Cost of a portable drive?

J

John

Guest
I'm curious to know how much a portable drive would cost and the relevant
storage size available. Furthermore, how do you go about connecting it to
the CPU - Is it through the USB socket, and how fast is the data transfer
from the Hard drive to the portable drive. Thanks for any advice - I'm
asking this because I'm thinking about purchasing one, but I don't know much
about it.

Regards
 
"John" <john6666@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:3f7ff333@dnews.tpgi.com.au...
I'm curious to know how much a portable drive would cost and the relevant
storage size available. Furthermore, how do you go about connecting it to
the CPU - Is it through the USB socket, and how fast is the data transfer
from the Hard drive to the portable drive. Thanks for any advice - I'm
asking this because I'm thinking about purchasing one, but I don't know
much
about it.
Click to expand...
**IMO, the best, cheapest method is to use a standard IDE hard drive in a
'drive frame'. I use a couple of these, through USB2.0 ports and find them
to be adequately fast and very convenient. At around $180.00 for 120GB, plus
around $100.00 for the drive frame, it is a very reasonable solution.


--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au
 
On Sun, 5 Oct 2003 20:29:36 +1000, "John" <john6666@tpg.com.au> wrote:


I'm curious to know how much a portable drive would cost and the relevant
storage size available. Furthermore, how do you go about connecting it to
the CPU - Is it through the USB socket, and how fast is the data transfer
from the Hard drive to the portable drive. Thanks for any advice - I'm
asking this because I'm thinking about purchasing one, but I don't know much
about it.

Regards


I have seen them for about $200 - 250 with a hard drive. Laptop type
Click to expand...
ones are usually better as they use lower power - and are more rugged
for portable use, and much smaller and lighter.

The low power part is an advantage too - as it means that usually they
can be powered straight from the desktops USB port - external power
supplies are NOT needed. Great with laptops - where when you are on
the road a mains power socket might not be available.

USB 1 is pretty slow - in my experience it would take nearly a couple
of hours to transfer about 10 gig - but USB 2.0 is much faster -
equivalent to copying between drives that are installed in a computer
via IDE, and as such USB 2.0 is recommended. If you are only copying
small amounts (ie - backing up only a few MS office documents from
home to work every day) at any time - or speed isn't an issue with
you - then USB 1 might be fine for you. If you are sharing around big
files like many MP3's or movies - then you are in for a slow process.

To make USB 2.0 work with XP it seems that the XP service pack 1 has
to be installed. Usually you also need a USB 2.0 card - most
computers come with only USB 1. The card is about $50 usually.
Note too that a USB 2.0 drive will work on a USB 1 equipped PC just
fine - only difference is the sloooow transfer rate.
 
Furthermore, how do you go about connecting it to
the CPU - Is it through the USB socket, and how fast is the data transfer
from the Hard drive to the portable drive. Thanks for any advice - I'm
asking this because I'm thinking about purchasing one, but I don't know
much
about it.
Click to expand...
Most portable drives are a standard IDE drive in a plastic case with a IDE
adapter to either USB or Firewire.
Your best bet is to get an external case for about $120 and put which ever
size drive in you want. You can then easily upgrade if you ever need to.
Data transfer is close enough to normal drive speeds to not be a concern.

I have a version of this:
http://www.ht.com.au/Scripts/xworks.exe?PART:H8796#Tof
and it works well.
 
What size HDD do you need?

"John" <john6666@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:3f7ff333@dnews.tpgi.com.au...
I'm curious to know how much a portable drive would cost and the relevant
storage size available. Furthermore, how do you go about connecting it to
the CPU - Is it through the USB socket, and how fast is the data transfer
from the Hard drive to the portable drive. Thanks for any advice - I'm
asking this because I'm thinking about purchasing one, but I don't know
much
about it.

Regards
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the advice - It was very informative. As soon as I have some time
of work I will sort it out.


"John" <john6666@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:3f7ff333@dnews.tpgi.com.au...
I'm curious to know how much a portable drive would cost and the relevant
storage size available. Furthermore, how do you go about connecting it to
the CPU - Is it through the USB socket, and how fast is the data transfer
from the Hard drive to the portable drive. Thanks for any advice - I'm
asking this because I'm thinking about purchasing one, but I don't know
much
about it.

Regards
Click to expand...
 
If you want a 50-200mb drive you will have to pay some ridiculous price on
eBay. Should get a 40gb for $99.

"John" <john6666@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:3f815b9f@dnews.tpgi.com.au...
Thanks for the advice - It was very informative. As soon as I have some
time
of work I will sort it out.


"John" <john6666@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:3f7ff333@dnews.tpgi.com.au...
I'm curious to know how much a portable drive would cost and the
relevant
storage size available. Furthermore, how do you go about connecting it
to
the CPU - Is it through the USB socket, and how fast is the data
transfer
from the Hard drive to the portable drive. Thanks for any advice - I'm
asking this because I'm thinking about purchasing one, but I don't know
much
about it.

Regards
Click to expand...
 
Have a look at www.pqi.com.tw/eng/ourproduct/td.htm which talks about a
device called a Travelling Disk, which has capacities of 32MB, 64MB, 128MB,
256MB, 512MB up to 1GB, and hangs off the USB port (USB 2.0). Sounds quite
snazzy and has no moving parts (other than electrons of course).

Ciao


Kevin

"John" <john6666@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:3f815b9f@dnews.tpgi.com.au...
Thanks for the advice - It was very informative. As soon as I have some
time
of work I will sort it out.


"John" <john6666@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:3f7ff333@dnews.tpgi.com.au...
I'm curious to know how much a portable drive would cost and the
relevant
storage size available. Furthermore, how do you go about connecting it
to
the CPU - Is it through the USB socket, and how fast is the data
transfer
from the Hard drive to the portable drive. Thanks for any advice - I'm
asking this because I'm thinking about purchasing one, but I don't know
much
about it.

Regards
Click to expand...
 
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