external hard drive

Hello Is it functionally possible to 'send to' or 'drag and drop' to back up information from the pc to the external hard drive, or do you need a device like Acronis T.I.or Ghost. I have ide; would an external hard drive need to be specfic to the pc or can it be used with sata so I don't waste money when this pc dies? Thank you

The fact the hard drive is an external one, makes no difference on the grand scale of how you place files on it, the types of programs your talking about are for ghosting an image of the entire (or part) of the systems main drive, this would then be a back up should you need to reinstall, you simply want to save files to the drive, in this instance treat it exactly the same as you would an internal drive, because the system will label it as Drive x, x being the next free letter dependant on how many drives you have attached, but as far as the system is concerned it is just another hard drive, so drag and drop or cut and paste etc will all work fine, no need for any special software at all. Now Sata is definitely a wise choice, it's faster, but with an external drive there are some important points to note, the most common connection is probably USB, having a fast drive using USB could be considered as a waste, because it's speed will be throttled by the speed limitations of the USB connection. The wisest investment is to get an external Sata drive, but look for one that offers more connection possibility's, not so long back I would of said FireWire, but currently eSATA is probably the most useful one to get, I tried looking for an option that offered all 3 types of connection on the same unit, but I could only find one or the other, USB comes with all of them usually, but I suggest getting a USB\eSATA unit, you may not have eSATA on your current system, but as you pointed out future upgrades means this unit would then be ready to take on the faster connection, and you still have the USB connection that you can use on virtually any system until then. As you may be picking up as you go along the learning curve, you are probably noticing how one thing often leads to another lol, with that in mind you may want to consider buying the external drive set up as individual components, this means you can pick and choose the best drive and enclosure, the ready made ones are fine as such, but if you compare the drive to say a Samsung F3, or a Western Digital black series, then the bundled drive would pale in comparison, but that said you may not need or even notice the difference between them, not unless you had them side by side moving the same file. A last point to note is even if your current system doesn't have eSATA in it, theres nothing stopping you from adding eSATA to your current system by adding a card to what you have already, so you may feel this is an option for you to benefit from the faster connection, and you can add this at any point in the future if you want to see how USB serves you to begin with, hope this gets you started anyway.

Hello If I understand, I am wise to either ger a combo eSATA/usb or get an eSATA card in my pc. This machine and the next would be served. I did not know about this and am glad to have this knowledge. Thank you. I'll do some browsing now and as usual report back later..

Hi, yes getting a Sata drive, with a caddie that supports USB and eSATA is the wisest investment currently IMHO, this will then be able to take advantage of the faster eSATA connection when a system has this as a connection option, I have noticed new(er) systems are often including eSATA as standard lately, so there's a high probability that your next system will have this as standard, if it doesn't, with this in mind you could ensure you get a system which does include eSATA as standard. As to getting an eSATA card for your current system, don't confuse getting the card for your system to be the same as the external drive, it isn't either\or, the card will simply allow you to access the full ability of the external drive now, the external drive will quite happily work on your system via USB, but without the external drive with an eSATA connection the card would be a waste as you will probably have nothing else to use with it, but by getting the additional card for your current system, on top of the external drive, it means you can then benefit from the faster eSATA connection speed from the start so to speak, rather than waiting to upgrade your whole system, possibly sooner than you may be planning too. Have you given any thought as to if you get the individual components or the whole kit pre made ? The benefit of getting the individual components is you can select the best most reliable parts, not to mention get a faster drive than what usually comes in the kits, and if it helps, the one I put together for a mate was simplicity itself, the drive simply slid into the housing and then close the lid, it was that simple, so if thats the same with all caddies then you don't need any technical experience or tools, just common sense, hope this enlightens you some more about this.

To maximize the SATA speed, I would get the card and the eSATA cable. I believe Any 2.0 usb cable would suffice with a SATA external hard drive but at a lower transfer speed. I gather there is a difference between SATA and eSATA as you indicated to be on the lookout when I purchase components. How about a SATA hard drive which would utilize the usb cable at a lower speed for now with my IDE pc then not have to fuss with eSATA later with the new pc? Oops, back to IDE vs. SATA so the need for eSATA. Square pegs… I am so challenged at my level that components are not on my list yet. I remember someone telling me to get a printer/copier, a scanner and another component rather than an all-in-one. I went for the all in one and got inferior production. I have learned that lesson. When it comes time to get the hard drive, I want to get one that will be widely acceptable as the standard/SATA so I may wait. At my level workarounds might not be good. I hope to be able to upgrade soon To repeat, my problem is buying with the "e" which I have to look for later on. My IDE seems to be a problem for a smooth transition and as it is not a necessity at this point I will probably wait for the pc with SATA and the external frive with the same. Make sense?

