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by neilp
Mon Sep 28, 2009 3:50 pm
Forum: Technical Tips, Questions & Discussions (Computers & Internet)
Topic: External hard drive recommendations
Replies: 21
Views: 5350

Re: External hard drive recommendations

I've used just about every brand of USB connected drive there is. In my opinion there is little to choose regarding the brand. The important factor is the connections. Some require an external power supply, some do not. Some use one USB connection, others use two.

If you do not need portability I would choose a drive that uses an external power supply. USB connected drives are performance limited not just by the USB connection's bandwidth but also by the amount of power it can supply to the drive. If you want the drive to be independent from a power supply I suggest getting one that uses two USB connections. The second USB connector is only used to supply power. You can usually use the dual USB type with one USB connector but at reduced transfer rates.

The drives connected by one USB port are significantly slower in my experience. Something a little better than half the speed of the dual USB type. You will want to make sure that your PC has USB 2.0 type ports. The previous USB 1.1 standard was considerably slower and would be painful if used often with an external drive. USB 2.0 is 40x faster than USB 1.1

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