EXTERNAL HDD

[alofano]

Hello friends. I am thinking of getting an external HDD mainly for back-up. The idea here is to have it connected to my Thinkpad while in use and when I leave or go away from my Thinkpad, I will remove it and put it in my safe for safe-keeping. I'm thinking of “Kingston SSDNOw V-Series 30GB Solid State Hard Drive (SNV125-S2/30GB)” ! Is this a good idea ? Am I in the right direction or am i out in left field. Any recommendations ? Again, thanks for you help and insight.

[ZaZ]

I'm confused, you want to get an external drive and you're considering getting the Kingston? If you're just getting it for external storage, I think a external USB drive make more sense from a cost perspective or get the ultrabay adapter for the T60.

[alofano]

I'm confused, you want to get an external drive and you're considering getting the Kingston? If you're just getting it for external storage, I think a external USB drive make more sense from a cost perspective or get the ultrabay adapter for the T60.

Good point Fred. Any recommendation on a specific make ? I hear that some models are not really realiable.

[alofano]

Would I be better off with a 320GB WD 2.5" HDD with a Vantec enclosure instead of a complet set like a Western Digital My Passport Essentials 320GB 2.5" Portable External Hard Drive ? It comes out to the same price.

[ZaZ]

It's probably just luck of the draw whether you get a bad one. I bought a 1TB WD. I think the bigger drives are more flaky. WD sent me two replacements, which were both DOA. They accidentally sent me a third, which ironically, was the one that worked. I flipped it on eBay and picked up a 1TB Toshiba Cavio, which has worked great, though I will say the service from WD was pretty good. My last WD external worked for years with no issues. 120GB was just not enough any more.

One thought might be to buy a better/faster drive to use in your T60, then use the drive in your T60 now for the external if it can meet your space requirement.. Something like the Momentus XT, if you're willing to spend that kind of money, will offer a boost for boot times and common application load times. If not, perhaps something like the Hitachi 7k500 might be worth a look. SSDs are faster, but offer limited capacity and are more expensive. 30GB like on the Kingston is probably fine for XP, but not enough space if you want to upgrade to Vista or Windows 7.