System With Dock

By Andreas Lee

seagate external

The new Seagate external drive, Seagate Replica, is designed for simplicity in use because there are lots of people out there too lazy backing up or they are technology dummy.

This newcomer of Seagate external drive offers the easiest way to backup data without any action from novice user required. Just plug Seagate Replica and let it take care everything by itself.

If you own Seagate external drive Replica, computer crash won’t make you worry anymore. The automatic backup feature can handle this problem. All you must are only connecting it to your PC, press OK and the entire content in your PC will be backed up including program, setting, even Operating System. Complex installation is not required.

The backup software provided by this Seagate external drive makes it possible to retrieve previously saved files after you accidentally delete it. The copies of all of your files continuously stored by the Replica complete PC backup system in order to restore accidentally deleted files easily just by dragging and dropping.

Drag and drop file retrieval feature is the most advanced technology which is not owned by any external drive. This Seagate external drive doesn’t only store the latest version of your files, but it also store the previous version so it is possible to retrieve the previous version of your files by turning back the clock to the certain point of time. For example if your computer crashes, the Replica enables you to recover the missing data by going back to a certain point of time before the problem occurred, just like time machine.

In addition, your backup files are also stored in a structure which mirrors file structure of regular PC, the purpose is to make the files easy to be located and restored.

Seagate Replica 500 GB Backup System With Dock

Design

Seagate external drive Replica is covered with a gray/silver case, weighing just 9.1 ounces, and measuring at 0.7 x 5.6 x 4 inches. Seagate Replica Multi-PC version comes with a desktop dock to hold the drive vertically in order to minimize the needs of desk space. The dock less version of this Seagate external drive with 250 GB capacity size is also available for around $100.

Pros

The time machine function of this Seagate external drive makes you and your data secured against computer crash or virus attack since the possibility of data loss becomes exceedingly small.

Cons

Seagate Replica only can’t be used on Linux and Macintosh, only for Windows OS users.

Specs

• Capacity size : 500 GB
• Spindle speed : 5400 RPM
• Interface : USB 2.0
• Data transfer rate : 480 Mbps

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My other articles that you might be interested in: laptop hard disk and Seagate FreeAgent Desk

By Andreas Lee

external hard disk

External hard disk brings an extremely big change in information technology age. Every kind of people; musicians, businessman, students, etc. need this device to store and share their data.

Along the development of technology, external hard disk is being more comfortable while being used, offered fast data transfer abilities, fast data access, large capacity and more easiness to use, all in one small portable and comfy to be taken handy. That’s why this handy device became most essential devices for people all alike.

You certainly do not want to exchange your money with useless stuff. In the other word don’t spend your money on external hard disk before you read its reviews carefully. Product’s review helps customers to know deeper about the features and specifications that are offered by the external hard disk. With this information, the customers know exactly whether their desired product suits their needs or not.

You also need to compare your desired external hard disk features with its price, whether it’s worthy or not. Preferable to compare more than one external hard disk before you make a final decision.

Are the essentials like service center and warranty period of the external hard disk make you worried? The answer can be found on sites which provide detailed product’s reviews.

You can find more detailed about hard drive brands, offered features, pros, cons, and other news from these information resources which help you to stay informed with comprehensiveness of up to date information. Some reviews are written by third party experts. They will not only inform you about the detail, pros, and cons of products but also will inform how useful the products would prove itself for you.

Whatever kind, model or brand of external hard disk that you decide to buy, the research hold an important role for your satisfaction.

Please check also my other articles on: laptop hard drive and IDE hard drive

WDH1U5000N

By Andreas Lee

500GB Western Digital

My Book Essential Edition WDH1U5000N has a half terabyte storage that is the best choice for additional storage, a value line of Western Digital external drive, and has a great feature for the money. This 500GB Western Digital drive reminiscent of a book, thinner than WD My Book Mirror Edition but has a same design. It just takes a novel book space on your work desk.

With 500GB storage, it can hold up to 125 000 MP3, 142 000 digital photos, 38 hours of Digital Video (DV), and 60 hours of High Definition (HD) video. My Book Essential Edition 500GB Western Digital drive is one of most external drives which is suitable as additional or backup storage since it is pretty easy to use, no need a drive to install, just plug in and it can be used in a few seconds with its simple USB 2.0 connection for convenience and compatibility for most computers. The target market of this external drive is for computer users who don’t need multiple connectivity options (e-SATA, USB, firewire) and don’t want to take apart their computer just to add an additional storage.

