Help Needed, Buy External Case For Laptop Harddrive

[aussiebebe]

I'm not a Luddite, but I do actually miss the thrill of picking up developed photos from a store and finding out which ones were good and which were blurry, out-of-focus wastes. Now with digital cameras, only the good get developed, and stored. This is handy, but one day when my laptop crashes - and it will - all my photos will be lost.

I bought a larger hard drive for my laptop, and kept the smaller old one.

Would anyone kindly help a tech-retard like myself in choosing an external enclosure for this laptop drive?

Yes, I know I should have just purchased an external drive to begin with, but that I didn't just proves I'm a retard.

So the shops sell different cases at different prices 250baht - 590baht. I get it, you get what you pay for, but: Q: I wanted to know how the higher quality case and chip affects things? Does it affect the transfer rate or the quality of the images/data stored? or both or neither? Thanks if anyone can help.

[thaimite]

I have bought many of these cases. and have found no real difference in any of them.

The obvious first thing to check is that the case supports the correct hard disk interface (SATA or IDE)

Older cases seemed to draw more power from the USB supply and did not work in all circumstances, but since USB 2.0 became more common with its higher power output I have not seen this issue.

I do not think you will see any USB 1.0 interface cases, but obviously avoid those because of the much slower speed.

On other thing to check if you are using a higher capacity disk, is the ability fo the case to dissipate heat so as you do not cook the disk.

[Crossy]

Yup ^^^ piece of cake. Take the drive with you if you're not sure if it's IDE or SATA.

One issue a number of posters have had (myself included) is that if your PC is set up to boot from an external USB drive (in the BIOS) then starting your machine with the external plugged in may give you a file not found error (remember this drive used to be bootable). Either don't start with the drive plugged in or disable USB boot in the BIOS.

[Beggar]

Look that you get a USB cable with two connections on the one side and one connection on the other. Some HDs need a lot of power and so they consume the power of two USB ports. Otherwise they will not work.

After you buy it you should test the interface. Some enclosures create errors especially with big files. Those errors are very small changes in the data structure so with photos hard to realize.

Best is to take for instance an Acronis Backup and copy it to the external HD. Then check with Acronis if the backup is correct. Or use an other tool. For instance freeware KillCopy and switch on there the copy verification:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System.../KillCopy.shtml

I had this problem with 2 out of 5 enclosures. But only with big files. It had nothing to do with the computer or the OS. It happened with my desktops and with my notebook.

The data transfer rate depends on the connection USB2 or FireWire or eSATA/SATA. Mostly you will end up with USB2. This will limit your max transfer rate to about 30 MB/sec.

[aussiebebe]

Thanks for the replies all of you. I bought a 2.5" SATA external case and everything works fine. The drive was running XP - is this OS saved onto the drive?

The total size is 80GB and it was partitioned into 2; one 19.9GB and on 54.9GB.

I want to use this drive to create a backup for Windows 7, if I delete everything, how do I do this? a format? will the partitions dissapear? windows? Sorry for the questions but I haven't done this before.

Thanks.

[BuckBee]

Thanks for the replies all of you. I bought a 2.5" SATA external case and everything works fine. The drive was running XP - is this OS saved onto the drive?

The total size is 80GB and it was partitioned into 2; one 19.9GB and on 54.9GB.

I want to use this drive to create a backup for Windows 7, if I delete everything, how do I do this? a format? will the partitions dissapear? windows? Sorry for the questions but I haven't done this before.

Thanks.

The files for the XP OS will be in C: drive partition of your old drive.

I assume you are know using Windows 7, if so you can go to Start Menu> (left click on) Computer> Manage (from menu) then go to storage> Disk management . You will be able to format, resize, delete partitions as you wish (make sure your external drive is attached & make sure you choose correct drives & partitions)

[thaimite]

Thanks for the replies all of you. I bought a 2.5" SATA external case and everything works fine. The drive was running XP - is this OS saved onto the drive?

The total size is 80GB and it was partitioned into 2; one 19.9GB and on 54.9GB.

I want to use this drive to create a backup for Windows 7, if I delete everything, how do I do this? a format? will the partitions dissapear? windows? Sorry for the questions but I haven't done this before.

Thanks.

With your new drive plugged in you should see 2 new drives in My computer Probably E and F. You can delete the partitions and create one new partition if you wish, which is what I would recommend.

To back up your C drive I recommend using a program like Acronis True Image. This creates a full image of your C drive with all the rotected and hidden files that you could not back up with a normal copy. The program also gives you the option create a bootable CD that will let you restore your image from the external drive in a few easy clicks. I use this method as a system backup once a month. In the event of a total C drive failure you can be up and running again in less than 15 minutes (depending on disk size) with True Image.

For your data files (My documents etc, if they are on a different drive I back would these up much more frequently (daily or weekly) For this I like the free Syncback SE which backups up only the specified data and is very easy to use.

There are lots of alternatives to the above programs out there, and I am sure other forum members will have their own recommendations.

The reason I use the 2 programs is Acronis is great for backing up a C drive but is overkill for rarely changed documnets, and Syncback does not do a good job of backin g up operating system files.

Remember to verify your backup after you have created it. There is nothing worse tan believing you are protected and then finding that some incorrect setting means your backups are useless.

[Crossy]

As you're using Win7 you can use Start ==> Control Panel ==> System and Security ==> Backup or restore your files ==> Create a system image.

Works well (I've successfully restored from it) and of course it's free (comes with Windows).

[aussiebebe]

Thanks for the help, I'm new to Windows 7 and didn't understand that you could format, delete and resize partitions, but now I've played around with it a bit I can do what I need with regards to the external HDD, Extremely helpful:)

Best regards to you all.

[Gary A]

If you buy an enclosure for a 3 1/2 inch drive, it will have a power supply with it. If it has no AC power supply with it, DON'T buy it. The 2 1/2 inch lap top drives generally run fine directly from the USB port.