Solved External hard drive- how to pick one and install it.

[Freddid]

I have a Dell Inspiron 530 which I just upgraded the OS to Windows 7. Seems that the internal hard drive is almost full (I plan on doing some deleting of photos once I have copied them safely elsewhere) and a friend has suggested adding an external HD. I will probably use it primarily for photos...not professional pics.

I'm looking for some guidance as to size and brand of drive and suggestions as to where to buy it. I will order online.

I've been reading some of the posts here and see SATA mentioned. I have Windows 7 for Dummies and don't see info on SATA in the index. Is SATA involved when the drive is attached externally?

I just found this on BizRate: http://www.backupworks.com/imation-rdx-160GB-26607.aspx

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

That Imation would be very low on my list.

What is the combined size of the stuff you want to store on the drive, in gigabytes?

You can buy 1 terabyte external drives for under $100. That's 1000 Gigabytes. If your pictures average 1 mb each, 1 terabyte would hold about one million pictures.

I'd stay with a well known brand (Western Digital, Hitachi, or Seagate most likely).

You can find them in smaller sizes than 1 TB, but they wouldn't be a lot cheaper than the 1 TB size.

Here's a bunch of them in various brands and sizes.

External Hard Drives, Portable Hard Drives, Mac Hard Drives - Newegg.com

Good sources: Amazon, Newegg, Tiger Direct; all online.

If you use an external drive, it will probably attach through a USB port; slower than internal SATA by quite a bit.

Any particular reason you need external rather than internal? I'm not highly familiar with the Inspiron 530, but most PCs can accommodate a second internal drive.

I'd be wary and probably not use any software that might be included with it.

I'd also want to have my pictures backed up (have 2 copies of each picture).

 

[Freddid]

The future combined size isn't known to me at this time. My computer has 7000 photos on it now and I would be continuing to add photos over time. (Im guessing well over 64 GB but not quite 128 GB. I backed them up before the upgrade and it took almost two 64 GB memory sticks.)

I thought an external drive would be simpler and it was what was suggested to me by a friend. I'm not knowledgeable about tech computer stuff and neither is my husband, so that's why I'm not looking to open the computer up and add anything. We tried that with our old Gateway and I couldn't get the HD to boot (back in 2007).

Thanks for the suggestions and I will definitely check out the link you've provided.

 

[Mellon Head]

I've had really good luck with Western Digital drives.

USB connected drives are quite a bit slower than an internal SATA drive is, but if you're just using the external for storage of pictures and files, it really won't make much of a difference how fast it is or isn't. It still won't take long to copy some pictures over to the drive every week, or whenever you do it. I use a program called Supercopier for my USB external. It lets you copy files in the background so you can continue to use the computer while it's copying.

http://supercopier.sfxteam.org/?q=node/type/download

 

[Freddid]

Thank you, Mellon Head! I will follow through with these very helpful suggestions! Freddi

 

[Freddid]

Follow up to above question: I have received the Seagate Expansion portable drive I ordered. I am using a Dell Inspiron 530. Dell is telling me that I need to purchase drivers (31 out of date). Before I do anything I wanted to run this by the Forum. I was hoping (silly me!) that I'd just have to plug the darn thing in and I'd be able to download my freakin' photos which are the source of all of this aggravation. (Dell isn't helping either.) So, is your advice that I purchase these drivers? Previously, all drivers were upgraded automatically (so I thought!). Any help would be very much appreciated. Freddi

 

[Boozad]

You shouldn't need to purchase drivers at all. How did Dell tell you needed to, through a pop up on your PC? Your external drive should literally just plug and play, Windows will search for and install the relevant drivers and you should be good to go.

 

[Freddid]

Thanks! Will I be able to tell the difference as to whether the copies are on the portable or the internal HD? I can't disconnect the internal one. f

 

[bej]

Plug in the external to power and the USB connection. Wait a few seconds until it loads. Go to "My Computer" (Windows Explorer, NOT Internet Explorer) and you should see the internal HD (probably C:\
and the external HD as whatever letter you assigned or was assigned by the OS.
Double click the external HD and you should see all the files on the drive.
Same with the internal HD.
You should be able to drag & drop files from the internal to the external. Highlight a file from the internal HD photos, right click and hold, drag to the external drive letter, release and choose "Copy".
Check to make sure the file was copied to the drive.
From that point on, you should be able to highlight large batches of photos and perform the same operation to "copy" them to the external drive.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Will I be able to tell the difference as to whether the copies are on the portable or the internal HD?

Each drive will have a different drive letter.

So they will have different paths, the original perhaps on the C drive and the copy perhaps on D or E.

You have to be careful about which drive you are using at any given moment. You can get confused in Windows Explorer if you aren't paying attention and you might accidentally delete or modify the copy on the external when you thought you were working on the original file on the internal.

 

[Freddid]

Thanks for all of the help! I'm having some success and now that I finally can "move" many pics and then have them deleted...I might actually be able to use my right hand tomorrow! Gonna stop for the night...you folks are the best!!!!!

 

[ComputerGeek]

1) As others already noted, do NOT pay for any driver updates. Unneeded and a bogus claim.

That said, i find it very unusual that Dell would make that offer. Be sure, and be careful, you aren't actually clicking on some advertising link on a web page that's trying to convince you need a "driver update" product.

