External Hard Drive question

[Warlock1]

Hey, i have an external hard disk of 500gb its a prestigio data racer II.Anyway i have two questions:

.Is it good to always have it connected to my computer?

.i have it connected with both usb and esata,can u explain to me the difference and if i should have boh plugged in?

Thanks,btw great work with this forum.

 

[zigzag3143]

Hey, i have an external hard disk of 500gb its a prestigio data racer II.Anyway i have two questions:

.Is it good to always have it connected to my computer?

.i have it connected with both usb and esata,can u explain to me the difference and if i should have boh plugged in?

Thanks,btw great work with this forum.

Hi and welcome

Having it connected is fine. Connect with either. If you have USB 2.0 transfers are guicker

Ken J++

 

[Qdos]

It's only good to have connected if you regularly access it, just in terms of your carbon footprint LOL!

USB and eSATA are just two different interfaces. Both are hotswap (if AHCI is enabled for your mainboard and the board supports eSATA hot swapping). USB will be significantly slower than using eSATA.

 

[BeechV35Pilot]

Wow, that is one good looking external hard drive!



Never saw that one before. Looks like the Ferrari auto wallpaper images I use on my Win7 desktop.

Whether you keep it plugged in all the time or not depends (IMO) on what you use it for. If you use it strictly for backups you lower your risk of damage to the data on the external hard drive from virus or other malware by leaving it unplugged until you need to run your backups.

Conversely, if you use your drive for serving up digital media such as videos or music, or if you have automated backup routines that need the drive plugged in, there is no harm in having it plugged in all the time. I use my external drive to do both functions so I leave it plugged in permanently.

As far as plugs go, choose one or the other but not both. From what I understand the eSata plug should provide you with a faster transfer speed from drive to computer so you should use that connection and unplug the USB.

 

[BeechV35Pilot]

If you have USB 2.0 transfers are guicker

Is that a typo? Here is one comparison that indicates eSata is significantly faster than USB2: USB2 vs eSata

What am I missing?
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2173844,00.asp

 

[rpmstl]

Plugged in is fine but you should turn the power off when not in use.

Externals tend to get too hot and have inadequate cooling methods. If you are constantly accessing the drive, mount it in the case. Externals are made as backup devices or for easy portability.

 

[Jacee]

I agree with the post above .... my external hard drive is plugged in, but turned off until I need it. It tends to get too hot when left on.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I'm surprised you don't have any issues with it, considering both plugs are connected. I would use the interface that fits what you need to do. If you plan to leave it running all the time, use eSATA. If you plan to just use it occasionally, the USB 2.0 would definitely hot swap it, regardless of internal SATA port configurations.

 

[BeechV35Pilot]

I agree with the post above .... my external hard drive is plugged in, but turned off until I need it. It tends to get too hot when left on.

Perhaps this is a brand nuance?

I have a Western Digital MyBook and it spins down or, for lack of a more accurate description, sleeps when not accessed by the computer. Thus it remains cool and draws very limited power while it is plugged in.

 

[ilesal]

Some have a USB power lead and a seperate USB data transfer lead, they can run without the power lead. Are you sure it is not what yours has?

 

[gregrocker]

I finally found a reason to keep my external plugged in, when Win7 backup asked me what I wanted to save to it, and when. I already had Win7 backup images stored there for all seven home machines but thought I should get in the habit of backing up my selected files automatically on a schedule, when the computer is idle.

I liked this arrangement so well I programmed our other six networked home computers to backup their selected files (active folders used) and HDD images over the network to the same external plugged into my PC. It works fine and even sorts each into its own folder, and auto-detects the given machine's files and image over the network when I want to apply backups. (I tend to forget the point of the external is I can move it around!)

Just set it and forget it!

 

[Buzzintx]

I leave my external HD plugged in but turned off.

 

[Qdos]

I wonder how USB3 will impact on the portable storage device market, you can now get one or two compliant motherboards and NEC make a USB3 chipset on a PCiE card with a two port interface.

Not seen any storage devices as of right now.

 

[robertpri]

My own experience: I am anal obsessive about backups, so have an ESATA Ext drive and it performs much faster with the ESATA cable than when using the optional USB port. Do NOT use both at the same time. In my Western Digital docs, they print that warning in bold letters: one or the other, but not both!

Secondly, if you have dual boot [like me] it is possible for Windows to confuse drive letters.

Avoid this:
1:Turn off computer, then turn off ESATA and reboot. The computer is 'looking' for that esata drive that was working when you shut down. Depending on your drive letters [with dual boot] windows can get confused and not find windows. [happened to me twice]

I have connnected\disconnected, turned on/off my ESATA drive while running with no problems.

 

[harpua]

My external hard drives also power down when not in use. In fact they came with a management app (Seagate Managerl, recent versions are W7 and x64 compatible) that allows one to configure whatever period of inactivity you want before they "sleep." So they stay nice and cool and draw very little power when not in use, even though still connected.