Wassa what?

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 1:19 am Post subject: Wassa what?

I won this on ebay and I got sent one of these inside one of these.
Now, it does appear I got a portable 80gb hard drive, but it's not from hitachi, samsung's ok though, i'd have still bought it if it said samsung on the auction. The thing that's got me confussed is this website where it's refered to as a laptop hard drive. Is it suitable for use as a portable hard drive, I'm not gonna be carrying it all over town or anything, but I don't want it to stop working too soon.
My feelings on this are that I'm not sure I got an amazingly good deal. I only wanted it so I could back up some stuff and format my pc (just seemed handy to get a portable one incase I want to bring a film to a mates house or something), it's not what the guy said it was, but I dunno if it's worse, better or the same. I think it's pretty much the same tbh, but I'm all baffled.
Can someone tell me if I need to go break this guys legs or if I should back up my important files (porn) and forget about it please.

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 2:42 am Post subject:

This gets a bit technical, if you want a quick answer skip to the last paragraph.

That site you've linked seems rather unhelpful, but as far as the RDM can tell you got yourself a laptop hard drive, not an external hard drive which is what the RDM thinks you wanted.

The problem with using that as a backup is that it plugs into a pretty specific port (the RDM doesn't know all that much about laptop internals, so some of this is speculation) that appears almost exclusively attached directly to the motherboard of a laptop. The giveaway here is that it is called a 2.5 inch hard drive. That's a piece of hardware that generally only appears inside laptops.

The RDM doesn't think you're going to find a place on your computer to plug that in. If you're running a laptop, you'll probably have to buy some sort of riser card (if they even exist in this context) in order to allow you to run two hard drives at the same time, something that you usually can't do with laptops. If you're running a desktop, you probably just don't have a port for it, unless you got lucky and it plugs into a SCSI bus...but then you'd probably have to buy a SCSI bus, a couple of terminators, and do a rather involved internal installation. It's not the most convenient thing to switch out.

Long story short, if you're looking for something to use for an easy backup media and to bring over to your friend's house, you didn't really get a good deal. The RDM would recommend you try to get the guy who sold it to you to make things right. A USB hard drive would be much better suited for your needs, and appears to be what your tried to buy in the first place.
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The RDM is responsible now.

Times the RDM has been right: 16 x 2^845,722,123 Jive

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 4:22 am Post subject:

Well, the hard drive fits in the case thing, I took it apart and the case is like an adapter of sorts. The case has a usb port which allows the hard drive to be plugged in via a usb cable. It all seems to be working so I can't be arsed to nit pick with the guy about the brands and his being a dick and such and shall leave it as is. If it does happen to break any time soon though I kept his address and stuff and shall require him to sort it out.
It was just a bit weird you know? I was expecting a hitachi dealio and instead it said "sumvision" on it, that doesn't sound like a brand I want to deal with so I was pissed off. It seems sumvision make the case and the hard drive is samsung, which isn't so bad. Only time will tell I suppose, it does seem a bit loose in the case tbh.

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 4:35 pm Post subject:

If it can plug into a USB port, you should be fine. The RDM didn't know it had an adapter on it...but that does still seem strange.

Anyways, it should be fine, just don't bash it around too much. Hard drives are fragile things. If it's shifting around too much in the case, stuff some tissue paper or something in there (but not anywhere where there's a fan intake or anything like that) to keep it stable.
_________________
The RDM is responsible now.

Times the RDM has been right: 16 x 2^845,722,123 Jive

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 6:04 pm Post subject:

win me a transformer on ebay
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