Posts by Noah Flores2

Keith Rodriguez27 said:So, I'm planning on picking up an external drive sometime down the road, and there's this one thing on my mind. My current laptop doesn't actually have a USB 3.0 port, and honestly, I don't really have any immediate plans to upgrade to a new machine, so it feels like a waste of money to pay extra for an external HDD with a USB 3.0 connection if I can't take advantage of it right away. Basically, I was wondering how much of a "standard" USB 3.0 port is on all the new computers you see in stores today. Because, you know, life happens—maybe this laptop of mine (which isn't exactly cutting edge) finally gives up the ghost, or maybe I stumble upon a great deal on a new computer, or something else entirely happens, and since I plan on using this external drive for a pretty long time, I guess I should be thinking ahead.

And another thing—regarding brand quality, what's the deal with Adata? I couldn't help but notice their prices are significantly lower compared to WD, Transcend, or Seagate, to the point where you actually get more storage space for less cash. As for the others, from what I've gathered, Transcend gets a lot of praise, and while WD used to have a stellar reputation, I feel like that hasn't been quite as true lately.

A standard 1TB USB 3.0 HDD is sitting at about $283 right now—that's what I shelled out for my Western Digital. Some people might argue that it doesn't really matter which type of drive you go with, I suppose.

A buddy of mine uses an HDD Apollo drive, which isn't exactly a household name, and it's got a USB 2.0 port. He couldn't even save a certain video clip, apparently because the file was too big—around 4 GB—even though he had about 100 GB of free space left, whereas my drive just swallowed it up without any issues.

If you're even remotely considering swapping out your laptop later on, it’s probably smarter to grab something with a USB 3.0 port, mostly because the transfer speeds are basically twice as fast when time is the factor; if you only have USB 2.0 ports, the USB 3.0 drive will just scale back and run at those slower USB 2.0 speeds anyway.

I ended up going with Western Digital, mainly because so many people claim they're still the top tier, based on some research from back in 2012.

http://external-hard-drive-review.toptenreviews.com/

http://askville.amazon.com/brand-ext...uestId=5021334

@Well, more than 200 companies have churned out hard disk drives over the years. But with all the recent industry consolidation, most production has narrowed down to just three major players: Western Digital, Seagate, and Toshiba.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_di...movable_drives

Benjamin King2 said:It might actually cause some damage if you aren't careful, so I guess you should just watch those little indicator lights when you're unplugging it—basically make sure the drive isn't busy doing anything right before you pull it out. Or, honestly, maybe it's just easier to shut down the whole computer before taking it out.

Well, I had this one instance where Safa Remove just wouldn't let me eject it, which happened after I’d been sitting there for a while transferring a massive amount of data onto it. When I took it to the repair shop, they told me that I really should have just rebooted my PC, though they also mentioned that they rarely even bother using the safe removal method themselves for their own drives since they don't unplug them that often, and they haven't run into any data loss issues. They did suggest that you could potentially end up with some corrupted files, but I suppose that's pretty rare.

I've tried just pulling it without ejecting a few times now, and nothing bad has happened to my files; everything still plays back perfectly fine.

So, I went ahead and picked up a Western Digital, 1000 GB, with a USB 3.0 port, $283. But here’s the thing—after I finished my first big file transfer, it just wouldn't let me Eject it safely. I mean, do you think that's going to cause any damage?

It came pre-formatted, so I didn't have to mess around with that part myself, which was nice. It looks pretty sleek, too. It was manufactured back in 2012, so I guess I'm just crossing my fingers that everything stays stable and actually keeps my data safe. 😉 Do you reckon this was a solid choice? I spent way too much time wandering around town looking at options, but honestly, it was frustrating; either they only had tiny ones, like 320 GB or 500 GB, or I’d have to wait forever for a special order because the specs listed on Best Buy's website can be totally unreliable, and half the time nothing is actually in stock anyway.

