second HD or external HD?

I am planning to get a new computer in the new year. I wanted to get a second HD for photos & video. Is it better to get a second internal HD or is an external (USB 2 & Firewire) drive just as good?

Thank you for any replies.

I would definetly get an internal as the prices are so cheap. They are also much faster than an external drive. You can get a 300gb hard drive for about $100. I would also use an external drive as a secondary backup to keep my special (can not do without items).

I would set up the operating system and programs on my "C" drive, and store all my pictures on my second or "D" drive.

Good luck.........Bruman

I had a second internal drive on last PC but it was always coming on as I was in middle of something and holding me up for a few seconds many times a day. I found it a minor annoyance more than anything. Then I had to reinstall OS on first drive and the second drive got all screwed up which was probably my fault. But by then I found it all to be more hassle than benefit.

Instead, I got a 80 GB WD portable drive (5400rpm) and its been really nice. It runs off USB power so I dont need yet another freekin plug. I back up anything important right to that drive and then unplug it As that drive colects data I move it to a much larger 7500RPM drive that I plug in. I can use firewire, USB or eSATA. Usually I use USB just because I still have some other non SATA computers.

I tried some RAID configs but for my usage it was just a PITA I didn't need. I am only backing up photos and vids with some other data. Relying on all internal disks for backup is of no value imo. No matter what you get at some point you want to keep copies of your cool/important stuff off PC. Discs are alright and I use them but I find them a pain to manage. HD's are so cheap and easy to swap around I use a bunch of them. I would use a second internal HD if I was using Acronis or something to backup a lot.

The internal drive will be much faster, and if you have treasured photos, you'd be nuts not to have a backup kept off site most of the time.

Tom

An internal SATA drive will be much faster than a USB 2.0 or firewire 800 external setup.

That said before you get a 2nd drive make sure whatever PC you get has adequate cooling. I installed a 2nd drive on my PC and found out that the temperatures were above the recommended operating temps on the HD by a large amount 15-20C. Excessive heat to HD's can cause premature failure.

I also find having an external HD to be very convenient for backups as I power the HD down when not in use preventing a single event from damaging all my files as 2 internal drives would do.

That said if the Case has adequate cooling and you can afford it I would go with 2 internal drives and one external. You can buy a internal drive and your own enclosure generally for less than you can buy a prebuilt external drive.

an external USB or Firewire drive is good for backup, but slower than an internal drive.

I have tried
-external USB drive
-external Firewire drive
-external SATA drive
-internal fixed parallel drives
-internal but pluggable parallel drive

I have not yet tried RAID or network storage.

In my next computer I will use only SATA drives, and have at least one pluggable. I will probably investigate RAID for redundancy, but not as a way of securing long term storage and backup.

I am using regularly several external USB drives for backup of pictures, and find these very convenient. But these external drives are a bit slower than internal drives.

I installed a pluggable hard drive, and it is definitely faster and acts exactly as an internal drive. I can (after powering down) unplug the drive from the front panel of the computer and insert another drive into the same space. This makes it very easy to keep several backups, one always stored away from the room where the computer is located.

I do not trust CD and DVD as backup. You need to make several copies to make sure you have a usable backup when you need it. Using several hard drives is faster and in my opinion more reliable.

Backup is very important. I once lost the content of three hard drives at once, in the same computer (that was all my data at that time!).

An on one airline flight, two hard drives that I had in my checked luggage were completely destroyed. And I have had several hard drives go bad from old age. I find that hard drives can be expected to last no more than about three years.

Tage

bonnieg said:

I am planning to get a new computer in the new year. I wanted to
get a second HD for photos & video. Is it better to get a second
internal HD or is an external (USB 2 & Firewire) drive just as good?

Thank you for any replies.

Click to expand...

Drives are really quite inexpensive lately.

Maybe get a single drive much larger than your current internal and clone your data over to it using the utility provided by the new drive's manufacturer.

Then use the old drive for backup only. But, if the drive is really old, I'd be leery about using it for critical backups.

Or just add a second internal.

I have an external for backups. Use this enclosure...
http://www.dansdata.com/sntboxes.htm

It has a fan + USB2.0 and Firewire400 but only an ATA drive interface. Very very easy to change drives if you want to use one enclosure but use separate drives for staggered backups. Check out the website as there are versions of this box that have a SATA interface to the harddrive and also USB2.0 and eSATA ports for connecting to external PC's. I've been able to google them using the part number (SNT-2316) to find vendors in various cities.

I use Syncback to duplicate realtime non-compressed copies on the backup drive. http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/

--
Newsy

Meant to add...

The SNT enclosure uses an Oxford Firewire controller chipset that is very reliable and does not cause me any issues in establishing a connection to my PC's. There are several inexpensive (and some expensive) Firewire enclosures using chipsets that cause much grief. Google it for more info.

--
Newsy

For me the external drive was also convenient in the fact that I can more easely share files between my Lap top and the PC....A plus for me. Lee
--
' Sharing produces growth '

...particularly if you use or intend to use Photoshop. With a second (internal) hdd you can assign the Photoshop Scratch Disk to this which will help to speed up the program.

I use x2 Seagate internal HDDs and a Western Digital My Book (500Gb) which is fantasic - quick and wonderfully quiet.

David
http://www.davidcolepictures.co.uk

Thank you all for your very helpful comments. It is very much appreciated.
Bonnie