External HDD questions

[Stripe]

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.

 

[Stripe]

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.

 

[Stripe]

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?