Help with NTFS versus FAT32

[#1]

@WinfredVaughan  I, also, use a 4 port usb extender... ( actually, I use two ! ) ..

I have three usb ports on my laptop.... two are USB2 and the third is USB3.

For the mouse and other "low power stuff".. like usb sticks, I use the usb 2  ports... ( mouse is on one, and a 4 port usb is in the other... with the 2nd usb port in the fourth port of the usb port ! (if you follow that).

I also have a 250GB hard drive in  caddy... hiding behind the laptop.. and it has a "dedicated" extended USB lead to bring it to the fore, and able to plug it into the USB 3 slot...

This arrangement is because, it does not seem to get enough power via the 4 port USB ports..for it to "show" when it is plugged into the 4 port usb port... (even if the HDD is the only thing plugged into the 4 Port usb port.)

. It is also convenient, to be able to pull the plug, after using it, thereby a "safety feature" vis a vis corrupting/deleting existing back up copies. 

I don`t think the length of the USB extender lead will affect the speed of operation of the SSD if you use it direct into the USB at the back of the computer, as you have indicated that is where your usb slots are..

So , a suggestion is to use one "dedicated" usb slot for the SSD. and keep the others for the usb sticks... etc..

[#2]

Why not get a powered multi-port USB extender, if you must have one - there are limits on the amount of power that an an unpowered one can provide.

Either that, or use a caddy with its own mains supply.

Normally, you would use the expensive SSD inside the PC and the cheaper hard disk outside - especially as the external 'disk' would be writing sequentially.

[#3]

Even with a powered caddy  ( usb or mains) .. it still would not "show" when plugged in to the 4 port usb ....hence my "dedicated" usb cable link....

[#4]

FWIW I have a 500GB M.2 disk in a caddy stashed inside the gas arm of my monitor (iMac) stand that's connected via its USB-C fly lead to the Mac, it stores the images for my Parallels VMs and works flawlessly for me.

[#5]

All five of my USB sticks already "show" when I plug them into the USB adapter, so I assumed the SDD would also.  However, I wanted really to know whether it is safe to try it to see what happens.

[#6]

@WinfredVaughan Be no problem at all. I assume you are using a USB to SATA cable, something like this.

Edit. Remember with SSD there is no drive load i.e platter, to spin up as such. I transferred the info from the HDD direct to an SSD plugged into my 8way unpowered USB hub.

As for reliability of the SSD, on my previous PC build (5 years ago) was an SSD's only build. Not one hiccup at  all. Even now they still show as 100% (download CrystalDiskInfo to see drive info). 2 of those SSD's were transferred over into my newly built PC along with a couple of NMVe drives.The NMVe drives are in another league when it comes to speed i..e. 6 times the SSD's and if your BIOS supports booting from them, they would be my 1st choice. You can actually get PCIe cards that will mount them. Only problem I have found is it is easy to run out of storage nowadays, such I don't entertain anything less than 1TB.

While I do have a couple of HDD's remaining, they really are used occasionally but compared to the SSD's they are very slow. Indeed, I would seriously suggest fitting the SSD into your PC. I fitted one to an old laptop not that long ago and it's like a new machine -  even using W10.

[idonno]

 idonno

That is really helpful.  Thanks, especially for the photo of the cable.  I have just therefore spent the morning opening up the desktop to see what it available and I have no doubt that it would all work.  So I have ordered a second 2 TB which I will fit internally.  I need to keep an external SSD as I travel a lot and need to be able to take the data to use with my laptop.  But I wil double up and also backup the data to the internal SDD.

Two questions, though.  First the SATA drive slots have screws to secure the SATA HDDs.  The SDD which I bought has no screw holes.  I imagine that I would just slide the SDD into the slot intended for another SATA and use double sided tape or similar to keep it in place.  After all, it does not get moved around.

Secondly, could I backup the C:System to the internal SDD so that if anything went wrong with the original SATA HDD, I could recover by booting from the SDD ?  It backup would obviously have to be in the root directory of the SDD.

[#8]

Depending on how old the case is you might find the SSD's just slide in - my box has 4 x 2.5" slots with a sprung piece of plastic as part of the slot to hold the drives. No moving parts internally means they aren't going to move around anyway. You'll find the connection cables tends to hold them in place.

As for back ups, yes, you could do but unless it is backed up automatically (and frequently) it will probably be out of date should the worse happen.

[#9]

Thanks very help.  That is a great help.  The case is about four years old although it sat around for a year due to house refurbishment without being opened !  Anyway, the slots are all the large slots for standard hhd.  So I will probably just put some double sided tap on and slide them in and forget.

Having a decent backup medium, I will backup regularly.  Prior to this is was something I kept putting off ! 

[#10]

My first PC ran for several years with a hard disk secured with strips of Velcro with an adhesive backing.

[#11]

Cheeky **** !  I ordered two x 2 TB SSDs 2.5" at a competitive price on ebay.  The description clearly stated the specification, including read / write speeds, capacity etc,etc. including photographs, all reading 2 Tb Hard Disk.

They arrived yesterday later than was promised, but never mind.  I eagerly opened the first and immediately saw on the box "2.5" HDD External Case !  Nothing fitted the description which I had ordered and of course two empty cases are of no use to me.

I raised a complaint with ebay who immediately accepted the return and advised that they would refund the money after I had sent them back, postage free.  So I printed out the label and was in the throes of packing them up and attaching the label when I received an email from the vendor asking me not to send them back but agreeing to refund the full price.  A minute later ebay confirmed the refund had been made !

Obviously the vendor was trying it on but must have received other complaints and did not want to be saddled with cost of the return postage.  I suspect that he did not understand what he was selling and had already received other complaints.

So, if anyone is interested, I have two empty 2.5" HDD external cases which are no use to me.  Would anyone have a use for them ?  If so, let me know and I will send them to you.  I am not asking any money for them.

In the meantime, can anyone recommend a reliable vendor where I might buy a reliable 2 TB SDD ?

[#12 · Accepted solution]

@WinfredVaughan 

This company is local to me...  and I have bought harddrives from them over the counter... they also do some serious spec builds...

the link is to a page for the result of a search on their site for  2TB ssd

( modified to give results  in  "price from low to high")

https://www.novatech.co.uk/search.html?search=2tb%20ssd&o=1

[#13]

A 2TB SSD is going to be very pricey.

Hope it's justified.

You can always use those unwanted HDD cases to hold disks for your backups.

[#14]

£102 using Shutter's link - it cost me a lot more than that when I had to get the desktop repaired  last year; if I had had a decent hard disk large enough for a system backup, I would not have had to get it fixed.  So £100 is a good investment.

[#15]

That £102 is for one hybrid 2TB SSD/HD - basically a 2TB HD with a front-end of 8GB of SSD cache.

If you want a 2TB SSD it will cost double the price.

For backup purposes, the SSD cache will be wasted.