External hard drive questions

so I guess I'll put it here- feel free to move me if necessary- i need a bigger hard drive- but want something external- and small- something to store my games on- is this posssible- or do I have to get a bigger internal drive?

There are external hard drives which are not much larger than the usual internal IDE hard drive. You can get an idea of what they look like here
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/SubCategory.asp?SubCategory=414

I'm assuming you want to load and play your games from the new drive. If you only want it for storing saved games, a flash drive would work. A flash drive is very small, but you wouldn't be able to install and play most modern games from it. Newegg has flash drives up to 1 GB.
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/SubCategory.asp?SubCategory=68

It would be less expensive to get a new internal drive. Make sure it's not so large that your computer's motherboard can't detect it. How large is your current hard drive?

Thank you Jenny for the Link- I found just what I was looking for- a small external hard drive for a decent price- its 8o gigs- just enough to store oodles of games- and small enough for my desktop- and better yet- its a USB plug drive- so its perfect- thanks!

Good luck with it.
One nice thing about Newegg (besides the prices) is that they often have user reviews.

Note that early versions of StarForce caused problems with USB drives. So if you play a game with an early version of StarForce, you should update the StarForce drivers as soon as possible. There is a link here
http://www.star-force.com/protection.phtml?c=91

Is a external hard drive the same is a flash drive or a floppy. Can I format it and put anything on it. I download a lot of demo and some are to big to put on a flash drive that I have. The biggest I have is 256 mb. I just want to store the demos, What does it mean when it says the come with window drivers ? It can't be the same as a cd burner. What is a USB 1 & a USB 2 port
Thanks
Richard

No an external hard drive is a real hard drive.
They are quite a bit larger than flash drives.
The ones I see for sale at ***Newegg*** seem to vary between 20 GB and 300 GB.

A USB 1 port looks like a USB 2 port, but a USB 2 port moves data faster. Newer computers probably have USB 2 ports.

Unlike a regular IDE hard drive, an external hard drive that plugs into a USB 2 port will need drivers to work - just like any other USB device. Newer versions of Windows may have some generic drivers but it's probably better to use the drivers made by the manufacturer.

I'm going to change the title of the thread to make it more descriptive of what it's about.

Be careful, if you do go for an internal HDD make sure the motherboard supports the size before buying.


By standard most motherboards 1-2yrs old will take upto 200GB. Newer will goto 400GB+

If 3yrs+ Check the specs for your motherboard, if your not sure. There is many ways to find out what motherboard you have.


1. Get Sisoft Sandra, that will let you know the manufacturer and board version etc.

2. Take the side casing off your PC (not a good idea if under warranty - if thats the case then get an external HDD)

3. Get someone else to find out if 1 or 2 fails