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JayHawk
26th of April 2006 (Wed), 12:10
I'm trying to find the most cost effective way to put together a storage device using one of the cases where you add your own 2.5in notebook hard drive.

Does anyone know of good sources for inexpensive 20gb-30gb hard drives? Are there places you can buy refurbished units inexpensively? I'm not too concerned about transfer speed, just reliability. I've also thought about a 10gb drive if it reduces the total cost even more. I'd like to keep the total cost $100 as much as possible. Am I crazy?

I have considered using my ipod, but I don't have a lot of space left (it's an older 15gb model) and the fact that the transfers drain the battery so fast makes me a bit nervous about losing data in the middle of a transfer.
Jon
26th of April 2006 (Wed), 12:19
"Good" and "cheap" don't go together, especially with hard drives. However, Newegg (http://www.newegg.com) has 20 GB Hitachis starting at around $50 and 40 GB for around $55 on up. I do trust Hitachi.
JayHawk
26th of April 2006 (Wed), 12:38
"Good" and "cheap" don't go together, especially with hard drives. I do trust Hitachi.

I guess this helps illustrate my lack of computer knowledge. You mention Hitachi as a good brand, are there other brands that are considered good quality? Also, what should I look for when comparing one drive against another? What features make a "good" drive? I guess it's not all about speed and buffer size.
Jon
26th of April 2006 (Wed), 15:40
The other brand I trust is Seagate. "Good" is "reliable", and my experience has been that those two are. As far as speed goes, higher RPM usually goes with faster access and transfer rates. Speeds commonly available are 4200,5400 and 7200 RPM. But the CF card interface may well be the choke-point for data transfer, so I wouldn't worry too much about getting the fastest especially if you can get a bigger, slower drive for the same money.
rklepper
26th of April 2006 (Wed), 16:02
Newegg right now has Seagate 7200 rpm 250 GB SATA drives for $86.00
Transonic
26th of April 2006 (Wed), 16:07
I second going through newegg.

As far as good brands I personally use a 400Gb Western Digital Caviar server drive for data storage and their 74Gb 10,000RPM Raptor for my OS & apps. But if you're looking smaller and cheaper then Seagate is also a very good choice. I have a Hitachi HDD as well and haven't had a problem with it yet. I've never been but of a Maxtor fan but some people really like them.
Jon
26th of April 2006 (Wed), 16:15
Newegg right now has Seagate 7200 rpm 250 GB SATA drives for $86.00Not in 2-1/2" they don't. OP needs a laptop (2-1/2") drive.
Limitlis
26th of May 2006 (Fri), 10:44
I would stay away from the DeskStar's, in the industry known as "DeathStars" I've seen a ton of them crash. Co-worker lost years of family photos.

Another co-worker bought a pre-fabbed external I-Omega 300GB hard drive that crashed within 2-3 weeks. When we opened it up... guess what we found? Yup Deskstar.
blue_max
26th of May 2006 (Fri), 10:49
I would stay away from the DeskStar's, in the industry known as "DeathStars" I've seen a ton of them crash. Co-worker lost years of family photos.

Another co-worker bought a pre-fabbed external I-Omega 300GB hard drive that crashed within 2-3 weeks. When we opened it up... guess what we found? Yup Deskstar.

I believe that is when they were under the IBM brand and a model that is quite old now. Newer drives are class leaders in many respects. You can buy Hitachi with complete confidence now.

Graham
jgjulio
26th of May 2006 (Fri), 17:33
Take a look at www.computergeeks.com
I have ordered lots of stuff from them.
Good people to do business with.
JohnnyG
26th of May 2006 (Fri), 17:36
I would second the recommendation of NewEgg! I have bought a lot of computer equipment from them and they're great!
claudermilk
26th of May 2006 (Fri), 20:20
Newegg is an excellent source for computer components (built my new PC from there). Seagate & Samsung is what I use. Nobody's perfect though--between home & work last year I lost two Seagate SATA drives, probably coincidence.
johnnybfan
26th of May 2006 (Fri), 20:33
OfficeMax has all of their Western Digital hard drives on sale at up to 50% off. You can get a 250GB 7200rpm hard drive for $75.00 (no rebates).
Jon
26th of May 2006 (Fri), 21:57
Newegg's pretty much the computer B&H. You may find a better price, but at what cost?
Tdragone
27th of May 2006 (Sat), 01:01
My thoughts:
I love my Digimate ii
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=1472523&postcount=8
Transonic
27th of May 2006 (Sat), 01:55
I would stay away from the DeskStar's, in the industry known as "DeathStars" I've seen a ton of them crash. Co-worker lost years of family photos.Tell me about it :rolleyes: I've had 2 back in the day that both died and lost a lot more that pictures. I am glad to say that the Hitachi Deskstars are not the Deathstars we're use to seeing from the past.