External HDD

[EuPHoriC PoisoN]

After a few hours of browsing, my mind is overly medicated on Tylenol cold, and mushy from too much technical jargon. Here's the external hdd I think I'm going to get. Thoughts? Suggestions?


External HDD (http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product_Code=SAG+1603FGA1E1&JRSource=PriceGrabber.datafeed.SAG+1603FGA1E1)

[iJohn]

I have heard some good stuff about SeaGate. I bought myself a Hitachi one and it works great.it also has a nice price tag from a reliable seller. I say go for it.

[Flea]

Id take a look at getting a disk drive enclosure and an internal drive,
it sometimes works out quite a bit cheaper than an external drive and you get a much larger hard drive normally as well.
The beauty of this is say you need more space in a while,
you can just buy another internal drive and swap the hd in the case when needed,
as it only takes about 20 seconds to do.


Enclosure (http://cgi.ebay.com/3-5-HDD-USB-2-0-External-Enclosure-Hard-Drive-Case-A1_W0QQitemZ300184511145QQihZ020QQcategoryZ3757QQs sPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

300 gig drive (http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4138308)

Theres an example of what you can get.

[codedigital]

While Flea's idea is great...they're not as rugged as they should be. Plus, if you are going to take it somewhere, it's bulky. I can't tell you how many of those I've had go bad.


Look at the one I said I was getting in my thread. http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=387

It's pretty nice. I even bought a case for it to carry it around in.

Seagate's used to be the way to go...but they're quality is slipping a bit. I used to stay away from Western Digital but they're making a comeback.

The passport is VERY small. Just slip it in a pocket and go.

[iJohn]

I actually wish that I had waited, but I was in desperate need of some media storage. I paid $170 for 200 GB of storage:p Well it was Hitachi, and it is still pretty good, and it is on sale now.

[EuPHoriC PoisoN]

Ok guys, here's what I ended up getting. Code, I went with WD and stayed within my budget. Let's hope it all works for the best.


New HDD (http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4207511)

[iJohn]

Good Choice! Good brand, and I hope it works out well for ya:D

[EuPHoriC PoisoN]

Thanks to all my techie buddies out there. I'd be stuck with a crap-arsed computer without all of you!

[EuPHoriC PoisoN]

BIG PROBLEM!!!

Ok, so I tried to use my new external HDD (X-HDD) tonight. I plugged it in, my computer recognized it. I opened My Computer, found the install files, and followed all instructions. Done. Next, I synced over some files. Waited...done. Now, I decided to delete some of the synced files from the X-HDD because I wanted to decompress them first. Well, at some time during this process, my whole system froze. I tried Ctrl+Alt+Delete to bring up the Task Manager. No go. Totally frozen. I had no choice but to hit the power button and do an emergency shut down. I then restarted the computer hoping to just jump back into the process. WRONG! The X-HDD was not being recognized in My Computer. Sure, I disconnected it, uninstalled and reinstalled the driver, restarted my computer again. Nothing. A pop-up did appear in the task bar saying that the device was recognized and ready to use. So, I opened My Computer. Still not there. I can't find it anywhere on my computer. Any device-related file that was on my computer is gone. I can't locate the device and therefore cannot reinstall the software, seeing as it's stored on the X-HDD. What do I do?!?!?!?! I just spent a fair chunk of change on this X-HDD and I expect it to work and not to freeze up my computer and then DISAPPEAR!!! Anyone, everyone, PLEASE HELP ME!

[Azeron]

Well, you could try running a system restore if you've got a recent restore point. One thing to remember though is that after installing drivers you should always restart your computer.

Anyway, try start > control panel > performance and maintainance > printers and hardware > then click add hardware in the top left corner (these may not be the exact names). This will start a wizard that will try to install new hardware, just see if it recognizes the drive and if it does follow the steps on screen.

That's all I can think of, maybe Code has a better idea.

[Mavren]

I rarely ever use a program that comes with the harddrive. If you're worried about security on it maybe, but if you're just going to keep it at home and just connect it up to the 360 (via usb and select portable device for awesome music listening :) ) then don't use the software that comes with it. Just try to format it. Not your main drive but the external one. Here's a little guide on doing that while in XP.

Guide (http://www.ehow.com/how_6026_format-hard-drive.html)

Hope that helps.

Also, makes sure it's plugged into a usb 2.0 port (usually the back of a pc now) since most things require 2.0 to run now and front side usb isn't generally 2.0

[codedigital]

I rarely ever use a program that comes with the harddrive. If you're worried about security on it maybe, but if you're just going to keep it at home and just connect it up to the 360 (via usb and select portable device for awesome music listening :) ) then don't use the software that comes with it. Just try to format it. Not your main drive but the external one. Here's a little guide on doing that while in XP.

Guide (http://www.ehow.com/how_6026_format-hard-drive.html)

Hope that helps.

Also, makes sure it's plugged into a usb 2.0 port (usually the back of a pc now) since most things require 2.0 to run now and front side usb isn't generally 2.0

The software that comes with these drives is DMAILER. It's an awesome piece of sync software that does 128bit encryption. I upgraded to the full version for 20 bucks.