Portable External Hard Drive...Recommendations?

I'm looking for a nice Portable External Hard Drive. Was just wondering if any of the experts on here could recommend a brand or specific product that they like a lot.

Anyone to stay away from?

I was looking at the Western Digital MyPassPorts and those looks nice but the reviews seem so so (on Amazon at least).

So I thought I'd find out what the really goods are and which ones (if any) to avoid.

Thanks in advance...

 

Buy the HDD and enclosure separately. You can get a drive with a long warranty, and after that, any old enclosure should do the trick.

 

For big capacity hard drives , i recommend Western Digital My Book... the one with e-SATA... the passports are portable but only USB 2.0... alternative like commander wolf suggested , get an enclosure and u use an internal hard drive with e-SATA , USB 2.0...

 

I recommend Vantec enclosures with Scorpio Blue HD's.

Separate means you'll be able to easily take out the HD and connect to any computer with its internal wiring to bypass the enclosures electronics if they go faulty on you.

The 'off the shelf' devices look tempting - but I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them. I've seen too many just die for no good reason and with some, not even the option to try to salvage the data (the circuit board is soldered directly onto the HD).

See:
http://www.vantecusa.com/front/product/pro_list/81


If your notebook is capable of adding an eSata port (or if it has one built in), consider spending a little more for the USB/eSata models - much, much faster and worth the small increase in price for the enclosure.

Good luck.

 

I think I'm gonna follow your advice tilleroftheearth and perhaps assemble one.

However will they be as nice and compact as like the mypassport from WD. Or significantly larger.

Also for when I get the two parts is it pretty simple to put the hard drive inside the enclosure?

 

The Vantec 2.5" enclosure is as compact as it can be - fits the HD snugly and the electronics and that's it. Very easy to assemble - just don't force anything.

What I like about them though is that they give a little 'wallet' to put the enclosure and the cables in, a very nice touch and protects the HD very effectively too.

Cheers!

 

Cool...so it will come with the eSata cable to connect to my laptop right?

That would be awesome...

 

Yes. Does your laptop have an eSata port though?

 

Yep....I have a HDX18t from beginning of 2008...

I can't believe I've had this laptop for 2 years without issues...knock on wood of course!

Way better than that pos sony vaio I had for like a few months.

Anyways thanks for all the info. I'm gonna shop around and see where I can find a good deal on teh Scorpio Blue HDDs. I don't want to spend more than 150 total...

Do they sell Scorpio Blue HDDs at Best Buy by chance?

 

Commander Wolf or anyone else, I have an 80GB SATA hard drive @5400rpm (part number 42T1575, for Thinkpad). I have always wanted to make an external HDD with it, but I am not sure about compatibility issues so have never bought an enclosure. If you have a spare minute, I would appreciate it very much if you could link me to some specific enclosures on the online market that you are sure can work with my HDD (if you get a whole web page, could you indicate which one(s)). I remember seeing some instructions about making external drive, so I can try. But first I must make sure to get the correct enclosure.

Thanks a ton if you have that spare minute for me

 

iqcar,

look in post 4 for the link. No compatibility issues so far (4+ yrs).

Cheers!

 

Thanks tilleroftheearth. What's a reasonable price for an enclosure?

 

Around $35 with USB and closer to $45 with eSATA connections is what I've paid. Never had a problem and have seen worse enclosures at same or higher prices.

Cheers!

 

I find those prices a bit on the high side, myself, but not drastically so. You can usually find reasonable enclosures for about $15-$20 (US) for USB 2.0 only, and $25-$35 (US) for eSATA. A lot depends on exactly how many bells and whistles you're going for on the enclosure.

 

Judicator, our prices are equivalent (different currencies) but the only 'bells & whistles' that I want for an external enclosure besides being fast (hence, eSata), is reliability, compatibility and dependability.

Vantec enclosures have proved themselves to me for a long time, where other ( sometimes less expensive) products like Rosewill have exibited show stopping issues for me (would work seemingly fine in one workstation but not on another - this did not promote confidence in even the systems it worked in).

Cheers!

 

Oh, were your prices Canadian? I wish there was a symbol for Canadian vs US dollars... or any of the various other dollars, for that matter.

And by bells and whistles, I mostly meant such things as fans, lights, hot-swapping, screwless enclosures, that sort of thing.

 

The WD Passpoer drives are quite nice - I have one - it seems to need little power to spin up too.

Buying your own enclosure - it might be more expensive... at the same time you know what's in it...

But somehow that doesn't really matter for a USB drive...

 

But you'll get the specs you want, ie eSata. I just ordered the Nexus3 with USB and eSata along with a Scorpio Blue 500GB.

 

eSATA is the one and only exception where "home build" can be better than a ready bought drive.

 

Well, there's the easier upgrade/repair factor as well. If your current HDD in an enclosure is getting too small, or is damaged (and out of warranty), it's easy enough to pop it out and get a new one to put in. That's often not possible with a ready bought drive.

 

Yes, but then you might as well buy another "complete drive" - the price difference will be small if not nonexistant.

 

True, I suppose, although as noted earlier, warranties for bare drives are often longer than for ready bought ones (usually 3-5 years vs 1). Oh, and the other popular reason for getting an enclosure; when getting a new HDD to put in your notebook, it gives you something to do with your old HDD besides let it sit and collect dust.

 

True - but sometimes its good to keep the old drive
It has the recovery partition on it

 

Which you could image over to your new HDD if you really needed to. Of course, clean installs are usually better anyway...

 

I wouldn't recommend imaging.

The thing is - if you have your old HDD, you have a "master copy" if something happens to your recovery discs.

That's why I have a 250GB HDD lying around at home... it used to be in my SZ before I put the SSD in.

The other thing is:
You generally replace a HDD because its showing signs of age... in that respect using it as an external might be...hmm - potentially dangerous.

 

I like my Western Digital My Passport Essential 320GB External USB 2.0 Portable because on a USB 2.0 port it can keep up with most of my file backup needs.

Windows Server 2003 recognizes it so I make a scheduled backup to it every other day.

 

Well, that really depends on usage patterns, and what kind of notebook you're buying in the first place. For some enthusiasts, they're replacing the drive because they bought the smallest and cheapest one possible when they ordered their notebook, to avoid paying expensive upgrade costs from the manufacturer (like Dell or HP). Or maybe they simply underestimated the storage space they needed...

 

I suppose the small drive to save money is a valid point.

Storage on a laptop = design flaw (unless during travels)