External Drives

Darkninja462 · 24 Feb 2009 at 20:55

I'm looking for a new external HDD my 80gb is kinda outdated and has no use part from music backup.

I was looking at getting a Network one the Lacie ones in perticular

But has anyone got any advice/suggestions for what I should get

Or would USB/Firewire be better ?
:confused:

Current HDD's:
3x 320Gb WD's

Uses for drive:
System Backup
Music Backup
Video/.iso Storage

budget of £100 max £125

Ninja

ChrisLX200 · 24 Feb 2009 at 21:22

Gigabit LAN speeds would be quicker than USB/Firewire, but in practice you get nowhere near gigabit speeds unless you pay a lot of money. You can get a faster eSATA external drive fairly cheap but it can be prblematic getting the thing to work. It's best to get a 1TB drive these days - best bang for the buck.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-030-BT&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=72
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-246-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1279

is the combination I'd go for.

Darkninja462 · 25 Feb 2009 at 07:44

How would I get it to connect to my PC as only really just heard of eSATA ?

EVGA 780i Motherboard
if that helps.

Ninja

ChrisLX200 · 25 Feb 2009 at 08:38

To connect via eSATA you need an eSATA port on the PC. With that motherboard you will either need a cheap PCI card to provide one (as I don't see eSATA listed in the specs), or extend one of your 6 native SATA ports using a lead and a backplate. To hot-plug you need to have AHCI enabled in BIOS and in Windows, without hot-plug the drive has to be attached and powered up when you boot the machine. The extra speed of eSATA is worth the effort.

Darkninja462 · 25 Feb 2009 at 08:54

Is that what I would need to extend the SATA cable:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CM-061-RY&groupid=701&catid=209&subcat=1295

Or would you recomend anything else ?

Ninja

ChrisLX200 · 25 Feb 2009 at 09:05

That would do the job, gives you some extra connections you don't need but it has the SATA data socket which is the important one. Some fan controlers also have SATA ports if you wanted the socket on the front, not worth the cost just for that but if you were thinking of getting one anyway here's an example:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BB-001-AK&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=189

Darkninja462 · 25 Feb 2009 at 09:12

Would that be better then ?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-025-AK&groupid=701&catid=48&subcat=196
I was considering a fan controller but not atm as I don't have that much money to play with.

I do have another question what is the drive powered off ?

Ninja

ChrisLX200 · 25 Feb 2009 at 09:22

Yes that's the one I was originally thinking of. The drive caddy will come with a mains adapter, no avoiding it for a 3-1/2" drive because of the high power demand. You can get laptop (2-1/2") drives that run of USB only but they will be slower and smaller capacity.

Darkninja462 · 25 Feb 2009 at 09:28

Ok, well I did some digging and specing up on OcUK and this is what I came up with are these compatible ? (May cut down on the HDD depending on funds)

Enclosure:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-005-AK
Hard Drive:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-246-WD
eSata Back Plate:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-025-AK

Much Appreciated

Ninja

ChrisLX200 · 25 Feb 2009 at 12:08

That looks good. You might need to buy an eSATA cable, not sure if that caddy comes with one.

Darkninja462 · 25 Feb 2009 at 12:34

I think the caddy comes with all the cables it needs, from what I remember in the Specs.

Thankyou very much should be purchasing in a week or so.

Ninja
Ninja

ChrisLX200 · 4 Mar 2009 at 13:10

pirate said:
ChristLX200, I have a WD external hdd (MyBook 1TB ) with usb, esata and firewire 400 ports. You seemed to higly recommend using the esata port but is it best to leave the external hdd on all the time or to turn on only when it is needed?

Turn it on when you need it ideally - but for that you need hot-plug, which only works if the SATA interface is set to AHCI mode. I've said it before but my WD MyBook 1TB won't work via eSATA anyway. It might be the cable, or the device itself, but of the zillion times I've tried it I only got a connection about 3 times. Doesn't matter if I boot with it powered up or hot plug, it just doesn't want to work via eSATA. I've flashed the drive to the latest firmware I can find too. Last thing to try is a new cable - this one is a couple years old and I had to cut the outer sheath down a bit to make it fit. Still, I can't see anything wrong with it and the odd time it did connect the computer lost it again on reboot without ever touching the cable. Be interested if your's works, might encourage me to try harder.