External Drive (recommendations needed)

battlezone said:

Hi again,

I am interested in buying this WD Black drive. I can't find info on the interface it uses. it says SATA 3, but it should have also a USB connector, I presume?

That is an internal hard drive, not an external. You can buy an external enclosure to put it in and use it as an external. I use several of these https://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-E...rmaltake+blacx but there are numerous other enclosures that will work.

battlezone said:

I had no idea a drive is by default considered an internal drive until it's mounted in an external housing. For twenty years nobody has corrected me. I thought "internal drive" referred to "inside the computer" and "external drive " referred to "a drive that is peripheral to a computer, such as a drive in an enclosure or in a docking station." I have been calling all my drives connected to the computer externally (while inside a case or atop a docking station) "external drives." So what should I call them? "Internal drives in an enclosure?

I rephrase my question:

I would like to buy this WD Black internal drive, for which I already have a case. The interface listed is SATA 3. Does the drive itself have USB connections, or is this dependant only on the case? Meaning the SATA 3 on the drive may get connected to USB ports on the housing? The case I already have has USB and eSATA ports.

You're calling them just fine Think some guys overlooked that you already have an external enclosure.

Drive by itself doesn't have USB connection, it is connected to SATA port inside enclosure, which has USB external port and that is connected to your USB port on computer.

You'll be fine with that drive (it's overkill for external drive, but it'll be fine)

Which case do you have?

There is USB and that comes in at least two flavours, USB 2.0 and USB 3 (or 3.1)

USB 3 is faster than USB 2. If you want a quick read.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2360...-imagined.html

Some case also come with an eSATA connection and other connections. Great spped but you have to have a port to connect to on your computer.

If you are doing backups to the drive you may want as much speed as you can get. Enclosures are very reasonable priced.

I find the really cheap enclosures have a fair bit of plastic and the fit (seams) are not as good as they should be.

I recently got a Thermaltake Blac-X SSD/HDD enclosure eSata to USB 3.1 and a Samsung EVO 860 500GB from Amazon. With Macrium, I got 30GB (compressed to 18GB) backed up and verified in 2:35. Can't complain with that! Just one example.

Caledon Ken said:

Which case do you have?

There is USB and that comes in at least two flavours, USB 2.0 and USB 3 (or 3.1)

USB 3 is faster than USB 2. If you want a quick read.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2360...-imagined.html

Some case also come with an eSATA connection and other connections. Great spped but you have to have a port to connect to on your computer.

If you are doing backups to the drive you may want as much speed as you can get. Enclosures are very reasonable priced.

I find the really cheap enclosures have a fair bit of plastic and the fit (seams) are not as good as they should be.

f14tomcat said:

I recently got a Thermaltake Blac-X SSD/HDD enclosure eSata to USB 3.1 and a Samsung EVO 860 500GB from Amazon. With Macrium, I got 30GB (compressed to 18GB) backed up and verified in 2:35. Can't complain with that! Just one example.

He already has external enclosure.. mentioned in his post above:

Rosewill Armer RX304-APU3-35B - External 3.5" SATA III 6 Gb/s Hard Drive Enclosure - USB 3.0 & eSATA Connection,

AndreTen said:

He already has external enclosure.. mentioned in his post above:

Rosewill Armer RX304-APU3-35B - External 3.5" SATA III 6 Gb/s Hard Drive Enclosure - USB 3.0 & eSATA Connection,

I know, was only saying that it's all a good setup. Works fine.

f14tomcat said:

I know, was only saying that it's all a good setup. Works fine.

Thanks Andre. I was lazy. So his enclosure has USB 3. and ESata

Nice if his PC has an eSata port.