Solved: I Need to buy an External Hard Drive

[smeegle]

Anybody have a site address where I can purchase an external hard drive? I only need room for 60g. By the way, what is a Fire Wire?

 

[~Candy~]

Firewire is another way of connecting devices instead of USB.

It's touted as being faster.

I saw an excellent deal the other day for a 200 gig hard drive (IDE) and an external case that may make more sense for you.

Let me see if I can find the links.

 

[~Candy~]

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3778426 case $20 after rebate

There's the case....looks like the 200 gig went off sale, I believe it was $59.99 after rebates.

I see a 120 now for $89.

It would be worth waiting to see what goes on sale next.

 

[~Candy~]

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=314482&cmid=dsr&ref=dsr

160 for $70 after rebates

 

[smeegle]

Thanks for your help, AcaCandy.

 

[~Candy~]

You're welcome. Let us know the route you take

 

[smeegle]

I was just about to click purchase on this item http://www.pc4usa.com/DetailSales.asp?productID=130 when I came upon two things that I didn't understand. The system requirements allow for Windows ME but in the select hard drive format only 98SE is shown. Is Windows ME and 98SE that compatible? Also, the term pre-formatted is used in the ad. Suppose I decide on a different hard drive should I assume that it is already pre-formatted? It's taken me a week to get this far with this. I want to make the right choice.

 

[Elvandil]

ME and 98 both use the FAT32 file system on their drives. So that doesn't matter. In fact, it really matters very little what you pick in that box. If you decided to install 98 or ME on the drive, it would be easily formatted from Windows. You could format the drive as NTFS from within XP if you later decided on using that file system.

In short, it matters very little because changing it to whatever you want is very easy to do after it arrives.

But since they are offering, if you are planning on 98 or ME, let them format for those using the FAT32 file system. If you are thinking NT/2000/XP/2003, then choose the NTFS file system for those. But you can easily change it to whatever you want after it arrives.

That looks like a very good deal.

 

[~Candy~]

Or say none, you'll format it yourself

 

[smeegle]

Thanks Elvandil and AcaCandy. I'm ready now. I'll let you know when it arrives.

 

[~Candy~]

Not to confuse the issue, I'm looking around that site Personally, I'd go with a case enclosure, and get a larger drive for the price difference. Case enclosure is $29.

http://www.pc4usa.com/DetailSales.asp?productID=33

And I'm sure a drive larger than 80 can be had for price difference

 

[~Candy~]

Follow up:

I don't see any great deals this week.

I have seen 250 drives for as low as $79.99 after rebates, and 200 for around $59.99 after rebates.

 

[smeegle]

Okay, AcaCandy, confusion time. What is a case enclosure? Is that something separate from the external hard drive? I looked at the link that you sent but that item doesn't say anything about storage capacity. Let me put this way, if you were perusing that site and you had a Windows ME that you needed an external hard drive for what would you choose? Just asking an opinion, not asking for a gurantee.

 

[~Candy~]

The case enclosure is nothing more than that. You can put any hard drive size in it you wish. By today's standards, an 80 gig drive is small.

If it were me, and I didn't need it immediately (as Elvandil mentioned above, for the unit, it is a good price right now, as I can't find any larger drives on sale) I would get an enclosure and wait for a larger hard drive to go on sale.

I have an email into them right now on the enclosure, as I need to get another one Then, I'm waiting for a sale for the drive

 

[smeegle]

Oh, I see. I won't promise that this is the last question that I'll ask on this, but please tell me why would I need or want a case enclosure? Does it affect the operation of the hard drive itself? I'm not kidding. I really don't know anything about this sort of thing.