external storage

[Dirt_Bike_Ryda]

does anyone know of any particularly good brands that make external hard drives, or more to the point, any that are in the complete no go zone ? i went looking at getting one today (around 160gb-250gb) and all i could find were random brands that i have never heard of before, i was almost going to buy one for $90 and it was 160gb. but then i thought, that would be a bit stupid if it was crap, id lose my 13,000 photos if it died... so i left it there. but with all this talk about the new computer virus it got me thinking about how easily i could lose them all, and plus by having them on the drive i can take them all with me to show other people when i want.

so whats good and whats bad ? any classic stories that people would like to share ? or any other information i should know or thing to watch out for ? i know a little about write speed and that, but thats about as much as i know regarding these things

thanks guys and girls

[muffs]

I can recommend Western Digital drives. They're reliable. As for things to watch out for.. I could think of the following:

1. Speed of the drive, 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM. 5400 drives tend to be smaller and more compact.
2. Connectivity, USB 2.0?
3. Does the drive require external power or does it draw power from the computer it is connected to?

[OeterB]

Originally Posted by muffs

3. Does the drive require external power or does it draw power from the computer it is connected to?

I must agree. Mine has external power requirements, and can be a pain. But it's not TOO bad. Considering I only use it for backing up, it's not too much of a hassle.

Western Digital is good. That said, I use Seagate. Every harddrive in every computer I've had has been Seagate. I've burnt out every other part of a computer (blown monitors, burnt out motherboards (smoking computer boxes is rather scary), fried RAM, killed graphics cards), but I've never had a problem with a Seagate harddrive. Touch wood.

[idcrewdawg]

I used Lacie for my external for a very long time. It required external power to operate. I dropped it a couple times on accident, and it finally failed. I lost all the photo's, music, program files, data files... you get the idea. So anyway, I recommend you back up to something reliable, that you don't need to refrence often, CD or DVD would work well for that.

Now to have your files available to transport to other locations, I currently am using a USB powered Seagate 250GB hard drive. Works rather well, just as good as the last one I had, though it's smaller in size so easier to transport.

For bargain hunting, try New Egg. For a reliable vendor, look at Amazon, or CDW (Computer Discount Warehouse). Both give great products, and reliable delivery for price paid.

For feature comparison, look at cnet.com, and go to their review section. They have reviews on just about any electronic item you can think of.

[Jim Bryant]

Originally Posted by muffs

I can recommend Western Digital drives. They're reliable. As for things to watch out for.. I could think of the following:

1. Speed of the drive, 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM. 5400 drives tend to be smaller and more compact.
2. Connectivity, USB 2.0?
3. Does the drive require external power or does it draw power from the computer it is connected to?

Western Digital is about the best....like others on the have been know to crash. I have three, a 320 gig, 250 gig and a 170 gig, but my wife and daughter grabbed them. My daughter stores music downloads, and the other two are used by my wife when uploading images to my various websites. They are really handy to have especially for trips.

[BabetteKD]

I use and swear by Western Digital. I'm using a 1TB MyBook. It only has 330 gigs left. They have excellent customer service and replace things almost immediately.

My ex had Seagate and it basically fell apart after owning it for a month. Their customer service was horrible because even though I made sure he registered the product online and they refused to admit that he ever did so and never replaced/fixed his product. His problem was that the metal ring inside that holds the power plug in place broke off inside and the power source was basically gone after that.

[jprime84]

Western Digital is very good - I have also had good use from Maxtor drives, but some people don't like them.

Biggest thing is treatment of your drive once you get it. Treat it like you would treat a newborn child. Any swift shocks can damage it.

That said, assuming it is not incinerated or melted down completely, there are people out there who can salvage some or all of your data off of the hard drive even it is unreadable by your computer. This service is not always cheap, but sometimes can be worth it.

[bearly]

i agree that western digital makes good drives... i've also heard the LaCie is good, but i don't have any personal experience with them, so take it for what its worth

[Jamesc359]

The perception that Western Digital is better than Seagate and others is just that, a perception. One that is perpetuated by anecdotal evidence.

No matter how much we'd all like hard drives to be perfect they're not. Like any computer component a small percentage of drives will fail after a very short period of time, it happens to even the best of manufacturers. Western Digital or Seagate, it really doesn't matter all that much. Both are of very high quality, and either one could fail just as easily as the other.

By the way, if you buy an external drive from a company that isn't a hard drive manufacturer - e.g. Seagate, Hitachi, Maxtor, WD - odds are highly likely you're still getting one of the above drives.

One thing that you should be concerned about the most though is the quality of the enclosure. Some are very cheap and flimsy, or may use cheap components. Plastic enclosures are cheap, but won't dissipate heat without a fan. Some aluminum ones will still come with a fan as an added measure to reduce heat. Cheap fans (if it has one) may be quiet at first but will quickly become nosier. All fans fail eventually, cheap ones will do so quicker though. Cheap controller cards may or may not fail, but will typically perform slower.

As some have noted the 2.5" drives are nice because they're portable and are able to power themselves off your USB port. There is four caveats with this though. They're more expensive, hold less information, they're slower (typically 5400RPM), and when your laptop isn't plugged in it will draw it's power from your laptops battery. (Of course if you can plug in your drive, why wouldn't you plug in your laptop?)

One option you might consider is buying an internal hard drive and an external enclosure and putting it together yourself. That's all an external hard drive is, it's just already assembled. This route can save you a lot of money and/or give you a higher capacity drive. Assembling your own is not a hard task either. Typically all you need is a small screw driver and a little patience. You can even buy an OEM drive since you won't need the cables. The enclosure should come with everything you need.

[sk66]

My 2c....
It depends on the intended use... I have a 200GB external usb2 drive which powers from my laptop for primary storage. It's a WD and has worked well...
I also have a 1TB Lacie which is connected to my wireless router for backups (of computer and WD external)..it has a Seagate Barracuda drive in it, also very good....
I would NOT recommend an external drive as your ONLY form of storage...It WILL fail eventually...
I would not worry about drive speed/ write speed for an external using USB interface...any difference will be negligible...Now, if you have the ability to go with FireWire, then that's another story...

Every manufacturer makes very good and very marginal drives..but WD does better at the lower price point models.. It's not really about drive "brand", more about "model" which can be very hard to find out...