I'm heading over to Lenovo on Jurisic Street this afternoon; Micro Center has been stocking some really nice sets from Adata, Transcend, and Western Digital lately.
There’s also that shop right on the corner of Draskovic Street and Jurisic Street, but man, they are overpriced—they're asking about $267 500 GB for Transcend drives.

Benjamin King2 said:I trimmed down your 2.5" list to about 1 GB for you: http://www.amazon.com/external-hard-drives...,121535,291084

If I were in your shoes, I’d probably lean toward a Transcend StoreJet 25 D3 or maybe an Adata Nobility NH13, mostly because I feel like Western Digital is just way too overpriced for what you actually get.

As far as where to buy, you've got places like Best Buy, Micro Center, or maybe even some local shops... I'm not entirely sure who else keeps physical stock on the shelves. Honestly, I'd suggest just checking the actual store websites directly, since those comparison sites can be pretty unreliable—the info is often outdated or doesn't even match what the stores actually have in stock.

Is Transcend actually better quality than Adata or Western Digital? I mean, for instance, why would a 750 GB WD drive ($297) be priced almost the same as a Transcend 1000 GB ($300)?

And also, how come a 500 GB WD is more expensive than a Transcend 500 GB by nearly $33, especially when they seem to have identical specs—same RPM, same size, same 8 MB cache?

I did find this 1 TB WD drive here.

http://www.microcenter.com/details/product...ep0010bbk.aspx

The exact same one is listed at a higher price in a different online shop than it is at Micro Center.

http://www.insight.com/external-drive-ready/0130459

It's cheaper than the Transcend model despite having the same specs. Or maybe there's some hidden detail I'm missing? Like, does it somehow offer better performance or something?

http://www.amazon.com/external-hard-drives...00rpm__1692961

Here's what I'm wondering: if the hard drive doesn't let you use USB Safely Remove, does it actually damage the data if you just yank the USB cable out without getting that "You can now safely remove your hardware" message?

I'm asking because certain apps won't close because they're tied to a Generic Device, and it ends up giving me these annoying warnings for hours whenever I click the icon in the system tray.

Is there a decent brick-and-mortar store I could use instead of buying everything online? I haven't had the best luck with online shopping. For me, the quality of the hardware is the most important thing—I need to know my data is safe, which is huge. I want something that lasts. Plus, I really don't have the patience to deal with the hassle of returning stuff to a store if it doesn't work right.

Thanks for the help.

Hey there,

I was thinking about which external hard drive would be the best pick from this list I put together...

http://www.nabava.net/cvrsti-diskovi...,291084,121535

Some brands aren't listed, but maybe one of these 52 options could actually work, I guess.

I still find myself leaning toward Western Digital, but I'm kind of worried—is it actually bad for the drive to just yank the USB cable out of the port? Because I need to move files over to another PC. The guy at the shop was trying to convince me that it doesn't matter at all if you just unplug it, even though that little icon for safe removal isn't really doing anything.

I'd prefer something 2.5 inch max, you know, lightweight and things that don't need their own extra power supply. Though, if there happened to be a decent 3.5 inch model, I wouldn't exactly complain.

The specs here are pretty much identical to the 2.5 inch ones; I just toggled the option for 3.5 inch drives.

http://www.nabava.net/cvrsti-diskovi...,291084,121535

I don't know much about the reputation of these shops. I suppose Micro Center is a bit more reliable, but they don't seem to have any external hard drives in stock right now. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of online retailers; sometimes it feels like they're just offering you whatever single unit they happen to have sitting in the display case.

What's the vibe at Hard Rock Cafe lately? Do you think they might have a better selection? I can easily swing by there. What about Best Buy?🙂

Does anyone know if the shop in downtown Chicago is any good?

Also, does anyone happen to know if they'll be getting new stock soon? Maybe sometime this fall?

Benjamin King2 said:What does he mean by "it won't disconnect"? You just go to "Safely Remove Hardware" in the system tray, tell it to stop the drive, and then pull the USB cable out.

