Storage Solutions Can an internal 300Gb hdd used as external drive

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cyrux

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My friend has a laptop. Its powered by an intel centrino processor. Has 100Gb of hdd , 1Gb ram . Now he wants some extra space , so he was thinking of using a seagate 300 Gb 7200 rpm,16 Mb buffer as an external hdd. Thats a PATA drive. Can he do it. Will he get the complete amount of storage or will there be any bottle neck ?
 
He'll get the complete amount of storage on the external drive. but, since u say its a PATA drive, it'll need an external AC adapter to power it up. Not exactly handy if ur friend is travelling.
 
Oh yes, i know about the external power connector, but isnt this required for internal SATA drives too (when using them as external) ?
 
All 3.5" Hdds (sata or pata) require a power connector. He will get complete amount of storage on the 300gb drive, just that the usb2 speeds will be less than what he would get if he connected it as internal drive to the ide channel. The drive also tends to heat up quite a bit. If he wants portable storage then an alternate would be to get a 80Gb 2.5" notebook drive.
 
cyrux said:
My friend has a laptop. Its powered by an intel centrino processor. Has 100Gb of hdd , 1Gb ram . Now he wants some extra space , so he was thinking of using a seagate 300 Gb 7200 rpm,16 Mb buffer as an external hdd. Thats a PATA drive. Can he do it. Will he get the complete amount of storage or will there be any bottle neck ?
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It can be done if the notebook can handle this size of HDD - check the notebooks manual for the largest size HDD it can handle ..... get a decent quality USB2 case as some of the cheaper cases also have the old 127GB cut off point in their inbuild electronics.

I have used 250GB PATA and SATA HDDs in external cases.... the PATA HDD is connected as a USB2 device and gives me a DATA Transfer speed of 33 MB/s and this same HDD when in the computer gives around 45 MB/s. The SATA HDD gives me the same speeds inside the case or in an external eSATA case - 50+ MB/s. These are 3.5GB file transfer speeds not synthetic benchies. I dont think you can attach an eSATA external HDD case to a notebook - unless the notebook has an eSATA connector built in.

I use Vantec cases and these are a bit expensive - about 2.5k for PATA and 3.5K for SATA.

Another option to consider is the 2.5" external USB2 cases - 160GB drives for these are now available locally. These will be convenient as they do not require a seperate power source but take their power from the USB cable.
 
Hi Guys ,

Most Laptops Have Firewire and firewire has excellent speeds ,Try That Alternative ,I Can Give You Rates If Required

Amarbir
 
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