[Samurai]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Do any of these come with an Ethernet i/f? I wanted make a q&d home NAS.

Not to my knowledge.

Originally Posted by kalpeshc

Sorry if it came across as a sales pitch - these are just indicative prices for you.

Thanks, it helps.

Originally Posted by sandeepmdas

What's the maximum partition size WinXP32 can support now? Till SP1 in think it was less than 160GB but that was in 2002-3...

Hmm, 2TB I think. But in FAT32 you can't have a file larger than 4GB, in NTFS it can be as big as the partition.

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Looks like you are getting closer to your HD viewing dream---do update us with your experience.
I was, on the contrary, planning to go for a 320 GB portable USB drive and then go for the WDTV box. Would there be any limitation, other than disk space, when compared to your plan?

Yesterday I reached that dream. I spent 5 hours setting up my 5 year old 7.1 HTS mated to 3 year old 50 inch Plasma, and connected to WDTV. It was bliss!

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Yesterday I reached that dream. I spent 5 hours setting up my 5 year old 7.1 HTS mated to 3 year old 50 inch Plasma, and connected to WDTV. It was bliss!

Great---you have me green with envy!!
BTW, what is a 7.1 HTS---is it some kind of hard drive?

[CrackedHead]

You need to be very careful when handling these high capacity external drives (the 3.5" ones) - the slightest shock will cause a head crash and that means bye bye media.

I've had to replace mine thrice - Seagate replaced mine within 2 days on all three occasions so I'd give them full marks on the service front.

If you plan to carry the drive around then I'd strongly recommend buying multiple 2.5" drives over one 3.5" drive. The 2.5" drives can live thru a lot more abuse and that makes them a better buy - even though you pay 2-3 times the cost of the 3.5" drive of similar capacity.

If you're not too worried about loosing several GB of media - freak accidents like dropping a Reynolds ball pen on the drive can destroy it (when its spinning) - then the 1TB drive that you're considering sounds like the way to go.

OT - but have you had any problems with the Western Digital drive that you currently use (physical shock/damage)?

[indian21r]

@Cracked Head,

That is surprising considering that my hd's run like 24/7 most of the time , nothing happen even if u move them., have been using it for more than a ayer and my friends for the last 2.

On campus we used to get loads of them in bulk deals. And the failure rate of Western Digital is the lowest. Segate is Good as well, very nice waranty scheme. Maxtor is the worst. And Lacie I would not suggest spending 13k on a hdd man. U will realize sooner that it is a dead investment. Don't spend too much extra on addtional ports like firewire etc. unless ur comp supports it. USB 2.0 is more than sufficient.

5k to 6k is the prevailing market price. Looks like that is lowest that these are going for right now. I don't see much more drop in the price though. no point in waiting.

Further if you are planning to use them to play on a DVD player directly, keep the HDD in the FAT 32 format, else convert it to NTFS. Beofre the first use format the HDD and make it the largest allocation size unit.

Cheers

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by indian21r

Further if you are planning to use them to play on a DVD player directly, keep the HDD in the FAT 32 format, else convert it to NTFS. Beofre the first use format the HDD and make it the largest allocation size unit.

This won't work, most HD movie files exceed 4GB.

[prabhusati]

Hi Samurai,

I am using the Seagate 1TB external hard disk for the past 6 months. Purchased it for Rs.6k with bill & 3 years warranty from SP Road. This comes with external power and was advised to avoid power failure when using. This should not be a problem if you have UPS. Works fine and you wont notice speed drop or lag. I have filled it with roughly 200GB so far.

Best Regards/Satish Prabhu

[cooldude1988765]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

BTW, what is a 7.1 HTS---is it some kind of hard drive?

I think it is 7.1 home theatre system (7 speakers, 1 sub)

[CrackedHead]

Originally Posted by indian21r

@Cracked Head,

That is surprising considering that my hd's run like 24/7 most of the time , nothing happen even if u move them., have been using it for more than a ayer and my friends for the last 2.

Moving the drive/running it 24x7 is all fine - its bumps/shock that kill 3.5" HDD's. I've seen external drives die because tiny objects (a pen and once a hairbrush) fell onto the drive while it was powered on. I've never used WD so was wondering if those drives are better.

Giving my inane carelessness - I eventually switched to a RAID 1 setup on my PC to keep my data safe.

Now all my external drives are backed up to the RAID before I take them anywhere.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Great---you have me green with envy!!
BTW, what is a 7.1 HTS---is it some kind of hard drive?

cooldude1988765 has answered that. More details on my system here: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadget...re-system.html

Originally Posted by prabhusati

This comes with external power and was advised to avoid power failure when using. This should not be a problem if you have UPS.

This could be a problem, my family will treat it like a DVD player and switch off from the wall switch.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by prabhusati

Hi Samurai,

I am using the Seagate 1TB external hard disk for the past 6 months. Purchased it for Rs.6k with bill & 3 years warranty from SP Road. This comes with external power and was advised to avoid power failure when using. This should not be a problem if you have UPS. Works fine and you wont notice speed drop or lag. I have filled it with roughly 200GB so far.

Best Regards/Satish Prabhu

The Seagate 1tb free agent with 5 years warranty was available for 5.5k (cash or 5.7k card) in brigade road y'day. Should be cheaper in SP road.

- Jag

[d_payne]

1. Generally in terms of reliability nowadays, WD is better off.

2. 7200rpm is more than enough for any HD needs, its not your HDD its your proc/gfx which are bottlenecks for HD content.

3. The WD Essential takes my vote. Its discreet, blends into any room, powers off when disconnected and most importantly comes with a integrated power supply unit - so there's only one wire coming out of the device with a plug at the end. Not a big laptop charger like brick connecting HDD and plug. WD Essentials use WD Green HDDs which have variable rpm to conserve power and be super-silent.

The WD Essentials 1TB USB is priced at Rs.5300-5500 in Mumbai. Samurai, I would urge you to look at TE's dealers, they're bullet-proof reliable and are very quick in service.

Finally, 1TB HDDs have been hovering around 5.5-6k since 6 months now.

Cheers!
Payne

[cooldude1988765]

I used to have a 500gb WD my book. Never took proper care of it. It dropped from my desk a few times, pulled the plug out many many times (while the hard drive was writing). It worked without a hitch till it finally got stolen.
I have heard WD is more reliable than seagate.

[CrackedHead]

The HDD's are designed to "park" their head(s) when their connectors are disconnected. Parking the head means that the head gets locked into a holding mechanism - this ensures that the hear won't crash into the disk surface if exposed to sudden shock.

Thus - the correct way to remove an external HDD is to ensure that the USB/Firewire connector is removed first (and the power left on for 20-30 seconds). This way, the drive knows that it needs to "park" the heads (and has power to accomplish that) before shutting down.

Originally Posted by Samurai

This could be a problem, my family will treat it like a DVD player and switch off from the wall switch.

The "parked" heads just improve the odd's of a HDD surviving a drop/mechanical shock. This mechanism is of no value during normal operation and not following the correct shutdown procedure won't harm the HDD in any other way.

[abhinav.gupta88]

I myself am using a Seagate FreeAgent 1TB drive.
I got it for around 6300 or something.
Not sure though about a month or so back.

It is good and hasn't given me any problem.
Have almost 700gb of stuff in it without any speed issues.

[dockap]

soory for the noob question but whats WDTV?