So, I click that icon down in the bottom right corner and select Eject, but then after maybe ten seconds or so, I get this notification saying it’s impossible to safely disconnect the Generic Device and that I should try closing all the programs currently using that Device. But the thing is, everything is already closed. I ended up just deleting everything I had saved on there, and I'm taking the whole thing back to the store tomorrow. Honestly, the selection of external drives is pretty pathetic; maybe one or two options are actually in stock at the local shops.

I've returned plenty of stuff in the past, and even though they always end up deciding it wasn't my fault, I guess I'm just getting tired of it; I just don't find much joy in computers anymore. It mostly feels like a massive waste of nerves.

It’s such a shame, really, because when I first plugged the hard drive in, it handled its own Update quite autonomously, went through three steps, showed me it was Ready, and everything saved pretty quickly—even though this laptop only has those old USB 2.0 ports. It plays back everything fine, but the moment you need to do a Safe Remove USB, it just refuses, and I end up sitting there waiting for hours.

From what I can gather looking at some foreign forums, this seems to be a wider issue; people mention rebooting as one of the potential fixes, but I'm not exactly an expert on that kind of stuff. I honestly thought a Western Digital drive would be a bit higher quality than this.

Benjamin King2 said:I mean, you’re probably not going to stumble upon many 7200 rpm drives these days since most external drives are basically just glorified storage bins where speed isn't really the main concern, I guess.

As far as interfaces go, SATA is definitely what you should be looking for; ATA is ancient history at this point, and then you have SAS/SCSI, which is mostly reserved for those high-end enterprise storage systems.

The cache is essentially just a buffer for data, which I suppose helps maintain a continuous transfer while the drive is busy oscillating between read and write operations.

And yeah, you can plug a USB 3 drive into a USB 2 port, it’ll just be significantly slower, obviously.

Regarding 2.5 vs 3.5... the big difference is capacity, because 2.5-inch drives are smaller and there's just no physical room inside them to cram in extra circuit boards.

If having an extra power supply feels like too much of a hassle, then maybe just skip the 3.5-inch drives altogether; it's really just a matter of personal preference, I guess.

If there aren't any Windows 7 drivers available for that old hardware you're working with, well, you're kind of stuck; your options are basically sticking with Windows XP or just biting the bullet and buying new hardware.

And as for sightseeing, I'd say just get out there and walk. 😁 I mean, what's the goal with all that sightseeing anyway? A drive sitting on a shelf looks exactly the same as it does in a photo, so you aren't exactly going to see anything life-changing in person.

I grabbed a 500 GB Western Digital 2.5 inch HDD and moved everything over, but now it won't let me disconnect it from my laptop. And I really need to unplug it. Does anyone have a fix for this?

What a terrible deal; the thing stopped working on the very first day.

Thanks for the explanations. It honestly doesn't make sense to keep wasting money on various pieces of junk that don't actually work.

I found this program called USB Safely Remove, does it deal with the same kind of stuff?

Benjamin King2 said:I mean, it really depends on what you’re actually hunting for, I guess... if you're looking for decent spots, where do people even go these days? It’s kind of a toss-up depending on whether you want big-box convenience or something a bit more specialized, though I suppose most people just stick to the usual suspects. Where are the good ones located, anyway?

I mean, at the end of the day, transfer speeds really just come down to how fast the actual drive can spin, so I guess it’s kind of a moot point whether you're looking at a 3.5" model or something else; those larger drives basically just offer more storage space, which is great if you need the room, but they aren't magically faster just because they're bigger.

So, I guess if you're sitting there wondering whether you can actually plug a USB 3.0 drive into an old-school USB 2.0 port without everything spontaneously combusting, the short answer is that they're perfectly compatible, though maybe not in the way you’d hope. It's one of those things where everything technically works together, but you aren't exactly getting that lightning-fast transfer speed you were dreaming about when you bought the newer gear, so you're basically just running at the pace of a snail on a Sunday stroll. It’s fine, really—it works, it's compatible, but don't expect any miracles from it.

