At the moment I'm sick of my tiny 8GB HDD(i'm down to 2GB!) and I'm consireding an external HDD as an alternative. I can't afford an upgrade nor can i be stuffed buying a new HDD and installing everything else on it.
So, does anyone know if external drives are good? How much do they cost? etc. ;)
Any help would be great. :)

It'd be slower than a normal HDD. I'm not sure of the technology behind these things, but if they're anything like most high capacity storage devices (eg- flash drives, zip disks), they're only intended for storage and not constant writing. If this is the case then you'd find yourself with a corrupted HDD in a few weeks, if not sooner.

If I were you I'd just get another regular HDD, they're not hard to install. :thumbsup:

Trins a bit off, extrenal dirves are just like normal drives(and normall are just normal drives stuck inside a case and told about the USB port) and will be fine to use, but inr=trenal drives are far cheaper and are not tht hard to install.

Indeed, Quartz is right, although it is best if you can find a HDD with USB 2.0 or Firewire, otherwise you will be in for a long waiting time, and make sure your computer has those ports connected.

I've got a feeling that Civic's PC doesn't have USB 2.0 or Firewire....but you can buy cards for those as well. ;)

So if you don't have USB 2.0 or Firewire, your going to have to open your PC one way or another. ;)

I use them a lot for film editing and they work well. I can't say I've ever had a problem with one and I use them all the time. Prices are obviously based on size and that can start low and got up and over 160Gb.

As has been mentioned, get one with USB & Firewire. A lot just have Firewire and most computer don't have a connection for this.

Your comp sounds really old Civ, might I suggest just getting a new one? :)

It is kinda old and I'd love to get a new one, but no money at the moment.

Luckily I do have 2 USB 2.0 ports so I could use that. A friend of mine uses an external HDD and it worked fine if I remember correctly. I guess I'll look into one of them for now. Thanks guys. :)

Trust me. You're far better off paying learning how to install it or getting someone to do it for you than paying the extra for an external HDD.

Western Digital External USB 2.0 80gb Hard Disk Drive-$ 255.00
Versus
Western Digital Caviar WD800BB (80gb, 7200rpm, ATA100, 2MB)-$ 95.00

Hell, you could get an 80 gig model with 8mb cache or 120 gig model for less than half the price of an external 80gig model.

Western Digital Caviar WD1200BB (120gb, 7200rpm, ATA100, 2MB)- $ 129.00
Western Digital Caviar WD800JB (80gb, 7200rpm, ATA100, 8MB)-$ 110.00

Well that's an eye opener. :o

Argh! :argh: Might have to get an internal one then.

External HDs are great if you use the portability they give you.

If it's never going to go anywhere with you, you'd be a damn fool to get an external HD.

:D

Hehe, this is very true.

Civ: If you're only getting a new one to up your storage space on your computer, go with a new internal HDD - you'll get twice as much space for your buck!

I guess I will. Thanks for the tips guys.

*strains at the thought of installing everything again!* :argh:

Why do you need to install everything again???

Keep the 8MB Hard drive in there as the OS hard drive and store all you files on the other Hard Drive

8MB HD!! Yowza!

The time and "effort" you put into installing a new HD will be well worth it, especially considering the price and performance difference between external and internal HDs.

Out of interest, what are your specs on your current comp, Civ? By the size of your HDD, it sounds as though it is hugely outdated and it amazes me you can do some of the graphic stuff that you...ummm...do.

Open up your case. For some reason I doubt you don't have enough room for a second HDD. <_<

You can do that? (yes, i'm a :n00b: with PCs :( )

It's not 8MB but 8GB. :P

Gregg, it's a celeron 634 with 128MB Ram, 8GB HDD, and an Intel graphics chip or something. Hence the reason i don't do any gaming on it. It's a step above my old celeron 566 with 100MB ram and 4MB of video ram. At least that one had a 10GB HDD! :lol:

OMG n00BZ0R! :P

cd2 and geek are on the right track. Even if it is old, it should have room for two. Although if I was you, I'd slowly replace each part until you have a brand spanking new machine. You don't burn your wallet all in one go that way. You slowly singe it. ;)

Well thats what I meant 8Gb :P