What's a good external HDD to buy these days? (2.5" size)
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From: Rod Speed on 11 Oct 2009 21:04 Ant wrote > Ed Light wrote >>> Question: Do 2.5" HDD enclosure for 2.5" HDDs exists? >> I have had bad experiences with several of them, but they were all >> IDE, not SATA. Incompatibilities with my motherboard would cause >> Windows to lock up if I tried to shut down with the drive attached, >> for instance. My present enclosure behaves ok but the SMART info. >> cannot be read. >> I have a new 3 1/2" Western Digital Elements external drive that is >> great, no problems at all, and the SMART data shows up (in Win XP, in >> the HD Sentinel program). Perhaps their 2 1/2" drives will do that. >> You should buy from a shop that will let you return it in case of >> incompatibilities. >> Believe me, winding up trying lots of enclosures for a bare drive is >> no fun, and can get expensive (return postage, restocking fees). > Bummer. Is anyone else experiencing this too? Nope, but I mostly use docking stations.
From: Rod Speed on 11 Oct 2009 21:04 Ant wrote > Rod Speed wrote >>> Question: Do 2.5" HDD enclosure for 2.5" HDDs exists? >> Yep. And the sata drive docking stations mostly accept both 3.5" and 2.5" sata drives. >>> I recall that notebooks/laptops use this size. >> Yes. >>> It would be nice to be able to have one that uses 2.5" size when I >>> still have my old regular sized HD enclosure for the desktop size ones. >> Yes, you can get both types of enclosures. > Is there a such thing of having an enclsoure for both sizes (2 in 1)? Most docking stations for sata drives do. Havent noticed any enclosures that do tho. Havent gone looking for them either tho.
From: Ant on 12 Oct 2009 04:33 On 10/11/2009 4:48 PM PT, Robert Nichols typed: > :Is there a such thing of having an enclsoure for both sizes (2 in 1)? > > You can get adapter brackets to mount a 2.5" drive in a 3.5" housing. > The connectors are identical, so all you need is a mechanical adapter. > But, if you're going to have a housing big enough to hold 3.5" drives, > then obviously you'd need some reason other than physical size to opt > for the more expensive and lower-capacity 2.5" drives. I don't think > you're going to find a housing that accepts, e.g., four 3.5" drives > OR eight 2.5" drives. Thanks. Actually, I was referring to one enclosure and swapping 2.5" and 3.5" drives inside of it. -- "The eyeless ant asked God, 'Give me eye-lashes.'" --Georgian Proverb /\___/\ / /\ /\ \ Phil/Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site) | |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net \ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address: philpi(a)earthlink.netANT ( ) or ANTant(a)zimage.com Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.
From: Arno on 20 Oct 2009 15:32 Ant <ant(a)zimage.comant> wrote: > On 10/20/2009 2:06 AM PT, Arno typed: >> That is possibly what took OS X off the list. W2k is likely just too >> old. > But I can format as FAT32 to use all the disk space on other computers > like Mac, Linux, etc. right? You can. I am not sure how to do this with Windows, but Linux mkdosfs with option -F32 (use FAT32) will happily format large drives as well and they work under Windows. Arno
From: Ant on 20 Oct 2009 16:41
> > But I can format as FAT32 to use all the disk space on other computers > > like Mac, Linux, etc. right? > You can. I am not sure how to do this with Windows, but Linux > mkdosfs with option -F32 (use FAT32) will happily format large > drives as well and they work under Windows. Looks like format command with its /FS:FAT32 according to XP Pro. SP2's format command line help: C:\>format /? Formats a disk for use with Windows XP. FORMAT volume [/FS:file-system] [/V:label] [/Q] [/A:size] [/C] [/X] FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q] [/F:size] FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q] [/T:tracks /N:sectors] FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q] FORMAT volume [/Q] volume Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon), mount point, or volume name. /FS:filesystem Specifies the type of the file system (FAT, FAT32, or NTFS). /V:label Specifies the volume label. /Q Performs a quick format. /C NTFS only: Files created on the new volume will be compressed by default. /X Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary. All opened handles to the volume would no longer be valid. /A:size Overrides the default allocation unit size. Default settings are strongly recommended for general use. NTFS supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K. FAT supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K, (128K, 256K for sector size > 512 bytes). FAT32 supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K, (128K, 256K for sector size > 512 bytes). Note that the FAT and FAT32 files systems impose the following restrictions on the number of clusters on a volume: FAT: Number of clusters <= 65526 FAT32: 65526 < Number of clusters < 4177918 Format will immediately stop processing if it decides that the above requirements cannot be met using the specified cluster size. NTFS compression is not supported for allocation unit sizes above 4096. /F:size Specifies the size of the floppy disk to format (1.44) /T:tracks Specifies the number of tracks per disk side. /N:sectors Specifies the number of sectors per track. I guess I could also use PartitionMagic v8 or some other disk tool to change the file system if I don't want to reformat and lose datas (of course, back up first). I want this portable HDD to be compatible with most computers. I noticed Seagate do have Windows 98 drivers if needed: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=portable-drivers&vgnextoid=fba08eaf05c70110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD .... http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=194371&NewLang=en was interesting -- "Preparing the Seagate external disc drive in Mac OS X. Mac OS X cannot mount a FAT32 partition larger than 137 GB (128 GB binary value). Our partition is 160 GB (149 GB binary value). Since your external drive comes with a large FAT32 partition preinstalled, you will need to intialize the drive to use it in Mac OS X..." That sounds like I won't be able to use all of the disk space as one partition. Maybe that is why Mac OS X wasn't supported and NTFS was used. IIRC, Linux and Mac OS X can't write NTFS well (buggy?). :( -- [Laser pulsing] "Bah. It's as easy as crushing an ant! You know, the..." [grunting] "Wh-wh-whoa! Hey, take my wallet and leave me alone!" --Mr. Burns from The Simpsons (Fraudcast News; FABF16/FABF18 episode) /\___/\ / /\ /\ \ Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site) | |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net \ _ / Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail. ( ) |