[jimiclaptoncarl]

Yeah, I would like to move it, and take it with me...

So it should be no problem to download to an external hdd?

If so, I guess external would the best for me.

I was thinkin' on getting a 1TB external HDD that connects via usb: http://www.bestbuy.c...p;skuId=9468854

It's gotten some good reviews and it's HP

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That drive looks good. Here is an alternative: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822136469
Shop around a little and see what is the best deal. Download from Rhapsody you mean? If so, then yes, no problem. It will be just like a internal drive, a difference is the interface (SATA and USB) and that you can move the external one around. Another difference is going to be the speed of the drive: http://www.extremete...,2173844,00.asp
But if you aren't going to move around a lot of files then the USB external will be just fine.

[edge2022]

That drive looks good. Here is an alternative: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822136469
Shop around a little and see what is the best deal. Download from Rhapsody you mean? If so, then yes, no problem. It will be just like a internal drive, a difference is the interface (SATA and USB) and that you can move the external one around. Another difference is going to be the speed of the drive: http://www.extremete...,2173844,00.asp
But if you aren't going to move around a lot of files then the USB external will be just fine.

[jimiclaptoncarl]

Thanks for your advice, I'm gonna start looking around a bit...

I'll let you know what I get..

[Ferrari]

All great advice guys. I noticed there wasn't any detailed info on formatting the internal drive or mention that an external drive often comes with backup software(or some kind of backup software) in which you may not need nor like.

If you go internal, Once you have the drive physically installed, follow these steps:

Click on Start(windows logo)
Click on Run...
Copy and paste or type, diskmgmt.msc
Click OK
A window will open, and you should be prompted that a new drive has been added, follow the on screen instructions for new "simple volume" or format drive.
If you are not prompted, you should be able to right click on the bar labeled disk ? i.e 2 or 3, etc that has XXX GB of unallocated space, and select format.

This would apply to an external drive as well, if you wish to completely wipe it clean from the go and/or get rid of any built in software that it may have pre-installed on it.

Hope that helps.

[Spyderturbo007]

You may want to consider a NAS as opposed to a single external drive. If you transfer all your music to a single drive and it fails, you are going to lose everything. If you get an NAS that has the ability to run in RAID 1, you can mirror the drives and that will provide you with protection against a single HDD failure.

[jimiclaptoncarl]

Hello again spyderturbo007,

What is a NAS?

[Spyderturbo007]

Oh, sorry. It stands for Network Attached Storage. They come in all shapes, sizes and configurations. It's basically a box that contains multiple hard drives you can attach to your network. It's nice because you don't have to turn on a specific PC to access your files. The NAS is always on and can serve files to anything on your network at any time.

Most allow for the creation of a RAID 1 array. This allows you to have two identical hard drives in the NAS, so if one fails, the other takes over. You then just replace the dead hard drive and the array rebuilds itself. Basically provides redundancy for your data.

Small NetBuilder does reviews on different NAS's and you can also find some good deals on NewEgg. I would look for one with Gigabit ethernet support and RAID 1 support. But keep in mind, they are going to be more expensive than adding your standard external HDD.

[jimiclaptoncarl]

Thanks spyderturbo, for the info about NAS, I'd love to get one of those, just not yet, but in the future for sure.

an external drive often comes with backup software(or some kind of backup software) in which you may not need nor like.

If you go internal, Once you have the drive physically installed, follow these steps:

Click on Start(windows logo)
Click on Run...
Copy and paste or type, diskmgmt.msc
Click OK
A window will open, and you should be prompted that a new drive has been added, follow the on screen instructions for new "simple volume" or format drive.
If you are not prompted, you should be able to right click on the bar labeled disk ? i.e 2 or 3, etc that has XXX GB of unallocated space, and select format.

This would apply to an external drive as well, if you wish to completely wipe it clean from the go and/or get rid of any built in software that it may have pre-installed on it.

Hope that helps.

Thanks Ferrari! I'm probably going to do that whenvever I get the hdd. It's going to be an external for sure, so I just follow the steps exactly like above, even for an external hdd and there should be no problems?

[Spyderturbo007]

You won't need to do that with an external. Every one I've seen comes formatted out of the box. However, most of the new ones include software such as virtual CD, backup software, etc. When I got my WD External, I didn't want any of that crap, just a blank NTFS formatted drive. Sometimes you can just use My Computer to format the drive and other times you have to use the manufacturers' utility, as was the case with mine.

They had a small program you ran to remove the VCD portion and then I was able to just format the drive. This is the one I bought and I love the thing. It's small, compact, doesn't get hot and doesn't require a power source other than the USB connection.

[jimiclaptoncarl]

Hey guys,

So I finally picked up the HP 1TB SimpleSave HDD! I didn't think it would be this small!

So, I don't want to use the included software can I just right click the drive in My Computer and format it there?