Need help/external hard drive questions (newbie)

I'm new to this so help me out as much as you can.
First give me your pros and cons, positive and negatives on external hard drives.
Give me as much detail as possible no matter how good or how bad it may be.
Also is the purpose of the external hard drive the same as using a software backup/image restore program or is this different?
For instance whats the difference with using FirstDefense or Acronis True Image and using an external hard drive?
What should I look for when purchasing one? Brands, price, ease of use, and so on.
So don't hold back let me know everything, as much as possible, even if you have any links to information on external hard drives, I would appreciate it.
Thanks for your time

 

For starters
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/04/12/external_hdd_spring_fever/
Good luck
Good site there lots of info

Basic search: http://www.google.com/search?&q=external hd

Personally I favour an enclosure with a removable drive rather than enclosed system.

Use the external for syncing data, vids, photos, correspondence, music library etc..

Put some portable apps on the external hd for travelling.
http://www.google.com/search?&q=portable apps

AND of course save your back-ups ( or a copy of) to external drive.

That is a different, longer topic.

hth.

Edit: heh simultaneous post from Mrk: good summary; as usual; what he said.

 

Hi,

Pros:
Extra storage that is computer-independent
Mobile

Cons:
Can get stolen or lost
Will last less than standard internal hard disks

Using imaging software has NOTHING to do with external hard disks.

External hard disk is a storage space. Imaging software is software. You can use imaging software to make images of hard disk or partitions and copy them to any location, including external hard disk.

I do not like to use any copying programs that come with external hard disk. I think these programs are a waste of space. I prefer to make my own scripts and fully customize the backup procedures.

Brand: I like WD, with big casing so that is can more easily cool.

If you're buying one, go for large one, 200-250GB. Last I checked in my favorite store, a WD 250GB with casing and 3 year warranty at only USD90. And this reflects the prices as they are in USA.

Never move the hard disk when it's copying.
Let it run for a few moments before either plugging in or out.
Stand it up on the size when copying to increase cooling area.
Keep in cool dark place, preferably among lingerie.

Mrk

 

Gobsmacked:
check the prices in the links on the top right of my tom's hw link from post 2
Amazing.

 

the seagate free agent 250GB and 500GB both have a 5 year warrenty
most external drives including the older seagate external's used to have only a one year warrenty. some external drives still have one year warrenty so watch out.
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Agent-Desktop-External-ST305004FDA1E1-RK/dp/B000ND75C0
lodore

 

Most important I think is. Does your Bios support booting from an ext HDD? I mean, what good would it be otherwise, other than storage.

 

The main advantage of an external hd for me is portability and security. Makes it easy to carry large amounts of data and allows me to backup my data and keep it safe. The only downside is they're normally a bit more expensive.

I prefer to use laptop harddrives for my external drives. Based on their design i believe they should last longer and are better suited for my purposes.

 

Thanks for the help, I've picked up some information from this thread to help me out but if any more info is available let me know.
Remember this is coming from someone who doesnt know anything about external hard drives and wants to know as much as possibl, thanks.

 

Hi CJsDad,

Three quick comments:

1. So simple (I did it) you can purchase an ext. HD case, then buy a drive,
you can save some money. In my case (pun intended) I placed an old
TIVO HD.

2. If your looking for image software, I would look somewhere other than
Acronis. Acronis 10 let me down when my HD crashed. I will replace
Acronis with Storagecraft when the new ver 3 is available, Peter2150
likes this one.

3. All ext. HD's come formatted with/for "FAT32" (assumed you use XP)
First thing, re-format, but use "NTFS', they come that way (FAT32)
for backward compatibility with Windows 98, fewere calls to support.

Take Care
Rico

 

The best external enclosures I've seen

 

This thread from a year ago has posts that go into some technical detail about enclosures:

Which external USB HDD enclosure should I use?