Are External Hard drives good?

[Sketch]

I'm thinking of getting an external harddrive. Not too sure if they act just like a normal hard drive. Or do they take way longer to transfer? And can you run programs off them?

Anyone able to help? Thanks in advance.

[NoUseFrAName]

depends which one you get.
My old roomie had one....80gig usb2 that he could run stuff from no problem. I think it was Maxtor or something.

-Rob

[mogando25]

Yeah I have an 80 gigabyte external hard drive, ACOM DATA. It's a beautiful thing. You can run your regular programs off of it. For me it is USB 2.0 and firewire enable. The transfer rate is pretty fast, I think it is a 5400 rpm.

In my opinion, the external is good for backing up stuff like videos or files that are large. I find it annoying that if I have my headphones plugged in it aplifies the spinning sound. I also don't have it on until I need to back up stuff. But it is great for sharing large files with friends and stuff. All you have to do is bring the darn thing to their place hook up a quick USB and transfer the file.

My suggestion see what you want to use it for. They're pretty good for archival (for me at least) because usually my main hard drive gets infected but my important files are still safe. It runs programs fine, and you can get external drives that are 7200 rpm nowadays.

[Neil]

I think external drives are essential.

Not only can you backup to them and if your computer crashes you have accessible info but you can also move it between computers like a giant floppy disk.

They tend to be fast and reliable nowadays. What I look for personally is one that is both firewire and usb2.0 capable so i can move to basically any computer. You can also get ones that are just usb or firewire if you just plan to use them at home and save some money.

Good brands include Lacie, Maxtor, and Western Digital has a couple good models.

[Dan Milligan]

Oh yeah,

I run 2 internal and 2 external. 1 internal and 1 external are mirrored for data and the other 2 have exact copies of my OS. If my machine were to suddenly crap out, i can remove the 2 externals. One with all my data and the other with my operating system.

peace
dan

[Red_Rook]

Oh yeah,

I run 2 internal and 2 external. 1 internal and 1 external are mirrored for data and the other 2 have exact copies of my OS. If my machine were to suddenly crap out, i can remove the 2 externals. One with all my data and the other with my operating system.

peace
dan

holly shit dan, your really set up incase of emergency... i should do that. :]

If your gunna get one, i suggest a LaCie firewire i have one and its really fast and has never crapped out on me. There are smaller ones they make to that are prcticaly indistructable. Like apparently you cna poor water on em n stuff. (id be scared to try)

[April]

They're great for shifting lots of files around when you can't fit it all on your internal HD.

Although I just had a Buslink ext HD die on me, which is NO fun...! I'm wondering if I should spend the money to have someone try and retrieve the data...
:(

I still bought another so I can easily copy and store files.

For more permanent and safe storage, however, cds and dvds are still recommended. For having an easy backup or temporary storage and just more HD space, the external is fine.

[Sketch]

Thanks for all the input guys. Helped me a lot.
Dan... that sounds like a good idea. Maybe one day if I do some freelance.

[R Brown]

I just went to best buy and saw an internal 80g for 49 bucks..