Right - following my previous topic [and many thanks to everyone that replied, for their help] whereby I had problems with a couple of flash drives (now resolved, I've returned them to the seller and got a refund!) - I am left with 4 options, regarding the storage of my 20GB worth of music files:
Option 1: Buy another 20GB (ish) flash drive
Option2: Buy a USB powered external hard drive
Option 3: Upgrade my existing 37gb internal hard drive
Option 4: Put the music files onto my existing 37.2GB internal hard drive
My current specs are:
Compaq Evo N620c Notebook
Hard Drive capacity 37.2GB, with 22.4GB free space
Windows XP (SP3)
Intel Pentium M Processor
1.0GB RAM
Any advice would be most welcome - particularly regarding option 4 (Loading files onto the existing drive) - would this adversely affect the computers performance? Someone (supposedly 'in the trade') said "yes but not catastrophically", which wasn't very helpful!
I'd be inclined to go with option #2 -- the external USB hard drive. I've had one for years and love it. It's a pretty simple solution to your problem -- and today, you can get a lot of storage very inexpensively. Assuming your USB is 2.0 (and not 1.1) the performance will be great -- you won't even know you're supporting an external drive. Of course, just my opinion.
totally option 2. I've got 5 of em now and never looked back. They are super handy, you can bring em to friends, between computers, etc. and you can store your personal stuff on them and disconnect from the internet when surfing so if you get any nasties, your files wont be messed with.
I agree that option 2 is best. (with USB 2.0 as Tom suggests.)
I definitely would not go with option 4. Your internal drive has 22.4 Gb free and you have 20 Gb of music files. Your free space would be drastically reduced. It would affect your PC performance and also possibly, the ability to defrag could be eliminated or take consideraby more time.