I mean, honestly, I feel like we need to have this conversation again because people just won't listen: drive size doesn't actually dictate the quality of the hardware, so stop acting like a 3.5-inch drive is inherently "better" than a 2.5-inch one. I guess some people just see those bigger, bulkier desktop drives and assume they’re somehow more premium or reliable, which is probably just a total misconception, maybe? It's all about what's going on under the hood, really. You can have a tiny little laptop drive that performs beautifully while a massive desktop unit struggles, so yeah, the physical footprint doesn't tell you a single thing about how well it's actually going to hold up over time.

So, you plug the power supply into the wall outlet, right? And then you’re left wondering... what exactly does "more taxing" actually mean in this context? I guess it could be anything, really—maybe it's about the electrical load, or perhaps it's just some weird technical jargon that doesn't quite land. It's all a bit vague, isn't it? Maybe.

So, I’m currently hanging out in Washington, D.C.😍 I mean, if it’s possible to just swing by the shop and actually take a look at everything in person, that would be great, because honestly, my luck with buying electronics online has been pretty much nonexistent lately. I guess I just haven't had the best run of things when it comes to clicking "buy" and hoping for the best, so maybe seeing the gear firsthand might save me some headaches.😢

It honestly feels like, if you look around here, the 5400 rpm drives are pretty much everywhere you turn, I guess. It seems like that’s just the standard most people are settling for these days, maybe because they're just so common in the US market.

It’s kind of funny, actually—whenever I head over to a site like Amazon to see what might fit my needs, if I try to be even slightly specific with my search filters, the whole selection just sort of... evaporates. You start with this massive, overwhelming list of options, but the second you try to narrow things down to something that actually makes sense for what you're doing, suddenly there’s almost nothing left to look at. It’s like the more you know about what you want, the less the internet seems to have to offer you, I guess. Maybe it's just me, but it feels like the options vanish into thin air the moment you get picky.

So, if I’m looking at that particular page and actually taking all those specific brands into account—you know, the whole lineup like Adata, Dell, IBM, General Electric, HP, Intel, Dell, Samsung, Seagate, Verbatim, Western Digital, SanDisk, and Western Digital—I guess you could say there's a pretty massive list to sift through. It’s kind of a lot, really, if you think about it, but maybe that's just how it goes when you're trying to make sense of all these different options at once.

Then if I decide to go with the external option—well, yeah, I’ve already got like 108 different models sitting there ready to be picked.

If I decide to go with the 2.5-inch drives, then the list of selected models just drops down to about 66, I guess.

So, if I decide to tweak the capacity filters to anything between 450 and 6,000 GB, then—I guess—it suddenly jumps up to about 54 results, which feels like a bit much, maybe.

The thing is, I was looking through the specs, and it seems like none of those 54 options actually offer anything better than 5400 rpm, which I guess is kind of a letdown if you were hoping for a bit more kick.

So, if I decide to go with the 5400 rpm drives, then we're looking at a selection of only about 33 external drives, which I guess isn't exactly a massive catalog or anything, but maybe that's just how it goes.

Could you maybe walk me through what all these values actually signify? I'm trying to wrap my head around it, but I guess I'm just a bit lost.

So, I was looking through this list of 33 drives, and I’m kind of staring at it wondering what the deal is, because out of the whole bunch, only two of them actually use a SATA interface—the rest don't seem to fit that category at all. It makes you wonder why they're even grouped together like this, I guess. But if we're talking about which interface is actually the "best" between ATA, SATA, SAS, and SCSI, it really depends on what you're trying to pull off, though it's a bit of a weird question when the vast majority of your options aren't even SATA. I suppose if you're just doing basic stuff, SATA is fine, but then you have SAS and SCSI which are more for those heavy-duty enterprise setups, though most people probably won't ever need to touch them. It's a bit of a toss-up, really, especially since your selection here is so lopsided.

