View Full Version : External Hardrives
parishioner
03-10-09, 20:44
Im about to get an external hardrive and was wondering if anyone has experience with them. To me it seems like they are pretty much all the same except for the amount of space on them so I was just going to pick one up from Sams. Just wondering if there are any out there I should stay away from.
Thanks
Ghostface03
03-10-09, 20:49
Not really. You can't really screw up an external storage drive. I have a WD Mybook by western digital. Right now Sam's a 1TB drive for 116.00. That is a freaking good deal.
http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=392916
quiksilverz71
03-10-09, 20:52
I have 3 Western Digital externals, I havent had any problems with any of them.
shadowalker
03-10-09, 20:54
It depends on what you want to do with it. In general the major manufacturers should be fine for the average user.
There are varying degrees of quality both in the enclosure and the drive they put in it. If you get a model number / manufacturer look on Newegg.com and Amazon.com, both sites have fairly good review systems.
Usually 2.5" drives can be powered by USB making them a bit more convenient to move between computers. 3.5" almost always require a wall adapter but provides greater capacity and usually better performance due to more RPM.
I would stay away from maxtors. I have had about 8 die on me and my family over the years, compared to one WD. I used to be a network admin for a medical clinic, and I'm the resident family geek. Granted my sampling size is less than 100 pcs. I prefer seagate or wd's. I would suggest to always use a UPS (uninterupted power supply) if possible.
Big +1 for newegg
shadowalker
03-10-09, 21:01
I also had problems with Maxtors failing right after warranty ended (which was only 1 year at the time versus 5 years for Seagate and WD). I haven't used them for a while and Seagate bought them a few years ago so it might be a different story now.
parishioner
03-10-09, 21:04
Not really. You can't really screw up an external storage drive.
Yea, that was my thinking. Im looking at the WD passport 3 I think its called. WD sounds reputable so thats probably what I will settle with.
I have a Seagate 1.5TB Extreme, and apparently Seagate is having some issues with the platters going bad from time to time. All their others are solid though, from what I read.
I also have a Western Digital 320gb My Book, and its programs seem a little "intrusive" to my operations. So much so that I turn it off unless I am specifically backing up my files.
ChristopherM4
03-11-09, 00:40
Stay away from WD drives, they seem to always fail within a 3 year window. The Seagates are a better drive and warranty is usually 5yrs.
Topher
fruitjacket
03-11-09, 00:53
Well, looky looky. My very first worthwhile post here. ;)
As a IT Engineer of 14 years I can tell you this.
Every drive maker has bad batches. Saying all WD's or Seagate's or Maxtors have problems is like saying every GM car is junk because one model is junk.
Disk space is ridiculously cheap these days and you really can't go wrong for the price with any of the name brand models. It's when you get into the timatsu's and hirochinamashu's (no, they don't exist...but you get the point) that you risk QC issues.
Make your life simple and get one that's powered via the USB cable.
parishioner
03-11-09, 01:25
Make your life simple and get one that's powered via the USB cable.
Yea, that definitley seems like the best choice for me. I was looking at newegg.com and they have ton of choices with lots of reviews so ill be looking there for a while.
Thanks for the input.
fruitjacket
03-11-09, 01:33
Good Luck. Newegg.com is the real deal. Tons of good deals.
Yea, that definitley seems like the best choice for me. I was looking at newegg.com and they have ton of choices with lots of reviews so ill be looking there for a while.
Thanks for the input.
Seagate makes the best hard drives hounds down. Ive had virtually every other brand name drive fail numerous times.
WD to a lesser degree for sure though.
My hard drives are under a tremendous amount of use though.
I have one physical server box with 6 hard drives on it, a quad core processor and 34 GB of RAM. Its got 34 additional servers running on it and runs at 85% 24/7.