The default configuration of this 500GB Western Digital drive is configure to power down after 10 minutes of inactivity or automatically turned off if the computer has been shut down.

My Book Essential Edition 500GB Western digital drive has a 465GB single partition using FAT system which assured to be used on multiple platforms.

Pros

Easy to use as backup or instant storage with large capacity that comes with low price, and long time use in durability.

Cons

The poorness of this 3.5 inch 500GB Western Digital drive is found on its elegant, smooth, and shiny external case. Fingerprints are easy to imprinted on its case and easy to be scratched so be careful while handling it.

WD My Book Essential Edition

Specs

• Capacity size : 500 GB
• Spindle speed : 7200 RPM
• Buffer cache size : 16 MB
• Transfer rate : 480 Mbps
• Interface : USB 2.0
• System requirements : available USB port, Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later
• Package includes : external drive, AC adapter, USB cable, and quick install guide

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An article by Andreas Lee you might be interested in reading: laptop drive and portable drive

By Andreas Lee

Western Digital drives

Earlier, digital data storages are not simple machines but big mainframes that take half of your office space, work very slowly, and have low capacity. That era was over, and it is changed to small sized hard drives which have impressive performance and ultra capacity sized.

Recently, hard drives’ size has become one of most searched innovations in hard drive market. The best example in this small sized digital storages period is Western Digital drives that come in reliable form and large capacity.

Western Digital drives face the market challenge for big size hard drives’ capacity with high quality performance. In other words, Western Digital has created a distinctive culture in purchasing internal hard drives.

In early 2003, Western Digital Raptor (often marketed as WD Raptor) has become a part of Western Digital drives. This WD360GD raptor series is the first incarnation of raptor series satisfying the gamers with its unbelievable 10 000 RPM spindle speed run on one platter and has 16 MB buffer size with 36 GB storage capacity. WD360GD is the first ATA drive which operates at 10 000 spindle speed.

These internal Western Digital drives were synonymous with first class performance.

One year after that, Western Digital released the new brother of Raptor series, WD740GD that gave more space for users with 74 GB, quieter than the first generation, and had 2 platters.

Last year in April 2008, Western Digital created the fourth generation of Western Digital raptor series namely WD VelociRaptor WD3000. These internal Western Digital drives still have a same spindle speed and buffer size, the difference is only on their capacity. The newest Raptor has 300 GB storage.

WD VelociRaptor provides a constant performance same as its predecessor even if it contained hundred gigabytes of data. It offers fast data access, sustained data transfer rates, and IOPS. Moreover, the temperature and noise level of Western Digital drives kept down.

All of these features are not enough for Western Digital. The physical size of internal Western Digital drives managed to be kept as small as possible. Because of their size, they don’t look like common desktop drive but more similar to a laptop drive.

I suggest you to check out my other guides on: tips for disk recovery and camcorders hard drive

By Andreas Lee

Hard drive is a very complicated hardware in a computer. Firstly, you must know exactly either you want to attach it as Master or Slave when you want to install an IDE hard drive. Set it to Master if you want to load Operating System (Windows, Macintosh, Linux, etc.) from it.

ide hard drive

In another case, if you already have an IDE hard drive as Master and install a new one just for an additional storage, then set the new IDE hard drive to Slave. Jumper is required to be moved on the back of IDE hard drive each time this setting changed.

Most people think this is hard to do because they don’t know how to do it. Practically, changing an IDE hard drive’ jumper setting is very simple. You can find jumper configuration on the back of IDE hard drive which has a small label about jumper setting. Please check the label how to set to Master and Slave.

After it is done, take a look on IDE cable which connects primary hard drive with motherboard, usually IDE cable’s color is grey and has unused second connector. If you set your new IDE hard drive as Slave, connect the second connector to it. In other case if you put the new IDE drive in as Master, you need to detach IDE cable running on your old hard drive and connect it to the new drive.

In both cases whether as Slave or Master, power cable is needed to connect on the back of new IDE hard drive to supply power. Therefore, your CPU must have at least one unused power cable.

ide hard drive jumper setting

Make sure the new IDE drive is fastened tightly on both sides of its slot. This is very important, because not well fastened hard drive can lead to files corruption.

