How to Build an External Hard Drive

Scribbled by Lethal Illness @ 2:09 PM on April 19th, 2010.

Ever find yourself needing more space on your hard drive for that ever growing Pro Tools project you’ve been working on? How about taking that 300GB movie and music collection with you on the go? Are you too afraid to open up your tower (computer case) to install a hard drive for backing-up data? Well then an external hard drive may be just the thing you’d appreciate and while it’s certainly not the hardest task, some people have a hard time choosing the external hard drive that’s right for them. Whether it be because they’re not the most tech-savvy or they don’t know what to look for that’s appropriate for their needs, there are people who would rather just go in a store and buy any old hard drive usually for an over-sized price tag. In light of all of the above situations, I’ve created a tutorial that will not only explain what to look for, but how to keep some costs down to save your money.

Internal Hard Drive

Storage Capacity

The first major factor to building or buying an external hard drive is to determine what size you will need. The average computer user most likely doesn’t know anything about megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), or terabytes (TB). To the advanced users reading this I know there are many more “byte” terms but to keep simplicity here we will be dealing with these three to determine what you will need.

In a nutshell 1000 megabytes equal 1 gigabyte and 1000 gigabytes equal 1 terabyte. Why is this important to you? These three terms are the terms you’ll hear most when referring to how big a hard drive is and how much you’ll need. Now here’s where it comes together; the average .MP3 file [depending on bitrate/quality] is anywhere from 1.5-10MB. For those of us using our storage for music projects whether they be in FL Studio, Pro Tools, or Logic our projects can get to be quite a few GB. But check this movie buffs, you know those Blu-ray movies you rip and download well they vary from around 17-27GB a file.

The average user needing space for more Microsoft Office documents, MP3s, a few movies, pictures, and other common file types will most likely be content with a drive lower then 500GB. Power users needing storage for tons of movies (especially Blu-ray), Pro Tools [& other DAW] files, video editing files, and other large file types will want more then 500GB. A formula that could be useful is the number of files you would like to have room for times the average size of those files. For example, if I want to have room for 10,000 MP3s averaging 6MB. 10,000 files x 6MB = 60,000MB, 60,000MB would be equivalent to 60GB.

Storage is very cheap these days considering we’re not in the 90′s anymore and it doesn’t cost $1000 for 1GB. With that being said, be careful if you’re going to buy a hard drive whether it be internal or external. You should never pay $100 for anything less then 500GB. I personally don’t feel comfortable spending $100 on anything less then 1TB, but that’s just me.

RPM & Size

Hard drives are often measured in RPM which stands for revolutions per minute, from computer geek to common dude on the street this means speed. Generally for our purposes there are two speeds, 5400 RPM and 7200 RPM. 7200 RPM is much faster and more standard in desktops, however in tighter spots they build up more heat while 5400 RPM is more common in laptops and smaller sized (2.5”) hard drives and often the more green choice. Personally, if you are going to be working directly off of your new external hard drive editing larger files then I would go for 7200 RPM, it just has a much faster response.

When it comes to size in hard drives there are two, 2.5” and 3.5”. This isn’t really of much importance to you, all you need to do is take note of size the hard drive you’ll choose down the line is.

Size difference between 2.5'' & 3.5'' Internal HDD

Buffer Size

What is buffer size? Basically, buffer size is just a small fraction of memory which virtually is in between a hard drive and a computer. Without being too complicated, it is here that tasks like error checking run when data is being written to the disk or read off to the computer.

Depending on what you are doing will depend on what you want. If you’re going to be pushing a lot of data through this drive and using it as a full time, always-on storage you might be happier with a 16MB, 32MB, or 64MB cache. Like wise if you are going to be doing a lot of DAW or high-end audio/video work. If this drive will be used casually for minor storage or back-up 8MB is plenty. Just remember that larger is better and don’t settle for anything less then 8 MB which is pretty much standard.

Brand

Here is where a lot of people will have a lot of different answers. Some people have luck with certain drives that other people won’t. Personally, I stick to Western Digital and stay away from Hitachi. Seagate, Samsung, Crucial, OCZ, and Kingston all also make great products but I’ve had lots of luck with Western Digital and tend to stick to it for the most part. Personally, I figure it as most pre-built external hard drives use either a Western Digital or Seagate so why wouldn’t I use one too? Bottom line, don’t focus on the brand name as long as it’s one of the more mainstream ones I’ve mentioned above.

Hard Drive Enclosures & Why?

If there are already pre-built external hard drive, why would I want to build my own? There are many different answers to this question. In some cases it’s a lot more bang for your buck, you can pick a excellent performing HDD in a good looking case, or just because you want a certain type of connectivity. With that being said if you decide you want to build your own external hard drive aside from the hard drive you will need an external enclosure. The three main things to look for in an external enclosure are connectivity, size, and heat flow.

