external hard drives

its that time again. i filled up my secondary hard drive with music. It was the original one that came with my computer (which is 6 years old). It was an 80, but when i put a new 180 gig in as the primary and made the 80 gig a slave, somehow it was only been seen as a 30 gig drive. Maybe i wired it up wrong, I don't know.

I started thinking, I could reformat the computer and put the OS on this slave right? then put all my music and photos on other stuff on the 180 gig primary. Or I could get an external drive. The external drive would be nice because i could transport it between my place and my parents right?

What i'm wondering is, should i get an external? If so should i look more into one that is powered through the USB cable as well or has a separate power supply? Suggestions on brands? the 180 gig that I put in my computer is a Seagate. Any suggestions are appreciated.

*I'm not looking to upgrade the speed of my computer, just the storage space.

I've been looking into upgrading my storage as well,( I only have a 40 GB hard drive.) I've been doing research and a lot of it is pointing to external hard drives. One good thing that I like that I've read is if there is an issue with your computer it usually doesn't affect the external hard drive and it remains safe. That's a good selling point for me. The prices for the external hard drives aren't that bad too. Just trying to figure out what size would be good for me. I read that one that has a separate power supply is better than the USB powered ones. I, too am interested in any suggestions one may have for reliable brands or prior experience with.

If you're after external drives, the best value in 3.5" is 320gb because anything larger than that required an additional platter which adds to manufacturing cost that gets passed on to consumers.

If you're after maximum portability, get a 2.5" (laptop sized) BUS powered USB2 drive. I would get a 100-120gb drive, and an external enclosure (about $15).

However, highteknology, I don't think another drive or anything you've proposed is the answer.

Which drive is showing up as only 30gb? What capacity is it? And what File System are you using (I bet it's FAT32).

i've been looking at a LaCie 500gb external drive.

my dad has a usb 2.0 80gb LaCie drive and it's really good. very fast, light and small.

~20,000 photos are rapidly eating up space on my other computer and i think it's time to stuff them on an external drive.

I recommend LaCie drives, they're all I buy for clients.

Which drive is showing up as only 30gb? What capacity is it? And what File System are you using (I bet it's FAT32).

it is the original drive that came with the computer. It is a 80 GB capacity. How do I check what file system i'm using?

it is the original drive that came with the computer. It is a 80 GB capacity. How do I check what file system i'm using?

My Computer -> Right-click on the drive -> Properties

i've been looking at a LaCie 500gb external drive.

my dad has a usb 2.0 80gb LaCie drive and it's really good. very fast, light and small.

~20,000 photos are rapidly eating up space on my other computer and i think it's time to stuff them on an external drive.

I agree, I have my 120gb comp + 2x80's and both are filled up. I think something is up with my portable though it's not reading but the light is on.

If you have 2 x Drives that are the same size, you can set them up in RAID0 and double the logical speed of the drives very easily.

The risk is that if one of the drives fails, you lost the data on both drives.

:)