When I went looking for a batch, my tech guys recommended the WD over the Seagate, and the Seagate over the Maxtor. As with much else, they pointed out that not all differences will matter to all users. They use WDs in the servers they run. I ended up with WD passports for laptops, and the larger (size of a paperback with AC plugs) WD offering.
They issue the Ironkey for a flash drive.
fruitjacket
03-11-09, 15:43
When I went looking for a batch, my tech guys recommended the WD over the Seagate, and the Seagate over the Maxtor. As with much else, they pointed out that not all differences will matter to all users. They use WDs in the servers they run. I ended up with WD passports for laptops, and the larger (size of a paperback with AC plugs) WD offering.
They issue the Ironkey for a flash drive.
You wanna see the worlds longest thread evah?
Goto a tech geek forum and post this:
"Hi, I'm a newbie and I need an external 500GB - 1TB USB hard drive. Who makes the best hard drives?"
And then walk away and never post again. That thing will be 85 pages long by lunch time, and if you read all the responses you find that nobody could come to a conclusion.
It's like asking who makes the best car to a union hall full of auto workers.
Littlelebowski
03-11-09, 16:46
Well, looky looky. My very first worthwhile post here. ;)
As a IT Engineer of 14 years I can tell you this.
Every drive maker has bad batches. Saying all WD's or Seagate's or Maxtors have problems is like saying every GM car is junk because one model is junk.
Disk space is ridiculously cheap these days and you really can't go wrong for the price with any of the name brand models. It's when you get into the timatsu's and hirochinamashu's (no, they don't exist...but you get the point) that you risk QC issues.
Make your life simple and get one that's powered via the USB cable.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
quick question -- what is the purpose of an external hard drive when I can't nearly fill up the one on my computer?
fruitjacket
03-11-09, 17:36
quick question -- what is the purpose of an external hard drive when I can't nearly fill up the one on my computer?
Portability.
Littlelebowski
03-11-09, 18:18
quick question -- what is the purpose of an external hard drive when I can't nearly fill up the one on my computer?
A backup of your hard drive that you can restore from in the case of catastrophic failure of your computer's drive.
for externals, primary considerations should address portability and powersupply. the smaller 2.5" drives are very portable and can usually be powered through the usb drive. the larger drives might be considered "lug-ables" and often require AC power. That said, I've opted for the 2.5" but went a different route by buying the drive and the case seperately. You can get many different types of cases, that will address cooling, shock absorption, and some automatic features that are nice. If you are just using it at your desk, grab a plain jane unit with the 3.5" drive and run with it.
quick question -- what is the purpose of an external hard drive when I can't nearly fill up the one on my computer?
as others noted, you can use the external drive for backups, transfer between computers, security, and if you set it up right, you can have an OS on your external drive so that if your hd on your main unit goes down, you can operate from the external and can work from there to see what's salvageable. lol one of the biggest uses for my drive is the kids putting all their digital pics on it then being able to go to a friend's computer and look at all the images. I partioned the external drive and put a pretty severe encryption system on it so that the kids can't accidently over-write or mess up the critical data.
Ridge_Runner_5
03-12-09, 14:08
Stay away from WD drives, they seem to always fail within a 3 year window. The Seagates are a better drive and warranty is usually 5yrs.
Topher
I went through 2 Seagate internal drives in 6 months back in 2007....never again.
Both were Barracuda 7200RPM 500Gb SATAs...lost a lot of data back then...including some awesome photos of a lunar eclipse and some interesting photos of Hillary when she visited my school on the trail...
Somewhere out there is the rob_s of the computer world. I bet there's a chart, too. :D
I think WD is on the left side.
I used to have awesome luck with the old IBM Deskstar HDD's, but they were not as inexpensive, and did not seem to be as fast as the new whiz kids' stuff.
Oh well, like I said I have both Seagate and WD now. Good luck.
Great timing on this thread as I was just considering buying an external HD this morning. Almost seems like asking someone who makes the best 1911 or AR-15 ;)
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