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General discussion

Buying an external hard drive....

Mar 20, 2005 8:52AM PST

Hi, I'm planning on purchasing an external harddrive and was wondering if anyone could answer my question about something. I was reading on some internet PC website (i think pcworld) that for buying hard drives, namely internal, it may be easier to purchase one with the same interface as your PC. I believe my desktop is ATA 100. I went to the motherboard product specs, and it read:
IDE/ATAPI UDMA Modes: ATA 100/66

Does that mean I should purchase an external HD with an ATA100 interface too? I also read that you might need to install something extra on your PC to get it compatible with ATA133? I'm thinking about purchasing my HD from this store (supergooddeal.com) that seems to be able to just assemble your own customized external hard drive. Since, I want to get one that has 160gb, 2 of the choices they gave for the type of HD inside were Maxtor Ultra 160gb 7200rpm 8mb cache ATA133 (6Y160P0), and Western Digital Caviar 160gb 7200rpm 8mb cache ATA 100 (WD1600JB).

Does anyone have any recommendations on which brand might be better, or whether there's a difference between ATA's? Or whether I should get the WD b/c it has an ATA100, which i think is what matches my motherboard spec?

I've never bought an additional HD before, internal, or external, so I have no clue what I should do...

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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Just basics first
Mar 20, 2005 9:55AM PST

There will be two interfaces involved but, if you buy a packaged external drive, you need only deal with one. The drive in the external inclosure will have an interface that connects to the drive itself. Most of these are IDE. The enclosure itself will connect to your PC via a cable. These are generally USB or firewire but some are SATA. Your PC just needs a matching port. Do you know if you have an available USB or firewire port? If so, get an external that plugs into it and don't worry about the drive to enclosure interface. Hope that helps.

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hmmm
Mar 20, 2005 1:43PM PST

hmmm well i have USB 2.0 slots yes. so ur saying that it really doesn't matter the interface in the external hard drive then--that the ATA100 or ATA 133 should both be fine b/c its external? sorry im not all that computer saavy...

would you recommend one brand i suggested over another?

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I'd have to say
Mar 21, 2005 5:34AM PST

that whether the drive in the enclosure is ATA100 or 133 is not going to be an issue. It's limit will be dictated by the USB2 interface. It won't transfer data as fast but will be fine. As far as brands, I have nothing to offer. I buy enclosures and put drives in them separately. Currently I am happy with the Seagates I have but that could change in a heartbeat. You won't find concensus on this issue. Good luck.