Internal vs. External Hard Drive

[hoos]

Due to recent events (mainly Smokie saying that Vista is 14 GB) I am more hardpressed to get a new hard drive for my computer. I've been looking at external hard drives through USB and that seems like a good choice. It's a little more expensive I believe, but oh well.

Going for an internal is a bigger issue I think. I have a Dell laptop, and would I have to go through Dell? Or maybe go straight from the source (Toshiba or one other). Getting a bigger internal Hard drive also seems easier, b/c I don't have to plug anything up, and I'll have everything when I carry it around.

What should I do!?

[Asshole]

laptop parts are generally expensive, and dells generally arnt made to have thier hardware upgraded so as i dont have time to check now id say as a quick answer externals will be your best bet.. i have 4 external hard drives all work fine, gonna get a USB 2.0 hub methinks and connect em all !

[Santo]

Hoos, if you have the option to go firewire that would be better for an external hard drive, however i'm not sure how good and external drive would be for running applications, i have an external drive to keep my files backup and store music movies etc. If you go for the internal drive for a laptop, try to find a faster than 5400 rpm one, that would greatly improve the performance but they run kind of expensive, and produce a bit more heat.

[hoos]

And Another question... Does $140 sound too much for an external 300GB HD?

[Santo]

Nop, sounds about right. Shop around a little, and look at the reviews of the ones you like.

[Davecat]

worthwhile pointing out that the vista build i was using took up about 8Gb...

also - what spec is the laptop - because it might not be worth attempting to upgrade to vista at all...

Vista is a total system hog and put my PC's performance through the floor.

[Pot4life]

internal for a laptop will void the warrenty nmuff said.

some programs wont boot from removable storage :S

[Pot4life]

you are excused

[Dymond]

I used to pride myself of getting every version of windows to boot on removeable media (ie zip and Jaz disks)..From Windows 3.1 to Linux and OS/2..all successfully run.

[Ridgeback]

Going for an internal is a bigger issue I think. I have a Dell laptop, and would I have to go through Dell? Or maybe go straight from the source (Toshiba or one other). Getting a bigger internal Hard drive also seems easier, b/c I don't have to plug anything up, and I'll have everything when I carry it around.

What should I do!?

I may be completely wrong, but I thought you could put any 2.5" hard drive into a laptop :S It's only connected by an adaptor after all.

[hoos]

I may be completely wrong, but I thought you could put any 2.5" hard drive into a laptop :S It's only connected by an adaptor after all.

Yeah you can, or I thought you could. But I think if I get anything it'll be an external because like Aisling, if I get a new computer I could hook it up there too.

[Ridgeback]

You can ridge but you need to buy the enclosure etc

you don't need to buy anything as you already have it all. you just replace the hard drive itself - i've done it with my current dell laptop

[anti-duck]

you don't need to buy anything as you already have it all. you just replace the hard drive itself - i've done it with my current dell laptop
Pretty much, all you have to do is make sure you have the right connector for the harddisk, ATA-6 or serial ATA, and it'll work just fine. All you need to do is pop off the keyboard or the back cover, take out the old disk and put in a new one. It's not rocket science and it's much more convenient that lugging around an external drive.

If you still want to use that disk after you get a new computer you can buy an external 2.5" enclosure and use the hard disk as an external drive anyway.

If you're in the States check out newegg, they usually have very good prices: http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/SubCategory.asp?SubCategory=380&name=Notebook-Laptop-Hard-Drives

[Dymond]

I think we discussed in an earlier post that not all laptop HD are easy to get to..However I think Dell makes theirs fairly straightforward. Another option other than an external HD would be USB key of some sort..They are getting to be fairly large nowadays.

[hoos]

Well, so you know. I got a 160GB Western External Harddrive. USB 2.0 and all the reviews I look at were great, except for about 2 or 3 that said theirs died after 6 months.

I got it on Ebay for $85.00 total (with shipping and whatnot) so I think that was a pretty good deal. $0.53 per GB. :)

[PunkRock]

I Saw A Video On How To Install A New Hard Drive Into A Laptop, And It Isn't That Easy. I Personally Would Recommend An External, There Usually Bigger, And Portable, For Use On Different PC's.

Also I've Seen Many At Very Good Prices, And 300Gb, Thats Good Memory (Y)