posted
So I dropped my external hard drive about two inches, and now it is broken forever, so I've decided to buy another. This one was a gift and I only had it for about six months, so I don't know how good a hard drive it was.
Basically what I want is something with 100 GB or more that won't die on me after a year. I have no idea what brands are good, though I've heard from someone that Western Digital hard drives tend to perish after you have them for a little while. Any thoughts on which hard drive I should use?
Posts: 910 | Registered: May 2000
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posted
I've never had a WD drive fail on me, although i have heard it happens. As with any hard drive, make sure you back up really important data (on DVD or whatever works for you).
Are you trying to buy another hard drive to put in the current enclosure you have, or are you trying to buy a whole new set? Either way, you can probably find some good deals right now. I like Seagate drives myself, but I've never had a problem with a Western Digi or a Maxtor.
Posts: 1592 | Registered: Jan 2001
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Yeah, if your enclosure is still all right, it might make sense to use that. Of course, the enclosure can matter for how damage-resistant the external drive is, so you might want to replace it even so.
How do you use the drive? Do you carry it around much, or does it just sit there? If you carry it around, would one smaller than the one you had be significantly more convenient?
Actually, which drive did you own?
Was the drive firewire or USB?
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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I had an Acomdata drive, 40GB. The enclosure is all screwed up and broken and wouldn't be big enough for the new drive anyway, I imagine. We had to take it apart to see if the drive inside was fixable (but it wasn't). It was a USB drive.
Posts: 910 | Registered: May 2000
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posted
I've had a 160GB Maxtor hard drive for about 2 and 1/2 years, and it has yet to cause me any grief.
Posts: 1855 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Any drive from Western Digital, Maxtor, or Seagate should be fine. (Though right now, my preference is for Seagate.)
If you are using an external drive due to a lack of room inside your computer and not due to a need for portability, you may want to consider getting a network-attached storage device. There are several consumer level devices with good performance and reliability (provided they are left alone). You also get the ability to access the drive from multiple computers. If data reliability is really important, you can get a multi-drive device with RAID. (Though this is still not a substitute for regular back ups.)
If you need very high performance from your drive, make sure to get a firewire drive. Even though USB 2.0 has a higher theoretical bandwidth, real world performance is usually higher for firewire due to its DMA support and a few other factors.
Posts: 145 | Registered: Apr 2007
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First make sure your computer can handle firewire, of course. Then verify if it takes 4 pin (the port on your computer would be smaller than a USB port, and with a little crimp in it) or 6 pin (about the same size or a little larger than a USB port, with one end rounded) firewire.
Again, the primary consideration should be how you will use the drive. If portability is a concern, a smaller, more impact-resistant hard drive is probably better. If you give us more details, we can provide specific drive recommendations.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
I had big problems with Maxtor. I think I had like three 40GB Maxtor drives that died and had to be sent in and were subsequently replaced with refurbished units. However, your luck is your own.
In any case, I would note that there isn't really a distinct Maxtor anymore. The whole company got bought by Seagate.
Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
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Portability isn't a huge concern, as it'll probably stay mostly in one spot, but I'm careless, so impact-resistance would be nice. My laptop is three years old and doesn't have firewire connections at all.
Posts: 910 | Registered: May 2000
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If durability and portability are a concern, might I recommend an external drive based on a laptop harddrive rather than a standard desktop harddrive? They're smaller and all laptop harddrives are inherently impact-resistant. Most drives with the 2.5" form factor are laptop harddrives.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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posted
I got a Seagate. I hope it doesn't die. Is Seagate okay? Do we have a consensus that Seagate is a good one to get?
Posts: 910 | Registered: May 2000
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I've had more troubles with the cables connecting my Seagate drives than with the drives themselves. One time my dad suspsected his Seagate drive had gone bad, but it was really just a bad SATA cable.
Posts: 1592 | Registered: Jan 2001
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posted
Does anyone have an opinion on separate power source or not? And with a fan or without? I thinking of buying an external hard drive as well, and these are questions that have occurred to me.
Posts: 896 | Registered: Feb 2001
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I bought an external case plus a large Seagate hard drive, about a month ago. It's worked well, and yes, it uses an external power supply (rather bulky) and has a fan. I was more concerned about heat, warranty, and drive capacity and less concerned about portability and size.
Anyway, yeah, Seagate works fine. Plus you get more warranty. Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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I bought a Seagate external drive from Buy.com last month and I'm happy with it. The following webpage of current deals and sales on drives helped me find a good price, $50 for 160 GB, with free shipping. edit to add: It was a good price for a Windows 98 compatible drive--later versions of Windows support cheaper drives. http://forums.slickdeals.net/forumdisplay.php?sduid=0&f=9&daysprune=7&icon=41&order=desc&sort=threadstarted
posted
Whether or not you want a separate power supply depends on how portable you want the drive to be. If you want to take it with you and your laptop to places, you should get a 2.5" drive with no extra power supply, but if it's just going to sit around at home most of the time, you could probably get more bang for your buck with a 3.5" drive in an enclosure with a power supply.
I had one with a fan and I ended up disabling the fan because it was loud. The drive never got too hot inside that case, and sometimes I'd have it on for days at a time. (I'm not saying you shouldn't be careful with the heat, especially on hot days.)
Posts: 1592 | Registered: Jan 2001
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You can get a 500G external drive for about $100 or less these days. Check out buy.com or newegg, as fugu mentioned earlier.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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One time my dad suspsected his Seagate drive had gone bad, but it was really just a bad SATA cable.
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