ARG! External hardrives, which should I get?

[motulist]

I've been wanting an external hard drive for literally at least a year, but there are WAAAAAYYYY to many to know which one to get. There is really no way to get any reliable information on any particular product. Which hard drive should I get? I don't wanna just find a good deal and hope for the best because I've heard to many nightmares about sudden and total data loss. ARG! Gimmie some good advice!

 

[CanadaRAM]

I've been wanting an external hard drive for literally at least a year, but there are WAAAAAYYYY to many to know which one to get. There is really no way to get any reliable information on any particular product. Which hard drive should I get? I don't wanna just find a good deal and hope for the best because I've heard to many nightmares about sudden and total data loss. ARG! Gimmie some good advice!

OK.
Get a MacAlly PHR-100AC aluminum case and a 3.5" Seagate Barracude 7200.8 250 Gb 7200 RPM IDE (UltraATA/100) drive (not the 7200.9) with a 8 Mb cache and a 5 year warranty. Two minutes with a Philips screwdriver, and you have an excellent drive with an unbeatable warranty that will do Firewire 400 and USB 2.0


Got that?

Good. Now just be aware that this drive, like every other drive in existence, is going to suffer catastrophic failure one day. Should be something like 5 - 6 years in the future, but it's a Bell curve my friend. Keep backing up your documents and music to CD-R/DVD-R,

 

[Kingsly]

Okay, thats weird. I clicked this thread planning to suggest the exact same thing. I just got my macally case and seagate HD (160GB) today in the mail. I love it. I have three external hard drives and this is my favorite one (plus the light turns a groovy pinkish color when the drive is being accessed, reminds me of a lava lamp).

 

[Coutsy]

What are people's views of the Lacie drives and the Lacie D2 Triple Interface in particular?

Would the Macally external enclosure mentioned be compatible with a windows based PC assuming the hard drive is formatted appropriately?

 

[iMeowbot]

I'd just point out that the Barracuda 7200.8 drives want 2.8A, and the Macally enclosures come with 1.5A power supplies. There have been problems reported with this combination, as in for some people it doesn't work at all. A beefier enclosure would be a good idea.

 

[Angelus]

Hey, I have the LaCie D2 extreme 250GB external hard drive and i'm very happy with it. It is a little noisy at times but its nice and fast so i don't mind. I know you can buy an enclosure and make your own external but if want to just buy one ready made i have no problem recommending the lacie.

 

[starnox]

What's the problem with external HDD failing? Why are they proned to fail more than internal HDDs. I haven't had a HDD fail on me in my life.

 

[iMeowbot]

What's the problem with external HDD failing? Why are they proned to fail more than internal HDDs. I haven't had a HDD fail on me in my life.

You're just lucky All drives, internal or external, are mechanical creatures and subject to wear and tear. Some last longer than average, some less.

 

[Artful Dodger]

starnox
What's the problem with external HDD failing? Why are they proned to fail more than internal HDDs. I haven't had a HDD fail on me in my life.

Well to think about it, most external drives don't have fans/cooling and second even though we all take care of ours, they are more prone to movement.
As for HDDs that fail, there are many people that use them under heavy load, 8-12hrs. a day, 5-7 days a week and so on. Even the best HDDs will tell you to knock it off from time to time

Darn, iMeowbot got here first

 

[Kingsly]

I have had problems with LaCie HD's failing to mount, making strange noises, etc - all conveniently right after the warranty runs out. I am happy with my Macally enclosure. Besides, the seagate hard drive has a FIVE YEAR warranty! I also have a Bytecc 120 Gbyte and it has never complained in the two years I have had it.

 

[rickvanr]

If you want a high quality external HD, build it yourself.

Get an enclosure and then buy a nice HD. They work fantastic and are much cheaper then buying a branded model.