# External hard drive question



## Guest (Aug 8, 2009)

It took months of doing surveys and clicking MyPoints emails but I finally accumulated $100 in Amazon GC's. I had to use $28 and change for a modem. That leaves $71 and change for an external hard drive, which I'm in desperate need of. (I may have to add a couple dollars to it).

I found this one with glowing reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeA...f=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1249744184&sr=1-17

But one of the reviews said this:


> The downside to using the Seagate dock (and this is why I give this setup 4 stars, not 5) is that, for reasons I don't comprehend, it takes up TWO USB ports on your computer. Those have to be powered ports, so you can't use a non-powered USB hub (at least that doesn't work with my one-year-old iMac and my el-cheapo hub -- your mileage may vary). The alternative is buying a powered hub, OR just not using the dock, instead connecting the drive directly to a single USB port on the computer with the supplied cable.


What does that mean? Will I have a problem connecting it?

I have WinXP on a Dell Dimension DE051. There are USB hubs on front and back of the tower but how do I know if they're powered?


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

Any ports on a computer are powered ports.

Back when USB came out, it was intended to largely be a connection medium for 'HID's (human interface devices). Once they realized it held huge potential for other stuff, it took off.

However, whereas a keyboard requires minimal voltage, other things such as hard drives require more voltage. Sometimes the USB bus voltage (+5v) isn't sufficient by itself; so external devices need more power. That's why almost all large external hard drives, and most small ones, require a power plug as well. It's also why a USB hub usually needs its own power plug - but those are easy to find.

Anyways, IMHO (my professional opinion) any Western Digital OR Seagate drive is fine. Here's a Western Digital drive that's a bit more expensive, but requires only one port.

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1249749559&sr=1-4


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

ladycat said:


> I have WinXP on a Dell Dimension DE051. There are USB hubs on front and back of the tower but how do I know if they're powered?


If they're USB 2.0 they have the power you need. Any computer made after 2002 has USB 2.0 so you should be fine. The older type, USB 1.1, can't put out enough power for an external drive.

Unless you really need the portability of a 2.5" drive, you'll get more space for less money with a 3.5" drive.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

Good catch; I'm fuzzyheaded and wasn't thinking along those lines.

The Dell Dimension DE051 has the same motherboard as the Dimension 1100 (and might be the same), and that has USB 2.0 ports.

This being said, I took it for granted that you did want portability; if you don't care, I would agree with BWM7.


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## Guest (Aug 8, 2009)

How does this one look to you experts?

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1249767862&sr=1-7


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## redwall (Mar 10, 2007)

it works great i have even droped mine and it still works


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

Good drive.  It'll require a USB port and power, but that's pretty obvious for a 3.5" based drive.


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## lharvey (Jul 1, 2003)

I have two of those WD drives myself and I have a few customers that have them that they back up their servers data too as well

So far so good. Mine are both about a year old or so.

Lee


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## Guest (Aug 13, 2009)

I got this drive 3 days after ordering (I LOVE Amazon free shipping!!). Anyhow, I wanted to read some more about it before hooking it up since I never had an external hard drive and I want to know what I'm doing (or some fascimile thereof).

Here are excerpts from a couple reviews on Tiger Direct:


> Worked out of the box. Only problem is that it is FAT32 and not NTFS format. You can't copy files larger than 4GB with FAT32, so format it to NTFS before you store files on it.





> I bought this drive about 2 years ago and never had any problems with it. Changed from FAT32 to NTFS and it's working great.





> Drive comes to you formatted for FAT32 files. Windows back up doesn't use FAT32 format. It requires NTSF format.


I *think* my pc is FAT32 (how do I find out for sure?).

I assume I need to format the external to NTFS? How do I do that? Will the option be on the screen when I plug it in?

If the external is NTFS and the internal is FAT32 would that cause any problems?


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## Guest (Aug 14, 2009)

Help, please?


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

ladycat said:


> I assume I need to format the external to NTFS?


You only need NTFS if you'll want to put files on it that are larger than 4GB, which is FAT32's file size limit.



> If the external is NTFS and the internal is FAT32 would that cause any problems?


No problem.

Reading some of the user comments on Amazon's page, it looks like there's an easy way to change it to NTFS that's either a Windows utility or comes with the drive. But one of the Windows guys will have to help you with that, and the other Windows-specific question.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

In short:

NTFS is much more secure, providing for file quotas, permissions, etc. It also is more tolerant of faults. It ALSO does dynamic cluster remapping - where the disk can say "Oh, that sector's bad" and simply avoid it in the future.

BWM is right about the file size limit; however, considering the advantages you get with NTFS, I personally would format it to FAT32. About the ONLY time I would go with FAT32 is if you are sharing the disk between multiple OS's. For instance, I have an external hard drive that is hooked up to my Mac Mini...which ALSO has Vista loaded on it. Therefore, I have it formatted to FAT32.

However, as soon as the Mac OS can support file reading/writing to/from NTFS natively (which is coming with their release of Snow Leopard in October) it'll get switched back to NTFS.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

ladycat said:


> Here are excerpts from a couple reviews on Tiger Direct: I *think* my pc is FAT32 (how do I find out for sure?).


Double-click on your My Computer icon, then right-click on the C: drive and select Properties. It will tell you what kind of file system you have right above the pie chart.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

Kung said:


> However, as soon as the Mac OS can support file reading/writing to/from NTFS natively (which is coming with their release of Snow Leopard in October) it'll get switched back to NTFS.


Wow, Macs can't do that yet? Linux has had NTFS read/write support for years. :bash:


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Wouldnt make sense on a windows only system, but since I only use windows to run couple programs offline, I found a free little utility that lets XP read and write to native linux partitions, so only windows partition I need is the small one XP is installed on. Works great, never have had any problem with it.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

backwoodsman7 said:


> Wow, Macs can't do that yet? Linux has had NTFS read/write support for years. :bash:


Depends upon how you look at it. They do have read support; and 3rd party, they do. But you have to remember that Microsoft and Apple look at each other as competitors, whereas Linux is 'on the fringe.' So it wasn't in their interest to do so.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

Kung said:


> However, as soon as the Mac OS can support file reading/writing to/from NTFS natively *(which is coming with their release of Snow Leopard in October)* it'll get switched back to NTFS.


 IT MAY even come out at the end of This Month Aug~!


> According to rumors, the release of Mac OS X 10.6, Apple's operating system also known as Snow Leopard, might arrive a bit early. Though Apple announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June that Snow Leopard would hit stores in September, tech blogs became overly excited when it was whispered that it *might be ready to debut on or about August 28*.


http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10310131-37.html?tag=mncol;mlt_related
And you bet I will get the upgrade for this IMac.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

Really? I'll gladly upgrade then.


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