USB External HD Questions

[kentkrogh]

I am looking for a USB external HD for complete system backup and data files. Also considering Acronis 10 software.

Can I get a HD that is larger than 100GB that will run on a T43?

I was considering a 160GB LaCie, 80GB LaCie, and the IBM USB 80GB external.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

[pianowizard]

I have used a 400GB external HDD with the T43 that I used to have and it worked perfectly fine.

[Ken Fox]

I am looking for a USB external HD for complete system backup and data files. Also considering Acronis 10 software.

Can I get a HD that is larger than 100GB that will run on a T43?

I was considering a 160GB LaCie, 80GB LaCie, and the IBM USB 80GB external.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

If you are in the USA, these external USB2 hard drives are a cheap commodity item. I am seeing them at less than $100 for sizes as large as 320gb, every few days on the deal sites (techbargains.net , slickdeals.net forums, fatwallet.com , et. al.)

Any of these made by virtually any mfr. should work just fine.

[Johan]

Kent:

For an external HDD connected to via the USB port(s), you've got two options (at least!):

1) Either buy a 3.5" harddisk-box and a separate HDD to mount inside the box. The HDD itself may be an ATA or SATA drive, depending of what the box can support (some boxes may support both ATA and SATA). You may find 3.5" HDD's with up to at least 750 GB capacity. This solution however requires a (big and bulky!) external 115 or 220 V power supply with its cord, unless you find a HDD-box with built-in power supply. Beware: Many of these boxes contain relatively noisy fans, which are necessary to keep the large disks cool, if running for long periods. If you buy a box-without-a-fan, then I advice that you first check user feedback; will the HDD in this case run too hot?

If you go for this 3.5" solution, I suggest that you consider Seagate's Barracuda 7200.10 series of disks; they are both fast and cheap. NOTE that they however come in two versions: One with a noisy motor and one with a low-noise motor (see http://forums.storagereview.net/index.p ... 660&st=145 about this). See tests and very positive user-feedback about the 320 GB version of this HDD at: http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdo ... =2803&p=10 and
http://techgage.com/article/seagate_bar ... 0010_320gb and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822148140

For my desktop I have a 3.5" external case with built-in power supply and low-noise fan (http://www.northq.com/products/usb/nq14001.html), and the 320 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10; this setup works very well.

2) Buy an USB-powered 2.5" external HDD-box (for ATA or SATA) and a 2.5" HDD to mount in it. See an image of a such 2.5" solution at http://www.zitech.dk/Product/BigImage.aspx?ID=158935 Advantages: No external power supply is required, very low noise, very compact, but the "disadvantage" is that 2.5" disks are more expensive per GB compared to 3.5" disks, and that 2.5” HDD’s are only available up to 200 GB (e.g. the 160 GB Seagate’s Momentus 5400.3 or Toshiba MK2035GSS w/200 GB but only 4200 rpm ). Note that 2.5" HDD's typically require 1 A at spin-up, and that a single USB-port will only source 500 mA (= 0.5 A). In other words, the 2.5" solution will require two USB-ports to operate (so if you e.g. use an external USB-mouse, you'll have to disconnect this while operating the external HDD, if you've got a ThinkPad with only two USB-ports). When selecting the 2.5" HDD for this application therefore pay attention to HDD's spin-up and operating power consumption.

I have a 2.5" external HDD with a Momentus 5400.2 (ATA) 120-GB HDD inside, and this works very, very well with my T42.

Regards,

Johan

Update: I forgot to mention that a further reason for recommending Seagate drives is that their 3.5" HDD's in the Barracuda 7200.10 family and also their 2.5” notebook drives of the Momentus 5400.2, 5400.3 and 7200.1 families all comes with an outstanding 5-year warranty.

Few other 3.5” HDD's carries such a 5-year warranty; these few includes the Western Digital 3.5" enterprise drives (WD Raptor, WD RE and WD RE2).

If you go the easy and fast way (but not necessarily the technically most rugged and "best"), and simply buy an integrated external USB HDD, for plug-and-play use (= a box-with-a-HDD-inside, completely ready-to-use, like LaCie, Maxtor or many others) you save a little bit of work for yourself, yes, but you potentially pay more, and you also most likely end up with having only 1 year of warranty. So... you'll have to decide on your own: What do you want; a short, simple, expensive and unstable life or a long rugged, totally tuff one, and with full warranty if the unexpected should happen...?