External Harddrives

I was wondering if anyone can recommend a really good external that can hold alot and pretty fast (usb or better)

The last external I had was a Western Digital and totatlly crashed on me. I lost all my info on it and had to throw it away after going to some "computer experts" to see if they can salvage anything.

Right now I'm looking at Maxtor.

Any feedback would be awesome, thanks

 

Are you after a 2.5" or a 3.5"?
Maxtor tend to overheat. Look at Seagate

 

not too sure, I guess the 2.5...

turns out SeaGate is going to take over Maxtor anyways, I might as well go with SeaGate

 

If you're not sure, are you aware that you will pay twice as much for a 2.5 type compared to the 3.5 for the same capacity. And if you buy the enclosure separate to the hard drive you will save even more.

 

Here's a post that I just made on another forum a few days ago. I'm cutting and pasting cause I don't feel like re-typing the whole thing, so maybe not all of it applies.

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Don't just jump on the cheaper internal hard drive and an enclosure bandwagon.

Depends how you're gonna use it. If it's for backups and occasional access...fine. Otherwise, it's a bad idea. The external enclosure "do it yourself" deals have no power management usually. That means when they're on...they're on. The drive's running and going the entire time. Usually that means increased noise(constant fan spinning and drive spinning) which may or may not bother you...and increased wear on the drive and the enclosure.

The manufactured external drives have their own power management utilities. My 300GB Seagate may have cost more, but it spins down when not in use and makes next to no noise. Even when being accessed, I can heard the drive spin, but the fan is VERY quiet.

Also...if you want fast and stable access...I strongly recommend going Firewire over USB2.0. Even though USB 2.0 is rated at a higher speed(480 vs Firewire A's 400), it's not as fast. The speeds are "burst", not sustained. Firewire sustains a much higher transfer rate and utilizes much less of the system's resources to access.

Of course, your computers may not all have firewire ports. If some do, consider a drive that has Firewire access...most will still have USB 2.0 connectivity as well, for those systems that don't support Firewire(the external Seagates usually have both...except for maybe the smaller budget units).

I'd recommend just getting as big a drive as you can now afford. May as well just do it once and be done with it. I have a 80GB external(in one of those enclosures) as well that I just use for system backups(it's only plugged in for that use, then disconnected and put away...I do NOT regularly use it...performance sucks and it's hot and loud). My 300GB is enough for my music collection, data backup, and even running programs off of it.

 

3.5" drives are tough to lug around with power adapter and all. You can pick up a notebook case as well. I think I paid $10 for mine then picked up a used 40GB 4200RPM hard drive on eBay for like $40. You don't need speed for storage.

 

I've got a 300GB Seagate USB drive and I am extremely happy with it. I have 80GB of videos, 20GBs of video, several gigabytes of programs and drivers, and there is still plenty of room left over for whatever I can throw at it next.

I use mine for backup, but I also access it frequently. I have never had any problems with it, either. It is an amazing product.

So, I recommend a Seagate 300GB drive, or larger. I'm not sure if they have larger yet, I haven't checked in a long time.

 

I ended up buying a Seagate usb/firewire 300GB with 16MB buffer for $159 at frys today. Sadly, the firewire cables that came with the thing doesn't fit my firewire on my dv8000t....

 

wait, how is that possible, that it doesn't fit, merkaba?

and does it come with software for backing up?

(just got my dv5000t today)

 

There are at least two types, 4-pin and 6-pin, in firewire.

 

My Maxtor crashed and the company was no help whatsoever afterwards. Barely over a year old. Even had it been under warranty he said they would just give me another, at the cost of giving up the orig. But its problem was that its power mgmt gave out, and so I took the HD out of the case and popped it in as a slave in my desktop. So pleased with that that I bot another internal hard drive and put it in a firewire/usb2 case. Tullnd raises good points about doing such but I keep it turned off except when I use it. The whole point is if one hd crashes, you want to be able to turn to another source for same data. How likely is it 2 hds would crash at same time?

 

Yep, they usually come with 6pin-6pin cables. Most laptops only have a 4pin connection(first, it's smaller and space is at a premium, second, you only need the 6 pin to provide power and most firewire devices are not bus powered). You can try those adapters, but my experience hasn't been good with them.

For cables, I've had trouble with the cheapest of the cheap from places like Newegg, but their mid range options are about $15.00 and seem fine(6pin-4pin). Best Buy will try and rape you out of $40 or so for one...so I never even considered them as an option.

If you have a Micro Center or something nearby, perhaps you can get a cable for less than $20.00.

Sounds like the drive you bought is probably the same as mine. It's a good piece of hardware. Just get the cable and you'll be all set.

 

I have also seen PMCIA adapters that give you a 6 pin and 4 pin firewire interface. Anyone tried those yet with an external drive?