Why are portable external hard drives more expensive than desktop hard drives?

Will I be able to use a portable hard drive on my desktop computer before I get a new laptop?

Where would I find the best deal on a portable hard drive? Any brands I should avoid?

 

It should be obvious once you think about it for a second. Portable drives are encased in an enclosure. The enclosures must provide power and a data interface for the drive, and connections to the computer. The enclosure cost money to design and manufacture and then someone or some assembly process must install the drive in the enclosure.

The desktop drive has no enclosure and the power and data connections are supplied by the computer.

Yes - as a secondary (not boot) drive.

Shop around. Check out Newegg or Tiger Direct or Amazon.

When it comes to enclosures, the drives themselves are all comparably reliable. The problem comes with the enclosures. Not all are equal or offer the same interfaces. I would look for one that supports eSATA and/or USB 3.0.

 

Thank you.

So USB is much preferable to 2.0. I notice it makes a big difference in the price.

What is eSATA?

 

USB 3.0 is the latest and greatest and MUCH FASTER than 2.0. So when buying new USB devices, you should look for USB 3.0. Do note that USB 3.0 is foreword and backward compatible with 2.0.

Remember, Bing and Google are your friends.

What is eSATA?

 

USB 3.0 external drives/caddy is about £10 more than USB 2.0 in UJ

Conversely, I have been wondering why desktop or even laptop drives are about the same price as external drives (new) [in UK]

Dumb_Question
10.September.2013

 

They aren't. You need to look carefully at the specs. If you see a 2Tb internal drive is the same price as an external 2Tb drive from the same maker, then the external will have slower seek and access times, a smaller buffer, and/or slower rotation speeds.

 

The lowest price I have seen so far for a 2TB USB 3.0 is $109, but I will keep looking.
http://www.buydig.com/shop/product....id=230005120000031107&cadevice=c&&cagpspn=pla

No mention in ad of eSATA. Found in a WD document on its portable hard drives, at https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...=3KU2gRMCAj8V4DNXlFs2iA&bvm=bv.51773540,d.bGE :

"Effective maximum SATA 3 Gb/s or 1.5 Gb/s transfer rate calculated according to the Serial ATA specification published by the SATA-IO organization as of the date of this specification sheet. Visit www.sata-io.org for details."

I suppose that means it's eSATA.

 

eSATA is for "external SATA" uses a different connection. Many motherboards now provide an eSATA connection on the rear I/O panel for eSATA devices.

Note this external device supports both USB 3.0 and eSATA.

*************
9/11 - Never Forget!

 

So you don't think Western Digital My Passport is up to par with the other prominent external hard drive brands, Digerati?

 

Huh? Where on Earth did you read anything I said to suggest that? I've not said anything about any brand.

My comments were about available interfaces only - not about speed or reliability of any product or brand. And my only suggestion is to buy the latest to ensure future proofing.

The choice of USB or eSATA is dependent on your specific needs based on the I/O capabilities of your current motherboard.

 

Sorry. I somehow overlooked "and/or USB 3.0".

 

No problem. With USB, brands really are not that important when the makers design to industry standard specifications. That is, a product cannot claim it is USB3.0 unless it really is USB 3.0.

And when it comes to external drive enclosures, while there may be 100s, there are only a few actual hard drive makers. At least with your WD Passport, you can safely assume it contains a WD drive. And WD makes good drives. Beyond that, the quality of the enclosure is up the maker but I think it is also safe to say WD does not want poor quality enclosures reflecting poorly on their company - or entire line of products.

 

I had a respondent at another site say :

I am indeed intending continuous duty during waking hours as a backup. What would you say about his view on external hard drives?

 

Would a fan of this sort (general price range, not necessarily specific model)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7811033&CatId=495

be usable on a portable external like

http://www.amazon.com/Passport-Port...&qid=1380120176&sr=1-2&keywords=WDBY8L0020BBK

That's the one I have my eyes on to buy, although I've found a better price than at Amazon.

