External Hard Drives

[shaveice]

Re: External Hard Drives

for those of you old enuf to remember, there was this idea that computers would usher in a paperless society. talk about being way off the mark!!!

[tutusue]

Re: External Hard Drives

for those of you old enuf to remember, there was this idea that computers would usher in a paperless society. talk about being way off the mark!!!

I often wonder how many trees my little office is responsible for cutting down each year.

IIRC, computers were also supposed to simplify our lives. If the learning curve was simpler that might've been true! Ok all you geeks...stop laughing!

[tutusue]

Re: External Hard Drives

Wow that's a good price (even if you gotta wait for the rebate check). The cheapest I've seen online runs about $115 with case and that's for an internal 250Gb Western Digital 7200 RPM drive and an external case. When you add shipping you're probably looking at close to $150. Heck for $99 it's worth it just for the drive unit. Are you sure it's not $199.00 ?

Nope! $99. after rebate. I was amazed.

I've always wondered if you can run high Gb hard drives as external on older computers who's BIOS systems cannot recognize those capacities.

Huh?

All I know is that my old iMac DV SE still running OS9 cannot recognize the ability for that hard drive to reformat in Mac extended. It only shows DOS. My newer iBook does recognize Mac Extended. Not a problem tho' as that iMac will soon be retired and replaced by a Powerbook. Then I start all over again learning an upgraded OS X when I haven't completely migrated to X yet! One step forward, 10 steps back!

[mel]

Re: External Hard Drives

The honest question we also need to be asking ourselves is, who will even care about or appreciate all the personal stuff that we've spent so much time, trouble and money towards backing it all up, after we die? Or even if there was a catastrophic fire that destroyed it all, we'd just get to do it all over again.

Perhaps nobody after we die. However through my life I'd like to at least have the data I saved to stick around without having to input it all over again. Some data like purchased digital music is important enough to me to make redundent backups because I hate to buy it all over again.... for a second or third time.

The media companies would like nothing but for us to buy the same content over and over again everytime we want to move it to another device, lose it or be forced into it by some kind of media change.

In the case of music that has probably happened to a lot of us when we moved from vinyl records to tapes to CDs and perhaps on to digital MP3s or whatever format we choose to support (AAC). i personally am tired of doing this and for me the present digital format is the pinnacle of innovation that I would like to stop at. Whatever I own now, I'd like to keep forever.... at least through my lifetime and perhaps pass it on even after I die, if someone out there wants it.

I think the enjoyment we all receive is in the doing and in the experiencing of what we end up collecting and saving, and not necessarily in the actual archiving of the data itself.

I would generally agree with this. That is probably why most people only have one copy of the files they use or need. Most of the data is only "for now". However people do get fits when that data is suddenly lost because the hard drive died or some other media device they have it on fails. Often times the lost data represents not only lost time and productivity, but also lost money.

There is some data that I own that need to be updated on a regular basis. I appreciate having it around rather than having to recreate it from scratch everytime I need it.

Life is too short. Don't sweat the past, because there's nothing we can do about it. Enjoy today, which we can still determine and do something about.

Yes, life is too short especially if we have to waste it "recreating the wheel everytime we need it!"

[shaveice]

Re: External Hard Drives

well, in my case, it's not so much music or word files, etc but priceless pictures/videos that i don't wanna lose. digital video files of my daughter when she was, for example, 1 month old are priceless and i have them on minidv tapes, dvds and external hard drives for safe keeping...

[shaveice]

Re: External Hard Drives

if anyone needs an external hard drive, you can get a Seagate 250GB 3.5" USB 2.0 External Hard Drive for $99.99 after a -$70.00 rebate (i hate mail in rebates!); it's on sale at circuit city and they will not ship; you have to pick it up in person.

i'm heading in the pearl city direction tomorrow so i'm gonna get one.

here's a link for more info:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/howTo...LEncoded=#tabs

[craigwatanabe]

Re: External Hard Drives

if anyone needs an external hard drive, you can get a Seagate 250GB 3.5" USB 2.0 External Hard Drive for $99.99 after a -$70.00 rebate (i hate mail in rebates!); it's on sale at circuit city and they will not ship; you have to pick it up in person.

i'm heading in the pearl city direction tomorrow so i'm gonna get one.

here's a link for more info:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/howTo...LEncoded=#tabs

What's the platter speed on that one? When looking at some of these bargain high capacity hard drives, it seems they are running at the slower 5200 RPM speeds instead of the more current 7200 RPM required for video rendering.

[Hellbent]

Re: External Hard Drives

there is also a 500 gb sata hd on sale at compusa this week, after rebates. you can also buy a external hd enclosure by itself for $25+.
god i hate rebates. you either get a check or a denial after 3+ months and dont even remember what it was for. i know you should keep a log file for rebates, but its too much hassle.
another important factor for external hard drives is the connectivity on your pc, if you have usb1 then its going to be slow. firewire is faster, then usb2 for the fastest.
also, if anyones interested my friend sells this service that archives your photos in some bunker in the rockies and makes them available online as an online photo album that you can also order prints. the price of the prints were reasonable and you can order huge poster sizes too. pm me for her contact info.
ps, uploading to the internet is only so good as the server management is. Webservers are basically computer also and prone to hd failure, but if they do system backups daily then your ok.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: External Hard Drives

also, if anyones interested my friend sells this service that archives your photos in some bunker in the rockies and makes them available online as an online photo album that you can also order prints.

That wouldn't be a cozy little place called NORAD would it?

