topic Re: External HDD in PCs & Accessories

External HDD

willy123 — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 16:54:47 GMT

Hi guys, I was thinking about getting an external HDD as I think my Vaio lacks space, and s only 4200rpm, which isn't great for gaming. If I get a 7200rpm external HDD and connect it through USB it will be restricted by the 400kb/s or whatever it is, so I was wondering if I would actually experience any increase in speed between a 4200 internal and a 7200 external. Thanks

Re: External HDD

itbroker — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 17:06:08 GMT

Yes.

Take a look at :

http://www.lacie.com/uk/

Re: External HDD

willy123 — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 17:23:31 GMT

Hi, thanks for the link but I saw one in Dixons that was 7200rpm and 80gb for less.

Could anyone tell me what the increase in speed will be or if it will be very noticable. Thanks

Re: External HDD

seb21__ — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 21:11:38 GMT

I thought USB2.0 has 480 kBit/s.

That are 60MB/s. That is only theoratical. And it isn't much more than that what your build in harddisc is able to shift. The speed difference wouldn't be really big. But it's the cheapest way for more space and very handy for a complete drive image.

Re: External HDD

Ves007 — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 22:31:07 GMT

You can better get a Maxtor

Re: External HDD

kee-lo_ — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 00:05:14 GMT

Yes agreed
This is a good hard disk

Re: External HDD

VAIOFAN — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 00:18:20 GMT

Im looking for one as well lol.

summer of HDD.

Re: External HDD

willy123 — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 10:26:44 GMT

Looks good, reasonable too but I think I'm gonna get somethinga bit smaller. Maybe 80 or 100gb. Appart from the obvious (rpm and capacity), what else should I be looking for in a hard drive? Does anyone know for definate whether a 7200 external will or wont be faster than a 4200 internal? Thanks

Re: External HDD

microbat — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 11:12:47 GMT

what about this external hard drive. Freecom 160GB Classic Hard Drive
url=http://www.blankdiscshop.co.uk/acatalog/pccomp.html]svp - external hard drive[/url] .
good price to and they are quick on posting.
I use svp a lot they are first class.[

Re: External HDD

kee-lo_ — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 18:20:02 GMT

The 7200RPM is perfect for video editing.
You should consider getting both firewire and USB2 so you can use it on many PCs and on data access points for networks

Re: External HDD

GBS — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 19:30:16 GMT

This one is worth looking at. I've been planning on buying it for a while, but I keep buying other more urgent gadgets....:smileylaugh:

Mobile HD

Re: External HDD

hazymat — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 19:41:02 GMT

I thought USB2.0 has 480 kBit/s.

Um... try 480 MBits per sec - big difference

No - the USB2.0 standard supports about 48 times what a very good external hard disk can sustain data transfer at, so seriously - don't worry about USB2.0.

My advice - get a Lacie drive from Ebuyer. Forget Dixons - you will always pay about 20 or 30 quid more than you should for something like this. And Lacie of course make the best external hard drives money can buy.

Get a 250Gb Lacie d2 extreme for 130 quid - an absolute steal considering its performance and the fact it supports firewire 400, firewire 800, and usb2 (or 1 if you like).

Re: External HDD

GBS — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 20:01:48 GMT

Now to try to answer the real question:

Which will be faster? This depends on the new hard drive.

The speed of a HD is measured in 3 ways:
1) Interface (external) transfer rate - usually 100MBps for most drives today.
2) Media (internal) transfer rate - see below.
3) Average access time.

The most important rate is the Media (internal) transfer rate as this is the limiting process.

To determine the media transfer rate (MBps) you need to know the "true sector per track (SPT)" and the rotational speed. Use the formula below:

MBps=SPT x 512bytes x RPM/60sec/1000000bytes

eg: Hitachi Travelstar: 7200rpm and an average of 540 SPT

540 x 512 x (7200/60)/1000000 = 33.18MBps.

