external hard drive: specs

[Ron]

Hi,
I am looking to buy or build an external hard drive for backup. I can either build it by putting together an enclosure and an internal hard drive or buy a pre-assembled external hard drive with automated backup software offered by many brands such as Seagate Maxtor etc.
What I dont understand is that for all the external hard drives that I looked at, their specifications dont exclude various details about the hard disk thats inside those cases. This is unlike the case when I purchase an internal hard drive separately, where most of the products mention these specs.

Some of these specs are following.

- Hard drive interface : Ultra ATA 133, Ultra ATA 100 or SATA. IDE drive or ATA drive inside?
I know that this is going to be hidden from the user as the user wuld use the USB or firewire port on the external hard drive to use it, but its important in assessing how fast the "real" drive inside is.

- Type of motor.
Whether the motor is fluid dynamic bearing or not.
Again it helps assess whether the drive is going to be quiet or not. In their specs they just mention that the drive is "quiet", or "whisper-quiet" but dont specify the technology that went into making it one.

As an example, heres a link to a seagate external hard drive, wheere that dont mention these specs.
http://shop4.outpost.com/product/4015532

Can anyone explain this?

Thanks,
Ron

[SpaceSquad]

Dude, if you know that much about hard drives, you should REALLY just buy a drive for dirt cheap and get a 20 dollar enclosure...

[Ron]

Well, I guess I value the backup software that comes with external drives, plus sturdiness for shock handling of external drives.

Ron

[SpaceSquad]

I suppose...

...But why not get a laptop hard drive and a 2.5" enclosure? They're tiny compared to the regular drives, and have great shock absorbtion. Then buy some backup software as needed.

I'm just trying to save you a buck...cause the manufacturer will most likely not post the info you're looking for.

[Ron]

Thanks for the comment. Laptop hard drives for the same amount of GBs are multiple times expensive compared to a desktop drive. I can buy an 200 GB external seagate hard drive (the link to which I had posted) for $120.
  Do you have any information about basic backup softwares and how much they cost, like the one that'd be available in these external hard drives?
  Is it only me but I do find sort of surprising that these external hard drive manufacturers dont put out such information (the specs that I had mentioned) anywhere out there? Or am I missing something?


Ron

[SpaceSquad]

I don't find iot suprising that manufacturers don't include that info. Anybody who can assembles their own.

And for backup, what do you need to backup? Cause your best bet would probably be Symantec Ghost (retails at like..$80 USD). It basicly copies everything the way it is (OS and all), to another hard drive.

Do you need it to be external? Cause I would just put an internal one in and backup with Ghost...so you don't even have to reinstall the OS. That's what I would do. I believe ghost will work on an external HD, but an internal would be faster.

again, im not sure what exactly you need to do. cause even Windows XP has a built-in backup utility.