Please help with buying an External Hard Drive

I just both a Latitude E5530 for my new company and I need something for backing up files. I think 500Gigs should be plenty of space (at least for now).
Can anyone suggest a product they trust or what a good price should be when I am searching to buy an external HD please?

Thank you in advance.

 

Hmm, a good price range would be around $79.99 to $99.99. I'd recommend a USB 3.0 external HDD.

1. Amazon.com: WD My Passport 1TB Portable External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0 Black: Computers & Accessories
2. Amazon.com: WD My Book 2TB External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0 File Backup and Storage: Electronics

These are pretty popular. I'll probably be purchasing the second one myself.

 

I currently own a Toshiba Canvio Basics 500GB external HDD, USB 3.0 compatible. Bought it for around 50 euro, small, light and reliable. Although at the price range which Brother Dre suggested, I'd go for one of his recommendations... you never know when you might need more than 500GB!

 

1. Make sure it is USB 3. Even if you don't have USB 3 on your computer now, if you plan on keeping the hard drive for a while and using it here and there, it will come in handy. It barely costs any more, if at all, so there is no reason not to get it.

2. If you don't need more storage than 1TB, and ever want to transport the drive around, a 2.5" drive can make a lot of sense. If you want a 2, or 4 TB drive, then yeah, you need a 3.5" drive. Right now the sweet spot for cost / storage space is a 3.5" 3 TB drive.

3. There are external hard drives from hard drive manufacturers and also third party OEM's that put hard drives in their own enclosures. There is really no difference. Just get someone with a good warranty.

 

Your new Dell Latitude E5530 appears to have connectors for both USB 3.0 cable and also eSATA cable. I suspect (but am still not totally sure) that eSATA data transfer speeds exceed (by a good amount) that of USB 3.0.

The problem with the small pre-packaged 2.5" external USB 3.0 HDD is that if you ever need to pull the drive out, you'll likely destroy the small/convenient enclosure.

So instead go DIY and buy a slightly larger external enclosure by itself (~ $20 or $30) that has connections and cables for both USB 3.0 and eSATA. You're looking for general topic of "External Enclosures > External Interface: USB3.0 & eSATA"

To start with see: Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Computer Cases, External Enclosures, USB3.0 & eSATA

Also check Amazon on same item pricing, as well as Amazon carries some items in this class that Newegg doesn't.

And then also buy a great internal 2.5" HDD which will give you more flexibility in that you can easily pull the HDD out of the enclosure if you need to in the future.

IMHO best current 2.5" HDD deal is the 7mm thick 500GB HGST 7200 that is on sale at newegg until 1/30 for $59 (promo code EMCXWVS34), see: Newegg.com - HGST Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache 2.5" SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive -Bare Drive

 

Having tried both USB 3 and ESATA, I can say from experience that I like ESATA much more. I have a 2.5" sata drive in a matching enclosure, running the ESATA to my Dell desktop. After doing some heavy-duty file transfers (like itunes movies) back and forth to the external drive, I have noticed some good speeds and the esata interface had no trouble maintaining the transfer rate. When I did it over USB 3, I averaged about 40MB/s while moving an HD video to the drive, but it would fluctuate between 25 and 62MB/s. When I moved the same file over esata, I averaged around 86MB/s, and only fluctuated between 79MB/s and 88Mb/s.

Your call on what to use, to me it seems esata has hardly any trouble maintaining transfer speeds. If you move little files around, USB might be the better bet, but for big files esata seems a better fit.

 

eSATA simply being SATA with a different connector and hot plugging enabled and as such behaves pretty much like an internal sata connection. However, the problem with eSATA lies with the fact that it is a rather niche interface, USB is much more common and as such the way to go for maximum compatibility. eSATA + USB3.0 is the best of both worlds imo, but can be hard to come by.

eSATA and USB3.0 are in fact pretty close in terms of sequential throughput and a standard HDD will be the bottleneck for sequential transfers, for randoms, if you have a SSD, eSATA will be faster, but again, for a HDD, the drive will be the slowest common denominator.

 

I'd recommend against a Western Digital MyBook (the 3.5-inch version... as far as I know, their 2.5-inch My Passports are OK). Many of their recent MyBooks have had subpar external connectors, leading to symptoms such as the drive spontaneously losing its connection with the computer (despite the cables still being plugged in). Note that the "most helpful" review on the one J.Dre linked to is complaining about the USB connector, and 26% of the reviews are 1-star (which is too much for a hard drive). I can testify from experience that these issues are very annoying, and that the problem is with Western Digital's external enclosures themselves.

