What external harddrive to get?

[Prismatic 49]

Normally if you get speeds that slow it's either the hard drive is defective, you're running too much hardware on the USB 2.0 bus (a gaming keyboard or a webcam will saturate the bus), simply put you're using the front port of a PC that doesn't supply 500ma required to power the hard drive (assuming it's a laptop drive; see below), or it's a USB 1.1 port (for a list of high speed ports click here) that only runs at 12mbps (which is barely over a MB per second).

 

Your smaller pocket sized external drives use a 2.5" hard drive commonly used in laptops.  Hitachi's power consumption typically label their drives 5V, ~700ma while that's more than a USB provides it's only the measure of 'burst' (i.e. the amount of power it typically requires to spin the drive up).  From there it typically runs well on USB 2.0.  Granted if all else one can easily get an enclosure that has a Y cable.

 

Larger external drives are powered by 3.5" hard drives used in desktops.  These typically require AC Adaptors.

 

A laptop hard drive physically caps at say 75MB on the outer ring of the platter and 35MB near the spindle on my current ones.  Push comes to shove it takes 70 minutes to format my 120GB Hitachi and it takes 3 hours to format my 1TB Deskstar.  With data density Let's just say it takes 4 hours to format a 1TB laptop drive so theoretically it would take 4 hours to remove all the content on a 1TB.

 

Anyways I need to run but I'd love to get to the bottom of this if you want me to.

[SPLinux 380]

That speed sounds like it was transferring at a speed between USB1.1 Low bandwidth (184KB/s) to USB1.1 Full Speed (1.5MB/s). Are you sure your motherboard supports USB2.0 and not USB1.1?

[Viscra Maelstrom 3,718]

well, it clearly says USB 2.0 on the ports, however, when plugging in devices it says that it indeed does run on a low-speed USB port. so i suppose i have the USB 2.0 components but not the speed because my motherboard doesn't support it?

[SPLinux 380]

May i ask what your motherboard manufacturer is and what model? if possible you could get the chipset as well? Hopefully you are not putting too much load a USB2 Bus as said by Prismatic or Using a USB1.1 device on it which may slow the other ports to the Lowest common denominator.

[Bohtty 1,775]

This talk of getting an extra physical harddrive hurts me on an atomic level. Have you tried Cloud storage solutions? Or since you store music the most, a music service such as spotify? 

 

I think it's going to be hard for me to walk now. I hope you're happy.

[Viscra Maelstrom 3,718]

May i ask what your motherboard manufacturer is and what model? if possible you could get the chipset as well? Hopefully you are not putting too much load a USB2 Bus as said by Prismatic or Using a USB1.1 device on it which may slow the other ports to the Lowest common denominator.

http://www.abit.com.tw/ AX8 Series(VIA K8T890-8237) (Socket 939) according to Speccy.

 

This talk of getting an extra physical harddrive hurts me on an atomic level. Have you tried Cloud storage solutions? Or since you store music the most, a music service such as spotify? 

 

I think it's going to be hard for me to walk now. I hope you're happy.

i do not see the point in using cloud storage when it comes to my music. i'm a control-freak when it comes to my music. if it's not anywhere where i know where it is located at all the time i get panicky. Spotify is no way as it doesn't have half the music i listen to on there available at all and it's just as evil as iTunes when it comes to screwing the artists over and over again in the ass for their own profit. i don't see why i should pay to listen to music when i can pay to own the music and listen to it an infinite amount of times.

[Bohtty 1,775]

 It's just as evil as iTunes when it comes to screwing the artists over and over again in the ass for their own profit.

Versus paying a company to have Chinese slave labor make your harddrive for a fraction of what you're paying them?

 

Thousands of artists got wealthy from itunes. Yeah it may not be the fairest thing, but the fact of the matter is that it is life and I have yet to see a modern musician become wealthy without having their music on itunes. Notice I said wealthy, not successful.

 

External Harddrives are gross. Why someone would want additional hardware is baffling to me. My Harddrive is only used for software that can't be replicated on the web yet, Web browsers, and any files that would result in life ruining damage if they were lost, which is none. I keep very very very few documents on my computer. I sure as hell don't keep music or video there.

 

And not being able to know where your music is not a good reason. Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, and iCloud are all accessible from multiple platforms. In fact, you can access your music from more locations with cloud service than an external harddrive, unless your phone has a USB port and can somehow read files from an external harddrive.

 

1TB of music? I doubt you even listen to all of the songs you have. :\

[SPLinux 380]

Hmm looking at some specifications it appears that board should support USB2.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127187

 

The board uses DDR 400 SDRAM for its Memory, i will look into this to see if this would impact USB2.0 Speed. Again make sure you aren’t using a USB1.1 Device as it may be slowing down the rest of the ports. (Again due to Lowest Common Denominator). It would also would be a good idea to make sure you have the latest drivers installed, its possible a update was needed for USB2 or to fix a bug of some sort. Also noticed the board supports only SATA 1 however SATA 1 is still faster than USB2.0 so I am not sure that is a factor.

