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Alternatives to a standard external HDD?

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alzerm

Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2013
Location
CA
I recently bought a TP-Link WDR-3600 which has 2 usb 2.0 ports on it. I want to connect my printer and an external HDD to the router. My current external HDD is old as dirt so I want to make sure I make the right choice when upgrading. I looked around a bit for a usb 3.0 port on a router and was only able to find them on routers in the 100+USD range so I just stuck with this 55USD router. I've seen some adapters for internal HDD's that convert data to USB. My questions are would buying a 7200 rpm sata III drive and one of these 3.0 usb (hopefully backwards compat) adapters be a better buy in sense of price/performance over a usb 3.0 HDD in the 1-2 TB range? Would I get better transfer rates via USB 3.0 when directly connecting HDD+adapter to a pc over a normal external usb 3.0 HDD? Is this even possible :shrug:
 
If you are going to just get on external drive, an external USB HDD would be the most convenient and would cost less. If there ever is a chance you might want two or more external HDDs but would use no more than one or two at a time, then getting an internal type HDD and a two drive USB dock would be better. Internal type HDDs are usually better quality but will cost a bit more.
 
Yeah I know they are which is why I would prefer a 7200 rpm drive over most external HDD's that tend to have 5400 rpm drives. Any suggestions on external drives that have drives in them like that? I hear that Seagate has 7200 rpm drives in their 2tb or 3tb drives but they cost a bit more and I don't really feel like purchasing from them after the experience I had with their seagate wireless plus drives. Also might anyone know of a external HDD with both usb 3.0 and an esata connector on them?
 
Any suggestions anyone? Trying to figure this all out before Cyber Monday deals.
 
Would I need to install some sort of software on the drive if I used that or would it be read as a USB device on the router?
 
You should be able to see the hard drive in Win 7, you might have to map the network drive.
 
I was looking into routers with usb 3.0 ports like this since the transfers via usb 2.0 were not satisfying for me and the wifi range on my wdr3600 is pathetic. Read some reviews and looked around the net a bit to see that while using the usb ports they cause interference to the router. Any chance you guys might know if a shielded usb 3.0 cable will eliminate that altogether? Also had this drive dock in mind since I have a spare 2.5 1tb sata ii drive I pulled out of my seagate wireless plus. Any opinions on it?
 
Yeah I thought that but it will useless unless the shielded usb cable stops the interference
 
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