Please check out my other guides on: disk recovery guide and Xbox hard drive

External Hard Drive

By Andreas Lee

1TB external hard drive

LinkStation Live II is 1TB external hard drive that suits home and small business environments as shared network storage. You can use it as a storage center in your house to share files between computers in the same network.

Besides, this simple NAS system can stream multimedia to a Macintosh, PC, DLNA media players, and from iTunes software you are allowed to access music files.

As 1TB external hard drive, LinkStation Live can also be a dependable server, easy to install, and works very quiet. With LinkStation Live LS-CHL, you can share your photos, videos, music smoothly. For added security and ultimate protection, password protected features are provided and you can backup previous files automatically by using Memeo auto backup.

LinkStation Live 1TB external hard drive is very user friendly to make sharing extremely simple, increasing capacity by adding a DriveStation, sharing a printer with family members. By using built-in Web Access feature you can also access files share multimedia collection via web browser anywhere, and share/store/stream multimedia content over your network to your TV or HDTV.

Pros

Web Access enables to share your files so easily with anyone through internet. If you want your friend knows about your file documents or other files, just give them a link (URL) which establish a direct connection between your LinkStation 1TB external hard drive and their computer so friend can access your files easily.

Cons

LinkStation Live is wasting energy while using Web Access since it must be ON all the time. In auto power mode, you can not access it through web browser due to inactive.

Specs

• Hard disk size : 1 TB
• Rotation speed : 7200 RPM
• Interface type : SATA-150
• Model : LS-CH1.0TL
• Manufacturer : Buffalo technology
• OSes requirements : Windows XP/2000/Vista/Server 2003/Server 2008 and MacOS X 10.3.9 or later
• Warranty : 1 year warranty

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I wrote another guide you might be interested in reading: disk recovery and hard disk drives

By Andreas Lee

500gb external hard drive

Probably, you don’t know this enticing name of external hard drive, Vox Digital V1. For expanding media collection, Vox Digital 500GB external hard drive is a right device. This Vox Digital product can be bought at the best price below $100, suits for you who want additional 500GB external hard drive for your computer or notebook. Its incredible speed with e-SATA connector makes data transferring go smoothly.

The slim sleek design of Vox 500GB external hard drive is a reason to have it as portable device. With e-SATA mode, 3GB transfer speed can minimize your waiting time while transferring data from Vox Drive to computer or notebook

Pros

Vox Digital 500GB external hard drive is different from other general external drives since it supports USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 which delivers extremely fast speed. Your data is well protected within it since it has a strong case as your data bodyguard.

Cons

Underdeveloped backup software, iniBackup, included within this drive. This software scheduling features doesn’t run at the specified time, so you need to do backup job manually like drag/drop, or copy/paste and then create scheduled time. Therefore, you need to use another third party application as automatic backup solution like Acronis True Image or using this 500GB external hard drive without its backup software.

Specs

• Capacity size : 500 GB
• Spindle speed : 7200 RPM
• Buffer cache size : 8 MB
• Average seek time : 8.9 ms
• Form factor : 3.5 inches
• Manufacturer : Vox Digital
• Box included : drive, USB and e-SATA cables, power supply, software CD, and user manual.
• Platform : Windows XP/Vista or Mac OS9/X

Important: For windows 98 users, need to install the driver first to let Vox Digital V1 recognized by system.

Vox Digital V1 also available in 250GB, 750GB, and the largest is 1GB. All of them have a same simple stylish design with the blue status light like Vox V1 500GB external hard drive on the front side of this drive and black sturdy aluminum casing. It looks cool while being used, its body is completely black and the blue light flash gives the elegant impression. On the back side, all ports located include e-SATA and USB 2.0.

You can find cheaper price of Vox Digital V1 750GB only on:

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Please check out my other articles on: flash drive lighter, and USB hard drive

By Andreas Lee

computer drives

People use computer for their own purposes, so data lose possibility in your computer drives must be considered and also the consequences if this happen. This is the number one and very important factor which needs computer user’s attention. Whether your computer drives are used to keep your personal documents, your final exam files or your business files, your data in each of your drives are really valuable for you.

There are many ways to backup your data using computer hard drive. Along with installing additional computer drives for data storage, you can also use backup software. The second option is using external hard drive for data backup place. This kind of external computer drives can be connected through firewire, e-SATA, or USB cable.

