I use a Lacie "Brick", 320Gb. It must be six months old by now. It looks great, but the power-in connection doesn't feel solid, which makes me paranoid.
Funny, my friend just said his Seagate crashed and never recovered. And he said to buy WD. Some people here say exactly the opposite. I am confused.. I might as well just buy the sexier looking one since it looks like it's a hit or miss in terms of reliability for any brand.
keep this in mind when you hear ppl talk about their crashed drives. There are two reasons why an external drive can "crash." One, the hard drive really did crash, or two, the controller card/interface got f'd up.
also, newegg.com has a plethora of reviews you can munch through.
i have the lacie 500gb, which was a really great deal when i bought it 9 months ago, and i have not had a problem.
Plus as people have said it is quite attractive. The face scratches easy and it had the "porsche design" name embedded in the side, but both end up being subtle and don't detract from it.
Maxtors (got 9 of them, 200-750gb), esp. now that Seagate owns them and offers the 5 year warranty. They look decent, too (the One Touch 4s). You can get some super, super deals online (note that there are at least 2 models per size)
My laptop Lacie drive has been good, but I've heard tons of bad things about Lacie.
End of the day, it is all going to be luck. They are essentially the same or extremely similar.
like all hardware, there are reliable systems and those that have problems. if you're worried about getting a lemon, you may want to buy from a source that can give you good support in the event of a problem -- that's not usually going to be the cheapest internet site you can find.
remember - data's worth a lot - spending a few dollars more to get reliable backup equipment is small potatoes relative to the value of your data and your time.
also, keep in mind that when people say their external drive 'crashed' you have no idea how they treated the device before the crash --- these things still are somewhat fragile and are going to crash if not handled properly --- just because it's "external" doesn't mean you can drop it or bang it around or throw it into your backpack without running the risk of damage.
by the way, I purchased a WD MyBook Pro through DELL back in December and haven't had a single problem with it (yet!).
Has anyone used Rocstor before? more on the pricey side but seems like they're geared towards people who move them around a lot, smaller profile and shock resistant casing etc...
Anti -- I can't imagine read/write arms falling off unless the device was subjected to some G-forces it wasn't designed to withstand. What'd you do - throw it across the room ?
Seagate + freagent or just plain a drive enclosure because casing is the main problems with HD because they often fail first before the HD you can have a raid 1 set up and no more problems.
By the way, is there a need to install any of the software that comes on the external harddrive? There doesn't seem to be a need to me. Can't I just dump files in the drive and be done with it? No need to install all that software right?
External Harddrive suggestions
Hello, anyone have suggestions on a good, reliable external harddrive?
I'm looking for both a permanent type and portable type (i.e. no power plug necessary).
WD
I'm a fan of Lacie since theirs are all designy-like.
mybook
yah I second the WD... plus there is a sale at Circuit City right now for the 320gb model.
I use a Lacie "Brick", 320Gb. It must be six months old by now. It looks great, but the power-in connection doesn't feel solid, which makes me paranoid.
i had a WD mybook die on me and the people who recovered it said they have seen allot
also a thing i dislike about this drive is the enclosure must be destroyed to get the drive out.
i say go Samsung or Seagate
this link would be a good start
http://computers.pricegrabber.com/hard-drives/p/11/st=filter/popup2%5B%5D=2:394/sortby=priceA/popup4%5B%5D=30:392
apple's time machine/time capsule combo work pretty well for external back up
go to costco and buy a western digital
what ever you do don't get apple or WD is my advise
Wow, a lot of mixed reviews, but thanks for the info! Any other people have good or bad experiences with their external harddrives?
Seagates have solid ext drives. Or you can build your own, which might come out cheaper. Check out www.newegg.com
Funny, my friend just said his Seagate crashed and never recovered. And he said to buy WD. Some people here say exactly the opposite. I am confused.. I might as well just buy the sexier looking one since it looks like it's a hit or miss in terms of reliability for any brand.
keep this in mind when you hear ppl talk about their crashed drives. There are two reasons why an external drive can "crash." One, the hard drive really did crash, or two, the controller card/interface got f'd up.
also, newegg.com has a plethora of reviews you can munch through.
i have the lacie 500gb, which was a really great deal when i bought it 9 months ago, and i have not had a problem.
Plus as people have said it is quite attractive. The face scratches easy and it had the "porsche design" name embedded in the side, but both end up being subtle and don't detract from it.
Maxtors (got 9 of them, 200-750gb), esp. now that Seagate owns them and offers the 5 year warranty. They look decent, too (the One Touch 4s). You can get some super, super deals online (note that there are at least 2 models per size)
My laptop Lacie drive has been good, but I've heard tons of bad things about Lacie.
End of the day, it is all going to be luck. They are essentially the same or extremely similar.
I found this review helpful when making this same decision a while back: Buying Guide: Save Memories on Portable Drives
like all hardware, there are reliable systems and those that have problems. if you're worried about getting a lemon, you may want to buy from a source that can give you good support in the event of a problem -- that's not usually going to be the cheapest internet site you can find.
remember - data's worth a lot - spending a few dollars more to get reliable backup equipment is small potatoes relative to the value of your data and your time.
also, keep in mind that when people say their external drive 'crashed' you have no idea how they treated the device before the crash --- these things still are somewhat fragile and are going to crash if not handled properly --- just because it's "external" doesn't mean you can drop it or bang it around or throw it into your backpack without running the risk of damage.
by the way, I purchased a WD MyBook Pro through DELL back in December and haven't had a single problem with it (yet!).
Good luck.
how about SolidState HD's? i bet those will not crash
when my WD crashed it was the read/write arms that fell out.
Has anyone used Rocstor before? more on the pricey side but seems like they're geared towards people who move them around a lot, smaller profile and shock resistant casing etc...
Anti -- I can't imagine read/write arms falling off unless the device was subjected to some G-forces it wasn't designed to withstand. What'd you do - throw it across the room ?
Seagate + freagent or just plain a drive enclosure because casing is the main problems with HD because they often fail first before the HD you can have a raid 1 set up and no more problems.
By the way, is there a need to install any of the software that comes on the external harddrive? There doesn't seem to be a need to me. Can't I just dump files in the drive and be done with it? No need to install all that software right?
no software, some drivers may install automatically though
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.