Best external hard drive?

Kidriot69 · 11-01-2009, 01:35 AM

Hey all, with Dragon Age almost here, and having to juggle what I want on my hard drive, I decided its time for an external hard drive. I dont know a lot about external hard drives, but I am wondering, what is the best one to invest in?

If it is possible, i'd like to put a good amount of my games on the external hard drive, but is it possible to do that? Like install a game to my external hard drive, plug in the external, and play it, running it from the external?

dandrools · 11-01-2009, 03:49 AM

If you had an eSATA external drive then I'd say it's doable. An external eSATA II has the same theoretical throughout capabilities of an internal SATA II drive (300MB/s), so it should work just fine.

The problem is that not many computers have a built in eSATA connector. If yours doesn't have one you can buy an eSATA controller card to pop into your computer to add an eSATA interface, like this one:

eSATA controller card

I'm not recommending that one, in fact it looks to have poor reviews. I just found one to show you what I'm talking about.

Dinthug · 11-01-2009, 07:35 AM

While on this topic: I have two external HDs from 5-6 years ago that both failed. I guess you aren't supposed to keep them connected all the time, or whatever, and both stopped working. Is it possible to still get the data off these HDS? I don't even care if they can't be repaired, I just want the information that's on them (lots of old photos, work from college, music, etc.). How much will it cost to have the data recovered if it is possible? Where is the best place to go?

Since I'm going to be getting a new desktop and laptop soon I doubt I'll ever need an external hard drive again, but if I do end up getting one, is the same thing going to happen if I constantly use it?

ToeMissile · 11-01-2009, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dinthug

While on this topic: I have two external HDs from 5-6 years ago that both failed. I guess you aren't supposed to keep them connected all the time, or whatever, and both stopped working. Is it possible to still get the data off these HDS? I don't even care if they can't be repaired, I just want the information that's on them (lots of old photos, work from college, music, etc.). How much will it cost to have the data recovered if it is possible? Where is the best place to go?

Since I'm going to be getting a new desktop and laptop soon I doubt I'll ever need an external hard drive again, but if I do end up getting one, is the same thing going to happen if I constantly use it?

I don't know too much on the subject, but I think most of the time stuff can be recovered, but the nature of the crash dictates the amount that can be grabbed, and how much it'll cost you. For instance, mechanical failure is pretty damn pricey to deal with, generally over $600 from what I understand.

seanwin · 11-07-2009, 08:40 PM

Your drives didnt fail, just the crappy electronics hooking them up in the case.
Get something like NewerTech USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter

Take the drive out of the casing and youll be set. Those usb drives notoriously overheat the components within the casing.

Dinthug · 11-08-2009, 08:20 AM

hmmm, so... sort of like This thing that Dell just sold me to recover the data from my 1st Gen XPS laptop (aka the $2700 paperweight) that doesn't even fit the hard drive for this computer?

Little derail here, but I'm irate about this laptop. Less irate considering that laptops nowadays cost 500-1k for a computer that is 4x as good as the laptop I'm talking about, but considering they should replace this piece of shit after about 30% of the customers that bought it complained of the same problems, and it doesn't work now because of those problems, and they actually have the nerve to sell me something else to salvage the important information I have on my drive because of their design flaw, I'm pretty fucking pissed off that they sold me the wrong piece of equipment to recover the information on this drive.

I would be pretty happy if I could at least use this for my other two external hard drives that failed on me before I return this to them.

Edit: I love you. No idea why it didn't occur to me to rip both these hard drives apart, but it looks like both of these drives will fit this contraption. Fingers crossed that they still work.

11-01-2009, 01:35 AM	#1 (permalink)
Kidriot69 Fresh Prince of Pwn Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Mountain View, CA Posts: 156 -13 Internets	Best external hard drive? Hey all, with Dragon Age almost here, and having to juggle what I want on my hard drive, I decided its time for an external hard drive. I dont know a lot about external hard drives, but I am wondering, what is the best one to invest in? If it is possible, i'd like to put a good amount of my games on the external hard drive, but is it possible to do that? Like install a game to my external hard drive, plug in the external, and play it, running it from the external?

11-07-2009, 08:40 PM	#5 (permalink)
seanwin It'll slide right in Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 223	Your drives didnt fail, just the crappy electronics hooking them up in the case. Get something like NewerTech USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter Take the drive out of the casing and youll be set. Those usb drives notoriously overheat the components within the casing. __________________ Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream of things that never were and say why not.

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11-01-2009, 03:49 AM	#2 (permalink)
dandrools Registered User Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 143 -1 Internets	If you had an eSATA external drive then I'd say it's doable. An external eSATA II has the same theoretical throughout capabilities of an internal SATA II drive (300MB/s), so it should work just fine. The problem is that not many computers have a built in eSATA connector. If yours doesn't have one you can buy an eSATA controller card to pop into your computer to add an eSATA interface, like this one: eSATA controller card I'm not recommending that one, in fact it looks to have poor reviews. I just found one to show you what I'm talking about.