Recommend me an external hard drive

[Noddy made me]

Having aquired 120 albums along with all the others already on the computer its slowly grinding to a halt.
I know theres loads out there pc world/maplins/ebuyer so im after recommendations from anyone using one.

Having never used one, can you access the music in the normal way ? how quick is it to put onto the hard drive ? Am i right in saying if i ( the kids) fill it up with crap/music/pics of the dog, the pc will still merrily skip along ?

Thanks for your time
Regards Tony

 

[Slowdown]

Western Digital MyBook Studio's do it for me. They've Firewire 400/800, USB2 and eSATA connections. They're not the cheapest but the 5 year warranty works for me.

 

[Dansin]

1Tb Western Digital here £74.99

 

[Riders Rest]

I reccommend

Why not go a step further and buy a Media Player... I have one and have converted all my DVD's to AVI and don't have to go hunting my film library as it is all in one place

You want to store your music and pictures on it maybe your video ? download those youtube video's and watch them on your telly... And also use it as an external hard drive for your PC...

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=227469
500GB Cyclone Media Player
only £99.99


Product Features

Play video, audio and image files through your TV
High-speed external hard disk with stand-alone media player
Load your videos, pictures and music
Download video, audio and images via your PC and immediately play them back through your TV
500GB 3.5-inch high speed SATA hard disk drive installed
Can be used as a standard external hard drive to backup your PC data
Smooth fast forward and rewind functions
Multi-language support
Navigate using the included remote control
Supports DivX and XviD video file formats
Image slide show with background music
High speed USB2.0 connection
Video: VOB (DVD file), MPEG, MPEG4 (AVI, DivX v3.11/4/5, XviD)
Audio: MP3, WMA
Image: JPEG
Composite video + stereo audio channels
S-Video
Media format support: FAT32 / NTFS
Supports Windows 98SE/ME/2000XP/2000 and Vista
Includes: power adaptor and cable, AV cable, Manual
Cyclone external media player hard drive unit lets you simply connect to your PC, add music files, pictures and videos and then play them direct through your TV – No computer required! This comes complete with remote control and a built in 500 gb hard drive, ready to load all your favourite films, music and mp3 files.

 

[Noddy made me]

2 votes for Western Digimical then
Riders Rest,
Very interesting However the PS3 is under the Telly and that takes care of the multi media dept of the front room.
One thing though how does it allow you to download from your computer and play it straight through the telly? Is the assumption that the telly will be in the same room as the pc or will it come with a flippin long lead?
But your idea has got me thinking....... Is there a wireless version ?
The pc/laptop/ps3 are all served from the wireless router could they all access the same wireless/hard drive of pics/music independently

I guess im really after a big hard drive that i can store music/pics on and access them quickly (keeping the pc free of large amounts of data) so the portable/desktop hard drive should be the way to go, but that wireless idea
Thanks for replying
Regards Tony

 

[LiquidLAN]

I reccommend

Why not go a step further and buy a Media Player... I have one and have converted all my DVD's to AVI and don't have to go hunting my film library as it is all in one place

You want to store your music and pictures on it maybe your video ? download those youtube video's and watch them on your telly... And also use it as an external hard drive for your PC...

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=227469
500GB Cyclone Media Player
only £99.99


Product Features

Play video, audio and image files through your TV
High-speed external hard disk with stand-alone media player
Load your videos, pictures and music
Download video, audio and images via your PC and immediately play them back through your TV
500GB 3.5-inch high speed SATA hard disk drive installed
Can be used as a standard external hard drive to backup your PC data
Smooth fast forward and rewind functions
Multi-language support
Navigate using the included remote control
Supports DivX and XviD video file formats
Image slide show with background music
High speed USB2.0 connection
Video: VOB (DVD file), MPEG, MPEG4 (AVI, DivX v3.11/4/5, XviD)
Audio: MP3, WMA
Image: JPEG
Composite video + stereo audio channels
S-Video
Media format support: FAT32 / NTFS
Supports Windows 98SE/ME/2000XP/2000 and Vista
Includes: power adaptor and cable, AV cable, Manual
Cyclone external media player hard drive unit lets you simply connect to your PC, add music files, pictures and videos and then play them direct through your TV – No computer required! This comes complete with remote control and a built in 500 gb hard drive, ready to load all your favourite films, music and mp3 files.

