I just bought a new computer and my wife wants to copy thousands of
songs onto it from her CDs.  I do not want them all on my computer's
hard drive as it would use up my resources and possibly slow it down.
I recently bought a Western Digital, 160 GB Back Up External HD
(WDXUB1600BBNN).  After opening it and hooking it up, I realized I
bought the wrong product.  All it will do is backup my harddrive.  I
do not want to backup anything, I simply want an external harddrive
where my wife can save music and other files/apps onto directly. 
Basically like a "D:/" drive to my existing internal "C:/" drive is
what I want.  I want the internal HD to have only my files/apps on it,
and the
external HD can have all of her file/apps on it.
What exactly do I need to buy for this?  Should I make an external HD
by buying an enclosure and putting an internal HD in it?  That seems
simple from what I have read online.
I just want to make sure before I buy another item, that it is indeed
what I need.  I just bought a Dell 9100 btw with a SATA Raid 0 hd.  Do
I need to use an SATA hd on the external hd since SATA is what my
internal hd uses?
Any help would be appreciated.

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Request for Question Clarification by denco-ga on 26 Aug 2005 13:48 PDT

Howdy shaun_prizes-ga,

Have you returned the Western Digital hard drive?

If not, it appears it will do as you need, plus some other things as well,
including the backup of your hard drive.  A quick look at the manual shows
the software has an option for "Copying Media Using Backup On Demand" which
means you could copy your wife's CDs to the external hard drive.

The manual also indicates that the Western Digital should indeed show up
as a separate drive letter so it can be used as any other hard drive that
is connected to your computer.

As the Western Digital is a USB attached external hard drive, as long as
you have a USB port, it should connect with no problem.

If you buy/bought it at Circuit City, the Western Digital drive is $99.99
after rebate, which makes it a pretty good buy.
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Western-Digital-160GB-Dual-Option-USB-External-Hard-Drive-WDXUB1600BBNN-/sem/rpsm/oid/113336/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

Did you want to try hokking up the Western Digital hard drive to your
computer and try it out?  If that works out, as it should, I could then
post this as an answer.  Thanks!

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

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Request for Question Clarification by denco-ga on 26 Aug 2005 13:49 PDT

Of course, the following:

"Did you want to try hokking up ..."

should have read:

"Did you want to try hooking up ..."

Apologies.

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Clarification of Question by shaun_prizes-ga on 30 Aug 2005 22:47 PDT

Awesome, that seems to have worked.

Howdy shaun_prizes-ga,

Glad the drive is working out for you, as it had appeared that it would
do what you needed, plus some other things as well, including the backup
of your internal hard drive.

A quick look at the manual shows the software has an option for "Copying
Media Using Backup On Demand" which means you could copy your wife's CDs
to the external hard drive.

The manual also indicates that the Western Digital should indeed show up
as a separate drive letter so it can be used as any other hard drive that
is connected to your computer.

As the Western Digital is a USB attached external hard drive, as long as
you have a USB port it should connect with no problem, as it appears was
the case.

It looks a pretty neat piece of hardware with some useful software.

If you need any clarification, please feel free to ask.


Search strategy:

Went to the Western Digital web site.
http://www.westerndigital.com/

Once there, I referenced the product page for the model WDXUB1600BBNN.
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=107

I also referenced the "Full Install Guide" that is available there.
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/library/dual-option/2779-001010.pdf

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

Fantastic service offered by Google.  Thanks Denco, you really came through for me.

Thanks for the kind comment and 5 star rating, shaun_prizes-ga!

Glad to have been of service.

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

Also, shaun_prizes-ga, I disagree about your "computer idiot" assessment
in your Question's subject.  Western Digital's own description for this
hard drive is severely lacking when it comes to its capabilities and use.

It wasn't until several pages into the "Full Install Guide" that the full
capabilities of the drive became clear.

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher