Enchantermon on 25/5/2009 at 17:20
Okay, here's the deal. I need to buy a new hard drive for my laptop. Thing is, I want to buy a full external drive so I can swap out my current hard drive and use it as a backup. I've been shopping around at Wal-Mart.com (I have a gift certificate that will make it cheaper than anywhere else I've seen) and have seen a few good-looking options. The only problem is that my current hard drive is a SATA, according to Belarc, and I haven't seen one website that tells me if the included hard drive is SATA or PATA. The question is: would I be safe simply buying one and hoping that it's SATA? I know SATA has been around for a while now, but I'm not sure how well PATA is being phased out. I don't want to buy something and be unpleasantly surprised when I crack open the case. Also, I know there are external hard drives with eSATA interfaces. Are they perhaps the only ones carrying SATA hard drives Any help is appreciated. :)
bikerdude on 25/5/2009 at 18:04
Quote Posted by Enchantermon
I need to buy a new hard drive for my laptop. Thing is, I want to buy a full external drive so I can swap out my current Sata hard drive and use it as a backup.
99% of external enclosrures support SATA hard drives, the actual problem is if like me you have a few IDE based drives. Where are you located, so i can find a few links for you..
Enchantermon on 25/5/2009 at 18:40
USA. Virginia, to be more specific.
By the way, I forgot to mention that I was specifically looking for drives that are USB powered, because I've already got too much cord clutter. :p
Thanks!
bikerdude on 25/5/2009 at 22:00
Quote Posted by Enchantermon
I forgot to mention that I was specifically looking for drives that are USB powered,
The actual term is bus-powered and regarding putting your old laptop hdd into an external enclosure there is some info you need to be aware of:
if you want to power your external 2.5" hdd with just 1 usb cable, then you need to be aware that not all hdd's will work - this is because on startup some drives pull more than than the USB port can provide (0.5A). I have several 25" USb hdd's a few of them require the use of 2 usb cables (1st for power, 2nd for data) or a combined cable that has a standard mini usb on one end and a power/usb connectors on the other (called a Y-cable)
So what I'll do is look for an enclosure that will come with a Y cable.
$10 cheap and cheerful - (
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817145752)
$25 USB and FireWire - (
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817729010)
Enchantermon on 26/5/2009 at 01:07
Quote Posted by Bikerdude
The actual term is bus-powered . . .
Okay, I wasn't aware of that, thanks.
Quote Posted by Bikerdude
. . . and regarding putting your old laptop hdd into an external enclosure there is some info you need to be aware of:
if you want to power your external 2.5" hdd with just 1 usb cable, then you need to be aware that not all hdd's will work - this is because on startup some drives pull more than than the USB port can provide (0.5A). I have several 25" USb hdd's a few of them require the use of 2 usb cables (1st for power, 2nd for data) or a combined cable that has a standard mini usb on one end and a power/usb connectors on the other (called a Y-cable)
I did come across that in my research, but I figured I could work that out afterwards.
Regarding the choices you linked to, I'd much rather go with the cheaper one (since I don't have Firewire), but it only mentions support for PATA (and my laptop's drive is SATA).
What about the actual drive, though (the new one that I need)? Is it cheaper to buy it separate from an enclosure? I was hoping for a 500 GB one, which I know can be expensive.
Enchantermon on 26/5/2009 at 16:53
Okay, cool, thanks.
