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When leave to go home, I want to be able to take this data with me so I can access them from home AND for security purposes (if someone steals my computer, all my data is with me, they just get the primary hard drive that has my OS files and installations of my applications).
The key is performance, would you guys suggest:
1. hotswap the drive so I can just pull it out
2. USB 2.0 external hard drive (like say a laptop drive with a external casing).
Any recommendations on a drive?
Transfer rate of the interface is irrelevant, all will keep up with the mechanics of the drive. The best deals are probably to be found on USB drives (but I haven't checked recently). If you can find one that can run on the power of a single USB port (0.5 amps I think) rather than rely on an external power supply or a second USB port that would probably be the most convenient option but it will probably be the slowest too (being based on a laptop drive probably). Nevertheless, it should be plenty fast enough.
Kaled.
My system has eSata and I think that is probably the fastest option I have.
I believe an eSATA drive will need an external power supply (not sure why power wasn't included the in eSATA spec) the advantage is that data integrity should be greater if you are in the habit of unplugging drives before stopping them. HOWEVER, when used with a laptop, if an external drive draws its power from the computer, the drive benefits from battery backup.
Kaled.
Transfer rate of the interface is irrelevant, all will keep up with the mechanics of the drive.
That's not true.
The fastest drives today top-out at about 100mbytes/sec. sustained transfer (on inner tracks). That's at least 800mbit/sec (plus overhead), so it completely saturates even firewire. USB will definitely limit performance.
If you want performance equal to an internal drive, go with eSATA or hotswap. I have dinosaur SCSI hotswap drives myself - probably not an attractive choice today. But they (15K Cheetahs) are still faster than anything available in SATA.
ARe hotswaps unrelieable or anything if I will be pulling them out EVERY day at night when I go home?
1. There are cheap frames and cages to adapt older IDE or SCSI drives for hotswap. Most of these use proprietary connectors between the frame and cage, with a short cable and connector going between the drive and the frame. These vary widely in quality, so shop very carefully!
2. Newer drives are designed to hot-swap directly, without needing proprietary connectors on the frame. The frame and cage are still is proprietary, but the connector on the back of the drive plugs directly into the cage. The frame is only the mechanical means for holding the drive in place and ejecting it. The connectors on the drives are designed for repeated plugging and unplugging.
These drives include SATA, SAS, and 80-pin parallel ("hot swap") SCSI drives.
Beware of frame/cage makers who insist on still using their own proprietary connectors with newer drives designed for hot-swapping! This is just adding one additional unnecessary cable connection, and one more point of failure.
One twist is some SCSI hot-swap frames (IBM) that adapt older, 68-pin SCSI devices to plug into an 80-pin hotswap frame.
The SATA/SAS and 80-pin SCSI connectors are reliable and meant to repeated plugging/unplugging, but perhaps not with the frequency you anticipate. I think eSATA is both your safest and fastest choice. Worst case is you destroy either a cable or internal cable/connector.
I'd recommend NOT using any eSATA connector that might be on the back of your motherboard. (Are they doing this yet?) Instead, use a cable with a connector that mounts in an unused card slot. Better still, since the back of the computer is usually fairly inaccessible, get a front-mount connector that mounts on a 3 1/2" drive frame.
