External Hard Drive

[Diesel]

Hey guys,

I currently have a laptop from my company and use it as my primary computer. For this reason, there is a lot of personal data i want to store (tax info, mp3s, Virtual Machines, etc.), but don't want to bring to work. With the recent low prices for internal Hard Drives, I am trying to design a solution for external, removable storage using an internal drive. I have been out of hardware procurement for a little over a year, so i have no idea what technologies are available that meet my needs.

For this solution Speed is a priority, so i need an interface with a high throughput from the laptop to the external drive (firewire?) and a fast bus from the Internal drive to the External casing.

I'd really appreciate it if some of you guys threw in your .02.

Thanks,

Jon

 

[BlueWeasel]

Most any HD enclosure should work and you can get ones with dual USB2.0 and Firewire connections. I've got a USB2.0 enclosure at home and it works great.

 

[Diesel]

What is the fastest HD buss these days? SCSI? Super ATA? EIDE?

 

[imported_Kensai]

SCSI.

 

[DigitalX]

Get an aluminum one...

I recently Killed a 80gb using a cheap plastic enclosure, it even have fan in the front...

 

[rjn17960]

I just ordered two of these:

Apricorn COMBO USB /FIREWIRE BACKUP & ( EZ-BUS-DTC-KIT )
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de...9613-9444643?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance

It has an aluminum enclosure. There also is a $15 rebate at the Apricorn site.

 

[Diesel]

Does that Case accomodate SCSI drives?

 

[Cerb]

SCSI will be the fastest, duh. SATA (it's serial, not super) could be better, but only if you have an external method of connecting. Not likely for a laptop.

USB and FW are both capable of what you want (USB being a touch slower, but still good enough for general use). Avoid ALi chipset enclosures. If you get one with a Prolink, don't use the Firewire with a Ti FW controller. I read about bad stuff happening, there. Prolink ones (like Kingwin's aluminum cases) are great for USB2, though. Cypress is fine as long as you keep it from getting too hot (most enclosures come with a fan, so that's typically not a problem).

If it turns out not to be much more expensive, an external drive is a good way to go, especially WD's and Seagate's. Seagate's appear to be about $20-$40 mroe than a HDD+enclosure, as are WD's.