Windows 7 - Upgrading an internal backup drive

My wife has a Dell Vostro PC that came with 2 x 320GB HD. Since then I have installed a SSD for the operating system and porgrams so just use these drives for back-up and user data. I have another PC that i use for all my main work and photographs which I backup nightly onto one of the HD on my wife's PC 320HD. I have gigabit ethernet conenctions via my router. Also once a month I backup everything to a 500GB portable drive that i keep outside of the house. Problem is as my photo collection grows I am running out of space on the 320HD. So my question is if i want to get a bigger back-up HD should I:
a) Buy a large external drive which I just leave permantently attached to my pc
b) Replace the 320HD with a larger interanl HD. IF so can I put any old HD into the Vostro or are there so restrictions I need to look out for compatabiltiy?

Thansk for any advice. mike

The Dell should use ordinary SATA internal drives if it is less than 4 or 5 years old. You could run a program such as Belarc or Speccy to confirm that. Some Dells use some proprietary parts or connectors, but I can't recall that extending to hard drives.

Or just forget that and go with your choice A. Probably simpler than relying on a network and some other PC.

There might be a speed or cost differential between choice A and B. You'd have to investigate that.

I assume you can't install a second internal HD in your own PC?

Another possibility is to use an ordinary "internal" drive in an external drive dock, rather than an external drive. I use one of these to periodically back up my internals and it runs through an eSATA connection. Not as fast as backing up to a local internal, but faster than backing up to an external through USB.

I'm sure they are jsut SATA drives. I already have a 2nd HD in my PC which has my photos on it and no more slots I'm told by Dell. Question is whether an external drive on my pc is slower than an internal drive on a networked pc?

You say you already have a "portable" 500 GB drive--how does it compare to the network in speed?

I'm not sure I'd make the decision on speed alone.

good pooint I hadnt thoguht of just copying a big file and comapring the times. Sometimes the answer is so obvious!!!

What else woudl you be consdiering in making the choice?

Cost for any given drive size. (External probably more costly)

Convenience/ease of use. (Maybe not much difference)

Desktop clutter. (Internal has an advantage here)

Security. (The external drive method may be more easily stored off site, compared to another PC)