What's the difference? External hdd and internal hdd screwed into an external hdd?

[Lucifiel]

I've been interested in getting an external hard disk.

I've seen people use an external hdd and also others who use an internal hdd converted into an external hdd with a casing. So, what's the difference, actually?

[Iarwain ben-adar]

As far as i know, it's all the same.

It's just a hard drive in a case :D


Iarwain

[bastiegast]

A normal hard disk is cheaper than an external hard disk so I guess that's the difference.

[Lucifiel]

So, there's no hardware issues that explain the difference between an internal and external hdd?

Hmmm... guess it's probably 'cos of the weight and size: 2.5inch vs 3.5 inch .

[forrestcupp]

You can buy 2.5 inch laptop harddrives and a converter case made for them if you want. I'd just go with the cheapest option. In some cases it may be cheaper to buy an ext. hd than to buy an int. hd and also pay for a case. I went the converter route because I already had an internal harddrive lying around and I only had to pay a few bucks for a case. Just make sure you get the right interfaces. I think most converter kits take an IDE hard drive. I noticed that my converted hard drive was much, much faster externally than it was when it was used internally. That's because it was interfacing with USB 2.0 instead of going through the much slower IDE bridge.

[PartisanEntity]

IMO the difference is merely the price and the specs.

I bought an external 250GB hdd that came with a casing, from Western Digital as my main storage device.

I also have two laptop hdds that I converted to external hdds by buying casings for them.

[Lucifiel]

Whoa, thank you guys for the advice. :D

I wonder if external casings have fans and if the fans provide decent cooling.

Also, it'd be okay to just go for an IDE hdd, huh?

[forrestcupp]

Also, it'd be okay to just go for an IDE hdd, huh?

As far as I know, you have to. I could be wrong, but I haven't seen any converter kits that use interfaces such as SATA. But remember, the interface (IDE, SATA, SCSI) doesn't matter anymore because it is being converted to a USB 2.0 interface.

Edit:

About the fans. My case doesn't have a fan at all, but I've never had any trouble.

[mips]

As far as I know, you have to. I could be wrong, but I haven't seen any converter kits that use interfaces such as SATA. But remember, the interface (IDE, SATA, SCSI) doesn't matter anymore because it is being converted to a USB 2.0 interface.


WARNING! Beware of the above information as it is factually incorrect.

External HD enclosures usually support the following interfaces Firewire, USB, eSATA and on the odd occasion SCSI.

You have to buy the enclosure according to what interfaces you have available on your computer. eSATA & Firewire are both better than USB, SCSI is rare but probably the best out of the lot.

Next you have to check what interface the Enclosure uses internally to connect to the actual physical HD. For Firewire & USB it could be PATA or SATA. For eSATA it is most likely SATA in 99% of the cases. For SCSI it will be SCSI.

Either way, USB is the worse type of interface you can go for between the PC & Enclosure.
I would rank them as follows:
SCSI (rare & expensive and will require a SCSI HD)
eSATA (rare but cheaper)
Firewire (Firewire480 is common on lots of MB & Laptops so probably your best bet if you don't have the previous two)
USB (USB2.0 is the slowest & least efficient out of the lot)

[Lucifiel]

As far as I know, you have to. I could be wrong, but I haven't seen any converter kits that use interfaces such as SATA. But remember, the interface (IDE, SATA, SCSI) doesn't matter anymore because it is being converted to a USB 2.0 interface.

Edit:

About the fans. My case doesn't have a fan at all, but I've never had any trouble.

Right... hmm. Then, maybe I'll see if I can screw on a fan, then. :)

[Lucifiel]

WARNING! Beware of the above information as it is factually incorrect.

External HD enclosures usually support the following interfaces Firewire, USB, eSATA and on the odd occasion SCSI.

You have to buy the enclosure according to what interfaces you have available on your computer. eSATA & Firewire are both better than USB, SCSI is rare but probably the best out of the lot.

Next you have to check what interface the Enclosure uses internally to connect to the actual physical HD. For Firewire & USB it could be PATA or SATA. For eSATA it is most likely SATA in 99% of the cases. For SCSI it will be SCSI.

Either way, USB is the worse type of interface you can go for between the PC & Enclosure.
I would rank them as follows:
SCSI (rare & expensive and will require a SCSI HD)
eSATA (rare but cheaper)
Firewire (Firewire480 is common on lots of MB & Laptops so probably your best bet if you don't have the previous two)
USB (USB2.0 is the slowest & least efficient out of the lot)


Thank you for that very lengthy explanation, mips. :) To my knowledge, my motherboard ( Abit Av8 ) doesn't support eSata(finding out now). So, the best option for me is USB 2.0 or Firewire. Still, I think most of the shops in my country(not America/Europe) don't carry any eSata or FireWire external casings.

[Biochem]

Either way, USB is the worse type of interface you can go for between the PC & Enclosure.
I would rank them as follows:
SCSI (rare & expensive and will require a SCSI HD)
eSATA (rare but cheaper)
Firewire (Firewire480 is common on lots of MB & Laptops so probably your best bet if you don't have the previous two)
USB (USB2.0 is the slowest & least efficient out of the lot)


I think there is one parameter that was forgotten in the above ranking: portability. As mention SCSI and eSATA are rare. But firewire is often omitted on laptop and is only found on the back of desktops. If you use your ext. HDD on multiple computer you will find it cumbersome to go continually under the desk to plug your device while looking at the handy front USB port. Therefore USB even if it is the slowest of them all as an advantage here.

