# External harddrive



## stobear (3 Jun 2005)

Need recommendations of where to get an external harddrive, preferably driven by USB (signal and power) connection, a fairly small capacity (between 20G and 40G) which is robust and reliable. 

Intended use is to backup valuable data from primary harddrive!

Elara have one for 96Euro, is this about the best value?


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## ClubMan (3 Jun 2005)

[broken link removed] have external _USB 2.0 _drives from €85 for 40GB in case that's of any use. 


> [font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]External hard drive for USB2 port
> Please select size under options:
> - 40GB Eur 85 incl. VAT
> - 80GB Eur 99 incl. VAT
> ...


[/font]
Another option might be to check the prices of external drive housings and standard hard drives separately. Shop around.


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## stobear (3 Jun 2005)

Thanks CM! Forgot about Marx!


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## car (7 Jun 2005)

If you could hang about for a bit, aldi or lidl are sure to come around with their hard disk offer again.
I recently got 2 of the 250gb disks for 150e each.  Probably a bit more then what youre looking for though.

If money is an issue then you could try posting on the boards.ie wanted website..
[broken link removed]


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## Crunchie (7 Jun 2005)

Lidl have one on for €139 on Monday 13th. Spec is 

# 250 GB external hard drive
# 7200 rpm
# Liquid baring for smooth and quiet running
# 8 MD cache memory
# Aluminium casing
# 3 year guarantee

[broken link removed]


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## DrMoriarty (7 Jun 2005)

car said:
			
		

> If you could hang about for a bit, aldi or lidl are sure to come around with their hard disk offer again.


 
Here they come again... (from next Monday)
*250 GB external hard drive* - e139
*250 GB internal hard drive* - e129

3-year no-quibble guarantee, what's to lose..?


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## ClubMan (7 Jun 2005)

Good timing _stobear _- _Lidl _looks like your best bet if you want to buy locally rather than online.


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## stobear (8 Jun 2005)

Thanks folks, having not turned up at Lidl before for such specials, is there a bit of stampede in to get these? I read somewhere here before that's its not such a rush?

The capacity is a bit larger than I need, but its definitely a deal!


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## TarfHead (8 Jun 2005)

stobear said:
			
		

> .. not turned up at Lidl before for such specials, is there a bit of stampede in to get these? ..


 
Depends

A few weeks back I queued outside LIDL Baldoyle to buy a barbecue. I got there 30 minutes before it opened and there were 4 ahead of me in the queue. When the doors opened there were at least 20 behind me. I got the barbecue no problem but they were all sold out within 20 minutes of opening. About 2 hours later my sister-in-law went to LIDL Coolock and got one no problem without queuing or hassle.

Bear in mind that LIDL now open at 8:00.


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## Erith (11 Jun 2005)

DrMoriarty said:
			
		

> 3-year no-quibble guarantee, what's to lose..?



All your data? 

komplett.ie


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## ClubMan (11 Jun 2005)

You seem to be insinuating that the _Lidl _offer is somehow dodgy and inferior to alternatives on offer from the likes of _Komplett_. If this is so then can you explain the basis on which you formed this opinion please?


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## Geegee (12 Jun 2005)

Is this good value and does it have USB 2 or firewire?

I want to back up the hard drive on my PC - how easy is it to do this to an External HD?


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## ClubMan (12 Jun 2005)

The _Lidl _external hard drive is _USB 2.0_. Don't think also supports _FireWire_. To backup to an external hard drive connected by _USB _should simply be a case of drag and drop from you internal hard drive to your external one which will appear as a new drive letter. Or using whatever backup utility that you normally use.


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## z107 (13 Jun 2005)

+++ Update on Lidl External Hard Disks +++

Lucan, leixlip and Tralee are sold out. Lucan only had five to begin with!

(I didn't get one, I'll have to get up earlier next time.)


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## C2H5OH (14 Jun 2005)

There is a  similar 300 GB version on sale in France and Holland  from the 16th June, so presume we might see it in a few weeks??  (169 euro)


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## MonsieurBond (14 Jun 2005)

C2H5OH said:
			
		

> There is a similar 300 GB version on sale in France and Holland from the 16th June, so presume we might see it in a few weeks?? (169 euro)



Great - I missed the current offer.

