External drive: Need recs.

tom p.

tom p.

Active member
Guys, I need to move 10GB or so of MP3s from my laptop's hard drive. I don't really know too much about these devices and the related jargon. I don't need a second hard drive. I just want a drive where I can store stuff (MP3s, JPEGs, etc.) and keep it in a closet when not in use.



Thanks.
 
Mike, thanks. Are those well-respected names? I'm not familiar with either.



Also, are these lil' pups powered via the USB?



:)
 
I know you specified that you wanted an external drive and maybe you have an older laptop that only has a CD burner, but have you thought about burning it onto DVD? 3 single layer blank DVD discs will be able to hold your 10 gb worth of pics and musics. Plus I would think the chances of your discs going bad within a few years time after being stored in a closet is less than that of a hard drive. If that hard drive doesn't boot in a few years time, you're screwed unless you send that in to do a data recovery (which will cost you more money than the external hard drive alone most likely).



If your laptop doesn't have a DVD burner, you could network your laptop to another desktop with a DVD burner. Then transfer the files to the desktop, and burn what you need archived.



It's a much cheaper alternative to do it this way when you're only looking to store 10 gb of data.
 
holy crap... you're living on a 10GB drive? I have 100GB in my macbook pro, 80 in an external case, and just had to pick up another 100 because i didn't have enough..



I just bought a maxtor 100GB external drive on clearance at Staples for 50 bucks... really great find I think... go look at clearance racks.
 
Frugle said:
holy crap... you're living on a 10GB drive? I have 100GB in my macbook pro, 80 in an external case, and just had to pick up another 100 because i didn't have enough..
Click to expand...



No, my drive is 40GB. I need to get 10GB++ worth of junk off the machine.



Black, I think my wife's laptop might be able to burn DVDs. I'll have to figure out how I might transfer from my machine to hers. thanks for the suggestion.
 
tom p. said:
No, my drive is 40GB. I need to get 10GB++ worth of junk off the machine.



Black, I think my wife's laptop might be able to burn DVDs. I'll have to figure out how I might transfer from my machine to hers. thanks for the suggestion.
Click to expand...



I've never tried this, but I believe you can connect to her computer by connecting the two laptops end to end via an ethernet cable. I believe this is an ad-hoc network, but computer experts feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.



Or if you have a wired or wireless router, you may create a network easily that way. In your control panel, just run "Network Setup Wizard" and follow the instructions.
 
well....



in order to connect computers, If you want to do it through eithernet, you will need a cross-over eithernet cable. can be bought or made.



To do it over wireless internet.. don't. To insanely slow to transfer 10GB of data.



To do it over firewire - I only know how to do this with apple computers (booting one computer as an external drive) so I can't help you there..



I think best bet would be to get an external drive... DVDs are a pain to keep up with...
 
Frugle said:
well....



in order to connect computers, If you want to do it through eithernet, you will need a cross-over eithernet cable. can be bought or made.



To do it over wireless internet.. don't. To insanely slow to transfer 10GB of data.



To do it over firewire - I only know how to do this with apple computers (booting one computer as an external drive) so I can't help you there..



I think best bet would be to get an external drive... DVDs are a pain to keep up with...
Click to expand...



Here's what I am working with:



Her machine does appear to have a writer. It's called Matsushita (Panasonic) UJDA765 DVD/CDRW. The machine has a program called Sonic RECORD NOW!



I am pretty certain I do have a cross over ethernet cable.



I'll need to buy some burnable DVDs.





Alternate: Perhaps I could connect both of the laptops, via ethernet, to our router and transfer the files that way.





Do I need to fool around with MS Print and File Sharing?





Thanks.
 
You can't burn DVD's on that machine. You can only burn CD's.

You had the right idea to begin with and that is to get an external HD. Look for Maxtor externals on clearance like someone above mentioned :) Newegg is a great online resource to buy from!
 
I would stay away from Maxtor externals. I went through 2 of them over a 3 yr period. They just don't last and I think that is true for most external drives. If you are using them to swap files this may not be a big deal, but if you are using them to store important files, it could be a very big deal.



If you are going to go external, stick with a brand like LACIE. They are pretty good, a lot of video editors use them to swap footage on. If you just need to transfer files from your laptop to another computer just get a 2-3gig pen drive and do it piece meal.
 
get an external USB 2.0 ENCLOSURE. seperately buy a name brand desktop HDD in the 20-40GB range (seagate, western digital, etc). (get both from newegg) install the HDD in the enclosure and make 2 partitions on it. backup your stuff on the first partition. (and the second partition if you want). make a backup copy (norton Ghost) of the HDD and burn that on a CD. store the CD for backup.



external HDD's are pretty reliable, they just are not that great for running 24/7 because they have poor cooling which kills HDD's
 
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