Storage for my new build

I think its silly have lots of drives like that. Your best bet would be to have just one large drive (500gb +) and partition it, say 40gb for windows and the rest for storage, or if you really want give yourself a partition for games/apps too. This way when you need to format in the future you wont lose any of your games/storage stuff.

As you want it to be fast I think the best drive you can get atm is this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-120-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=

However I myself am a Seagate fan :)
 
Partitioning is easy, I take it you install/reinstall windows yourself? Once you get to the bit where it asks you what you want to do (once the setup files have been loaded) you can either if I remember correctly..Install Windows, Delete a parition and Create a partition.

You firstly want to delete your C: drive partition so there are no partitons, then go to "create a partition" and it will ask you what size you want it (default will be the WHOLE size of your hard drive, change it to say 40gb or something) then once that partition is created (should be called C:).

Then go back to "create a partition" and use the default size for the rest of the hard drive or make it whatever you want incase you want to have 3+ partitions. Make sure you select C: drive when you chose to "install windows" though. :)

USB 2.0 is fast enough to play movies, I get 30MB/s on my brothers external hard drive which is more than enough. It does have a SATA connector to so you can plug on to your motherboards SATA connector (has a PCI backplate thingy so you dont have to keep taking off the side of your case). You can also download things straight to an external drive.
 
Make sure you get an external drive with USB 2.0 and either eSATA or SATA.

OcUK have the one I bought my bro:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-004-BT

It looks a bit naff in that picture though but looks good here:

Icybox2(small).jpg


Its also a lot cheaper to buy your own external caddy and put a hard drive in it.
 
Yikes your right, I just checked it myself. It even has eSATA and USB 2.0 aswell. I dont think it looks as good though, looks quite large to but perhaps thats just the pic.

The only downside I can see is..it doesn't state the warranty so presumable it has a 1 year warranty? If you buy your own HDD like seagate they come with 5 years warranty (3 year for the new WD ones).

<edit> after a google a few other retailers say "Manufacturer Warranty: 1 year warranty" so meh :/
 
eSATA is just for speed increase really (atleast I would have thought..), I get 30mb/s on my bros USB drive and if you have a lot to transfer to it, it takes a while. I tried using the SATA cable that came with it, but it didn't work when connected to my mobo, tried everything I could think of but it wouldn't detect (I have another sata hdd on the same controller which detects fine).

Also after a while with the USB I kept getting "write" errors on my PC:

Error3.jpg


I tried formatting it (long format) and doing all sorts but it still gave me an error like that, in the end I thought I would try it on my laptop and it worked fine, and then I tried it on my bros laptop and it worked fine too and was able to copy 40gb of stuff to it. Strange :S
 
I would recommend seperate drives, a small one for Windows and program files, then another for games/music/videos.

For my storage though, i'm not sure. I will need to switch these between computers ( laptop, HTPC, main PC ). It needs to be fast though.
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Buy a NAS. No need to mess around moving it around, unplugging, replugging etc. I wouldn't trust data on a USB drive, I've lost data (copied files to it, safetly removed, plugged into another computer and the files have vanished)

See last item in sig.
 
Sorry to change the subject all together, squiffy how old is your SmartUPS? I had a 700VA unit and the battery died after 2 years and cost a hell of a lot to replace (APC wouldn't replace it either).
 
fobose said:
Sorry to change the subject all together, squiffy how old is your SmartUPS? I had a 700VA unit and the battery died after 2 years and cost a hell of a lot to replace (APC wouldn't replace it either).
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About 3 months old. Why didn't you just buy replacement lead acid batteries and fit yourself?
 
My friend bought a 3rd party battery and put it in his one and it caught on fire lol Kinda put me off, APC sold the "retail" battery seperate for £70 but I decided to just get a new UPS for it instead, got a backups 650 which is a lot lighter and smaller :)
 
I am also leaning towards the idea now. Especially since that annoying USB problem I had earlier. Although NAS would be quite slow at transfering stuff (10mb/s max?).
 
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