March 16, 2007
When you've got a broadband connection, you're probably maximizing its potential by download ingeverything you can lay your hands off. Which means your hard disks are bound to run out of space at some point (if they're not full already). Burning your stuff to DVDs is a pretty good solution, but sometimes you just want everything in one place without having to organize an entire library.
So I treated myself to an external hard disk. It's a 200GB Toshiba MK2035GSS 2.5-inch laptop hard disk that comes with a SATA-to-USB enclosure. I got it at a dirt-cheap price from TipidPC: PhP 7500 (around US$ 150). (The enclosure may look like a cheap knock-off, but at least the hard disk itself is sealed/brand-new.) A Froogle search reveals that a MK2035GSS sells for around US$ 220 so I definitely got an awesome deal.
It works perfectly, it won't hurt your wallet (but only of bought from TipidPC), it does its job well, it's huge, and it's all ready to get filled up. For all these reasons and more, the Toshiba MK2035GSS is this week's RubeTube Pick of the Week. (It is only worthy of a PoW if bought from TipidPC, so check out the seller's list if you are looking to score one of your own.)
(Interestingly enough, if you take a look at the screenshot below, Windows says that the capacity is only 186 GB. A look at the fine print below the product specs reveals the answer: "*Toshiba defines a megabyte (MB) as 1,000,000 bytes and a gigabyte (GB) as 1,000,000,000 bytes." I was fooled!)
So I treated myself to an external hard disk. It's a 200GB Toshiba MK2035GSS 2.5-inch laptop hard disk that comes with a SATA-to-USB enclosure. I got it at a dirt-cheap price from TipidPC: PhP 7500 (around US$ 150). (The enclosure may look like a cheap knock-off, but at least the hard disk itself is sealed/brand-new.) A Froogle search reveals that a MK2035GSS sells for around US$ 220 so I definitely got an awesome deal.
It works perfectly, it won't hurt your wallet (but only of bought from TipidPC), it does its job well, it's huge, and it's all ready to get filled up. For all these reasons and more, the Toshiba MK2035GSS is this week's RubeTube Pick of the Week. (It is only worthy of a PoW if bought from TipidPC, so check out the seller's list if you are looking to score one of your own.)
(Interestingly enough, if you take a look at the screenshot below, Windows says that the capacity is only 186 GB. A look at the fine print below the product specs reveals the answer: "*Toshiba defines a megabyte (MB) as 1,000,000 bytes and a gigabyte (GB) as 1,000,000,000 bytes." I was fooled!)
It might be because Windows defines 1GB as a 1,024Mb.
It might also be something to do with the disk formatting - that usually takes a bit of space off it.
@David: Yes, that is correct. I forgot to clarify that. Toshiba and Windows had different definitions. The correct one is Windows' because a gigabyte should be 1,073,741,824 bytes (or 1,048,576 KB, or 1,024 MB like you said). Thanks!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megabyte
@Ealden: Thanks for that. Those sneaky hard disk manufacturers!
With SATA to USB enclosures, your biggest problem is HEAT. Unless your enclosure comes with a fan, you could lose your 200GB disk to overheating. My son Paul uses a 160GB disk in an enclosure, which he uses to hold all the movies that he downloads when he is in Japan for his Canon Philippines job. He just rendered this disk unusable by running a movie from it for 1.5 hours. Watch out while using your drive. If it starts smelling like burning wires, it probably is burning! It might be better to buy an enclosure with a fan, if you can find one.
@Ambo: Thanks for the warning. I always make sure to disconnect the drive ASAP. I don't watch movies off of it; instead I copy them first to my local hard disk and watch it from there. I'll try looking for an enclosure with a fan, but I bet it'll be bulkier and will need an extra power supply.
I think there's a driver needed for Windows XP to help them recognize disks more than 120GB.