Ok, my inbuilt disk drive refuses to a.)open, and b.)read anything. and i cant be arsed to wait for my local computer shop to get a new internal one in stock, and so i'm after an external one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ive found something i think might work....

 

 

 

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0537918172.1169574986@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccfdaddjmdfhmddcflgceggdhhmdgmk.0&page=Product&sku=492710&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null

 

 

 

But i'm not 100% sure. How does this connect ot my computer, and will it be another drive i can play cd's, dvd's and games on?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks, PJ

That isn't an external drive. It is an external drive enclosure. That means you will have you buy your own IDE hard disc (bad idea - you should get a serial ATA enclosure) and install it into the enclosure. It then connects to the mains for power and to your computer through USB 2.0.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

USB 2.0 has a data transfer rate of up to 480Mbit/s whereas SATA can do 1.5Gbit/s and SATA2 can do 3.0Gb/s - that means that the limit in speed will be the USB connection's transfer rate in the external one as opposed to the hard disc's read speed in the internal drive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PC World is also overpriced. Check out scan.co.uk's page on external hard disc enclosures if you want to buy your own disc (can get a cheap one from them too) or their page of pre-built external hard discs if you want a complete one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If your machine's main hard disc is knackered, getting an external one to replace it is not a viable solution.

so i should just take my machine into the shop and get a new one fitted?

I would, USB drives basically have crap read speeds so it'll be worth spending the extra bit of cash to get a new one fitted if you don't know how yourself :)

so i should just take my machine into the shop and get a new one fitted?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you don't feel confident fitting it yourself, yes. But it is a relatively simple thing to do yourself and I'd consider it a waste of money to have a shop fit it when you could read a tutorial and install it on your own in 15 minutes, even as a layperson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The not-so-simple part is installing and setting up Windows once it the disc is working, which you may well have to do yourself even if you get the disc installed at a shop.