Hard drive- is there a difference?

trevortron · Jan 7, 2015

I had a 2TB external HDD which died. I got a replacement which turn out is a 3TB, and I don't really need it for storage any more.

I was thinking of fitting it to my PC as a primary drive, but I seem to recall reading somewhere (on here) that PC drives differ from storage drives- error correction or something? Google didn't come up with any useful answers (just ad's for SSD's!) so I'm asking here.

Captin · Jan 8, 2015

There is no difference in hard drives exteral or internal 2.5" or 3.5" unless it is a specific grade IE Western Digital Red drives are meant for NAS enclosures, but these are a lot more expensive.

Normal priced external hard drives are just an internal drive fitted into a fancy caddy.

rapha · Jan 8, 2015

Captin said:
There is no difference in hard drives exteral or internal 2.5" or 3.5" unless it is a specific grade IE Western Digital Red drives are meant for NAS enclosures, but these are a lot more expensive.

Normal priced external hard drives are just an internal drive fitted into a fancy caddy.

However Captain as I have found out from dismantling some of these external drives. The likes of Western Digital (Elements and My Passport drives) to name but a few have a proprietary connection attached to the drives circuit board and it differs from the expected SATA data and power output socket you would expect on an internal drive.

marcoa · Jan 8, 2015

rapha said:
However Captain as I have found out from dismantling some of these external drives. The likes of Western Digital (Elements and My Passport drives) to name but a few have a proprietary connection attached to the drives circuit board and it differs from the expected SATA data and power output socket you would expect on an internal drive.

so does that mean one is unable to use them if the case is removed?

little_pob · Jan 8, 2015

trevortron said:
I had a 2TB external HDD which died. I got a replacement which turn out is a 3TB, and I don't really need it for storage any more.

I was thinking of fitting it to my PC as a primary drive, but I seem to recall reading somewhere (on here) that PC drives differ from storage drives- error correction or something? Google didn't come up with any useful answers (just ad's for SSD's!) so I'm asking here.

It's PVR/DVR drives, those found in Sky and TIVO boxes for example, that lack error correction.

FWIW trying to use a 3TB HDD as a boot drive can have issues with visible capacity. Also external drives tend to be 5400-5900RPM too.

trevortron · Jan 8, 2015

little_pob said:
It's PVR/DVR drives, those found in Sky and TIVO boxes for example, that lack error correction.

Thank you! I knew I had seen it somewhere- PVR drives.

little_pob said:
FWIW trying to use a 3TB HDD as a boot drive can have issues with visible capacity. Also external drives tend to be 5400-5900RPM too.

So would you suggest leaving o/s on a smaller, faster HDD and have the 3TB as a secondary drive for storage?

little_pob · Jan 8, 2015

trevortron said:
So would you suggest leaving o/s on a smaller, faster HDD and have the 3TB as a secondary drive for storage?

That's what I'd do. If you do still hit the 3TB partition issue check whether you are able to use GPT rather than MBR. Otherwise you'll have to have multiple partitions.

rapha · Jan 8, 2015

marcoa said:
so does that mean one is unable to use them if the case is removed?

Can you let me have the make and model of the external unit and I can check for you.

stevemarode · Jan 8, 2015

From Segate exusts a "realign" program, with which it was possible to use +2Tb drives on older PC's.

Him Her · Jan 8, 2015

Or simply mount the partition(s) in empty folders to make it look like a single drive?

Erbs · Jan 11, 2015

what i did last week was buy a ssd to function my windows so now it boots up as quick as a fart

and then added a 2tb normal hard drive for storage

Spectre · Jan 11, 2015

Erbs said:
what i did last week was buy a ssd to function my windows so now it boots up as quick as a fart

and then added a 2tb normal hard drive for storage

That's what I have, 256GB SSD and 2GB Green WD for backup images.

Desktop in 15s from shut-down and usable programs under Windows 7.

Erbs · Jan 11, 2015

Spectre said:
That's what I have, 256GB SSD and 2GB Green WD for backup images.

Desktop in 15s from shut-down and usable programs under Windows 7.

its the nuts when it comes to booting up times, before i would switch the pc on the go and make a cup of tea and do a few bits before it actually settled down to become somewhat useable.

Great feeling when you turn pc on, wait 15 seconds, then use it straight away

Hard drive- is there a difference?

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