern but can be frustrating if your trying to browse to find something.

If your computer supports it then an esata external drive will be almost the same speed but I suspect you'll find a marked increase in price for one over an internal one. Basically its the same drive but you're having to pay for the extra enclosure and electronics.

Norman-B

Thanks for your reply. Seems to me that I will have to go for an internal HD.

Norm

GunJack

OR..... get an internal drive, and a usb caddy, so you can turn the internal into an external as & when you need it to be - no problems if all you are doing is storing files on it

SuperHan

Be aware that if you replace your internal drive you will need to reinstall your OS and all programmes, and will most likely lose any programme data you have. So make sure you have all the relevant disks/drivers/software to install them again.

Norman-B

SuperHan wrote: »

Be aware that if you replace your internal drive you will need to reinstall your OS and all programmes, and will most likely lose any programme data you have. So make sure you have all the relevant disks/drivers/software to install them again.

I was thinking of having the new drive alongside the old one in the PC. I only need the new one to store videos (family) and loads of photos.

Norman-B

GunJack wrote: »

OR..... get an internal drive, and a usb caddy, so you can turn the internal into an external as & when you need it to be - no problems if all you are doing is storing files on it

Thanks for the suggestion but with the price of a 2TB internal being nearly the same as an external one plus the cost of a Caddy, is it worth going that way?

Figment

External one would be more convenient, plus you could use it on more than one machine. Whichever you decide on, don't rely on it as the only copy of your data.

GunJack

Norman-B wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestion but with the price of a 2TB internal being nearly the same as an external one plus the cost of a Caddy, is it worth going that way?

it depends on how versatile you want it to be......e.g. 2TB is massive...if you put 2 or 3 partitions on it, then you could leave one partition free for if you ever need to turn it into a "proper" internal drive and install an OS on it

shaun_from_Africa

SuperHan wrote: »

Be aware that if you replace your internal drive you will need to reinstall your OS and all programmes, and will most likely lose any programme data you have. So make sure you have all the relevant disks/drivers/software to install them again.

Alternatively, you could do a complete copy (clone) of your existing HDD.
Done correctly, this copies everything including the OS, all data and all programs from your old drive onto the new one.

One program that is very good for this purpose is Acronis True image.
You can get a free 30 day trial here.
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/#tryorbuy

Norman-B

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Alternatively, you could do a complete copy (clone) of your existing HDD.
Done correctly, this copies everything including the OS, all data and all programs from your old drive onto the new one.

One program that is very good for this purpose is Acronis True image.
You can get a free 30 day trial here.
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/#tryorbuy

Shaun, thanks for the very useful link.