camcondor

I've put this here as we haven't got a Computing forum (yet) and hope its in the right place for now......

Word has it that there are masses of IDE Harddrives out there that wholesalers and retailers want to shift as the technology is in its death throes for harddrives at any rate......this can work both ways for potential buyers -

AVOID buying IDE harddrives in order to upgrade a system, also avoid buying motherboards that only offer IDE support. Ensure that the newer SATA standard is supported on any new motherboard or powersupply purchase. For Mac owners its a no-brainer as the system HDDs have been SATA for ages now.

If you have an older IDE based system and want to expand / buy a new harddrive you can STILL BUY AND USE A SATA DRIVE - cheap SATA controller cards which slot into PCI or PCI-E slots are readily available for around £10 and are really easy to install.


IF THE IDE DRIVE COMES REALLY REALLY CHEAP: it may be worth using it in an external enclosure as extra storage, but remember, it is a lot slower than SATA and an older technology. Enclosure prices for IDE drives are really cheap at present, but be careful that you get the correct type of enclosure, ie IDE or SATA, for the drive you intend using. There are hybrid enclosures that will take either, but you do pay a bit of a premium.

Laurie

Brisey

Hi all

We are thinking of purchasing the following item from ALDI

http://www.aldi-stores.co.uk/uk/html.../2867_4291.htm

Any comments good or bad before we purchase

__________________
Growing old is mandatory - Growing up is optional

Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I've forgotten this before.
You don't stop playing because you grow old - you grow old because you stop playing!

American Dream

Hi Brisey..

Speaking from hands-on experience with Medion Products, I find the build quality lacking.

There are some real nice units out there.

The iomega drive came as a surprise as it was my second choice for a customer.

Pleasantly surprised as housing was aluminium which was what I was after.

The problem with caddies is that the heat generated by the drive does not dissipate and the drive runs very hot affecting the performance and life span of the drive causing early failure.

The IOMEGA, for one vents this heat very well.I have recently had a succession of such drives through the workshop with drive failures and have had to recover data from them.

Will try and get more details for you of others.

Look for a Metal/aluminium finned and vented case preferably with a cooling fan.

STEVE.

__________________
. Classic Dodge.RV . "Happy Trails".

American Dream

Further to our chat just now Brisey,I have had more time to look at the spec.

The case is aluminium and appears to have cooling vents and a possible fan at the front.

That, and the fact it's SATA (requiring additional cable) it's starting to look interesting.

Would advise to take a look first.Good price for 500Gig.

Regards Steve.

__________________
. Classic Dodge.RV . "Happy Trails".

Papa Smurf

Sata Transfer rate is low for sata drive. 8mb L1 cache is low too.

Try http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ for comparison - a good indication of reasonable prices you should expect to pay. They usually deliver next working day too!

__________________

American Dream

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=HD-112-SE

Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 500GB USB2.0 External Hard Drive (ST305004FDC1E1-RK)

Click image to enlarge
This Week Only Offer
was £69.99 ex vat
£59.99
£70.49 inc VAT





http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=14&subcat=911Seagate FreeAgent Pro 500GB USB2.0/eSATA External Hard Drive (ST305004FPC1E2-RK)

Click image to enlarge
£79.99
£93.99 inc VAT
3 in stock
Stock Code: HD-120-SE
Write a Review

• Product Description
• Reviews

Access your content from anywhere, share it with anyone and sync it to almost anything. The FreeAgent Pro data mover automatically duplicates and moves content you select to multiple locations like email and contacts to your iPod, photos to a Shutterfly account, your entire “My Documents” folder to FreeAgent, or move it to your own online space where you can access it from any browser 24/7 or share it with anyone you choose. FreeAgent’s innovative modular interface “future-proofs” technology, if need be can roll back your system settings to a better time, holds up to 500 gigabytes of data, and even includes a five year limited warranty.

- Automatically move your content to multiple locations
- Share pictures online and automatically update without thinking about it
- Share or access your own online space 24/7
- Automatic revisions of your content help keep you safe from goof-ups
- Five-year limited warranty
- Should something happen to your PC, roll back system settings to a better time
- Modular interface “future-proofs” technology
- USB 2.0/eSATA and dual FireWire interface modules available today
- Preloaded software
- Power on/off touch point

__________________
. Classic Dodge.RV . "Happy Trails".