Best drive type?

Skinner.Daddy · 26 Jul 2007 at 11:30

Guys,

I am on my final GB of space and am looking to increase my capacity. I wanted to know which would be the best way of storing / accessing data?

The data will generally be used to store DVD's/Games/music. Which will need to be burned every now and again.

I want/need an extra 500GB-1TB

What's the best route to go: -

Internal
Extrenal (USB/Firewire)
Ethernet/network drive (connected directly to my router)

Cheers

Skinner

squiffy · 26 Jul 2007 at 11:41

Internal for cost and performance
NAS for quietness (store elseware) and LAN access, but more expensive and slower
External USB/Firewire cheaper than NAS, firewire is fast, USB slower, also not exactly most reliable protocol (corruption can occur)

For games, store locally on the HD inside your PC.
NAS for other data where several PC's need to access it, and performance isn't a requirement.

rpstewart · 26 Jul 2007 at 11:45

Which solution is best suited will depend on what you want to do with the data that's on the drive.

For simple always on storage for one PC only then an internal disk will be quicker and cheaper than an external solution.

An external USB or Firewire drive will be slower than an internal drive but allows you to turn the drive off to protect backups or to move it to another machine. eSATA is a nice compromise in that the speed will be the same as an internal disk but you'll need either an eSATA port or a free internal SATA port which can be directed outside by way of a PCI backplate.

The reasons for considering a networked attached (NAS) device is if you need simultaneous access to the disk from multiple machines or if you want to access the data from a second machine while the main one is off. Speeds will be limited by your network and hence won't be great.

Skinner.Daddy · 26 Jul 2007 at 11:48

Which protocol is un-reliable USB or Firewire (or both)?

Was prepared to spend around £200 ish + VAT...but

Maybe 2 500GB internals will be better...well cheaper!

squiffy · 26 Jul 2007 at 11:54

USB and Firewire. Had several enclosures and had problems with all of them, sometimes not detecting the enclosure, lost data (copy data to it, safetly remove then connect to another PC and directory not there)

If you don't need to have multiple PC's access the same data, just fit into your desktop. Two 500GB will be roughly £120.