Externtal HD Recommendations?

[Æsbiorn]

It seems my 500 gig Seagate is about to bite it, so I was looking into new externals at newegg. I found this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136471

which doesn't look to bad except for 11% of people calling it a piece of crap, which ironically, still seems to be the highest rated on there.



I was also looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822101221

which looks kinda cool because you can upgrade the hds pretty easy.  Although, not many reviews for it and I haven't heard much about Cavalry.


Also if any of you guys have any recommendations, I'm all ears.

[Omegaman]

I guess my first question is what is your primary use for a backup HD (backup storage)?  Do you use this for your desktop or laptop?  Do you need to boot from the drive?  How does your current Seagate connect to your computer, USB, Firewire, eSata? I think if you could tell me what you store, how much you store, and how much will you need to store in the future, I can give you a more definitive recommendation.

Additionally, Black Friday is just around the corner and *wonderful* opportunity to purchase steeply discounted electronics and computer parts.  If you are in dire need of a replacement vs. waiting a month I can give you a better recommendation.   I scour computer part prices from numerous websites daily with most deals sent to my mailbox.  If after you answer my questions and we agree on a solution, I can keep my eye out for a really good deal between now and Black Friday.

[Æsbiorn]

Ah yes, should have specified.  It's pretty much just for long term back up (through USB) of mp3s, pictures, backup wow folder, etc....  So speed is not a huge issue, just looking for reliability here.  No rush either, so if something pops up in the next couple weeks, that's fine.

Thanks Omega.

[Yoink]

I wanna say that hard drive dock is way overpriced, but I could be missing something. http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/usb-gadgets/a7ea/ for a significant amount cheaper, but no reviews on it. You could also get something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002&cm_re=sata_to_usb-_-12-232-002-_-Product which is the exact one that we use here at the office, and it works exceptionally well. And as always you could pick up an enclosure as well.

I've bought two (smaller sized) WD Elements and they've worked well so far. They're both under a year old, so no long-term experience, but thus far there's been no problems *knocks on wood*. I'm using it for much the same as you; backups of music, videos, and other stuff, and the occasional traveling WoW drive, while the other my mother uses for movie backups/watching.

The other thing to note: the "external" drives that most companies sell have a significantly shorter warranty on them. On the Element, for example, it's a 1-year warranty, while an internal WD hard drive is standard of 3 years. I would of course recommend that if you were to use an internal as an external, and god forbid it died and you'd need it RMA'd, you would say it was used internally just to not cause any complications (assuming there would even be any, I dunno how they feel about that kind of stuff) if you went that route. But still, extra two years is pretty good.

[Djfurball]

My windows install was fucked, so I grabbed this thing (WD My Passport Essential SE 1TB USB) from Best Buy, threw a full backup on it, wiped my machine and reinstalled windows.

And now there's certain files in my backup that make the drive disconnect itself from my machine when I access them.

Fuck this thing.

Edit: Tried different ports, tried getting a firmware update, tried using my Mac instead, tried to pull the drive out of the enclosure and connect it directly - except OOPS it's got the USB connection straight on the PCB, so there's no SATA connector to connect to.

[Djfurball]

So I was really, really pissed about that WD passport shitting the bed. And then my Seagate 2TB Freeagent started clicking loudly (yeeeeeeup). This triggers the "DJ, this is a problem. Fix it." impulse in my brain, so I ran out to the local Micro Center and impulse-bought a Drobo and dumped a bunch of SATA drives into it.

Holy shit this thing is cool. Now I have the urge to buy a stack of those 3tb caviar drives thom linked.

[Omegaman]

I hope your patience has remained strong Aes.  There seems to be a price war for external HDs right now.  Currently, Walmart.com is winning with this amazing deal at the moment:

Western Digital 2TB Elements USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive

Currently it's on sale for $99.00 with free shipping.

Dell, Amazon, etc. dropped theirs to $109, but it seems Walmart is currently the cheapest.  I realize 2 TB seems like a lot, but you are going to end up spending $60+ for an external HD of any significant capacity anyway.  This would be my recommendation right now.  I'm sure if you waited for Black Friday or Cyber Monday, you could probably find one cheaper, but as it stands now that's a really great deal.  You are more than welcome to roll the dice on Friday/Monday, but this is a deal I highly recommend.

