External hard drives

hey guys whats your opinions on external hard drives i was thinking about getting one for some added space
-what are the trusted brand names
-i have a mini firewire(4pin?) slot does that offer a big improvment over usb2.0?
-premade or a external chasing and normal HD(perhaps the premade ones are more durable?)

any and all advice is welcome, thankies

 

Well, I think the USB 2.0 is quicker than standard Firewire. Firewire800 (I think) is the quicker one, but I'm not sure if that's what's integrated into most notebooks.

For pre-made USB/Firewire drives (many have both connections) look at the same companies that make great internal drives. They are (not limited to, of course):

Seagate
Western Digital
Maxtor

I know there are many more, but those are my recommendations for external drives. Hope that helps. Maybe someone with more knowledge than me knows about Firewire vs. USB 2.0

 

I have 2 external enclosures.
I don't even remember the brand, but it was a slim case made out of thick aluminum.... special offer at newegg.com for $15 each.

Here's my reason for getting an external enclosure: backup purpose only. I have Acronis True Image software.

I don't buy premade external drive because I have HDs laying around and I already own a backup software.

I only use the external drive once a week just for backup purpose, it's "on" for 30 minutes per week, thus I don't need a case that has fan in it and I don't care about transfer speed. I bought the one with USB 2.0 connection. Cheaper.

So I guess it all depends on what you are going to use the extrnal drive for.

 

USB is theoretically faster than firewire. It is good for fast bursts of data, but not as good for fast sustained data. This is where firewire is faster. So from a speed perspective, firewire is better for external harddrives.

As for brands, most anything will be reliable. Its very simple technology.

 

i have that mini firewire(4pins?) is that slower than the normal(6pins?)
i always figured firewire was the king of speed this is intresting stuff

 

4 pin ports are just as fast as 6pin ports. The extra two pins smply carry some current to power "self-powered" devices. As long as your drive enclosure has its own power-supply (most do), you are fine.

 

If you're planning on buying/re-using a 2.5" drive, I'd go with USB since it can also power the drive. If you're planning on a 3.5" drive, my preference would be for firewire... it's sustained transfer speeds easily surpass USB.

In both cases I wouldn't bother with a preassembled unit. You can easily save 30%+ by buying your own bare enclosure and drive.

 

Firewire and USB 2.0 are both much faster than the drive itself so you won't likely notice a difference between them for just one drive. I prefer firewire as a technology, but I chose USB for my external drives since I only have one firewire port vs 4 USB ports, so if I wanted to use it for something else (video camera most likely) I would have to get a hub. If you don't expect to use it for anything else, then it will be fine. Both are good.

I second that you should buy the drive and enclosure seperately and assemble them yourself. It's very easy to do, and there's two advantages:

1. Most external drives have a short warranty (1 year is comon), where internal drives have 3-5 year warranties... So if you assemble yourself and it goes bad in 2 years, you're covered, *and* can fix it yourself to boot.

2. You will save about $25-$100 depending which models you were comparing

As for good brands.. I favor Seagate hard drives but Western Digital are also good... I've had a lot of Maxtor and IBM units die. Seagate is the only manufacturer I know of to offer a 5-year warranty on all of their drives. This is a major draw for me, since newer hard drives just don't seem to hold up like the old ones do... (I have a 40gb 7200rpm drive which has held up through the lives of 3 other drives...)

Brands for enclosures are mostly pretty decent, and vary more by model than by brand. I've been using Kingwin and Bytecc to successful results, but they all seem to have solid and buggy models so the reviews at Newegg should help sort that out.

 

I use USB 2.0, I have both a 3.5" 120 GB semi portable drive, requires power and a portable 2.5" WD passport with a 40 GB doesnt require power. In my home I always back up over a network share to my desktop. I dont use the 120GB anymore, since I got the 40gb its used for data transfer between home and work.