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Do you believe in external HDs?

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Nothing I have really needs to be backed up. So I put games/music/movies/tv shows on the external. Sure, if it crashed, I'd lose most of the 160 gb's of data, but I wouldn't really care. All of the more important stuff is burned on dvd's as well.
 
I use my external hard drive as a backup in addition to the raid drives in my computer. I wouldn't want to play games or boot my OS off of the external drive but it works just fine.
 
Originally posted by: j00fek
they dont make big enuf external hdd's for what i need
Click to expand...

Porn collection that big? They have 500Gb EHD.

I picked up an just the case on eBay several years ago and installed my own drive. Works like a champ. Great to use for the larger files I need to move between work and home.
 
My main system has a 100gb hard drive in it (2.5") and I have a 500-gig backup drive on the way. The advantage for me to having a backup drive is that you can turn it on and off, so if your main systems gets a virus or has a crash due to lightning or whatever, you've at least got a backup. The ultimate system would be internal raid mirroring plus a mirrored backup, but I don't have that luxury with my current system.
 
Originally posted by: mcvickj
Originally posted by: j00fek
they dont make big enuf external hdd's for what i need
Click to expand...

Porn collection that big? They have 500Gb EHD.

I picked up an just the case on eBay several years ago and installed my own drive. Works like a champ. Great to use for the larger files I need to move between work and home.
Click to expand...

Building an external is better anyways. Retail externals only have a warranty of a year if you're lucky. But internals carry 3-5 year.
 
Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
some dont spin down...not good at all
Click to expand...

From what I understand, this isn't necessarily a problem. It's an unsettled debate to whether letting the disk idle all the time or letting it turn itself off/on off/on off/on is better. On one hand, the thing is on all the time. On the other hand, on/off (esp on) puts a lot of strain on the thing.

My main grudge against externals is that some (but not all) of them have terrible/0 cooling for the poor disk inside. Like a heat death trap.
 
I do digital recording with a 250gig SATA mirror set and back up to an external drive. When I go out of town for long periods I'll image the whole workstation onto the external and hide it - so I still have all my data if my house gets burglarized.
 
I, for the most part, hate external hard drives. I've just seen too many go out with the drive still working.

Don't get me wrong, they have there uses; data trasnfer, convience, etc. I work as a computer tech, belive me, I know they can be useful, but for home none-stop on use, I wouldn't trust the enclosure.
 
Originally posted by: jimbob200521
I, for the most part, hate external hard drives. I've just seen too many go out with the drive still working.

Don't get me wrong, they have there uses; data trasnfer, convience, etc. I work as a computer tech, belive me, I know they can be useful, but for home none-stop on use, I wouldn't trust the enclosure.
Click to expand...

QFT. I have a 250GB drive in an external enclosure that I use to transfer files between work and home. A few weeks ago I plugged the drive in my home machine (while it was still off mind you). When I powered it up the enclosure's chipset blew, taking the mobo and CPU with it. 😛 Strangely enough though the HD still worked great after I put it into another enclosure. Go figure.

Dave
 
I use them to transfer large files between computers when a network is not available to use. I'm going to start using them for off site backups one of these days. however, I don't trust them being on for long periods of time especially if there's no fan.
 
Originally posted by: dug777
It's not really a question of belief.

They exist.
Click to expand...

No kidding.

I use them all the time; I think they're great. No, they aren't designed for speed, but who on earth would buy an external hard drive for speed?!?!?

They're best used for backing up data, archiving, and transporting large amounts of data compactly. At least that's what I use my external drives for.

And don't *even* say that external hard drive users are disorganized -- I'm far from it. 😉
 
People say they use them for backup... why not get an internal HD (much cheaper), plug it in, and once you're done put it back into a anti-static bag and store somewhere cool and dry if you want to backup?

You might as well get speed and a smaller package at a lower price.

😕
 
Originally posted by: DLeRium
People say they use them for backup... why not get an internal HD (much cheaper), plug it in, and once you're done put it back into a anti-static bag and store somewhere cool and dry if you want to backup?

You might as well get speed and a smaller package at a lower price.

😕
Click to expand...

Cause if you backup every few days, or once a week, it would be a pain in the ass?

I have an external that I store family photos, files, etc on. If the house is on fire I can grab that and let my PC burn then. That's my reason for one.
 
Originally posted by: DLeRium
I never really believed in external HDs. I always believed in maximizing speeds, so going through a USB controller to me is just dumb.
Click to expand...

I concur, but you're an Interface Racist! 😛 😀

eSATA > IEEE1394 > USB

- M4H
 
Originally posted by: DLeRium
People say they use them for backup... why not get an internal HD (much cheaper), plug it in, and once you're done put it back into a anti-static bag and store somewhere cool and dry if you want to backup?

You might as well get speed and a smaller package at a lower price.

😕
Click to expand...

First, the price isn't *that* much lower. You can build your own external drive for not much more than the cost of an internal hard drive.

I'd also not be at all comfortable with connecting/disconnecting drives that often -- how infrequently do you make backups??? The least I would recommend is once per week, and even that is a ton of abuse for an internal connector.
 
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