External HDD questions

Stripe · 17 Apr 2006 at 14:57

hello!

I'm thinking of buying a large external Hard drive (around 250gb) which I'm basically going to use for extra storage but mainly as a backup of my current HDDs. I was wondering if someone could answer a few questions for me please:

1. is it better to get an external drive or buy an internal drive and put it in an enclosure?

2. can I attach an external HDD using a SATA cable? I'm planning on also buying this Akasa control panel (the one at the top) which has SATA data I/O so would probably hook it up to that. would that be possible?

3. if i want to back up my current HDD setup (i have about 150gb worth of stuff) would i need to use norton ghost or something or can I just select everything and copy it over?

4. based on Q1., can anyone recommend a manufacturer? I've got 2 seagate barracuda's and while I find them reliable, they are a touch noisy. I'm thinking of going with samsung but haven't decided.

Thanks.

rpstewart · 17 Apr 2006 at 15:18

1. Six and half a dozen really. Buying separately allows you to pick the drive you want and the enclosure/connection method you want. Buying together may mean compromising one or other.

2. Here, that's nifty! That's the first front mount external SATA port I've seen - I assume it's just a pass thorough from the mobo ports. In answer to the question yes you can use SATA externally, I think OCUK have a couple of SATA enclosures which may come with their own PSU so you'd just need a SATA cable up to the port. Might be worth checking the cable which comes with the enclosure as the Akasa doof has an internal SATA port and I'm not sure if there's a different cable for external SATA ports a-la some ASUS mobos.

3. Ghost will give you a mirror image of your existing drive - OS, boot sectors and all. Personally I don't back up the OS or apps, just the data in which case a copy is all that's required. I think there is a backup type MS Powertoy available though which makes incremental backups much easier.

4. Nowt wrong with Seagates, personally I use Hitachis and have done since they were still IBM. I'm not sure about Samsung, they haven't been about that long but I've not heard any horror stories yet which is a good sign.

Stripe · 17 Apr 2006 at 15:43

thanks for the help. Think I'll have a little look around the shop and have a think.

and thanks for a heads up on the cables. I'll have a check before I buy.

cheers.

Mujja · 17 Apr 2006 at 21:06

1. Buy your own external drive and put it in an enclosure. Will be cheaper and you will have more choice on the drive and enclosure style.

2. SATA will give you MUCH higher speeds than USB2 and Firewire. However make sure the external enclosure you choose also had a USB2 connector so you can use it with other PCs/Laptops which don't have external SATA ports.

3. You can select and copy but when you start changing files keeping things in synch will get tricky. I use SyncBack Freeware

4. Put your current Seagates in external enclosures and buy a quieter Samsung for your PC. You'll have the external drives on less than you PC and with 2 external drives you can keep one backup near you and another offsite.

Stripe · 19 Apr 2006 at 23:58

thanks as well.

hate to bump (and especially a thread i started) but thought I would just say that I went with a samsung 250gb, an icy box with sata + usb 2.0 connection and the akasa all in one. think i'll put the samsung in my rig and leave my 160gig seagate as the external as suggested.

icy box and samsung seem great. akasa is good except the sata port on the front doesn't seem to work as the HDD isn't detected at boot

i put in the sata pci plate that came with the icy box to get my drive detected. im a bit upset as the front sata port was one of the reasons i wanted the akasa.

so, was wondering, do you think if i changed the sata cable or changed which sata port on my mobo i plugged into that it would help? if it didn't, do you think that would be sufficient grounds for an RMA?