As for the fan issue, I have one 3.5" in a plastic casing that has a very noisy front fan and a 2,5" HD in a aluminum casing that doesn't have any fan. My guess is that since aluminum has a good heat dissipation a fan is not needed.

[mips]

I think there is one parameter that was forgotten in the above ranking: portability. As mention SCSI and eSATA are rare. But firewire is often omitted on laptop and is only found on the back of desktops. If you use your ext. HDD on multiple computer you will find it cumbersome to go continually under the desk to plug your device while looking at the handy front USB port. Therefore USB even if it is the slowest of them all as an advantage here.

As for the fan issue, I have one 3.5" in a plastic casing that has a very noisy front fan and a 2,5" HD in a aluminum casing that doesn't have any fan. My guess is that since aluminum has a good heat dissipation a fan is not needed.

You are correct, if portability is an issue for you choose the lowest common denominator. Weird thing is both my desktop & laptop has firewire.

[mips]

Thank you for that very lengthy explanation, mips. :) To my knowledge, my motherboard ( Abit Av8 ) doesn't support eSata(finding out now). So, the best option for me is USB 2.0 or Firewire. Still, I think most of the shops in my country(not America/Europe) don't carry any eSata or FireWire external casings.

Many casing have dual Firewire & USB interfaces. That is probably the better option if portability is also an issue. Look into the dual cases then, it is something I would buy if I was going for an external case.

[forrestcupp]

Many casing have dual Firewire & USB interfaces. That is probably the better option if portability is also an issue. Look into the dual cases then, it is something I would buy if I was going for an external case.

Sorry about my ignorance earlier. I was just speaking from what I have seen, and I did state that I may be wrong. Evidently, I was.

As far as I know, the interface of the internal hard drive does not matter speedwise. What matters is the interface of the converter case. Anyway, I was thinking along the lines of portability like someone else said. You can use USB with about any computer you find. I have even used my hard drive on a computer that only has USB 1.0 (it was a lot slower, but it worked). Firewire is a lot less common, and you don't know where all you might need to use your external.

As for the dual firewire & usb case, price is also an issue. If it ends up costing a lot more to get a top of the line case and internal hard drive, you might as well just buy an external hard drive.

[Lucifiel]

Anyways, my reasoning for getting an internal hdd and converting it into an external hdd was 'cos of the warranty(often around 1 yr for external). At the moment, my choices available for 3.5 " external hdd are:

http://sg.hardwarezone.com/priceguide/priceguide.php?id=250&filter=&sortby=name&pg=0

Lacie, Maxtor(A big no no), Seagate(not so good where I live... they keep dying on me), Ovation(has Seagate hdd), Buffalo, Freecom, Iomega, Western Digital.

And no, I wouldn't be able to afford a WD Premium Pro II as it'd likely cost about 500++ SGD. =P From what I know, Western Digital Book has about 1 year warranty for external.

2.5" is out 'cos almost everything listed under there is what? 5400 rpm!

[ixus_123]

the advantage the 2.5 laptop drives have is they can be & often are bus powered - especially if they are firewire - so no need to take a bulky power brick, cable & plug with you.

It depends what your needs are - if you need it for a scratch disk or for video editing, then get a fast 3.5 drive.

If you just needs portability get get the 2.5. If your only intend to watch videos / listem to music off of it, then the speed wont make much of a difference at all apart from actually copying files over.

I like the idea of uying the drive separate from the case because I get to choose what I consider to be a reliable model of hard disk.

[loserboy]

doesnt a dedicated external HD have better shock protection?

[Biochem]

doesnt a dedicated external HD have better shock protection?
Not to my knowledge. they are just standard hard drive in a separate box. Though some may have dedicated driver for backup or power saving. If you want better shock protection I hear (but I cannot confirm it) that laptop hard drive are better in this area.

Having said that my new internal Seagate hard drive has 63G (i.e. 63 time the hearth gravitation pull) shock tolerance. I droped it on my way from the store (1m fall) and still worked.

[loserboy]

. I droped it on my way from the store (1m fall) and still worked.

wow that's pretty amazing, a couple years ago I dropped one from like 2 ft to the ground .....totally dead

[Lucifiel]

Oh going to go downtown tommorrow to finally get my hard disk. :)

Is it therefore okay to boot both WinXP and Ubuntu on the external hard disk? My motherboard doesn't support booting from a usb device, btw?

[H.E. Pennypacker]

I've seen people use an external hdd and also others who use an internal hdd converted into an external hdd with a casing. So, what's the difference, actually?

There is a big difference a regular hard drive and an external one. An external hard drive is not simply a hard drive with a case. It comes ready for use as an external hard drive, and provides a way to hook it up to your computer. In other words, external hard drives will allow you to connect the piece to your computer via USB, Firewire, etc. Now, how would you take a regular hard drive, and just provide a case? You'd have a hard drive with a house, but with no means to connect it to your computer.

Also, the Western Digital My Book external hard drive will shut it self down after a short period of time of non-use. A regular hard drive does not power itself down.

Lots of external hard drives are also specifically used for the purpose of backups. Some have a single button that can be pressed to automate backups, making the process easier. Others have scheduled backups.

Like I said, there is a difference, and there are probably more differences I have not noted here.