I don't know why Lidl get so few of these type of items into stock?
Sounds like they would sell a lot more if they had them!

If I miss the next Lidl offer I reckon I'll stump up for one from Marx Computers - 200 GB for 159 should suffice for my needs.


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## CCOVICH (25 Sep 2005)

Hi all

Thinking about adding a hard drive.  Have a FJS laptop, so not sure if I can add internally, did a system scan with Belarc, so if someone could tell me what info is relavant to checking compatibilty, I'll post details.

That aside, I like the look of [broken link removed] on komplett.ie, not really willing to wait around for Aldi/Lidl (Separately, my sister has been having issues with her Mp3 player and digital camera purchased in Lidl/Aldi, both were €200-€300, so not exactly 'cheap').  I checked out Elara and Marx, but komplett seem the most competitive for that size (200gb)

What are the key specs (apart from size)?  Does the komplett 'model' above suit home use for laptop?

Any opinons/advice greatly appreciated.


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## MonsieurBond (25 Sep 2005)

CCOVICH said:
			
		

> Hi all
> 
> Thinking about adding a hard drive. Have a FJS laptop, so not sure if I can add internally, did a system scan with Belarc, so if someone could tell me what info is relavant to checking compatibilty, I'll post details.
> 
> ...


 
A work colleague bought the Aldi external hard disk and it died within a month, losing all his data. Not recommended.

He did get them to replace it but of course his data was still gone.

You would be better off buying from Pixmania or Komplett.


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## irishpancake (26 Sep 2005)

what about ebay:

just one of the drives available there:

[broken link removed] 

I know you should check out postage charges, and check sellers rating, this guy has 100% positive since 2002.

There are lots more, but, as i said, beware postage, specially from Far East.


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## CCOVICH (21 Nov 2005)

have a 250 gb external drive in again on Thursday for €149.  I'm amazed how small it is, looks like around the size of a video cassette?


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## car (21 Nov 2005)

Its slightly bigger then a vidjo cassette, and if you put it on a wooden desk upstairs, be prepared for a low hum permeating through the house.


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## CCOVICH (21 Nov 2005)

Ok, thanks for that car.  Komplett are selling a Seagate (they have a good rep?) external drive, roughly the same spec, but with firewire connection, so I might go for that eventually (firewire is faster than USB, right?).


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## ClubMan (21 Nov 2005)

CCOVICH said:
			
		

> (firewire is faster than USB, right?).


 No - _USB 2.0 _is nominally 480Mbps. _FireWire 400 _(previously plain old _FireWire_) is nominally _400Mbps_. However the protocol overhead for _USB _is higher than for _FireWire _so, in practice, they shoud perform about the same. _FireWire 800_ is c. 900Mbps though but it's not that common yet as far as I know. If you _Google _for terms like "USB", "FireWire" and "speed" you'll find lots of useful detailed articles comparing the different technologies.

If you're looking for a portable drive then note that only 2.5" and smaller enclosures can be powered directly from _USB/FireWire/PS2 _ports without the need for an external power supply.


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## MugsGame (21 Nov 2005)

On a related note, does anyone know an Irish supplier of USB-IDE adapters? Those I'm particularly interested have a 2.5" and 3.5" connector on a single cable. This would be for temporary access to the drives, so I don't need an enclosure. There are lots of these adapters on ebay, but the postage is usually rediculous.


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## ClubMan (21 Nov 2005)

Why confine yourself to _Irish _suppliers? You can buy these from lots of online retailers all over the world and probably get a better deal into the bargain.


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## tallpaul (21 Nov 2005)

Can I just ask with regard to the USB-IDE adapters. My eyes have just lit up!!! My desktop PC recently died (motherboard) but I am told that the internal HD is fine. Obviously I want to get the information off the HD (never got round to properly backing it up.. don't ask!). 

