The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Reliable external hard disk?

    Discussion in 'Accessories' started by snowstorm, Dec 15, 2008.

  1. snowstorm

    snowstorm Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    118
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    What external hard disk would you folks recommend? Reliability is crucial, speed not so much. I have no brand preference.
     
    snowstorm, Dec 15, 2008
    #1
  2. Huskerz85

    Huskerz85 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    48
    Messages:
    508
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    What kind of capacity are you looking for?
     
    Huskerz85, Dec 15, 2008
    #2
  3. snowstorm

    snowstorm Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    118
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I need one to extend my notebook internal hard disk (at least 250 GB) and one for backup (at least 500 GB). If it exists, I would also prefer hard disks that have built in self monitoring tools to predict/signal their own failure.
     
    snowstorm, Dec 15, 2008
    #3
  4. Michel.K

    Michel.K 167WAISIQ

    Reputations:
    353
    Messages:
    1,216
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    There is no reliable HDD, you can't trust a HDD to work for like 2 years straight really, anything could happen, always back up your important data on more than a HDD or two.

    Just so you know.
     
    Michel.K, Dec 15, 2008
    #4
  5. flipfire

    flipfire Moderately Boss

    Reputations:
    6,156
    Messages:
    11,214
    Likes Received:
    68
    Trophy Points:
    466
    If your really need reliability, buy an external hard drive that has RAID 1 (mirroring). So if one of the drives die then there will be an exact backup drive.
     
    flipfire, Dec 15, 2008
    #5
  6. Han Bao Quan

    Han Bao Quan The Assassin

    Reputations:
    4,071
    Messages:
    4,208
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    Western Digital is a good one.
     
    Han Bao Quan, Dec 15, 2008
    #6
  7. Signal2Noise

    Signal2Noise Über-geek.

    Reputations:
    445
    Messages:
    1,970
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    I personally like the LaCie drives. But both Michel and flipfire speak truth.
     
    Signal2Noise, Dec 15, 2008
    #7
  8. snowstorm

    snowstorm Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    118
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I think I'll buy the WD My Passport Studio II because it has a Firewire 800 connection, and the WD My Book Mirror Edition for backup. The WD My Book Mirror has a USB while the WD My Book Studio II has a Firewire connection but I don't think that for backup Firewire is needed...
     
    snowstorm, Dec 16, 2008
    #8