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08-11-2009, 01:02 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: PA. | | | External hardrives and laptops?
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I have an extensive amount of music and games on my laptop. I'm looking at external harddrives when I remeber awhile back my buddy said you can't run an external harddrive with a laptop because it's not programmed for three drives. Is this true? Anyone have experience with this? ANyone have a suggestions on a good hard drive or one to stay away from? My built in one holds 130 gigs and I'm down to 69.3 gigs free. |
08-11-2009, 01:04 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: PA. | | | I have a compaq presario CQ50 if that helps. |
08-11-2009, 01:11 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Rice Lake, WI | | | I have 2 external HD's hooked up to my laptop and everything works just peachy. One is for back-up and the other for media files.
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08-11-2009, 01:15 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Los Angeles | | Quote:
Originally Posted by WookieeForLife  ...my buddy said you can't run an external harddrive with a laptop because it's not programmed for three drives. | USB connected hard drives will run an any pc, laptop or otherwise that have an open port.
Suggestion: when anyone passes along information to you, ask them what their source is. If they don't have one, (or even if they do), there's no downside to doing your own research. |
08-11-2009, 01:18 PM
|  | OVNIFX
EXAR pedals rep for North & Central America | | Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: PDX, OR | | Agreed. Your buddy has no clue.  I have two external drives connected to my laptop. |
08-11-2009, 01:20 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: PA. | | | What brands because I'm looking into them. |
08-11-2009, 01:20 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Fredericksburg, Virginia | | | 1. get a hard drive case (form newegg or others)
2. fill it with as many hard drives as it will hold in any size.
3. set it up to run as 1 drive
4. ????
5. PROFIT.
also, you will have them all in one place with less wasted space. and it's cheaper (sic) than a comparative model of the same price, although a bit of work.
You can also daisy chain USB and Firewire drives.
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Returned in a limited capacity due to noise
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08-11-2009, 01:30 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: PA. | | | |
08-11-2009, 02:28 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: NYC/LI | | For $30 more, I would get something with 1TB of space. You won't have to buy a new HD anytime soon, and they can be had moderately cheap these days. Check out www.newegg.com
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Shawty got low, low, low, low, low, low low.
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08-11-2009, 02:31 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: PA. | | | I started recording so the 1TB of space would come in handy. |
08-11-2009, 02:58 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Newark, NJ | | | Go to newegg.com for a good deal on any computer parts...
I really like the Western Digital Passport Drives, they are small (the size of a passport), mine is 400G and I got it for < $100 and they don't require external power, just the USB cable (which makes a huge difference in for portability and versatility) |
08-11-2009, 04:54 PM
| | | I use one of THESE because it seems I always have extra unused drives laying around. It allows you to connect any SATA or IDE drive to your USB port. Not as fast as some other options, but inexpensive.  |
08-11-2009, 05:09 PM
| | | Quote:
Originally Posted by WookieeForLife I have an extensive amount of music and games on my laptop. I'm looking at external harddrives when I remeber awhile back my buddy said you can't run an external harddrive with a laptop because it's not programmed for three drives. Is this true? Anyone have experience with this? ANyone have a suggestions on a good hard drive or one to stay away from? My built in one holds 130 gigs and I'm down to 69.3 gigs free. | Thats bunk, the number of recognizable drives isn't in the hardware, its in the OS. I run a number of external USB drives off my laptop, usually only one at a time or sometimes an external DVD Burner and a HD. What you want to watch out for is whether or not the external HD is powered off the USB bus or has (at least an option for) an external power supply. As far as size, get what you can afford. I have had a hard time lately with the Buffalos, have had two die inside the first year. One killed a drive and one killed the internal (to the Buffalo) controler.
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I am an agent of the devil, but my duties are largely ceremonial.
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08-11-2009, 05:49 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Eh? | | You don't need a new laptop, but an additional buddy would certainly help. 
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Originally Posted by tom once dead Also to prove my Australianism, I've been stung by an irukandji jellyfish before, while snorkelling at an island looking at stingrays. | |
08-11-2009, 05:55 PM
|  | Cogito Ergo Idiot | | Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: SF Bay Area, CA | | | I've always been partial to Seagate or Hitachi (formerly IBM) drives. Fujitsu third. Western Dig last. That's all subjective, of course. As has been stated, any USB drive will work with your laptop.
Be careful joining drives (in the old days, us IT nerds called this "striping") in a single enclosure. If/when one fails, you lose everything. Terabytes are too cheap these days to worry about setting up an array.
Anyway, FWIW, I have two external drives. one is small (2.5" laptop drive inside the enclosure) and I keep it with me everywhere I take my laptop. The other one is bigger (with a traditional 3.5" 1.5TB drive) and it stays at home. For the most part, they're redunandant...whatever is on one is on the other, as long as I remember to sync. That way I've got a backup of just about everything. |
08-11-2009, 06:18 PM
|  | No Longer Works a Day Job | | Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: USA | | | I use a Seagate 1TB drive with my Laptop. I got it for around $100 from Best Buy. I like it. I had a WD 250 gig that died...it just started freezing up more & more. I noticed it because my iTunes library file kept corrupting.
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08-12-2009, 06:45 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Santa Cruz CA | | | +1 seagate. i have two mass storage ones and a smaller/faster western digital. both are fine brands, but i would suggest seagate for some reason.
newegg.com has been mentioned. tigerdirect.com has not. those (and sometimes ebay) are where i go for computer stuff.
i have almost no information regarding scratch discs, but i know they run at a higher rpm than a storage drive (or a laptop hdd i think). ive never needed one, but if you plan to work off your new hdd (video/audio) i would look into that. again, never needed one, so i have no clue about brands or specs. |
08-12-2009, 08:24 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Seweracuse, NY | | Quote:
Originally Posted by WookieeForLife | I have this drive, and I HATE this drive. Don't do it. Don't. It has a push button power switch that gives no positive feedback in any way. But this is ok, because the power button does nothing, anyway. Half the time the drive won't mount with either PC or Mac, no matter whether you use Firewire or USB. When will it or won't it work? Who knows...its completely random!
DON'T do it.
Also 500g isn't that much space. 1TB is not that much more and much better. I have since purchased: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822216055
and used it for a year without a problem. And it has a real switch on it. 
__________________ fEARful: for those who want something better: http://greenboy.us/fEARful/ For Sale (locally only): Bergantino HT115 with Cover: $500.00. PM me about it.
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