Thanks! I'll have to check it out. ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Ferrin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2008 7:29 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-Computing] external hard drives
> Almost all of today's drives are 7200 or better, so slower models aren't > much of an issue any longer. See gate, western digital are a couple of > good > names. I have a see gate 320 GB sitting right here from tiger direct which > I > like very much. > David Ferrin > www.jaws-users.com > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "tammy cantrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008 11:54 PM > Subject: Re: [Blind-Computing] external hard drives > > >> Victor, >> Thanks for all of the information. I greatly appreciate all of the good >> advice. You covered several points I wondered about. I will keep your >> words >> of wisdom handy. What is your opinion of www.newegg.com? Do you have >> another site that would prove to be better? I live in the United States. >> >> Thanks for your time and information! >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Victor Gouveia" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> To: <[email protected]> >> Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008 10:31 PM >> Subject: Re: [Blind-Computing] external hard drives >> >> >>> Hi Tammy, >>> >>> I am also in the market for an external drive, and have found some >>> things >>> you should look out for when shopping for these monsters. >>> >>> First is to look at what kind of interface it has. >>> >>> USB is the common one, but some models will also come equipped with a >>> Firewire cable, and even some will come with an RJ45 jack, which means >>> it >>> can be connected to the network and used as a network drive. >>> >>> Secondly, you'll want to look at the rotation speeds of the disk, >>> sometimes >>> measured in RPM's. The standard is 7200 rpm's. Anything below that is >>> tantamount to very slow access. >>> >>> Thirdly, and I think this is most important, is the read/write speeds >>> and >>> the transfer speeds, usually measured in megabytes per second. >>> >>> There is really no standard for this, and some retailers will sometimes >>> try >>> to fool you into thinking that the higher the transfer speed, the faster >>> you'll get data on the drive. While this can sometimes be true, the >>> fact >>> is >>> that the read and write speed is more important than the transfer speed, >>> as >>> the transfer will have to wait while the data is being read or written. >>> >>> The transfer speed may be referring to the transfer rate of the cable or >>> connection, and not necessarily the drive itself. One drive I found was >>> boasting a transfer speed of 480 mbps, but the read/write speed was >>> abyssmally slow. >>> >>> An example I can cite is a electronics' chain here in Toronto called >>> Future >>> Shop. >>> >>> They were selling a 500 Gb external hard drive for 99 dollars. Once I >>> saw >>> that, my mouth fell open, as I couldn't believe the price, until I saw >>> the >>> read and write speeds, about 27 and 25 mbps, reading and writing, >>> respectively. >>> >>> While this seems high, try to remember that the mbps stands for megabits >>> per >>> second, not to be confused with megabytes per second, as most people >>> commonly see it as. >>> >>> What shocked me was the fact that it still said an rpm of 7200, which >>> should >>> not support that kind of read write speed, but then I realized what >>> might >>> be >>> slowing the read write speeds up, and that leads me into the last point >>> I >>> want to make. >>> >>> Circuitry... >>> >>> You can have the most expensive hard drive in there, but if the >>> enclosure >>> stinks to high heaven, then that really expensive drive means absolutely >>> nothing. >>> >>> The circuitry must come with a cache of some kind, and some kind of >>> power >>> switch, as this will control how long the hard drive lasts. >>> Continuously >>> keeping the drive on will shorten the lifespan of the drive. Although >>> it >>> has not been proven to shorten it's lifespan dramatically, it does >>> shorten >>> it nonetheless. >>> >>> So this is what I think you should look out for, and I hope this helps >>> in >>> some way. >>> >>> Victor >>> >>> >>> Visit the JAWS Users List home page at: >>> http://www.jaws-users.com >>> Address for the list archives: >>> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >>> To post to this group, send email to >>> [email protected] >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> For help from Mailman with your account Put the word help in the subject >>> or body of a blank message to: >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> Use the following form in order to contact the management team >>> http://www.jaws-users.com/BlindComputing.php >>> If you wish to join the JAWS Users List send a blank email to the >>> following address: >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >> >> Visit the JAWS Users List home page at: >> http://www.jaws-users.com >> Address for the list archives: >> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> To post to this group, send email to >> [email protected] >> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> For help from Mailman with your account Put the word help in the subject >> or body of a blank message to: >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Use the following form in order to contact the management team >> http://www.jaws-users.com/BlindComputing.php >> If you wish to join the JAWS Users List send a blank email to the >> following address: >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> > > > Visit the JAWS Users List home page at: > http://www.jaws-users.com > Address for the list archives: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > To post to this group, send email to > [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For help from Mailman with your account Put the word help in the subject > or body of a blank message to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Use the following form in order to contact the management team > http://www.jaws-users.com/BlindComputing.php > If you wish to join the JAWS Users List send a blank email to the > following address: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit the JAWS Users List home page at: http://www.jaws-users.com Address for the list archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help from Mailman with your account Put the word help in the subject or body of a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Use the following form in order to contact the management team http://www.jaws-users.com/BlindComputing.php If you wish to join the JAWS Users List send a blank email to the following address: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