I'd recommend a 2.5" external drive for the capacity you're looking at, and I'd go with USB for the ease of use - just plug it in to the computer and you're ready to go. Aside from avoiding WD 3.5" external drives, I don't have any particular recommendations on brands... most mainstream ones are likely to be decent, but do read the reviews (from actual users, not review sites) before buying.

 

Do any of these fit the item I need as described above? If so can anyone suggest one of these based on price or quality --- or none of the above??
Thank you in advance!!

Newegg.com - VANTEC NST-280SU3-BK Aluminum 2.5" Black USB3.0 & eSATA NexStar 3 SuperSpeed Enclosure

Newegg.com - ORICO 2598SUS3-SV 2.5” SATA External HDD Enclosure with USB3.0+E-SATA Interface

Newegg.com - ORICO XG-2518SUS3P-BK 2.5'' External HDD Docking Station with USB3.0 HUB

Newegg.com - XG-2528US3-C XG-Series 2Bay HDD Docking Station with USB3.0 Interface, Supports Offline Clone Function

Newegg.com - ORICO XG-2518UE3H-BK 2.5'' External Mobile HDD Docking Station with 3-Port USB3.0 Interfaces

 

I have the Vantec NexStar3 with a 500 GB Seagate hard drive and am very happy with it so far. I only have USB 2.0 at the moment but thanks to Tijo's recommendation I am more or less future proof.
That is a good price also in your first link

 

are you saying this item is what you would suggest JOSEA? for $25 + $4 shipping?

Newegg.com - VANTEC NST-280SU3-BK Aluminum 2.5" Black USB3.0 & eSATA NexStar 3 SuperSpeed Enclosure

 

That enclosure only takes 9.5mm thick drives if that matters to you though. Mine has been performing flawlessly with a 500GB Seagate drive in it.

 

I don't know enough about computers to understand what you mean by this....does 9.5mm matter and if so, what should i look for or which of the other items posted near the bottom of Page 1 should i buy in place of this?

also, are you saying I am only buying an "enclosure" for this price and the actual "memory portion" is something else I must also buy before using the external hard drive? I hope I explained that question correctly and youll be able to answer. thank you.

 

the Vantec is an enclosure only, you must also purchase a 2.5" hard drive which is the storage (or memory portion). Nice thing about this setup if you need more storage, the drive can be easily upgraded, or if it fails it is easy to replace.
For instance (not recommending this one) Hard Disk Sentinel - Technical details for disk SEAGATE ST9500420AS
So find one that fits your budget and google it to make sure the size is right. (I would get a western digital black which has 5 year limited warranty if I was in the market) Amazon.com: WD Scorpio Black 500 GB SATA 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache Bulk/OEM 2.5" Mobile Hard Drive (WD5000BPKT): Electronics

 

Actually, recent tests prove USB 3.0 to be the undisputed king here--if not always by a huge margin. Although the debate may never be over, the most versatile enclosures will have both. Consider also that USB 3.0 is still new, and will only get better with age.

Correction: That video before not the correct one. The one now is the one I wanted to show.

 

In my experience, eSATA and USB3.0 are pretty close to each other. At least with the tests I did run. I do have to give the edge to USB3.0 if only for the sake of compatibility. I've had slightly better results with eSATA using SSDs than USB3.0 as I have said previously, but those don't trump the versatility of USB3.0. If I have to choose between USB and eSATA, I'll go USB, I'll try to get both if I can though. I can copy a large file if you'd like. Also Krane, your vid is firewire 800 vs USB3.0, not eSATA and that makes a difference, the eSATA port on my Precision is SATA II which can easily get 250MB/s in sequential stuff. Cloning my Windows install to a new SSD sure was fast on eSATA, I can say that much.

This is the best I have been able to do on USB3.0 with a 128GB Crucial M4.

 

If you read better refs, it's clear that the true answer is not simple.

The response by toughnate711 (that you quoted) led off with "Having tried both USB 3 and ESATA, I can say from experience..."

Meaning that he appears to have actually done stopwatch timing on his own laptop.

For better specs see: Serial ATA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and also: USB 3.0 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

You are correct. I posted the wrong comparison. It now has the vid I wanted to show.

Again correct, but I indicated that the results were not always absolute. In the end, the USB is/will always be a thousand times more prevalent than eSATA.