As mentioned before that for the first option, you can combine backup software with a second computer drive. Setting them up is easier than you think. The good thing of this option is the minimum need of extra desk space and power consumption that the external drive requires. Other good thing of these computer drives are their performances which are much faster than external hard drive. Combined with backup software, you can make your backup data done easier by using automatic backup schedule and drag-drop feature.

Besides, other options are available to mirror your data in your primary computer drives. It works as additional computer drives but harder to set up. As soon as the files have been saved, it automatically duplicates the content of your computer drives to the others. Purchasing a new computer is a good choice to take this backup option advantage since a new computer has this backup feature available.

The second option which is also a best option is using external hard drive for backup storage. External hard drives are slower than computer drives because while in backup process your data has to travel through cables. But the most needed feature by using external hard drives is your data can be taken handy along with you. Some external hard drives also have data mirror feature, one of them is Western digital My Book Mirror Edition.

I also wrote another guide you might be interested in: flash drive 8GB and hard drive partition

TB

By Andreas Lee

western digital external hard drive

Western Digital invented a cool RAID mirroring technology to duplicate your backup data for extra protection. This is how it works; this Western Digital external drive My Book series has two drives, when you backup a file, it will be stored in first drive and that file will automatically be mirrored to second drive, in other word your backed up file automatically has a cloning.

The perfect backup system provided by user service ability and automatic backup software to give undisputed security for your valuable data.

I will explain more about the mainstay technology of Western Digital external drive My Book Mirror Edition, RAID mirroring.

Like I said before, the Western Digital external drive automatically clones your data by using RAID mirroring technology, even if one of this dual drive systems failed, the system keeps working to make it done by placing your data in a safe place.

RAID makes you possible to connect more than two drives in one system, one drive store your backup data and instantly duplicate the data for real-time backup to the other drive. The reasons people use RAID system drives because they need fast storage with tons of capacity and want their data is backed up automatically and instantly.

The Western Digital external drive backup system is supported by automatic and continuous backup software. Every time you made a change, your file is backed up automatically and makes its clone to the second drive.

Western Digital external drive My Book Mirror also has GreenPower technology just like owned by WD Caviar Green, with power saving mode, completely quiet with fan-less design, and requires 30% less power than standard drive.

Its RAID setting is easy to modify by using RAID wizard software, and also easy to upgrade the drive(s), no screwdriver needed, just open its case and replace the drive(s).

WD My Book Mirror Edition

Specs

• Capacity size : 2 TB / 1 TB mirrored
• Spindle speed : 7200 RPM
• Serial bus transfer rate : 480 Mb/s
• Interface : USB 2.0
• Model : WDH2U20000N
• System requirements : Available USB port, Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Mac® OS X 10.4.11+/10.5.2+

Features combination of this western digital external drive is the best solution for those who are looking for safety place for their data, and also the best choice for home users, photographers, or small offices.

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Another article that might be helpful for you: USB 8gb and firewire hard drive

By Andreas Lee

internal drives

Many parts compose a computer. One of the parts is the heart of computer, internal hard drive. All commands come from it to let computer knows what the user exactly wants to do.

All of information, even the most detailed can be remembered by internal drives. It knows exactly when you write and save a document, when you use certain applications and read email. A computer needs a mediator to convey information from internal hard drive to user, it is known as Operating System which is the main program that sends and receives commands between user and internal hard drive.

Through moving platters, internal drives encode digital information by using read/write head. Each platter stores information in the different parts. By detecting magnetization of platters’ material, the read/write head search for files that you are looking for.

You really give your internal drives hard task if you play games, watch high definition videos, use graphic and multimedia programs, etc. Those kind of applications require a real operation and that will make internal drives prone to physical issues.

In some cases like this, hard drive recovery is required since backup software can not help you to solve this problem, and hard drive recovery service which is the only way out charges you with very expensive fee, so do not give your internal drives more pressure by using many programs that require a lot of memory usage.

Internal drives are getting larger in terms of capacity, rotation speed, cache size, and transfer rate but getting smaller in their size. Those specifications make them able to receive more pressure from memory-hunger applications. These internal drives abilities reduce fault-tolerance level so take a closer look on specifications when you choose to buy an internal hard drive, make sure its specifications match your needs.

Other unexpected causes can bring serious trouble to your internal hard drive such as short circuit, physical shocks or even poor manufacturing. Therefore, make sure you buy a guaranteed product.

Also, take a look on my other helpful articles in: camcorder with hard drive and HDD laptop