So, you're seeing that there's only 8MB of cache available, and you're wondering what on earth that actually implies in the grand scheme of things? I guess you could look at it as some kind of tiny, high-speed memory buffer living right inside the drive itself, if that makes sense. It’s not like your main system RAM or anything, but more like a little staging area where the drive holds onto data for a split second before moving it around, which I suppose helps speed things up slightly during certain tasks. It's basically just a small pool of super-fast memory tucked away in the hardware to help manage the flow of information, though 8MB is definitely on the lower side by modern standards, I guess.

So, I mean, if you're stuck with nothing but USB 2.0 ports on your machine—which, let’s be honest, feels like living in the stone age—can you actually plug a USB 3.0 cable into them? I guess the short answer is yes, you can, because they're physically compatible, but there's a bit of a catch that might make you roll your eyes. It'll work, sure, but you won't get those blazing fast speeds everyone raves about; everything will just crawl along at that old USB 2.0 pace, which is kind of a bummer if you're trying to move massive files. So, yeah, it fits, but don't expect any miracles.

So, I'm sitting here looking at my USB 3.0 port, and I noticed it’s got that distinct blue plastic inside, which I guess is how you tell it apart from the older stuff, right? It's positioned right there, immediately adjacent to the HDMI port. I mean, I was just staring at it and thinking about the layout, though I suppose most people probably don't give it a second thought unless they're actually trying to plug something in, I guess.

So, I was over at the store today, and the guy behind the counter was trying really hard to convince me that these 3.5-inch drives are somehow much faster when it comes to data transfer speeds, which, I don't know, maybe he's right? I guess it's possible, though I feel like there's a lot of nuance there that people tend to gloss over, but anyway, that’s what he told me.🤣 It’s kind of funny, actually—if you think about it—because that thing was only ever sitting there in the display window.🤣 It wasn't exactly life-changing or anything, but I guess it feels a bit more substantial than those flimsy 2.5-inch drives, if that makes any sense. Though, honestly, I probably wouldn't have minded going with a 3.5-inch model instead; maybe I just like having something with a little more heft to it.

I guess it really just comes down to how much you value convenience versus raw capacity, though I suppose there isn't a single right answer, if that makes sense. If you go with a 2.5-inch drive, things are pretty straightforward since they usually just plug right into a USB port and call it a day, which is nice. But then you have those 3.5-inch drives, and man, those can be a bit of a hassle because they almost always require their own dedicated power adapter plugged into a wall outlet, which I guess makes them a little more "high maintenance" or annoying to deal with when you're just trying to move some files around quickly. It’s a bit of a trade-off, really.

Honestly, the selection here is pretty underwhelming if you’re looking at it from an IT procurement standpoint, I guess. There’s just so much stuff we actually need to get our hands on, which means we'll be stuck waiting on shipments forever, and then there's the whole tedious process of trying to convince everyone to just settle for whatever random stock they happen to have on the shelves right now. It's a bit of a headache, really.

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Just to be a bit more clear about what’s actually bugging me here, it's really this whole situation with the USB ports that's giving me a headache. I'm sitting here with a laptop that doesn't even have a USB 3.0 port, and I'm trying to figure out how on earth I'm going to transfer my data over to an external hard drive without everything just crawling along at a snail's pace, I guess.

Since my other PC actually has a USB 3.0 port, I’m really hoping to get one of those here too, mostly because I just can't stand sitting around forever waiting for files to transfer over to the hard drive—it's such a drag. So, I guess what I'm wondering is, are they essentially the exact same thing? Like, would the same cable work for both, or am I overthinking this whole situation?

