external hard drive

[GullyFoyle]

I just got an external 5TB hard drive, are there any good arguments for keeping it external?

I am pretty sure it will be much faster as an internal drive...

 

[jime1]

I just got an external 5TB hard drive, are there any good arguments for keeping it external?

I am pretty sure it will be much faster as an internal drive...

what does that mean ?
you keep the External drives outside, that's why they are called external, to take it with you, where ever you want to take it !
I assume its usb 3.0, so you will get the defined speeds on the usb 3.0 ports on your PC.
Are you gonna break/open its casing and use it as sata drive ?

 

[GullyFoyle]

yes, inside the external drive case is an sata drive, in this case a WD red drive, and I am sure the sata drive interface is much faster than usb 3.0. I didn't buy it so I could travel with the data, I just was running out of drive space on the 2 hard drives drives and 2 ssds currently in my machine. I can back up all my current drives to this one and have a terabyte of extra space.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Its possible the drive might be more responsive when connected directly through SATA, but USB 3.0 has enough bandwidth likely to last until the death of HDD as a viable technology in the consumer space.

Many USB 3 controllers have historically been a point of weakness, however they've improved (and Intel now has USB 3 support on their newer chipsets) and you seem to have a new system so that shouldn't be an issue. The other point of weakness is the enclosure itself, however even if its a slower device, its probably fast enough for HDD speeds and I doubt tearing it down and installing the HDD into your computer will make it "much faster"

basically it comes down to potential convenience of being able to move that much portable storage, vs. marginally improved safety

if it was me, if I'm just going to be using it as a backup I'd keep it external, but if I was going to use it as another hard drive then I'd install it

 

[Carson Dyle]

Was this a Western Digital retail product, or a Red drive placed into a 3rd party USB enclosure? If it's a retail product, removing the drive from its external enclosure will void the warranty, with a few exceptions. See the following:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers...2LzEvdGltZS8xNDI4MDU0MDI4L3NpZC85Rzg0eFdpbQ==

 

[corkyg]

Thread moved to M&S where HDD threads are.

 

[jime1]

@GullyFoyle : Bro, just keep things simple, plug it on a spare usb 3.0 port on your mobo if you have a spare port.
(If not, then buy something like this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000SE70LA?tag=viglink20237-20 But that's highly unlikely !)

 

[Charlie98]

@GullyFoyle : Bro, just keep things simple, plug it on a spare usb 3.0 port on your mobo if you have a spare port.

^^^That. Having said that, I've pulled my 2TB Seagate from it's enclosure and it's now happily an internal drive... but I know the warranty is kaput. For whatever reason, the enclosure made that drive (and another drive I put in it just to check) run at about 50C... so I figured I would get longer life with the drive out of the enclosure vs probably too short a warranty in the enclosure (i.e. drive dying shortly after the 1yr warranty Seagate gives on external drives.) You pays your money, you takes your chances....

 

[Blain]

By keeping it external, you can disconnect it when backed up and store it in a faraday cage for safe keeping.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

By keeping it external, you can disconnect it when backed up and store it in a faraday cage for safe keeping.

. . . As with a hot-swap caddy. He's actually got three choices, if he wants to consider making another $40 investment in hardware.

Some types of backups are scheduled or automatic, so you want the backup drive running and operating all the time, or you submit to the human fallibility for manual operations on a schedule.

Other types of backups, or manually-triggered backups allow you to save some sliver of power consumption and alleviate wear and tear on the drive itself; external HDD solutions seem to fail more often if left running 24/7.

Those factors arise in any decision between "internal," "bay-and-caddy" or "external."

 

[tweakboy]

Wait for Titan X . What was your currrent video card ? ,,, if your 970 or 980 you will feel big difference.... not saying its fact but thats what I heard.