DJ had problems with his WD Passports -- and so does everyone else.  WD really screwed up with this product.  Many people have reported random disconnects and just general drive connection issues (my guess is problems related to the microUSB jacks/cords, but that's just speculation).  Additionally the driver software for the drive is on the firmware and thus has to auto install itself each and every time it connects creating a virtual CD drive which the OS then needs a driver for -- which is also on the firmware.  This can be very annoying if you are constantly attaching and removing the drive.  WD fixed a lot of problems with the Passport with the new Elements drives, and thus I can highly recommend them.

[Djfurball]

The only good thing I have to say about the Passport drive is that Best Buy gave me a full refund.

[Thomphoolery]

The only good thing I have to say about the Passport drive is that Best Buy gave me a full refund.

Millions of people have your problems with thousands of different drive types. Hard drives fail - it's an inevitability. No one company can make a product immune to error when it contains mechanical portions spinning at 90 times a second - and still have it be cost effective to you and I.

User A swears that Maxtor is bullshit, user B swears that raptors are bullshit, DJ swears that Passports are bullshit.

My Passport has worked fine for 2 years now. *shrug*

-j

[Æsbiorn]

I hope your patience has remained strong Aes.  There seems to be a price war for external HDs right now.  Currently, Walmart.com is winning with this amazing deal at the moment:

Western Digital 2TB Elements USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive

Currently it's on sale for $99.00 with free shipping.

Dell, Amazon, etc. dropped theirs to $109, but it seems Walmart is currently the cheapest.  I realize 2 TB seems like a lot, but you are going to end up spending $60+ for an external HD of any significant capacity anyway.  This would be my recommendation right now.  I'm sure if you waited for Black Friday or Cyber Monday, you could probably find one cheaper, but as it stands now that's a really great deal.  You are more than welcome to roll the dice on Friday/Monday, but this is a deal I highly recommend.

DJ had problems with his WD Passports -- and so does everyone else.  WD really screwed up with this product.  Many people have reported random disconnects and just general drive connection issues (my guess is problems related to the microUSB jacks/cords, but that's just speculation).  Additionally the driver software for the drive is on the firmware and thus has to auto install itself each and every time it connects creating a virtual CD drive which the OS then needs a driver for -- which is also on the firmware.  This can be very annoying if you are constantly attaching and removing the drive.  WD fixed a lot of problems with the Passport with the new Elements drives, and thus I can highly recommend them.

Sweet, that's one I was originally looking at, hard to go wrong at $99.  Unfortunately, DJ has gotten me turned on to this whole Drobo thing now....  They have one on sale at B&H now for $299:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/570430-REG/Data_Robotics_DR04DD10_4_Bay_Drobo_Robotic_Storage.html

but of course the drives are sold separately.  Guess i need to make that hard decision now between economical and reliability.

[Djfurball]

My Passport has worked fine for 2 years now. *shrug*

Right. I have another passport that I use as a Time Machine backup for one of my macs. It's worked great for two years. Anecdotes are anecdotal.

What I'm saying is that there is a known, reproducible issue with the *firmware* on the current Passports that causes the enclosure to effectively reset itself and drop off the USB bus until you unplug/replug the device. It's not mechanical failure, it's not bad sectors, it's not stuck read heads. It's a problem that's now becoming common. Maybe they can fix it with a firmware patch. Maybe they can't. Until then, why risk going with a defective product? Get an Elements that uses a different enclosure, get a Seagate, get an older Passport on craigslist. Get a Drobo. USB drives are commodity stuff.

[Omegaman]

I'm not going to turn you away from the Drobos.  I really love them (though I don't own one). I've installed quite a few to many happy businesses who use them for backing up.  Hard drives fail, and with the Drobo, you can easily replace them and upgrade them without having to be a computer geek and know what RAID to install, etc.

[Perinon]

This all reminds me of a story I once heard about the scale on hard drives. Something like, imagine the sears tower moving sideways 4 inches above the ground at 400 miles an hour, and that's your hard drive. Yes, it can screw up sometimes. (I might be screwing up the dimensions a little).

Luckily I haven't had hard drive problems in a while, so yay.

[Thomphoolery]

I highly recommend this external drive:

http://www.flashrods.com/frs/FRs_Delorean_Hard_Drive.html

-j

[Æsbiorn]

I blame DJ.