The macally G-S350SUA External Enclosure looks like a little Mac Pro

Do you want to be able to connect via USB 2.0? Firewire (1394)? eSATA? all of the above? Everyone has USB 2.0 as it is the most common but slowest of the three. Firewire 400/800 would be the next in line as it is faster then USB 2.0. Firewire is a lot more common these days, but make sure in your computer manual before your final decision. eSATA would be the faster of the three, but also the rarest of the three [provided you don't have USB 3.0 or even light peak *gasp*]. I would aim for an enclosure with all three or two of the three connectives to “future proof” yourself a bit.

Size will simply depend on the size of the internal hard drive you plan to purchase as I covered above. If you purchase a 3.5” you will need to make sure the enclosure you pick is equipped to hold it properly. Don’t worry, “tech specs” will always tell you if it can fit a 3.5” or a 2.5”.

The hardest part about picking an enclosure will be determining the heat flow because no “tech spec” can prove it won’t overheat. Which is a problem with most pre-built external hard drives because poorly designed enclosures with little room to air out are common. The best way to determine if a enclosure is poorly designed is to check out reviews.

SATA What?

SATA is short for serial ATA which is short for serial advanced technology attachment. Okay enough confusing you, what you need to know about SATA is it is a type of internal connectivity to your computer. This is important as to make sure the hard drive you pick is SATA and the enclosure you want to put the hard drive in has it. If it says IDE run because that is very old technology. While in the title you might not see it but there are three types of SATA. SATA I, SATA II, and SATA III which are identifiable as SATA 1.5Gb/s, SATA 3.0Gb/s, and SATA 6.0Gb/s respectfully. I would say stick to SATA II or SATA III but SATA I is acceptable. Just remember no IDE!

Additional Note

First time hard drive buyers will not know this but the actual size of a hard drive isn’t exactly what is says it is. This is mostly due to an error that will most likely confuse you if I explain it. Just to give you an example, 1TB might come in as 949GB.

Recommendations

Now that you’ve read the above it is time to start picking out your internal hard drive and external enclosures. If you’re still uncomfortable building one [even though I don't see why it's very easy to just place the drive into an enclosure], you should still be comfortable to buy a pre-built one. Here are some of my cost efficient top picks.

Internal Hard Drives

Western Digital Caviar Black Capacity: 1TB – Buffer: 32MB Cache – SATA II: 3.0Gb/s – Size: 3.5” – 7200 RPM
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 Capacity: 1TB – Buffer: 32MB Cache – SATA II: 3.0Gb/s – Size: 3.5” – 7200 RPM
Seagate Barracuda Capacity: 1TB – Buffer: 32MB Cache – SATA II: 3.0Gb/s – Size: 3.5” – 7200 RPM
Western Digital Caviar Green Capacity: 1TB – Buffer: 64MB Cache – SATA II: 3.0Gb/s – Size: 3.5” – 5400 RPM
Seagate Barracuda XT Capacity: 2TB – Buffer: 64MB Cache – SATA III: 6.0Gb/s – Size: 3.5” – 7200 RPM

External Enclosures

Rosewill R2-JBOD Connectivity: USB 2.0 – Fits: 3.5” x 2 – SATA I/II – Dual-bay (2 HDDs)
macally G-S350SUA Connectivity: USB 2.0, 1394, & eSATA – Fits: 3.5” – SATA
Rosewill RX358 RX-358-U3B Connectivity: USB 3.0* – Fits: 3.5” – SATA I/II
Rosewill RX81U-AT-25A Connectivity: USB 2.0 – Fits: 2.5” – SATA
Mapower MAP-KC21ES Connectivity:USB 2.0 & 1394b x2 – Fits: 2.5” – SATA

Pre-Built External Hard Drives

Samsung STORY Station Capacity: 1TB – Connectivity: USB 2.0 – Buffer/SATA: Unknown
Cavalry Capacity: 250GB – Connectivity: USB 2.0 & eSATA – SATA II – Buffer: Unknown
Seagate FreeAgent Go Capacity: 500GB – Connectivity: USB 2.0 – Buffer/SATA: Unknown
Samsung Capacity: 500GB – Connectivity: USB 2.0 – SATA: Unknown – Buffer: 8MB Cache
Fantom Drive Capacity: 1TB – Connectivity: USB 2.0 & eSATA – Buffer/SATA: Unknown

*USB 3.0 is faster then eSATA, but you will need a USB 3.0 port to benefit the speed. Still will work at USB 2.0 speeds.

Aside from my recommendations I’m sure some of you can find some fine gems online. The best place I’ve always visited to read reviews and purchase parts is Newegg.com. Their service is A+ and you can almost always find the best prices there. If anyone needs more in depth help, don’t hesitate hit up the comments.