Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

External Hard Drives

C

catchbar

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 23, 2005
25
0
I am looking to buy an external hard drive since I am out of room on my computer. This is not for backup purposes but for extra hard drive space. Does anybody know if there is an source where they review hard drives on a long term basis? Friends tell me that external hard drives are not reliable and fail after a year or two. Is there any truth to this?
 
catchbar said:
Friends tell me that external hard drives are not reliable and fail after a year or two. Is there any truth to this?
Click to expand...
Only if you bang it around or buy some super-cheap no name thing. External HDDs are just internal HDDs put inside an enclosure w/FW and/or USB ports on the back.


Lethal
 
catchbar said:
I am looking to buy an external hard drive since I am out of room on my computer. This is not for backup purposes but for extra hard drive space. Does anybody know if there is an source where they review hard drives on a long term basis? Friends tell me that external hard drives are not reliable and fail after a year or two. Is there any truth to this?
Click to expand...

If the external drive sits on your desk and does not get carried aropund and used for portable storage it should be reliable. But do look at what kind of drive is inside the little box. Seagate still offeres a 5 year warenty and other offer only one year. That should say something about what to buy. Also look at the noise specs, quiet is good.

Look for a sturdy metal case and good airflow or a heatsink that uses the matal case as a radiator. The _worst_ is a plastic case with a fan inside.
 
catchbar said:
What about +1 terabyte drives?
Click to expand...


Lacie makes some 1TB externals. Check out their site: http://www.lacie.com
They're pretty pricey though, so be prepared to dig deep!

Depending on your hardware you might want to consider one with a Firewire 800 connection. For regular use its nice and fast.
 
ChrisA said:
Look for a sturdy metal case and good airflow or a heatsink that uses the matal case as a radiator. The _worst_ is a plastic case with a fan inside.
Click to expand...

I don't know what all the fuss is about. The vast majority of external drives are in plastic cases. I have a Lacie Porsche drive which is simple but works perfectly fine. It doesn't get hot. Doesn't make much noise and serves my purposes pefectly! I'm willing to bet that the drive in my powerbook gets a LOT hotter than my external does. Besides, its got a Seagate drive in it, which is good reliable stuff.
 
You really get what you pay for with drives. Especially external. If you want reliability, you'll need to shell out for it.

Seagate will give you a 5 year warranty, but not on external. So buy a nice external drive case and a seagate drive, and build your own. I have a MacAlly FW800 and I love it.

If you want a prebuilt, don't get a cheap brand. LaCie I've heard is good.
 
LaCie

Hi,

I got a Lacie d2 triple interface 300G the other day and its excellent. Three important points for me:

- Very sturdy and well made. Unlike many plastic alternatices, the LaCie is made of metal. Though it is heavier, youre not going to keep moving it around anyways, I use it for Backing up my OS so it never gets moved.
- External Power, is very good since it keep the technical complications outside of the harddirve and I beleive it makes it somewhat cooler too. Also the Lacie is 100v-240v compatible which means you can use it in any part of the world.
- The design matches the Powermacs, Powerbooks err Macbook pros and ACDs.
- Its quite though noisy when it starts up.

Hope that helps.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back