Upgrading laptop hard drive

"DonC" wrote...

eSATA external hard drives are much faster than USB 2.0 .

With a laptop, you can get an eSATA ExpressCard, into
which you can plug your eSATA external HD enclosure.
SIIG makes 'em for PCI and PCIe busses.

For a desktop that has an eSATA port on the motherboard,
you just need a plug adapter to bring the connection to the
outside of the PC case. For a desktop that has SATA ports,
you just need a SATA-to-eSATA adapter.

For the hard drive, any SATA HD will do.

My only question regards the logistics of connecting the drive to other
computers especially other people's computers. Unless they had a laptop.

But for backup on ones own computer it sounds like a winner.

Any thoughts?

There are enclosures available with both eSATA and USB2 connectors, so you
can use USB2 for non-eSATA computers.

Whether or not the PCI-eSATA adapter is worth the price for the extra
performance on the laptop is up to the user. If the laptop has a 4200 RPM
HD, don't bother; the disk I/O on the boot HD will be the limiting factor!
If it's 5400 RPM, it might be noticeable. If it's 7200 RPM, eSATA is
likely worth it.