 

I just thought of something about eSATA, it depends on the eSATA controller. Most motherboards have a Jmicron or Marvell eSATA port which are slower than an eSATA port directly hooked to an Intel PCH. The JMicron on my desktop is definitely slower than USB3.0. However, my laptop's eSATA is hooked to the PCH.

Completely forgot about that. Most laptops have the eSATA connected to the PCH (or ICH for older notebooks) though.

I'm kinda feeling lazy as far as running tests goes, but I can always do it someone specifically asks for it. I can do USB3.0 Intel vs USB3.0 Renesa vs eSATA JMicron vs eSATA Marvell vs eSATA Intel using the same enclosure and drive.

 

is this "enclosure" the only option? Are there any external hard drives I could buy (similar to a flash drive) that would have 500Gigs+ of memory for me to use as a backup to my hard drive so that I wouldnt need to buy two things and it can be "all in one" or does that not work as well?

 

You can definitely buy all in one devices and there are a lot of them. They are no different than a DIY aside that you don't have to buy the parts separately and then put them together. They will all have either Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi or Samsung drives in them.

I'll admit that I'm a sucker for aluminium enclosures and price be damned so here goes: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822154539 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822149393

 

I was reading that a person can "auto backup" their laptop computer on an extern hard drive. If I do that and auto backup everything, every day and if something were to happen to my laptop where it no longer works, or the hard drive gets fried.......would I be able to take my external hard drive and hook it up to a new laptop and have access to everything on my original laptop as if nothing ever changed? or does everything not get fully backed up like that?
thank you.

do any of these "all in one" external hard drives have a good quality and value? can anyone offer any thoughts please?

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra-Portable Drive (500GB) Review & Rating | PCMag.com

Verbatim InSight (500GB) Review & Rating | PCMag.com

Clickfree HD325 Review & Rating | PCMag.com

Seagate FreeAgent Go (500GB) Review & Rating | PCMag.com

Hitachi Touro Mobile Pro (500GB) Review & Rating | PCMag.com

Rebit 5 (1TB) Review & Rating | PCMag.com

Seagate GoFlex Slim (320GB) Review & Rating | PCMag.com

 

I doubt that would work, you would need a clone of the hard drive not a backup. If the laptop hard drive fails you need to plug in a new one, then restore from the external hard drive.

 

Okay, and that is fine. But are you saying, if something happened to my original laptop, that I could still used my backed-up external hard drive, and somehow get all that information back on my new laptop? Would it be more than just saving a few files.....it would actually save programs and those type of things so that I can actually open the files too and not have to worry about going off and finding every program for the new laptop?
thank you for your post JOSEA......do you have any thoughts on the "all in one" external hard drives i listed above?

 

You should be fine using an external HDD as a backup source.

There are two different types of backup supported: File backup and system image. The image-based full system backup option, called "System Image" in Windows 7, allows for the imaging of the entire system including operating system and data volumes. This will allow you to restore your computer to a previous date in time if something were to happen.

I believe the system image is what you want.

 

Great, thank you!
are any of the items I listed above (on this same page) quality external hard drives that I may want to purchase?

 

I would personally choose Western Digital over Seagate. The two links I provided on the first page are still what I recommend you stick with.

I've never heard of the other brands, nor have I ever used or owned them. Can't help you there.

 

If you trust PCmag then you can trust their ratings. They are one of the publications I use to get useful information. Still, there's certainly nothing wrong with getting user input as well, and since I'm in need of a good backup too, I'll be listening.

The problem is the backups can get expensive, especially when you consider you buy a device that pretty much just sits there in stasis.

In the end, the choice you make is based on your priorities, i.e. price, size, convenience, etc. Some storage devices come with software that you setup and forget. You plug it in and the backup does it's thing on its own with little or no further input from you.

I don't know Rebit or Clickfree but the others are the top companies. I know Verbatim as a maker of optical discs. I buy their blu-ray.

 

Well, what started out as a simple hardware question is now much broader.

On the broader question of backup, the least expensive backup you'll ever do is one that works when you need it.

If it doesn't work (whether that's due to hardware or software), that's when you find out the real cost.

 

That's because the term backup doesn't mean the same thing to everyone. A copy of my file is a backup. But that doesn't do me much good if its on the same drive or machine that fails.

Fortunately, the OP is asking the right questions and making the necessary adjustments at the right time: BEFORE he needs it. Many of us here could follow his example.