[Darth Fader 24]

Can't go wrong with Western Digital.

 

You should consider getting two 1TB drives, so if one fails you still have the other and you don't loose all your files.

Also have you considered cloud options?  I don't know if the offer is still on but I get 50GB on box.net.  Keep in mind you'll need a decent connection and a good amount of bandwidth if you want fast transfer.

[Lost 1,410]

Western Digital has never failed me, i have 4 WD Hard-drives (2 1TB elements external ones, 1 2TB black caviar internal HD and the beast that holds my games is a 1TB WD velociraptor)

 

I do have some other hard-drives along with those.

 

 

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?sort=price+ascending&brand=Western+Digital&4=2000&cat=393&page=1

Those are the 2TB WD externals, i have used the MyBook ones before now and they worked fine (until i dropped them)

 

If it is an option, you're better off just putting another internal hard-drive in (assuming you have a desktop pc that is)

[Prismatic 49]

But as I'll state again be wary of the smaller WDs.  Desktop WDs are OK but laptops are a no-go to me.

 

Versus paying a company to have Chinese slave labor make your harddrive for a fraction of what you're paying them?

 

Thousands of artists got wealthy from itunes. Yeah it may not be the fairest thing, but the fact of the matter is that it is life and I have yet to see a modern musician become wealthy without having their music on itunes. Notice I said wealthy, not successful.

 

External Harddrives are gross. Why someone would want additional hardware is baffling to me. My Harddrive is only used for software that can't be replicated on the web yet, Web browsers, and any files that would result in life ruining damage if they were lost, which is none. I keep very very very few documents on my computer. I sure as hell don't keep music or video there.

 

And not being able to know where your music is not a good reason. Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, and iCloud are all accessible from multiple platforms. In fact, you can access your music from more locations with cloud service than an external harddrive, unless your phone has a

USB port and can somehow read files from an external harddrive.

 

1TB of music? I doubt you even listen to all of the songs you have. :\

 

Heh, what I have is far worse than an external harddrive.  It's called a Network Attached Storage (NAS) and it's larger than an external and runs 24/7 (I have mine set to spin down when not used for 2 hours), uses a network cable and can easily host a set of forums or iTunes streaming.  The reason why people want additional space is either for video editing, RAW/LOSELESS music storage or more importantly picture storage.  External hard drives aren't powered when the desktop is and my external drives have very, very few hours on them (and a pain to get out because they require AC Adapters.  One is a custom enclosure because it has eSATA and the other is a Maxtor).

 

Also hard drives are made in Thailand.

 

Hmm looking at some specifications it appears that board should support USB2.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127187

 

The board uses DDR 400 SDRAM for its Memory, i will look into this to see if this would impact USB2.0 Speed. Again make sure you aren’t using a USB1.1 Device as it may be slowing down the rest of the ports. (Again due to Lowest Common Denominator). It would also would be a good idea to make sure you have the latest drivers installed, its possible a update was needed for USB2 or to fix a bug of some sort. Also noticed the board supports only SATA 1 however SATA 1 is still faster than USB2.0 so I am not sure that is a factor.

 

Try using the USB ports on the back.  It is possible the ones on the front may not be capable of USB 2.0 speeds.  Also Windows XP if it didn't already come with SP1a may or may not need USB 2.0 drivers even if you do upgrade to SP3.

Edited January 31, 2013 by Prismatic

[Viscra Maelstrom 3,718]

Hmm looking at some specifications it appears that board should support USB2.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127187

 

The board uses DDR 400 SDRAM for its Memory, i will look into this to see if this would impact USB2.0 Speed. Again make sure you aren’t using a USB1.1 Device as it may be slowing down the rest of the ports. (Again due to Lowest Common Denominator). It would also would be a good idea to make sure you have the latest drivers installed, its possible a update was needed for USB2 or to fix a bug of some sort. Also noticed the board supports only SATA 1 however SATA 1 is still faster than USB2.0 so I am not sure that is a factor.

how would i know for sure what type of USB device i have? i tried looking up USB-drivers on the internet but got very slim results (i found an Microsoft entry but it didn't give me much help either).

 

Try using the USB ports on the back.  It is possible the ones on the front may not be capable of USB 2.0 speeds.  Also Windows XP if it didn't already come with SP1a may or may not need USB 2.0 drivers even if you do upgrade to SP3.

i'm sure i got the same speed results by plugging the stick into the back. and like i said above, couldn't find any good results from updating drivers.

[Prismatic 49]

i'm sure i got the same speed results by plugging the stick into the back. and like i said above, couldn't find any good results from updating drivers.

