External hard drive - what do I need to know?

Question

I want to buy an external hard drive for my boyfriend so he can store his music & photos, but I am a bit clueless where to start. He has a Dell Dimension PC with Windows XP
What do I need to look for?? Any advice and tips appreciated
I am in the UK

Answer 1

get an external Hd, the biggest that you can afford,It will connect via USB, you will get a driver for it, but windows will recognise it, go for an established name e.g. Maxor or Seagate, as if its a cheepie then look out for Hd failours

Answer 2

Your external hard drive should show as an icon on your screen. Simply drag and drop everything you want on that drive. If you want to clear space on your machine's hard drive then don't forget to delete whatever you move onto the Lacie once you have checked that it has transferred successfully. If you want to start putting stuff directly on the Lacie then just specify it as the destination whenever you save something. You have a massive amount of capacity as it stands and I am unsure why you want to move stuff onto the Lacie, unless it is for reasons of backup, which is obviously a good idea. It's a shame you are not on a Mac, as you would then have, on Leopard, the fabulous Time Machine facility which will mean never losing anything ever again. If you don't think you are much good at computers make your next one a Mac - they are simpler, smarter, and cooler than a PC, and much easier to use. Vista is where Mac was about ten years ago.

Answer 3

You can buy them complete with hard drive or just the case, if you already have a hard drive.



The only thing to know is that the external cases can have a size limit. Some older ones can only work with smaller hard drives.



Ebay has some good deals on hard drive cases and complete external hard drives.



They're the best way to archive, since cds and dvds tend to blink out after a while.

Answer 4

You mainly need to know what port options he has to connect an external storage device, SCSI, Firewire, USB etc. Some external drives have multiple connection options, but I think most will have only one.



So make sure he can connect a USB 2.0 device for example before you buy him one. Also a smaller capacity drive that comes with good software is better, in my opinion than a (slightly) larger one without.

Answer 5

There's nothing terribly hard with external hard drives. I have a LaCie 160GB External hard drive, and it runs excellently. No software, no bugs, no problems. I would find something like that. Assuming he has a USB port, almost any external drive will do. I would check to see how much space he needs. Wouldn't want to buy a 500GB drive when you only use about 5GB of it :)



Good luck!

Answer 6

Check the rpm speed --- the faster it spins --- the faster you can call up things on it . If it"s 7200 rpm -- that"s good.

Some "Gamers" will use hard drives rated at 10,000 rpm --- but these cost a lot more ,and not what you need for your use.

Using the USB port will be a little slower anyway --depending on your transfer speed (bus bar).

Another way to do this would be to buy another regular hard drive and install it inside your computer .

You have to remove the side cover-- and there should be a slot for it to slide in--- next to the other H.D.

The 40 wire pin cable running to the primary H.D. may have another connection hookup for another H.D. If not ---it"s very easy to take the old cable out and install one with the double hookup.

Then you need to install the power wire hookup --- the same power wire feeding the primary H.D. should also have a double connector for this purpose.

On the back --end of the H.D. ,next to the 40 wire cable hookup , and the power hookup ---you will see a roll of pins ---

these are the jumper pins that you jump across using a little jumper. Look on the H.D. for a picture for the settings. You will set the jumper pin to Slave on this second H.D.

At this time ---- you will have to check the jumper settings also on your primary H.D. ---- most likely you will need to change the jumper pin setting to : Master/with Slave present.

I have 2 computer systems and both are setup in this way---- I download to the Master, or I can direct the downloads to go to the slave drive.This keeps the Master H.D. uncluttered , and in fine shape with proper housekeeping.

Also ---if you fill up the Slave --- it"s not a complicated job really--- to change it out with a fresh one.

My H.D."s are setup outside the computer case -- in a neat little invention of mine. It"s sorta like a external H.D., but with this I can very quickly(less than a min.)change out any one of the two H.D. I can change out the Master H.D. with another one that has been "programmed, and mated" to this computer and can be back up and running again in just mins.--- same with my other computer. I can even swap the Slaves back and forth between computers---- or use my lan setup to transfer info between the computers, but this part gets deeper in the initial work to set it up with the router,ip , etc.

Ok-----enough of this , ----but it does open your thoughts up to another way ---even if you use it or not.

Have a nice day there in the UK.

+++Spock+++

Answer 7

I have used Freecom external drives for years. You can pick them up on Amazon. The bigger they are the more expensive, obviously. Western Digital & Seagate are other manufacturers you can trust. Just use Google to look for any or all of these and choose the one that fits in best with your budget.

Answer 8

Basically you'll want a USB External Hard drive. Theres not much more to it. The price will vary depending on size and make. Good luck with your purchase :) Any further questions email me

Answer 9

Keep it simple, look for a USB 2.0 portable disk. You will not need a power supply as it will draw it's power from the USB connection sizes range from small to large 40GB - 160 GB or more. Prices vary, my 160 GB was $99 US

Answer 10

K all an External HDD is, is just a hard drive with a case around it and ventilation ports, and can be easily plugged into your USB port. It needs an extra AC outlet to power it usually. I would get a Western Digital MY BOOK, price depends on how much space you need. It is just plugging it into your USB ports, and powering up your comp, if you constantly have it plugged in to your comp it will turn on and off with your comp.

Nothing to worry about, just don't drop it.

Answer 11

It just needs to have a USB 2.0 interface and lots of space. Get one with 100's of gigabytes...depending on what you want to spend. Also...an on/off switch would be helpful, rather than leaving it running all the time.

Answer 12

yes he can also store music and pictures in the external hard drive

Answer 13

Look for the size of the hard drive probably in the something GB. Look for the specs on the box. 99% chance the one you buy will be fine with his xp computer.

Answer 14

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=414&name=External-Hard-Drives



This link should give you an idea of what you are looking for but I'm not sure they ship to UK . At least it will give you some ideas and you can locate what you want over on your side of the pond.

.

I subsequently checked on newegg:



Newegg.com does not currently ship internationally; we only deliver to locations within the United States and to Puerto Rico.



But at least you can get some ideas

Answer 15

Get one that's 100 gig USB. Works great. Just plug it in. I have a Dell too.

Answer 16

just get the biggest capacity one that you can afford, thats all you need to know. Most drives today are USB, plug and play, he won't have any problem.

Answer 17

most are USB 2... it's straight forward.. you just plug em into the usb port..



i'd go with known brands.. e.g. maxtor or seagate..



as for buying it, look on here... might be cheaper than certain shops >



http://www.ebuyer.com/cat/Hard-Drives/subcat/External-Desktop-Drives

Answer 18

there normally plug and play so just buy one plug it in and it will come up with a box go down to open in windows explore and copy his files and paste them in

Answer 19

visiting bellow link may give you more ideas

http://www.wikihow.com/Build-an-External-Hard-Drive

Answer 20

just buy a usb thumbdrive its cheaper

Answer 21

well you need to know the software and thinks such as that but mostly that