A quick question. I want to buy an external hard drive, my internal hard drive is 7200rpm do I have to buy an external hard drive with the same rpm or can I use a 5400rpm with it?

You can use a 5400rpm external HDD-it has nothing to with the speed or type of your internal hard drive. It will be slower than a similar 7200 RPM drive, though.

Thank you for answering that. I want a portable external hard drive and with the 7200rpm there is a limited amount to choose from not like the 5400rpm. So thanks again much appreciated.

Glad to help. I'm not sure where you sre looking, but there are a lot of 7200 RPM external drives to choose from. You might want to post here which 5400 RPM drives you were looking at and which 7200 RPM drives you were considering.

After installing Vista, discovered I was unable to use my external hardrive. No Vista drivers. Went onto the manufacturers site but looks like they have no intention of providing drivers. Suppose the answer is to buy a new Enclosure,more unnecessary expense!. edit:It was from NEC, not exactly an unknown manufacturer.

To be quite honest I dont really know which manuf. to go for, I see one then read reviews about it and find that people are faulting them. So any recommendations would be a help.

cherylrp If the drive will strictly be used in one location I suggest you get a 3.5" drive enclosure that requires an AC power hookup. These are more likely to function properly and they are usually of larger capacity and the faster speed. The USB cable powered units are usually 5400RPM because they oar assembled using portable computer drives (2.5"). Because these drive pull power from the USB port they are somewhat less dependable. Both connnect with the same USB cable type.