Laptop Hard Drive - Internal or External?

[imported_mbapu]

My Dell inspiron 600m has an internal 4200RPM HD that came with the system and I just bought a 5400RPM HD and a 2.5" USB2.0 enclosure.

I want to install a very process intensive application on my laptop. This application starts several processes when the computer starts.

I am planning to install OS and just this app on the new hard drive and keep my old hard drive untouched. I would like to boot to one of these two hard drives depending on what I want to do at that time. Reason for this is - I use this app infrequently and don't want to wait for it to boot when I don't want to use this app.

My questions are -
Will I get better performance if I install my new HD inside
Will I get better performance if I use it in the external USB enclosure?
Will I even be able to boot via the external HD when I have an internal HD?
Can I buy a tray from Dell that fits HDs and swap them for better performance?
Can I buy a case that swaps with my DVD drive for better performance?

Thank you...

 

[DotheDamnTHing]

install the new HD inside if you have the time to transfer all your documents, programs etc to it...you will get better performance

if you keep the new HD in an enclosure and the app is disk intensive than you will be bottlenecked by USB

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: mbapu
1 Will I get better performance if I install my new HD inside
2 Will I get better performance if I use it in the external USB enclosure?
3 Will I even be able to boot via the external HD when I have an internal HD?
4 Can I buy a tray from Dell that fits HDs and swap them for better performance?
5 Can I buy a case that swaps with my DVD drive for better performance?

1. Yes
2. No
3. No
4. Dunno. I do that with my old Gateway, and I know IBM does as well. There are some times modules that can be exchanged as long as they are IDE, and have a special adapter/carrier.
5. That answer is in 4. I don't know if Dell allows a 2nd internal HDD via a module swap.

What I would do is to clone your old 4200 RPM internal drive to the new external via USB. Then swap the drives so the faster is internal, and use the external only for data.

 

[jfall]

get this

 

[corkyg]

Just a note on the Hitachi 7200 RPM Travelstars. I have two of them and they work fine in my old P3 750 MHz laptop. But! I just ordered a new Pavilion dv1000 customized with all the top choices H-P had to offer. The drive is a 5400 RPM 80 GB. I asked why not a 7200 RPM Travelstar. Response was quick and to the point - they find that the 7200 RPMs drives do not do well with Centrino systems - too much heat and power consumption and they offset all the benefits gained for saving battery power. Ergo, they are not even offered or available in Centrino systems.

Go for the 16 MB cache - but look at the Toshiba 5400s as well. Better warranty.

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Just a note on the Hitachi 7200 RPM Travelstars. I have two of them and they work fine in my old P3 750 MHz laptop. But! I just ordered a new Pavilion dv1000 customized with all the top choices H-P had to offer. The drive is a 5400 RPM 80 GB. I asked why not a 7200 RPM Travelstar. Response was quick and to the point - they find that the 7200 RPMs drives do not do well with Centrino systems - too much heat and power consumption and they offset all the benefits gained for saving battery power. Ergo, they are not even offered or available in Centrino systems.

Go for the 16 MB cache - but look at the Toshiba 5400s as well. Better warranty.

IBM offers them (7200's) and beats the HP's across the board on battery life.