Let me see if I can simplify this a bit for you, personally I don't go into the depths of the numbers etc like some of the other guys do, I simply deal with what I know works, and how to get the best results I can, so I may not always be able to go as deep as you may be thinking at times, but I will do my best. Now Sata v eSATA, to the best of my knowledge there is little to no difference on the grand scale of things, eSATA is simply an external Sata as opposed to internal, so getting a Sata drive is the wisest buy these days (currently anyway), ide is dying tech, more and more makers are no longer adding ide connectors on they're motherboards, they are a good solid workhorse, but they are slow by more modern options, and even Sata drives will be replaced once pricing on SSD drives becomes more affordable. As to cables, there may be some kits that charge extra, but the ones I've bought come with all you need at the start, it's only if you need something more specialised such as a longer cable you need to get anything else. You will be quite able to use the external drive via it's USB lead, you do not need to buy and cable\card etc for your current system, that is unless you want to utilise the faster speed of the Sata connection, the external drive will happily work via the USB connection, it will just be slower in transferring files than it's alternate connection. I can certainly suggest the specific components that will maximise the performance and reliability if you like, and there is nothing to worry about, the caddie I would suggest has a simple hinged lid, open the lid, slide the drive into the caddie, close the lid, job done, it really is that simple, it comes with the leads you need, and will work quite happily via USB until you are ready to get a new system to utilise the faster connection, or you can choose to add a card to your existing system should you want that faster speed sooner than buying a new system, but by getting the parts I have in mind you maximise your options and have the best most affordable option for your money at this time, hope this makes it a bit clearer anyway.

Read this short article on SATA vs eSata. I think you'll both agree eSATA is the way to go.

http://computer-drives-storage.suite101.co…e_pros_and_cons

One of the key points of the article was this:

Any conventional SATA hard drive can be converted into an eSATA portable drive through the use of a special eSATA enclosure. These enclosures serve as portable cases for standard SATA hard drives.

Edit:: Just came across this eSATA / USB 2.0 External Enclosure for 2.5" laptop drives, with a nice little video showing how it works: http://www.cooldrives.com/usbesal2hadr1.html

The info in the article shows how fast the technology moves in this field lol, the cost issues mentioned are no where near what was when this first came out, but I never had a doubt about eSATA being the ideal currently.
I recently (maybe a few months now) got a mate an external set up to complement his laptop that was being devastated by lack of space, he too thought a simple pre-made kit was all he wanted, but after I explained to him the benefits of buying separately, he quickly agreed, so I got him a 1TB F1 drive, if I was to do this now I would be torn between an F3 drive or a WD Black edition, I suspect I'd go WD as I have found them to be really reliable, but when I gave him the drive he was over the moon with it, by buying a separate caddie it meant you didn't have to have a massive book type affair, the following is what I got him, and I can't recommend it highly enough, it's simplicity itself.
http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?ca…product_id=2520

This information was impressive. I want to read further and talk with the mrs. about coordinating our electronics. I will let you knoiw what my next move will be.

Hello I filled in the form after watching the video and when I hit send, it said explorer could not send it. I then sent him a note vis his link( outlook express) telling him to contact me so i can persue this esata idea. I hope to hear from him but have to wonder why his video reply box does not work with my explorer. I'll let you know if he contacts me so I can get this going. I think it is 'cooldrives'.

eSATA is definitely the way to go, especially since you can get a eSATA enclosure and use a normal SATA drive in it. I'm sure they make then for full size drives as well as for laptop drives. Will be interesting to see what reply you get.

Please bear with me. I have reread this thread and want to ask,"Is it necessary to image to transfer my o.s. to an external hard drive with a 2.0 usb cable or can I just copy paste/ drag drop/ or send to?"
I think the reply to my first post answered this but……

If imaging is not necessary, could the advantage be that in case of failure i could boot with that imaging disk?
Thank you

You need to clone the HD or make a full image backup. You can't simply copy everything as it won't work. For one you wouldn't get a good MBR (Master Boot Record) and many of the files would be locked/in use so wouldn't copy.

You could use the free version of HDClone to clone the drive (limits data rate to 2MB/sec), or DriveImage XML (also free) to make a full backup that will result in a bootable system when restored.

I use Acronis True Image now, though I've use HDClone and DriveImage XML previously with good results.

I have Power quest Drive Image 2003 which has xp on the jacket. perhaps that would work with the HDD. I understand the nned to image the o.s. and larger files -thanx. I am going to insert this program and play with it then get the ext drive. >>I just read the jacket etc and it has problems which make a new imaging program a better choice. It has the program dicsc plus an another labeled "patch" I made years ago. It only backs up full 'drives' and besides the cd ,dvd rom and A:, I only have the C:. drive. It seems useless to me as far as i can see. Besides, Symantec is the owner and I have a fear of that conglomerate due to a history of events. You know, I don't think a human even works there I'll get T.I. and the drive when I can , then we'll see.

The use of an "image" of your drive is to create a back up of your entire system as it stands at the point it is made, the benefit of this is to return to the last image date made and recover to that point of time, thus speeding up restoring the system to a usable state after it has a problem, in the fastest way possible, this is the ideal solution for those who require a large level of safety in backing up, as the image can be added to as you proceed using incremental back up's just to top up the original back up, these are like mini back up's and only add the additional info since the previous back up was made. Now if you only want to save files, and not the entire system then you can simply drag and drop or cut and paste files to the external drive, this does NOT back up the system in any way, it purely acts as a storage media for the files, to be accessed when you want. I have never managed to create a back up that my daughter hasn't managed to break lol, so can't advise on the best software\method to do that, so I'll leave you in the capable hands of Ztruker if you wish to learn more on that, but hopefully this clarifies the difference between saving files and backing them up as an image.