Now this is the average transfer rate, it is faster in the outer cylinders and slower in the inner cylinders. For this HD the Max is 44.24 and the min is 22.12MBps.

HTH.

Edit: Just to clarify the speed of USB 2.0 = 480Mbps (small b, very very important) = 60MBps (big B, very very important). So as Seb said, USB 2.0 has a max of 60MBps.

Firewire:
IEEE 1394b = 100MBps
IEEE 1394a = 50MBps

Now remember the size of the B's really does matter....:smileylaugh:

Re: External HDD

VAIOFAN — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 20:28:47 GMT

Now to try to answer the real question:

Which will be faster? This depends on the new hard drive.
 
The speed of a HD is measured in 3 ways:
1) Interface (external) transfer rate - usually 100MBps for most drives today.
2) Media (internal) transfer rate - see below.
3) Average access time.

The most important rate is the Media (internal) transfer rate as this is the limiting process.

To determine the media transfer rate (MBps) you need to know the "true sector per track (SPT)" and the rotational speed. Use the formula below:

MBps=SPT x 512bytes x RPM/60sec/1000000bytes

eg: Hitachi Travelstar: 7200rpm and an average of 540 SPT

540 x 512 x (7200/60)/1000000 = 33.18MBps.

Now this is the average transfer rate, it is faster in the outer cylinders and slower in the inner cylinders. For this HD the Max is 44.24 and the min is 22.12MBps.

HTH.

Edit: Just to clarify the speed of USB 2.0 = 480Mbps (small b, very very important) = 60MBps (big B, very very important). So as Seb said,   USB 2.0 has a max of 60MBps.

Firewire:
IEEE 1394b = 100MBps
IEEE 1394a = 50MBps

Now remember the size of the B's really does matter....:smileylaugh:

You no what that imformation is excerllent for my couson. Because he is Upgrading some of the Hardware in his computer and he wants more imformation.

Paul

Re: External HDD

seb21__ — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 20:53:54 GMT

One Point is the energy consumption. Some VAIOs have problems with USB-powered drives. An own power supply would be a nice feature.

Re: External HDD

rich912 — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 20:58:58 GMT

Excellent explanation GBS!

Re: External HDD

VAIOFAN — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 21:02:31 GMT

i new it, becasue i got an wireless mouse and a stand witch is a chargger that plugs in to my USB 2.0 port on my RS and i put it on charge for the night got up the next morning and it failed to charge.

it goes on and off!

I wounder why?????

Weird.:smileyconfused:

Re: External HDD

seb21__ — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 21:07:14 GMT

I wounder why?????

Because your VAIO was complete off?:smileyconfused:

Re: External HDD

VAIOFAN — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 21:16:00 GMT

No my computer "VAIO" is always on 24/7 as been for 6months+
Becasue i got told from a numbers of people to keep your computer on becasue it keeps the Hard discs from wearing out.

And i dont have any screensavers, i made sure that i put the option DO NOT SWITCH hard disc and moniter(LCD) off on stand-by. (thats anther thing my ATI graphics card dosnt like the computer beening on Stand-by, ather when the computer as been on stand-by for a period of time, i come back to the computer and continuing what i was runing (appicating) on the system "The computer just switches off and reboots. Ather when the windows has started up i get a pop error message box saying the corse of this majer shut down was the ATI.

I rang up ATI to comfirm what happened they havent got a clow they ask me to run some program to check my Specifications and hardware to see if any error appered, witch the computer past the hardware test and drivers.

so any way, i got my AOL broadband connect to my USB port and the power from my VAIO "USB port" runs my ADSL modem and i get a little pop up on the screen saying "lost DSL connection" and i looked at the modem and the light "power LED" is not on. This only happens once in the blue moon. But the mouse chagger always been playing up.

Like i say again its werid.
Paul

Re: External HDD

rich912 — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 21:25:48 GMT

Becasue i got told from a numbers of people to keep your computer on becasue it keeps the Hard discs from wearing out.

Who the hell advised you to do this Paul? Have you considered that other components have a limited life span due to use?