So, I was thinking about this, and if I grab an external hard drive that’s got a USB 3.0 port, does that actually mean I can just plug it into a standard USB 2.0 port on my PC without any major drama? I guess I’m mostly just worried about whether they’ll stop making those older ports entirely, because it feels like every single device being manufactured lately seems to be moving exclusively toward USB 3.0. I mean, maybe I'm overthinking it, but I don't want to end up with a piece of hardware that's basically useless if my computer doesn't have the latest tech.

I’m really hoping I can finally get this sorted out sometime this week, because honestly, I feel like I've been spinning my wheels on this exact same issue for weeks on end now.

I was thinking I’d want something around the 1TB mark... though honestly, I wouldn't mind going smaller, provided it doesn't dip below 500GB because, you know, you need some breathing room. I guess my gut feeling is that Western Digital is pretty much the gold standard when it comes to external drives, or at least they feel more reliable to me. I was browsing Best Buy earlier to see what was available, but I couldn't find any IBM external options listed; it seems like they only really focus on their internal drives over there.

SanDisk says it’s a solid choice, too. Or maybe Seagate would be the way to go, I guess.

If you're looking for external drives with higher capacities—you know, anything north of 450 GB—it seems like your only real options are Adata, SanDisk, or Western Digital.

Honestly, this might be the most frustrating component I've ever tried to track down.

I tend to run into a bunch of issues after I actually pull the trigger on a purchase, though. Even when people swear these things are high-quality, I've had several just flat-out refuse to work.🙄

And now I'm dealing with this whole new headache where some of my older gear—like my scanner, webcam, and joystick—just won't play nice with Windows 7, even though everything worked perfectly fine back on XP. I've even got a few games that simply won't run on Windows 7 anymore.😢

Is there any sort of workaround to get these three components installed without me having to downgrade all the way back to XP Windows?

Finding a decent hard drive is proving to be such a massive pain. There are plenty of online retailers out there, but honestly, I wouldn't deal with most of them ever again.

Hey there,

So, I’ve been spending way too much time scrolling through Best Buy's website trying to pick up an external hard drive, but man, the selection is just... underwhelming. It feels like they either have maybe one or two options in stock, or if you want anything decent, you're stuck waiting forever for a special order.

It’s honestly pretty frustrating; they’ll claim they have something in stock, and then suddenly, nope, not anymore. And then, of course, they try to nudge you toward some off-brand, bottom-tier junk just so they can close the sale.

I don't really get why it's such a hassle to just buy a simple drive. I’m also a bit wary about ordering stuff online because I've had a few bad experiences in the past, so I’d really rather just walk into a physical store if I could.

Does anyone know of any reliable shops out there that actually have what they say they have?

From what I’ve gathered so far, those big 3.5" drives have much faster transfer speeds, but they're bulkier and apparently need their own power source. Does every single 3.5" drive require a separate plug?

I’m looking for something around 1000 GB. Since I have a ton of important data I need to stash away, I really need something high-quality that isn't going to fail on me anytime soon. 😢

Also, I need a dual-interface setup—something with both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports. My current laptop doesn't have USB 3.0, but I’ll eventually be moving over to a laptop that has both, and I’d love to save some time when transferring files from my desktop using the USB 3.0 port later on.

I was thinking maybe Western Digital would be the best bet?

Setting aside the weight and the fact that they're a pain to move around, are those 3.5" drives actually better quality? I wouldn't be carrying it around with me constantly, so maybe that doesn't matter as much.

I assume everything will be fully transitioned to USB 3.0 soon enough, so I’m a little worried about potentially running into issues or losing data access on my old PC that only has USB 2.0 ports.

And between the 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm models, which one is actually worth getting?

Could someone explain what all this technical jargon means? Like, what exactly is the drive speed, or what does the cache size—like 8 MB—actually signify?

How does the power situation work exactly? Where do you even plug it in, and is it a huge headache to deal with?

I haven't bought an external drive before, so I'm feeling a bit lost with all this. I tried digging through some old forum threads, but most of them are so outdated they aren't even helpful anymore.

Thanks in advance for the help.