 

Hi my friend , my opinion is that the external driver's controller isn't good enough , the best choice is buying something like this one

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/hdd-docking-station-usb-3-0

to plug in an internal disk to save you data , is more expensive choice but effective for your data :wave

 

No. If you look at the specs of that fan, it is not self-powered and requires power via a standard 4-pin PSU connector - as used to power "internal" hard drives.

External drives were really designed as backup devices - and not for continuous use. If to be for continuous use, I would get an enclosure with fan and put my own drive in it. And I would likely get a 5400RPM drive because they don't generate as much heat (or noise) as faster spinning drives.

That said, I really don't like external drives and to me, getting an external drive now for your PC, to be used later on a notebook really does not make sense to me. It makes more sense to me to wait. And if you must replace your PC with a notebook, get a notebook with a large hard drive. And note, in spite of what notebook makers would like us to believe, notebooks are not "desktop replacements". And the ability, or lack thereof to add additional drives illustrates that point.

 

What do you use for backup?

You mean an external or internal drive? I think you mean internal.

I really have no idea when I'll get a new computer, so backup of the present machine is imperative.

[QUOTEAnd note, in spite of what notebook makers would like us to believe, notebooks are not "desktop replacements". And the ability, or lack thereof to add additional drives illustrates that point.][/QUOTE]

Please tell me more about this. Are you typically stuck with the HDD GB you start with for the life of your laptop?

 

I have several methods - depending on what I am backing up. But generally, I use one of my older computers as a NAS (network attached storage) device. And most commonly, I just "drag and drop" (copy and paste) a copy of My Documents folder to this computer. But I also keep an image of my computer on that networked system, and on BlueRay.

A hard drive is a hard drive. An enclosure typically comes with no drive inside so you can add your own. An external hard drive is basically an enclosure with a hard drive installed at the factory.

It sure is, and I am glad you are aware of how important backups are. But note you said this drive will be for continuous use. That suggests this will not be just for backups. So then how will you backup this device?

In many cases, yes! At best, you can "replace" the notebook hard drive with a larger drive, but then you must deal with installing or transferring the operating system on the new drive, and then transferring all your installed programs and personal data to it. This is certainly doable, but it is usually a bit of a hassle, and often not without problems.

But with a PC, you can simply add a second (or third or fourth) hard drive to increase your storage capacity.

Also there are other issues which prevent a notebook from truly being PC replacements. For one, they are nearly impossible for most users to fully open for proper cleaning - essential for proper cooling and long life.

It is a challenge to keep PCs cooled during heavy tasks (like serious gaming) and a good PC case supports several large cooling fans. A tiny notebook case provides very limited fan support space for a good "flow" of cool air - yet the notebooks fans still suck in heat trapping dust.

More and more notebooks use surface mounted CPUs that cannot be upgraded. Many provide no upgrade options for graphics.

Yes, notebook makers can pack PC performance in a notebook, but they cannot pack PC cooling in there too. So it is common for notebooks to run very warm, or even hot causing the CPU to toggle down in speed (and thus performance) to stay cool.

Finally, in the desire to "market" their notebooks as the lightest and thinnest, notebook makers are notorious for using non-standard, proprietary parts. This means they are more expensive to buy, upgrade, repair, and replace.

Notebooks were designed for, and are ideally suited for road warriors and others who need to take their computers with them in their travels.

Oh, another thing. Notebooks grow feet and disappear easier than PCs too. Plus, they don't come with full size keyboards, mouse, or monitors either.

 

Maybe I could compromise on the continuous use matter.

I intend to have BuddyBackup if I can find a partner, and I intend to have multiple cloud storage sites.

Do you recall which specific companies do that?

I agree with you. I would drastically prefer to get a desktop. It's just this one thing--portability--that tilts it to a laptop. Hopefully the next time I'm up for a new computer I'll be able to get both a desktop and a laptop.