Good HDD

Covkid_2

Hi all,

I am looking at backing up my files on my laptop and other for furture data (music, photos etc).

I am looking for a good cheap external Hard drive...

Can anybody help?

Thanks

weeowens

Try this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?page=1&sort=popularity&limit=10&store=33&cat=393&filtermfr=11&filterpricebands=[0+TO+49.99]

loads more : http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Storage/cat/Hard-Drive---External

amity

Covkid wrote: »

Hi all,

I am looking at backing up my files on my laptop and other for furture data (music, photos etc).

I am looking for a good cheap external Hard drive...

Can anybody help?

Thanks

Yep,
I've bought tens of HDs this year.

Define 'good'.
Do you mean solid build, do you mean, will be ok travelling with you daily?
Do you mean, fast to copy to and read from?
Do you mean the most decent allround performance from the most economic ones out there?
Does it have to be a 'portable' which means built on a 2.5" laptop HD and so can run off the power drawn over its USB or firewire (for mac portable drives) data cable? In other words it uses one cable for both it's power and data connection.
There is nothing special about an external HD, they aren't made differently to drives inside PCs and laptops, be they in a Windows, mac or Linux machine, an external HD is the same as any other HD, it is just housed in an external enclosure that provides its power requirements and sometimes needed heat dissipation and vibration control.

Desktop drives are built on 3.5" or Personal Computer sized HDs and need a power supply to operate as the voltage they require to run is greater than can be supplied by USB 2 or Firewire ports.

Lemme know what's *most* important, then I can find you a good price. Or if none of those are critical then you really can just go for the best price.

As to capacities, these days HDD are sold in,

320GB - becoming more rare - expect to pay around £39
500GB around £59
640GB - again a rare size £74
750GB £89
1.0TB £119
1.5TB £139
2TB £179
those are very rough general price estimates and they are for portable HDs only.
Desktop external Hard Drives should be available for less at each capacity and also at the larger capacities of,
3 TB £179
4 TB £249
there are presently no portable units with those capacities on the market

Those capacities are taking 1GB to be 1000MB that is a decimal or base 10 version of that number. 1000 is written that way, because we are indicating we have 1 of 10 to the power of 3 - or 1 in the 'thousands' column. We call multiples of 10 to the power of 3 'thousands' in english. Ten to the power of 3 just means 10 times itself, then itself again. Literally: 10 x 10 x 10

In *electronic* computing, due to the basic unit of a circuit being stored as the state of either low or high voltage in a circuit, each one being used to represent either a 1 or a zero, numbers are represented in another system of counting, a system based on powers of 2, you'll have heard of it, it is not called decimal, its name is: binary.
Binary is a way of representing values just like our decimal system, but on powers of 2, rather than on powers of 10.

For that reason a GB in an electronic computer is taken to be 1024 (2 to the power of 10 - nothing to do with our system being based on powers of 10 just happens to be the power of 2 which gives that number- which is another way of saying take 2 times itself and then itself again until you've repeated that 10 times).
The point is when connected to your computer you won't have the stated storage. 1GB advertised, is equivalent to only 0.93GB binary capacity.

Multiply your advertised HD capacity by 0.93 to get the maxium possible space you'll be buying from that capacity HD 0_o

EXAMPLE 320 GB HD
320 x 0.93 = 296.7GB
Though I've seen ppl on the internet ask why their 320GB shows, "only 263GB free space available", so in practice it could be even less dependant on other things...

COVKID

Second covkid ?

Covkid_2

COVKID wrote: »

Second covkid ?

I thought i was unique??

Must be due to capitals??

Covkid_2

amity wrote: »

Yep,
I've bought tens of HDs this year.

Define 'good'.
Do you mean solid build, do you mean, will be ok travelling with you daily?
Do you mean, fast to copy to and read from?
Do you mean the most decent allround performance from the most economic ones out there?
Does it have to be a 'portable' which means built on a 2.5" laptop HD and so can run off the power drawn over its USB or firewire (for mac portable drives) data cable? In other words it uses one cable for both it's power and data connection.
There is nothing special about an external HD, they aren't made differently to drives inside PCs and laptops, be they in a Windows, mac or Linux machine, an external HD is the same as any other HD, it is just housed in an external enclosure that provides its power requirements and sometimes needed heat dissipation and vibration control.

Desktop drives are built on 3.5" or Personal Computer sized HDs and need a power supply to operate as the voltage they require to run is greater than can be supplied by USB 2 or Firewire ports.

Lemme know what's *most* important, then I can find you a good price. Or if none of those are critical then you really can just go for the best price.