 

Fair enough.  I remember one HP desktop that had a USB 1.1 port on the front and the back were 2.0.  Normally if available Windows (at least XP) would tell you which hubs were 2.0 compliant.

 

Needless to say if needed there are USB 2.0 PCI cards out there.

 

Nonetheless I'm starting to get off the main point.

Edited January 31, 2013 by Prismatic

[Viscra Maelstrom 3,718]

i shouldn't be needing 2.0 cards though would i? i mean it says i have 2.0 ports here. there must be a problem lying somewhere, as my brother's computer can transfer with speeds equivalent of 2.0 i've noticed.

[Prismatic 49]

i shouldn't be needing 2.0 cards though would i? i mean it says i have 2.0 ports here. there must be a problem lying somewhere, as my brother's computer can transfer with speeds equivalent of 2.0 i've noticed.

 

 

My other suggestion is to when you boot up the computer press DEL (or the key to get into the CMOS).  Somewhere under integrated peripherals they may or may not be a USB setting for 2.0.  Full-speed is 1.1 and Hi-Speed is 2.0 if I recall correctly.

 

Other than that only other option is to boot Ubuntu to see if it recognizes the 2.0 ports.

[SPLinux 380]

You may want to check your options that are setup in BIOS/CMOS setup, look at the USB Controller options that are there. You may want to disable USB legacy support which apparently should be disabled for Windows XP. However i have heard some people losing USB keyboard access in BIOS by doing this so you may want to be careful. I believe if something like that happened you could reseat the CMOS battery on your Motherboard or get a replacement which would reset the BIOS settings. You could just have a PS/2 Keyboard as well which would not depend on that option and would be good for a emergency.

As far as my knowledge of Windows goes you should be able to get some detailed information on USB in Device manager. There also seems to be a utilty called USBViewer which could help out as well. Does Windows give you a warning when inserting the device? If you connected a Low-Speed Device(1.1) to a USB2 Port it should warn you.

USBView
http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Utilities.htm
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff560019%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

Try checking the devices and the hubs they are connected to, if it says Full-Speed then that is USB1.1, Hi-Speed would be USB2.0 and SuperSpeed would be USB3.0.

 

 

If you want to try Ubuntu as suggested by Prismatic to see if USB2 will run faster then i would recommend the form Lubuntu, its low spec and can run on even 128-256MB of RAM. http://lubuntu.net/

 

I recommend working out through windows first before looking at Ubuntu even if just for file transfer.

Edited January 31, 2013 by superponylinux

[Bohtty 1,775]

Heh, what I have is far worse than an external harddrive.  It's called a Network Attached Storage (NAS) and it's larger than an external and runs 24/7 (I have mine set to spin down when not used for 2 hours), uses a network cable and can easily host a set of forums or iTunes streaming.  The reason why people want additional space is either for video editing, RAW/LOSELESS music storage or more importantly picture storage.  External hard drives aren't powered when the desktop is and my external drives have very, very few hours on them (and a pain to get out because they require AC Adapters.  One is a custom enclosure because it has eSATA and the other is a Maxtor).

 

Also hard drives are made in Thailand.

Hard drives are made in Thailand, Singapore, China and probably several other countries.

 

I am aware that larger harddrives are required for music and video production, but from what I read, the OP is using this HD to store mainly music. My comment was a partial joke. I know there are valid reasons for having an external hard drive, however a lot of services are starting to move towards the web. In the future, I would not surprise me if general purpose computers end up having very small hard drives, with most of their storage located in the cloud. 

 

Also there are a ton of photo storage services on the web and unless you are a professional photographer, I don't see why you would ever need to keep photos on your hard drive.

 

If I had my way, everything would go the way of Chrome OS. lol

[Prismatic 49]

My reply is going to be rather short but I can't think of a single company that is willing to lease 1TB of storage for a decent rate in comparison to how much a hard drive costs.

 

Even though I'm on cable uploading is still really, really slow.

[A Blithering Div 247]

how would i know for sure what type of USB device i have? i tried looking up USB-drivers on the internet but got very slim results (i found an Microsoft entry but it didn't give me much help either).

 

i'm sure i got the same speed results by plugging the stick into the back. and like i said above, couldn't find any good results from updating drivers.

 

http://downloads.guru3d.com/VIA-Hyperion-Pro-Driver-Package-5.15A-download-1833.html According to this site, these drivers are for your chipset. Should it be a driver issue, this should resolve it. It is a VIA chipset however so take that with about 5 pounds of salt.

[碇 シンジン 27,431]

i got tired of my internal and installed windows on external  WD Elements SE  working decently so far

[EpicEnergy 23,218]

I use Seagate external harddrives, they are good and durable or at least based on my experiences with them.