External Hard Drives, Whats my best option :?:

[Guest XplsvBam]

I am looking at backing up my music from my hard drive and putting it onto a external hard drive. I have 8 gigs (of mp3s) atm but I'm sure at the most I'll need is 30-40 gig hard drive. I plan on playing the music from the external hard drive and I was just wondering what would be the best hard drive for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I transfer the mp3s to the hard drive I want to make sure there aren't any viruses so I'll be checking that, but is there a better format other then mp3 I should convert to before I do all of this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks,

[Nexus_Hishima]

I can't reccomend you on an external harddrive that plays mp3's

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but i can point out that the [extension not allowed] format is a good useable format and will suit as the format for all your music, converting them all will be a nuisence, unless you have an iPod, where the AAC/Mpeg-4 format will be handy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

you specifically scan your music folder with antivirus software before putting the files on the external harddrive obviously.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

best of luck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS the larger alternative to this is put the songs on a DVD. :?

[zonda]

Basically everything he said... but when you say play the music off of it, what do you mean?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have it plugged into your computer, they will play just as they did when they were on the origional drive - moving them to an external hard drive won't reduce the quality if you don't convert them (which is another reason converting files can be bad) and it won't take any longer to access them it would normally, or at least nothing noticable to humans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you mean physically playing them on an external hard drive, you can't unless your external hard drive is actually an mp3 player - however if you meant like playing them in your car, I know you can do this... but you'll have to get certain jacks, and that I know nothing about.

[Guest XplsvBam]

ok, never mind looks like I'm going to have to help my self on this one.

[Chris]

Buy an external USB hardrive, as simple as that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's just like using a normal hardrive apart from the transfer rate is a tad slower, although playing an MP3 at 320kbps max won't be a problem. :thumbsup:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

American: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822101010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

British: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/113873

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You get the idea. :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It really doesn't matter who "makes" the drive, as it'll probably be one of the main manufacturers like Fujitsu, Hitachi, Western Digital, Seagate etc...

[Vito_Blade]

Couldn't you just get a mp3 player than has 10 or so gigs? iPod? Cause you can get a FM transmiter that makes your mp3 player its own station, giving you the ablility to play music in your car.

[Kwisatz]

Buy an internal hard drive. They're faster and cheaper. Even if you want offsite backup, how much trouble is it to every month or so crack open your computer and take ten minutes to hook and subsequently unhook an internal drive?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, since backup isn't applicable here, just buy an internal one anyway. Faster and cheaper.

[insane]

unless you have an iPod, where the AAC/Mpeg-4 format will be handy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In that case, you could just use your iPod as an external harddrive that plays [extension not allowed]'s :P