This looks interesting, not as big as the WD one granted, but all the same... how do you up/download to it? do you map it as a windows network drive or does it have an FTP server?

doh... it's not networkable is it

 

[Dansin]

This looks interesting, not as big as the WD one granted, but all the same... how do you up/download to it? do you map it as a windows network drive or does it have an FTP server?

doh... it's not networkable is it

The cheaper ones are usb only. If you're happy to pay around £150 for 500Gb then 10/100 lan and wireless ones are available - here.

You can map as a network drive, not sure whether you can ftp them though. Other than the 'player software' I think they're basically a NAS box - most of which can use cifs, ftp, daap etc.

If you've got an old pc you could always use it as a NAS server with Freenas - here.

 

[LiquidLAN]

the best solutions are often the simplest... doh yes I've got one or two old pcs, why hadn't I thought of that

 

[Slowdown]

Noddy

I'd you've a PS3 then get a QNAP box http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=78

They're just fantastic and the PS3 integration is the icing on the cake!

 

[Riders Rest]

This looks interesting, not as big as the WD one granted, but all the same... how do you up/download to it? do you map it as a windows network drive or does it have an FTP server?

doh... it's not networkable is it

Okay you can put any size HDD into this casing you could buy the casing as they are also sold seperate for £50 so you can have a disc of 1.5Terrabites.

Essentially it is an external drive with a bios and all the scart, HDMI, coaxual connections, RGB etc Plus a USB connection...

This allows you to plug it into your PC as an external drive to transfere files etc as normal then plug it into your Telly to watch the films, photo's or plug it into your amp/sterio and listen to your music

I deal for downloading films on your PC o this device then watching them on the telly...

I suggested it as a value add to an exernal drive. I take mine in my pannier and plug into telly when touring or on holiday etc... As well as all the other things you do with an external HDD.

 

[DanielM]

Having aquired 120 albums along with all the others already on the computer its slowly grinding to a halt.
I know theres loads out there pc world/maplins/ebuyer so im after recommendations from anyone using one.

Having never used one, can you access the music in the normal way ? how quick is it to put onto the hard drive ? Am i right in saying if i ( the kids) fill it up with crap/music/pics of the dog, the pc will still merrily skip along ?

Thanks for your time
Regards Tony

Hi mate, if your computer is grinding to a halt, it will be unlikely that a lack of free space on the disk will be causing this. Chances are, when you "aquired" the albums, you may have picked up other stuff aswell.

This could be a thousand different things, but if your PC once worked quite well, and is grinding to a halt, then it is most likely to be some sort of malware, virus or both. Do a virus scan, download a free utility like "Ad-aware", that will scan your system, maybe Spybot Search and destroy. Also, if your system has low memory, it will slow you down.

Although, when you do run out of space, disk fragmentation can slow you down a little, this can be fixed by defragmenting the disk.


Regards
Dan

 

[Noddy made me]

Hi mate, if your computer is grinding to a halt, it will be unlikely that a lack of free space on the disk will be causing this.


Regards
Dan

Cheers Dan but the pc was slowing down even before i put the music on. Ive had it for 6years (p4 60g 512ddr) once ive backed all the decent stuff i will redo windows and get rid of all of the crap

 

[Noddy made me]

Well after quite a lot of umming and aaring. I have bought this.
PC World £64.50 360g Wireless Network Hard Drive

 

[Noddy made me]

Comes with two leads.
USB to hardwire it to your pc.
OR thingybob wotsit doodah lead to plug it into your wireless/wired router

 

[Noddy made me]

Nice small and shiny and with flashing lights however i have hidden it out of sight behind the pc monitor where theres less chance of the kids/me messing with it (however theres no openings so you cant push toast into it)

 

[Noddy made me]

With the box hidden up all there is to see is errrr .....well this

 

[Noddy made me]

So far 160 albums of varying sizes (single/double/triple) has used 14g.
Box says 360g but right clicking on software says its 325g
Anyhoo it does what it says on the box
From the pc and the laptop

Now,
I had decided to leave the PS3 out of the equation based on the fact that the kids are allways on it so the likeliness of using to listen to music was pretty remote, However, in the instructions it gives details on how to link with the media server for the xbox so it might just be possible to get the ps3 to do the same.

Thanks for all your replys/help/suggestions
Regards Tony