USB external HD question...

[Gsexer]

OK< so I am about to buy a USB external HD. Now, is it worth it to buy a HD with a 16MB cache, or just get one with a 2 or 8 MB cache. I was wondering how much the information really bottlenecks going USB to make it not worth the money to get the bigger cache. Maybe the two have nothing in common to begin with.

Anyhow, this is what I was looking at with the Seagate 250g 16MB cache HD.
http://www.supergooddeal.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MII-SL-XX&Click=17583

Oh yea, what about a good back up proggie? What are you guys using?

 

[Know Nuttin]

USB is the bottleneck, not the actual hard drive itself. Just go with the cheapest drive that offers the largest storage capacity.

I use Allways Sync.

 

[Jeepson33s]

What are you using it for? I take mine to work and travel with it in my motorcycle so i needed a "rugged" hdd that would actually work when i took it out of my bike. I looked forever for one but i could not find one that was small enough and that i could just plug in and work (the only ones i could find were the big ones with power cords and small flash media drives)

http://cgi.ebay.com/WD-120GB-2-5-Ex...QQihZ011QQcategoryZ116256QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The WD passport is an AWESOME drive. its fast and would always work when i needed it because it just pluggs into the usb and that was the power also! I know that i am rambling on but this thing was awesome! Its 120gigs, i dont know what your storing but that was a good size for me. take a look at it, hope this helps.

Wes

 

[Gsexer]

I am just using it to back up , nothing more. its gonna sit right next to the comp and not move really. Check this out. I had looked around and found these.
Here's the External HD. I picked that cause it has SATA outs on it.
http://www.supergooddeal.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=CI-355SU2-XX&CartID=1

And this controller card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16816132009

Just to be clear, it does not matter that the HD's I already have installed are IDE, and The external is SATA?

The game plan was to use the USB to back up what I have now, install the card, configure RAID, and use the SATA port on the card for connectivity to the external after I get set up. How does that sound?

 

[Jeepson33s]

I THINK.....that if it is not a boot drive or have a bootable partition on it you shoud be fine. i had a bootable ide drive and a sata drive connected and all was well.

 

[Gsexer]

Rock on. Thats what I was hoping. So, by using the SATA cable, it should be tons faster than USB for data transfer. Cool, time to go spend some money! Thanks for the help.

 

[Bios24]

USB isn't *too* bad for backups, but obviously straight SATA would be much better. I do a 40gb external USB backup in about 25 mins.