2) Remember, any hardware (even the most reliable brands) are subject to failure over time (and on occasion, even after a short time!). You need two copies of files on separate media to protect your important data. (If one media fails, you still have a 2nd copy) So, in addition to your new external drive, consider other storage media or cloud storage as well. (like google drive or microsoft sky drive)

 

[Freddid]

Computer Geek, No, I didn't go for it (driver updates). There was a "microsoft" trusted partner emblem and it wanted my Key Code (which I would have to hunt down).

As an non-computer initiate...the "important data" you refer to is probably what the computer needs to run correctly, no? To me, it was my pictures, but I do realize why that protection of data is crucial.

As for the cloud and sky, I guess I haven't reached a point of trust with google nor microsoft.

I was wondering just a bit ago, if I could download my 64G memory stick onto the portable HD? I just can't figure out what would power it.

I'll keep moving and deleting pics to the portable HD next week. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I was wondering just a bit ago, if I could download my 64G memory stick onto the portable HD? I just can't figure out what would power it.

I think what Computer Geek meant by "important data" is that you should have at least 2 copies of any personal stuff that is important to you--such as pictures.

The stuff needed to run the PC itself is typically found on a Windows installation disc and on your C drive, separate from your personal stuff. But maybe you don't have a Windows installation disc?

Not sure if I'm following you about the memory stick, but you can certainly plug it into a port on your computer and copy anything from it to your internal or external hard drives.

 

[Freddid]

Hi Ignatzatsonic, I do have the 7 disc.

Re: copying mem stick info to port HD: I plug the portable into the tower. I would also plug the memory stick (which has the backup files of the pics, but is only 64 GB so is full) into the tower. I thought about my question and perhaps this is the answer: I would plug both into the tower, open up the pictures and pick the files on the mem stick and "send/copy" them to the drive the portable HD is plugged into?

It's taking me forever to download the pics to the port HD (took the weekend off) and I know there must be an easier way. I did try to just download the 8k pics from the internal HD to the port HD and it didn't work (I don't remember at this moment why, it was on Friday).

Thank you for the answer and I do now understand that having the 7 disc would reinstall the OS if I need it.

With no Windows Office (the orig. computer set up included it) all of my saved docs are in limbo unless I purcha$e the program. :-(

Have a great Monday!

Freddi

 

[Boozad]

Moving files directly from a USB device to another USB device does take a long time, you'd be better off copying the files from the flash drive to the PC itself, then from the PC to the external HDD. It will be much quicker. Not sure why the transfer from the PC to external HDD failed first time round.

Do you have the product key from the copy of Office you had installed?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I'd think you should establish in your mind a sense of "original" and "backup" and not inter-mingle them.

I'd put "originals" on a hard drive of some type, ideally an internal if you have space or an external if that is your only hard drive choice. I don't know if you have space issues on your internal. External drives react much more slowly because they have to navigate through that plug and cable connection.

Then put "copies" on some other location--ideally another hard drive. Perhaps a USB stick if you have no other choice.

Two hard drives is far and away the best way to do it. Sticks just aren't highly reliable and they are quite slow compared to hard drives. Their only advantage is portability and I have no idea how important that is to you.

Establish some sort of regular routine that you can understand and live by. All "new" pictures go to the "originals" drive and are then copied periodically to a "backup" location of some type. Don't wonder where the primary version of a given picture is---it should always be in the "originals" location. Use a series of folders that are named in a useful way.

Yeah, you can move or copy in either direction from any drive to any other using send/copy. My personal habit is to just use the mouse and drag and drop, but one method is as good as the other.

 

[Freddid]

Booz: The PC has the saved mem stick stuff (pictures mostly) downloaded on it. I need to delete stuff as the internal HD is almost full. That is why I am downloading pics to the portable HD. Then I have to find out the best/safest way to totally remove the deleted pics from hard drive to free up space. I have used disk clean up and disk defrag programs.

I do have the product key somewhere. Would have to find it. Why would I need it?

I'll be back online later on today.

Freddi

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Booz: The PC has the saved mem stick stuff (pictures mostly) downloaded on it. I need to delete stuff as the internal HD is almost full. That is why I am downloading pics to the portable HD. Then I have to find out the best/safest way to totally remove the deleted pics from hard drive to free up space. I have used disk clean up and disk defrag programs.

I do have the product key somewhere. Would have to find it. Why would I need it?

I'll be back online later on today.

Freddi

You would need the Product Key to activate any new Windows installation if you ever have to do that. It's 25 characters long in this format: xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx. Five groups of five characters, mixing numbers and letters. Without the Product Key and activation, a new installation will only work for 30 days.

If your PC is a major brand like Dell, HP, etc, the Product Key should be on a sticker placed there by the manufacturer.

When you ran Disk Cleanup, did you choose to clean up system files?? Maybe you won't have to delete pictures from that drive---it's the best place to keep your stuff if at all possible.

 

[ComputerGeek]

<snip>With no Windows Office (the orig. computer set up included it) all of my saved docs are in limbo unless I purcha$e the program. :-(

Try OpenOffice (It's free and will work with your office docs - Word, Excel, PowerPoint. If it meets your needs, you can save the money