I need an external hard drive

[misstee2576]

Hello. I have a laptop that is running slow due to low memory and I am in the market for an external hard drive. I've seen several that have upwards of 2TB, but how do I determine which is best for my Vista laptop?

 

[JDFan]

HDD space and Memory are 2 different things -- so are you low on memory (which would mean you need a RAM upgrade -- or low on HDD space which would mean needing to clear off some old programs\files in order to free up useable space or installing a larger HDD ?

 

[misstee2576]

HDD space and Memory are 2 different things -- so are you low on memory (which would mean you need a RAM upgrade -- or low on HDD space which would mean needing to clear off some old programs\files in order to free up useable space or installing a larger HDD ?

i stand corrected; it's low on hdd space...

 

[JDFan]

HAve you run through the various methods for freeing up HDD space in order to get back some of the HDD space ? --- Figure if you have had the HDD for awhile and have never done so there is probably quite a bit of space that can be freed up. GO to My computer and right click on the HDD (C:\) and select properties and on the General Tab click on the Disk Clean Up selection. That will bring up another selection box with a list of several options for freeing up some files (look through them and select the ones you can free up) -- Also go to the More Options tab and select the clean up box for System Restore and Shadow Copies (this will delete all of the extra system restore points (it will keep just the most recent but that is all you need if you have not been adding\updating a lot of your programs etc. recently) and doing this will sometimes regain a big % of HDD space (all of those backup copies of the system drivers etc. take up quite a bit of HDD space - so will free up quite a bit of useable space you did not realize was missing.)

If you find you still need more space then getting an external HDD to offload some of your rarely used programs etc. to can be a good option also but you will want to try to avoid using it for storing any programs etc. that you use frequently so you do not need to take the external drive with you at all times. -- If you really need more HDD space for daily usage it would be best to get a new internal HDD that is larger capacity and clone the current image to the new HDD to replace the existing drive.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136400

 

[misstee2576]

thanks JDFan... I undertook the Disk Clean Up task and it freed up a bit more space, but I still need more space.

 

[misstee2576]

area61reopened, very nice... i had been looking at several before i posted my question... thanks much!

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

your welcome!