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Author Topic: USB Hard Drives  (Read 7417 times)

Gabriel

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USB Hard Drives
« on: April 13, 2007, 10:57:15 AM »
Hoi Chummers,

OK, here's the deal. I need to take a bunch of data off of my PC at the house and the office and I am thinking about just getting one of those external USB hard drives, but I don't really know anything about them at all. I found one on Overstock for about $120.00 that listed it's storage capacity as 250 GB. (http://www.overstock.com/?page=proframe&prod_id=2066207) Now that seems a bit low for that much storage space. So I was hoping someone vould fill me in on these things. Would I be buying basically a 250 GB flash drive? Or am I going to be getting something I can use as a subordinet PC plugged into either of my other PC's by the USB port?

I could REALLY use some help with this one. And please remember, I am not a computer nerd (just a gaming and painting nerd) so go a bit slim on the geekspeak, OK?

Gabriel

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kv

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Re:USB Hard Drives
« Reply #1 on: April 13, 2007, 11:46:44 AM »
Actually, the company Ruski worked for  (and one of my other friends still works for) sells this exact product. The company website is http://www.usmodular.com/, but he doesn't reccommend going there- the company is actually in the process of overhauling thier website.

He says:
"sure, currently flash isnt anywhere close to 250gb, so it's likely you're looking at a hard drive, which is different.  Basically flash memory has no moving parts, but a typical hard drive is what we call 'Rotating Media.'  It works much like a record player.  A plate spins in circles, and a needle reads it.... more or less.

"the pricing on overstock is realistic, and possibly even high.  You may want to shop around a bit more to be sure you're getting the best deal.  I'm looking at current market prices on my end, so its likely that they havent equalized into the retail market yet.    Try tigerdirect.com - buy.com - pcmall.com or newegg.com as well.

"for the most part, brand wont be of any consequence.  Everyone for the most part will be using the same 4 or 5 different Hard drive manufacturers, and they're all good.

"Be sure you look for USB only ones as well.  Adding firewire increases the cost, and I doubt you're a firewire user

"Now this drive will act much like a flash drive.  When you plug it in, it will show up in my computer and you can copy, and delete files on it just like a flash drive, but it's not really a stand-alone pc."

So there you have it.

  -kv
« Last Edit: April 13, 2007, 11:51:10 AM by Kid_Vid »
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Gabriel

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Re:USB Hard Drives
« Reply #2 on: April 13, 2007, 11:49:19 AM »
Thanks for the pricing info. I am curious, though about how these things function. Can I just use them as dumping grounds for data? Or do these things have a bunch of operating system crap all over them?

Gabriel
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kv

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Re:USB Hard Drives
« Reply #3 on: April 13, 2007, 11:53:19 AM »
Sorry, I was in the middle of editing my post to include that information when you posted.

He says they're more like usb drives- you plug them in, and can use the, but they're not thier own operating system or anything.

  -kv
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Gabriel

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Re:USB Hard Drives
« Reply #4 on: April 13, 2007, 11:57:48 AM »
Sweet! Thanks for the paydata. I will start checking these out soonest.

Gabriel
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kv

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Re:USB Hard Drives
« Reply #5 on: April 13, 2007, 12:36:07 PM »
My friend works for them, so if you decide to buy from his company (I'd recceommend shopping around first), let me know and I'll give you his salesman number or whatever so he can get credit for the sale.

  -kv
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Gabriel

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Re:USB Hard Drives
« Reply #6 on: April 13, 2007, 12:45:52 PM »
Null sheen.

Gabriel
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BornKrazi

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Re:USB Hard Drives
« Reply #7 on: April 13, 2007, 02:05:14 PM »
Yeah basically what KV said.  I used one for years crossing back and forth between different pc's.  Plug and play baby!
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Ingo Monk

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Re:USB Hard Drives
« Reply #8 on: April 13, 2007, 07:11:59 PM »
USB is old school, eSATA FTW!

;)
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Gabriel

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Re:USB Hard Drives
« Reply #9 on: April 16, 2007, 05:01:11 AM »
Ok, so what the hell is that???

Gabriel
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BornKrazi

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Re:USB Hard Drives
« Reply #10 on: April 16, 2007, 09:56:53 AM »
It's another type of USB hard drive.  I know a place where you can get a 400GB for $99.  In fact it was part of a debate.  The 750GB drive went for like $300-350 when you can just buy 2 400GB drives and save yourself $100-150 and still have an extra 50GB...
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Gabriel

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Re:USB Hard Drives
« Reply #11 on: April 16, 2007, 06:53:53 PM »
Well do tell, chummer.

Gabriel
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BornKrazi

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Re:USB Hard Drives
« Reply #12 on: April 17, 2007, 09:28:07 AM »
I cant' find the ones for only $99  but I found this one for $139.99 and its a 500GB.  Here's the link http://www.frys.com/product/5161356 I'm sure if you keep searching around you'll find cheap ones.  I mean there was like a $70 one that was like 150GB or something.  It just depends when they are tryin to get rid of them, and how's bought them before you get there!
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Ingo Monk

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Re:USB Hard Drives
« Reply #13 on: April 25, 2007, 07:24:08 PM »
eSATA stands for External Serial ATA.  It's built on SATA, the current standard for hard drive interface (if you open your PC and see a small red cable attached to your hard drive rather than the flat ribbon, that's SATA).  In actuality eSATA is exactly the same as SATA.  A motherboard manufacturer gets to put a fancy sticker on it's box and mark up the price a lot to add a SATA port to the I/O panel in the back.

In any case it's faster (because that's what technology does after all, just gets faster and faster)

Since I'm such a geek, I'll provide for you the data transfer rates:
USB480Mbps (burst)
Firewire 400400Mbps
Firewire 800800Mbps
SATA (first gen)1200Mbps
SATA (current gen)2400Mbps
SATA (next gen)6000Mbps


If you have a home network the best way to go is to get an external hard drive that supports ethernet (commonly referred to as NAS or Network Attached Storage).  That way you can access the hard drive from any PC on the network without physically moving the device.  It can get pretty kewl if you're roaming around the house with a wireless laptop, streaming MP3's from your network storage drive.  Max transfer rates on a NAS device would normally be 800 Mbps, unless you get one that supports gigabit ethernet (8000 Mbps).

By now your brain should be turned off.  Time for a beer ;)
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Tobias Andrion

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Re:USB Hard Drives
« Reply #14 on: April 25, 2007, 07:27:13 PM »
not quite turned off but malfunctoining at a level that i will have to repair later with sleep
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