Hi, I think I would like to get an external hard drive and would like the opinions of more expierienced users than myself. I say "I think" because from what I have researched, this will do what I want to accomplish. I have a 40gb C drive and a 40gb E drive now, but I want to store pictures and videos in one location and be able to access them just like an internal drive (ie a drive letter, and with the speed of an internal). Of course I would back it all up on CD but that is a bit inconvient to keep popping in disks to gain access. I am thinking along the line of a 100 or 150 gb drive, usb hookup, and portability is not nesessary. I have had good luck with WD drives so far so that is one of the brands I have looked at. Some questions are, am I on the right track with my idea? Does the drive respond to turning the computer on and off automatically?(is it reconized) Any comments, suggestions, recomendations, would be appreciated. Thanks Bluejay

I assume that you do not have a free slot to put the drive inside. That would be preferable. But you can attach a USB drive and it should work fine. The system will detect it on power up and there is not much difference in speed. Do yourself a favor BACKUP!

Your basic idea is sound. Keep in mind however that with a mechanical harddrive it isn't a matter of if it fails, but rather, when it fails. I have drives 12 years old still running and have had drives under warranty fail. You need to decide how much of a gamble you are willing to take with your data. I personnally have an 80GB in may main box and use a WD USB external 320GB to backup everything. I also burn images using Ghost every so often. My business files get immediately backed up to CD. If files are VERY impartant then off site storage is appropriate. This can be simply a second optical backup stored at a relative's house. I recommend you either partition the external or at the very least, use folders to sort the various files. You can then burn just the most important folders when necessary. Hope this helps. By the way, the thruput on firewire is better than USB2 but drives are harder to find and IF you do want to move the external USB is much more common. No external will run as fast as an internal but should do the job for you.

Excellent post by Othehill! Do yourself a favor BACKUP!

I have three Venus external enclosures--two 3.5 and the other 2.5 size with an 80G WD, a 250G Seagate, and a 40 or 60G Hitachi (can't remember). Work great and the 2.5 just plugs into the USB for power and everything. Drive fills up, just plug another drive into the enclosure. Gottem at newegg. Painless. Gotta love internet and credit cards and Fedex. Being a senior citizen, this stuff still amazes me. My $0.02

Hi, And thanks for the responses. Ham 30: I do believe I have an available slot,but I thought it would be more convienent to just plug in an ext drive. This way if my computer dies I can always attach to the new machine. Will an ext drive just show up as the next available drive letter? Is there anything about my system that I can check limiting the capacity of an internal drive that I could use, and are 3 internal drives too many? OtheHill: I did mention that I would backup everything to cd's, but would store files on ext drive for easier access to them, rather than trying to find the correct cd('s). This way I could just load the files I am working with at the time to the spare internal drive instead of cluttering it up with seldom used or obsolete items. My intent is storage only and not so much as for backup. I don't have much real important stuff on it,(not my main machine) so reformat and reinstall is no problem. My drives now are both WD 40gb caviar models @7200rpm. I was going to try to find a drive that operated at that speed too. I also agree. Excelent answer to my question. JimDZ: newegg is where I did some of my research on the ext drives. I have just started my search, so all suggestions are appreciated. Thanks again. Bluejay

I went through a phase where I thought external enclosures were the coolest thing in the world, so I got to play with a lot of different ones. Here's what I decided: Plastic enclosures just don't cut it, even when equipped with a fan. Plastic doesn't conduct heat well, and the small diameter, high rpm fans that tend to come in these enclosures don't move much air and don't last very long. All-aluminum construction is a definite plus for me, even (especially) passively cooled models--make sure the drive mounts directly onto metal. Do a little looking into the chipset used... USB compatibility has gotten way better in the last couple of years, but you still should buy an enclosure with well-regarded electronics. An On/Off switch on the enclosure is a must-have. I hated having to unplug the power cord to turn the thing off. High temps can quickly age a hard drive, and external enclosures tend to be toastier than the inside of a case with good airflow. Buy a drive that doesn't run too hot, and it will last longer. As a side note, ever consider eSATA? "If it ain't broke, upgrade anyway."