As to capacities, these days HDD are sold in,

320GB - becoming more rare - expect to pay around £39
500GB around £59
640GB - again a rare size £74
750GB £89
1.0TB £119
1.5TB £139
2TB £179
those are very rough general price estimates and they are for portable HDs only.
Desktop external Hard Drives should be available for less at each capacity and also at the larger capacities of,
3 TB £179
4 TB £249
there are presently no portable units with those capacities on the market

Those capacities are taking 1GB to be 1000MB that is a decimal or base 10 version of that number; in electronic computing, due to the basic unit of a circuit being the state of low or high voltage, each being used to represent either a 1 or a zero, numbers are represented in binary.
Binary is a way of representing values just like our decimal system, but on powers of 2, rather than on powers of 10.

For that reason a GB in an electronic computer is taken to be 1024 (2 to the power of 10 - which is another way of saying take 2 times itself and then itself again until you've repeated that 10 times).
The point is when connected to your computer you won't have the stated storage. 1GB advertised, is equivalent to only 0.93GB binary capacity.

Multiply your advertised HD capacity by 0.93 to get the maxium possible space you'll be buying from that capacity HD 0_o

EXAMPLE 320 GB HD
320 x 0.93 = 296.7GB
Though I've seen ppl on the internet ask why their 320GB shows, "only 263GB free space available", so in practice it could be even less dependant on other things...

#


Thanks for the expert insight....

I did mean all the things you mentioned about strong quality product which copied quickly....

Do you have links to any at good prices that you rate?

Thanks,
The "Real" Covkid :rotfl:

amity

Covkid wrote: »

#


Thanks for the expert insight....

I did mean all the things you mentioned about strong quality product which copied quickly....

Do you have links to any at good prices that you rate?

Thanks,
The "Real" Covkid :rotfl:

Well you are going to compromise between cost and how robust and sturdy the case that the HD is in.
If your way of handling stuff is particularly careful then you have other options. If you know that you knock stuff off desks then to ensure you don't suffer data loss (horrible) then a ruggedised portable HD is a must. Not just any 'tough' cased HD, but one that claims that it will survive a drop of over 5ft (around a meter and a third).

I'm going to suggest USB3.0 connectors which then allow you to write and read to the HD at its maximum rates, rather than those with a now outdated USB2 connector and bus controller that limits read and write rates to between 28MB/s and 32MB/s. Though some HD's small files write-rate *will be* slower than that, and the faster bus won't speed their operation up!

No matter how rapid the bus - that is, the type of connector on the HD case - it CANNOT improve the mechanical read/write rate of the HD itself

Clear ?

Covkid_2

amity wrote: »

Well you are going to compromise between cost and how robust and sturdy the case that the HD is in.
If your way of handling stuff is particularly careful then you have other options. If you know that you knock stuff off desks then to ensure you don't suffer data loss (horrible) then a ruggedised portable HD is a must. Not just any 'tough' cased HD, but one that claims that it will survive a drop of over 5ft (around a meter and a third).

I'm going to suggest USB3.0 connectors which then allow you to write and read to the HD at its maximum rates, rather than those with a now outdated USB2 connector and bus controller that limits read and write rates to between 28MB/s and 32MB/s. Though some HD's small files write-rate *will be* slower than that, and the faster bus won't speed their operation up!

No matter how rapid the bus - that is, the type of connector on the HD case - it CANNOT improve the mechanical read/write rate of the HD itself

Clear ?

I think so....

My laptops only have USB 2.0, i think- the normal USB not the new USB 3.

The USB 3.0 cable won't fit into my laptop which has only USB 2.0.

Thanks

Guardsman

USB 3.0 IS backward compatible with 2.0 but will run at the slower speed of 2.0

Guardsman

I do my backup's onto 32GB memory sticks that can be had for about £10

amity

Guardsman wrote: »

I do my backup's onto 32GB memory sticks that can be had for about £10

So long as the amount of data you've got is 128GB in total or thereabouts, that is presently the most space saving and economic option. ANY backup, is infinitely better than not taking a backup, but aim to keep TWO identical backups on TWO flash drives.

Reasons:
one: handles the scenario where a backup becomes physically lost or the flash unit is damaged putting the data beyond (an affordable) rescue - the risk that comes with the flash drive's portability and size.

two: THE SINISTER ONE...
*ALL* the data on the flash drive becomes terminally and utterly irretrievable if you, just slightly, disconnect the drive while it is being written to: completely wiped, for good, NO GOING BACK.
No amount of resources or effort will bring it back, if you nudge it while it is being written to.
I'll agree if you feel it isn't common that such a thing happens... but say you get an electrical drop in voltage, or a child, pet or friend bumps into the device... then where willl you turn to get your files?
Where?!
The 'otha' backup flash, the twin of this one!