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Technical News & Discussion => Windows News & Discussion => Topic started by: Lona on Sep 14, 2010, 16:55:31

Title: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Lona on Sep 14, 2010, 16:55:31
I'm thinking of buying a portable USB hard drive and can't make up my mind whether to buy a Buffalo, Seagate, Samsung or WD.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003M5N3NQ/ref=asc_df_B003M5N3NQ877460?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B003M5N3NQ

This is the one I have my eye on.

Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Rik on Sep 14, 2010, 16:57:00
On personal experience, I'd got for Samsung or Seagate, Lona. Do Buffalo make drives, or just the enclosures?
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Ray on Sep 14, 2010, 17:00:53
I don't know, Rik, but they certainly make good kit, I've got one of their NAS drives that's been running trouble free for over 4 years and its on for about 18 hours per day.
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Rik on Sep 14, 2010, 17:02:43
Have you ever checked what make the drives are inside, Ray?
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: pctech on Sep 14, 2010, 17:04:00
Ray's NAS drive suddenly crashes upon clicking post

:rub:



Edit: Markup sorted
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Lona on Sep 14, 2010, 17:05:08
Buffalo make lots of different portable and desktop hard drives.

I bought my son a Samsung last week and it looks great but has gone up in price since I bought it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dcomputers&field-keywords=michael+jackson+this+is+it+hard+drive&x=0&y=0

I only paid £46 for it from Play.com and it has gone up in price there also.

I don't want to pay over £50
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Ray on Sep 14, 2010, 17:05:59
Quote from: Rik on Sep 14, 2010, 17:02:43
Have you ever checked what make the drives are inside, Ray?

I haven't, Rik, but I probably could if I can open it up easily. :)

Edit: that doesn't seem to possible without wrecking the enclosure. :-\
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: pctech on Sep 14, 2010, 17:11:20
it should tell you if you have it connected and go into disk management Ray

If using XP/Vista/7 Pro or Ultimate:

Right Click on My Computer/Computer and select Manage
Click Disk Management and click on the drive letter the drive has been assigned.
Click Properties and then the Hardware tab.

WDC is Western Digital, Maxtor and Seagate generally appear in full, not sure about the others.
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: pctech on Sep 14, 2010, 17:12:27
I have a Toshiba enclosure with a Western Digital 500 GB drive inside.

Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Rik on Sep 14, 2010, 17:14:15
Quote from: Ray on Sep 14, 2010, 17:05:59
I haven't, Rik, but I probably could if I can open it up easily. :)

Edit: that doesn't seem to possible without wrecking the enclosure. :-\

What Mitch said, Ray.
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Ray on Sep 14, 2010, 17:16:21
It doesn't I'm afraid, Mitch, you can't access the root of the drive as it runs a form of Linux and all you are seeing in Windows is a share mapped as a network drive. You can't get details of the drive even by logging onto the NAS drive web interface either.
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: pctech on Sep 14, 2010, 17:18:47
Ah, yes mine is a USB linked one so is mounted as an additional drive rather than a share.

Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Rik on Sep 14, 2010, 17:20:03
Quote from: Ray on Sep 14, 2010, 17:16:21
It doesn't I'm afraid, Mitch, you can't access the root of the drive as it runs a form of Linux and all you are seeing in Windows is a share mapped as a network drive. You can't get details of the drive even by logging onto the NAS drive web interface either.

Have you tried SiS, Everest etc, Ray?
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Ray on Sep 14, 2010, 17:25:04
Just tried SIW, Rik, all that can see is the IP address and the MAC address.
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Rik on Sep 14, 2010, 17:26:57
OK, it's screwdriver time.  :evil:
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Ray on Sep 14, 2010, 17:30:12
No screws, Rik. :P
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Glenn on Sep 14, 2010, 17:33:18
Hammer then.  :evil:
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Rik on Sep 14, 2010, 17:38:47
Or blowtorch.  :evil:
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: esh on Sep 14, 2010, 17:39:15
If you log into the linux box via ssh you can do something like this :


[rhickman@paragon]$ sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda
Password:

/dev/sda:

ATA device, with non-removable media
       Model Number:       ST3500830A
       Serial Number:      5QG1DX9H
       Firmware Revision:  3.AAC


ST stands for Seagate Technologies in this case.
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Ray on Sep 14, 2010, 19:19:21
Mystery solved it's a Western Digital HD
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Rik on Sep 14, 2010, 19:20:39
 :thumb:
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Ray on Sep 14, 2010, 19:27:51
They're a sod to get into, Rik, but it's a good job I did, it was full of dust and cobwebs. :eek4:
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: talos on Sep 15, 2010, 08:36:12
Quote from: Ray on Sep 14, 2010, 19:27:51
They're a sod to get into, Rik, but it's a good job I did, it was full of dust and cobwebs. :eek4:

Dont whatever you do remove the cobwebs :no: they're there to trap bugs
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Rik on Sep 15, 2010, 09:23:40
:grn:
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Glenn on Sep 15, 2010, 09:29:34
But spiders can be worse than bots.
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Rik on Sep 15, 2010, 09:30:26
:music: Spiders are forever :music: ;D
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Glenn on Sep 15, 2010, 09:32:40
 :getout:
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Rik on Sep 15, 2010, 09:35:39
Wait till Simon sees it. ;D

(http://bestsmileys.com/insects/3.gif)
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Ray on Sep 15, 2010, 09:49:48
 ;D
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Simon on Sep 15, 2010, 10:32:04
I haven't.  ;)
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Rik on Sep 15, 2010, 10:35:26
 ;D Yet...
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Ray on Sep 15, 2010, 11:08:28
 ;D
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Lona on Sep 15, 2010, 11:38:11
If anybody's interested here's what I bought..................

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/15012779/Seagate-FreeAgent-Go-Portable-500GB-External-USB-Hard-Drive-Ruby-Red-ST905003FDD2E1-RK/Product.html
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Rik on Sep 15, 2010, 11:46:12
Black looks nicer. ;D
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Lona on Sep 15, 2010, 19:10:18
Quote from: Rik on Sep 15, 2010, 11:46:12
Black looks nicer. ;D

I wanted the red one to be trended. ;D
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Rik on Sep 15, 2010, 19:11:47
 ;D

Not to mention high visibility. ;)
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: esh on Sep 15, 2010, 23:26:34
I have good experience with Seagate drives. I'd like it if they introduced some of these variable-RPM drives like the WD Caviar Green and Samsung EcoGreen though.
Title: Re: Portable USB Hard Drive
Post by: Lona on Sep 17, 2010, 02:04:00
Quote from: esh on Sep 15, 2010, 23:26:34
I have good experience with Seagate drives. I'd like it if they introduced some of these variable-RPM drives like the WD Caviar Green and Samsung EcoGreen though.

Are those not internal Hard drive, Esh?