With these USB-IDE adapters, could I take the HD out of my dead PC and, using the adapter, connect the HD to my laptop and d/l the data?? Please say it would be this easy!!!

Edit: just found  which looks intersting...


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## SineWave (21 Nov 2005)

I think you would at least still need a power supply to your hard drive. [broken link removed] do a complete encapsulated unit. I had the same issue as you and it done the job perfect. You will have to change a little link on your hard drive to make it a "slave".


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## tallpaul (21 Nov 2005)

Thanks SineWave. Had a mooch around Maplins and came across [broken link removed]

I think that this will do the job. With the gadget you bought, was it straightforward?? This could be the answer to my prayers... I'll have to ring them tomorrow to see if they have it in stock...


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## DrMoriarty (21 Nov 2005)

ClubMan said:
			
		

> No - _USB 2.0 _is nominally 480Mbps. _FireWire 400 _(previously plain old _FireWire_) is nominally _400Mbps_. However the protocol overhead for _USB _is higher than for _FireWire _so, in practice, they shoud perform about the same.


I just _love_ it when AAM talks dirty like this...


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## dam099 (21 Nov 2005)

ClubMan said:
			
		

> No - _USB 2.0 _is nominally 480Mbps. _FireWire 400 _(previously plain old _FireWire_) is nominally _400Mbps_. However the protocol overhead for _USB _is higher than for _FireWire _so, in practice, they shoud perform about the same.


 
True in probably the vast majority of cases nowadays but just be careful if you have an older PC that you have USB 2.0 and not the older slower USB 1.1.


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## CCOVICH (21 Nov 2005)

ClubMan said:
			
		

> No - _USB 2.0 _is nominally 480Mbps. _FireWire 400 _(previously plain old _FireWire_) is nominally _400Mbps_. However the protocol overhead for _USB _is higher than for _FireWire _so, in practice, they shoud perform about the same. _FireWire 800_ is c. 900Mbps though but it's not that common yet as far as I know. If you _Google _for terms like "USB", "FireWire" and "speed" you'll find lots of useful detailed articles comparing the different technologies.
> 
> If you're looking for a portable drive then note that only 2.5" and smaller enclosures can be powered directly from _USB/FireWire/PS2 _ports without the need for an external power supply.



Thanks.  I was under the impression that Firewire was faster than USB for data transfer.

Can you explain "protocol overhead" (I've Googled, but too technical for a number cruncher like myself), does this mean that you need a fairly powerful machine to extract the full benefits of Firewire?  Given that I have a mid-range (at best) laptop, I guess USB 2.0 will be fine?


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## ClubMan (21 Nov 2005)

_FireWire 400 _(400Mbps) would be faster than _USB 1.1 _(c. 12Mbps) but comparable to _USB 2.0 _(480Mbps). As mentioned above check which you have. If you only have _USB 1.1 _then you would be better off using _FireWire 400 _for high speed applications (e.g. an external drive). Obviously _FireWire 800 _is faster again but is still not that common as far as I know. Those speeds are the raw theoretical speeds. I'm not au fait with the _USB/FireWire _protocol details but basically with most data transfer technologies not all of the bits transferred are raw data bits but some are for header information, delimiting packets, retries, start bits/stop bits, error correction etc. etc. This is what I meant by protocol overhead. It would not be unusual for certain data transfer mechanisms to use up c. 10% of the raw bandwidth for protocol overhead so that the effective data transfer rate (i.e. the number of data bits transferred per second) would often be sifnificantly lower than the war theoretical maximum speed of the medium. From what I've read the _USB _protocol overhead is higher than that for _FireWire _so the raw speeds of 480Mbps and 400Mbps result in similar data transfer speeds. Hope that explains things a bit more?


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## CCOVICH (22 Nov 2005)

Thanks again ClubMan.  It certainly sounds like it's not worth paying extra for Firewire.  I'm pretty sure that I have USB 2.0.


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## ClubMan (22 Nov 2005)

If _FireWire _is extra and you have _USB 2.0 _then it's hardly worth it.


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## SineWave (22 Nov 2005)

In reply to tallpaul; yes it's straightforward.


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