[Hellbent]

Re: External Hard Drives

"would you like to play a game?"
no, her website is:
http://miriyi.myphotomax.com
you can upload jpgs or send in vhs tapes and theyll convert it for you and post it for you in your profile. i checked with her and its not the rockies, its somewhere in utah. funny, i made an account but i dont see mention of the 'secret bunker' anywhere, but she keeps telling me about it. (secret bunker is my words, not hers.)
its not my thing, im just posting to help out a friend.

[tutusue]

Re: External Hard Drives

[...]god i hate rebates. you either get a check or a denial after 3+ months and dont even remember what it was for. i know you should keep a log file for rebates, but its too much hassle.

I agree...for the $5. kine!! But for the $30.+ rebates I scan the rebate paperwork and enclose a copy of that scan along with the originals and keep a copy in my bills folder so I know I'll see it twice a month! It shows you've done your homework. My rebates arrive in no time at all! I've never been denied. Oh wait...not true. I was denied the one time I forgot to include the scan. They said I didn't include the bar code. Yah! Right! I sent a print of the scan to the rebate-powers-that-be and got a check in no time. The extra 10 minutes is worth it.

another important factor for external hard drives is the connectivity on your pc, if you have usb1 then its going to be slow. firewire is faster, then usb2 for the fastest.

Hmmm...I'm on a Mac so my experience may be different but I find that firewire is faster than USB 2.

[shaveice]

Re: External Hard Drives

What's the platter speed on that one? When looking at some of these bargain high capacity hard drives, it seems they are running at the slower 5200 RPM speeds instead of the more current 7200 RPM required for video rendering.

. . . . . . .

howzit craig. oh, it's definitely 7200 rpm; wouldn't consider it otherwise...
BUT i got a call after i placed my order from some guy at circuit city and he said that it isn't in the store and that i'd have to wait for it. i said no problem, hung up and then thought, "oh no! is this some bait and switch thing? there's a rebate and all rebates have expiration dates" so i tried calling back but always got a "no one's answering the phone" message! i'll go there tomorrow in person to straighten this out; without the $70 rebate, it ain't worth it.

[Hellbent]

Re: External Hard Drives

the thing is that its a scam. sort of. they could offer the items at the price less the rebate. this is how retailing works. a special offer for a certain time, like say a 12 pack of coke youd buy at longs. ie: regular retail is 3.75, but this week its 2.75. so they can run it at 2.99. or they could offer the retailer to reimburse based on the quantity sold, but they know that a certain percentage wont even use the rebate, others will miss the deadline or send in imcomplete rebates.
iomega (zip drives) got sued by a class action because they deliberately didnt send rebates back for bogus reasons, so they could keep the money.
i like rainchecks at office depot tho, if the product is out of stock and comes in after the rebate expires, they give it to you less the rebate up front. unfortunately places like comp usa have like 2 items in stock and arent scheduled to recieve the stock till wednesday, or you get put on a backorder sheet, then never call you. ive had lots of things on a back order sheet, but they have almost never called me to pick it up.

[shaveice]

Re: External Hard Drives

the thing is that its a scam. sort of. they could offer the items at the price less the rebate. this is how retailing works. a special offer for a certain time, like say a 12 pack of coke youd buy at longs. ie: regular retail is 3.75, but this week its 2.75. so they can run it at 2.99. or they could offer the retailer to reimburse based on the quantity sold, but they know that a certain percentage wont even use the rebate, others will miss the deadline or send in imcomplete rebates.
iomega (zip drives) got sued by a class action because they deliberately didnt send rebates back for bogus reasons, so they could keep the money.
i like rainchecks at office depot tho, if the product is out of stock and comes in after the rebate expires, they give it to you less the rebate up front. unfortunately places like comp usa have like 2 items in stock and arent scheduled to recieve the stock till wednesday, or you get put on a backorder sheet, then never call you. ive had lots of things on a back order sheet, but they have almost never called me to pick it up.

. . . . . . . .
i drove to circuit city today cuz after 20 calls, all i got was "sorry, no one is avaialable to answer your call"!!! ugh... anyway, went there, explained my situation and said that if they had one in the store, that i'd buy it on the spot and if not, please cancel my order.... so it's cancelled! just wasted my time....

the sad thing is that i checked online and it said that the product was available for pick up from the pearlridge store. when i called the 1-800 number, the person asked me to hold cuz he was going to confirm that there was one to pick up; he came back on and said that it was available so we went through the whole process of my name, address, credit card info, etc. sigh........

[Beachboy]

Re: External Hard Drives

Nope! $99. after rebate. I was amazed.


Huh?

All I know is that my old iMac DV SE still running OS9 cannot recognize the ability for that hard drive to reformat in Mac extended. It only shows DOS. My newer iBook does recognize Mac Extended. Not a problem tho' as that iMac will soon be retired and replaced by a Powerbook. Then I start all over again learning an upgraded OS X when I haven't completely migrated to X yet! One step forward, 10 steps back!

wow, you have an old iMac DV SE. Was it the 400MHz graphite model? That was my first iMac...and I love that computer. At the time it was a great entry level computer for Geek novices who wanted to own a Mac. It is now property of my 7 yr. old

Unfortunately it had an super small HD...I think it was 13 gigs if my memory serves me correctly? Over time I had to delete most everything OS9..very happy to do so too!

Tutusue, if you need Mac work of any kind, contact MacMouse. They are around the block from ChumpUSA. These guys have great overnight service...and I mean over night too! Anything you need done they can do it for you at a very resonable price. They use to have free OSX classes there too. Gosh, I can't think of the bosses name right off hand, but they make a great alternative to going to the Genius Bar!