see here for background on this topic - http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/706142 I'm in a market for an extra HDD, either external, or enclosure. I'm Just trying to find where my most restrictive bottleneck is going to be on my various systems. I'm also leaning towards an internal drive, in an enclosure....not sure why, but that seems to be the way the people who know their shiza do it. Basically all my computers have USB 2.0, as well as Firewire 400. So right there, I think I've found my most restrictive bottle neck, right? Where I'm confused is whether IDE, ATA, or (e)SATA, SCSI is really going to make a difference, if all that info has to come thru a USB 2.0, or Firewire 400 connection? What should I go with? Thanks
i would go with an internal drive if you don't need the data to be portable. internal drives are also cheaper bigger and faster.
I use usb 2.0 and it is almost as fast as an internal drive. If there is a difference between an internal and an external drive, it would be in seconds (not minutes). You do notice a minor difference if the drives on the external enclosure are sata instead of ide but it's very minor (it just feels like the sata drives are faster). I transfer vast amounts of data (about 200gb) at a time from internal to external, it takes over an hour whether I transfer from internal to internal or internal to external. So saving 5 or 10 minutes won't be a big deal. It's also a good idea to have a specific program that can continue the transfer if a file is corrupted. For instance I use "beyond compare" to transfer folders from one hard drive to another. If there is a file in "drive A" that is corrupted or flagged by the antivirus as suspect windows explorer will stop the the transfer. The program beyond compare will simply skip that file and keep transfering all the rest of the files till it's complete. In my transfers thats the only bottleneck, a "problem file" stopping everything in mid transfer. Also always connect your external drives to the rear USB ports, the USB ports in the front of the case sometimes don't give you the whole 2.0 speed.
Ok good info thanks. But I do need it to be somewhat portable, and I think I want to put an internal drive in an enclosure. So I just don't know if IDE or SATA is going to make a difference, if it all has to go thru USB anyways.
I have my internal SATA drive, in an external enclosure, connected via firewire 400, and it seems to transfer faster than if I connect it via a USB2 port, on the back of my computer. Edited for spelling error. $@*&% keyboard.
