Sorry another Laptop related question, it seems alot of people on here know what they are talking about so thought i might as well try another question.

Even though I have only just formatted my laptop I still keep on running out of space so i was thinking about getting an external hard drive, then i saw you can get a caddy and use a normal hard drive. Ebuyer have a firewire (i only have usb 1.1) caddy for £20 and i can get a 200gb hard drive for £55 instead of a 80gb external hard drive for the same price.

I'm not too sure of the compatibility though, would these two go together?

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=74827

and

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=89515

Cheers

Can't see why not but the caddy is USB2 and you say you only have USB1.1 so you will need a USB2 PC or PCMCIA card to upgrade your laptop to USB2.
I have done exactly what you are doing and it works fine. You definately need USB2 1.1 is too slow for this purpose.

The caddy is also firewire 1394a (it says in the title) which is why im going for it. As you say usb 1.1 would be way to slow, its really annoying but i dont think there is anyway to upgrade to usb 2.

Don't see a problem but check the drives jumper settings with caddie. If you have XP/2000 just plug and go.

So why, dont you just replace the hard drive in your laptop 80 gig around £60 on ebuyer too.
I use a 2.5 and a 3.5 inc hard drive caddy, one for back ups one for extra portable storage , but only as my laptop is due a change, for one with a bigger drive. Also you def need usb 2 as even that isnt that quick if your doing a lot of data...
Col

quote:

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Originally posted by greggors84
The caddy is also firewire 1394a (it says in the title) which is why im going for it. As you say usb 1.1 would be way to slow, its really annoying but i dont think there is anyway to upgrade to usb 2.

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What operating system are you using ? Win98 & win98se don't handle external hard drives that well. I suspect win Me isn't much better so unless you have 2000 or XP --------

[Edited on 12/10/05 by britishtrident]

Don't suppose you could list the specs of your machine? It'll help us diagnose the best solution for ya

Advent 7011 laptop

Windows XP Home
256mb Ram
30GB HD
2.4 Ghz P4
USB 1.1
Firewire 1394a 4 pin (i-link)

Anything else you need to know?

One of the most annoying things about my laptop is there isnt a PCMCIA port.

Cheers

[Edited on 12/10/05 by greggors84]

With a pecification like that I would expect USB2... are you sure it's 1?

I'd simply replace the hard drive.

I'm guessing this is the one you have?

By the looks of it that caddy would work over Firewire but I'd be tempted to get a new 2.5" hard drive and replace the current one, wont have worry about powering the caddy so it would be alot more portable, which is the whole point of a laptop!

Ive got a 30gb at the moment, an 80gb 2.5" one is about £70 But that would still only leave me with 80gb

Whereas if i bought a caddy and a 200gb 3.5" one then it would be around £75 but i would have 200gb + 30gb from my original HD.

I'm guessing if I use the 4-pin connector on the back on my laptop it wont power the unit too? It doesnt bother me too much as i dont use the laptop on the move too much, its just handy to be able to take it into uni and is alot more portable than a desktop!

I was surprised that it doesnt have usb 2 when i got it, as apart from that it was pretty well specced. I know its not as when i plug in a USB 2 compatible device it tells me it could perform faster.

yeah those caddies require an external power connecter, like a laptop power cable with the transformer in the middle. So if you dont mind it not being as portable then go for it and use your FireWire connector

My 2.5" drive DOES NOT need an external power supply, it powers direct from USB