External HDD questions

[miggs78]

Hello.. Had a question about external HDDs...

Is it better and a better value per GB/per size to get an external HDD, or get an internal 3.5" HDD and get a caddy for it?

My laptop hdd seems to have corrupt or dying, I want to install OS on a second HDD and go from there to see if I can recover the internal one before I RMA it...

Thanks.

[Mayoo]

There is so much choice that my answer would be ... sadly ... it depends. Some brands are cheaper as external but you get a shitty HDD inside. The caddy allows you to choose the HDD you will put inside thus you control quality. External HDD are reinforced for physical "abuse" but you don't know what is inside.

Personally, if you won't move the HDD often, I would go for a caddy. But if you plan to bring the HDD at work / school / gym / swimming pool (ok don't go to the pool with it), then get an External HDD avoiding lower end brands.

Moving: External WD
Not moving : caddy
Not moving + only storage: NAS

[KaptCrunch]

most laptops have a burner, back up your data to optical disk

does laptop warrant a new HDD ? still current hardware ? note HDD in laptop is 2.5"

[miggs78]

Thanks Mayoo..

Hey Kapt.. I purchased a complete care warranty from Dell, which covers basically everything. Unfortunately I would need like a blu ray writer to burn all that data, there's 100gb+ of stuff. And having an external is better so that I can maybe even connect it to my router and share, rather than sharing folders on my drive.

I'll look at which is the cheaper option, I'm also going towards a caddy + hdd...

Thanks