External Hard Drive which one ??

[trek 9.8]

Hello, I am currently looking for an external Hard drive but am a little confused about buying the right one. Online,local,computer store, retail store like costco...? I am looking for a 200 GB.

Any suggestion about something that you bought/know and really like


Thank you


Trek 9.8

[ilovemycamera]

I have a 120 GB Western Digital external that i really like... it's easy to use, lightweight, comes with the USB cord, is fast, and price was $100 at best buy six months ago...

Check around at compusa, office depot, staples, and amazon to see what you can come up with. With it being tax season, they should be advertising these pretty hot and heavy

[CoolToolGuy]

I have bought Western Digital My Book Essential 250GB external hard drives on two occasions from two different stores for $99 each. It seems to be a model that goes on sale often.

Have Fun,

[lenny7]

I've become a big fan of Western Digital hard external drives ever since I dropped mine from 4-feet onto a vinyl floor and it still worked find. The case broke open and the drive started coming out, but I just put some duct tape on it after shoving it back in. I did a full scan of the disc and there were no errors. I was able to access all my files.

With that said, I still bought a replacement for it, figuring a drop like that might cause premature failure eventually.

I like externals with USB2 and Firewire, along with an On/Off switch.

[SunTsu]

I just bought a Western Digital Premium MyBook for $249 from a Canadian Costco. It's a great deal because at Best Buy, the same one is about $400.

It comes with USB 2.0, Firewire, looks pretty good, and you can stack them!

[snedigity]

I have a Western Digital Premium MyBook 250gb. I absolutely love it. When I get th the 500gb I will go with the Essential. I really don't need the Firewire interface for my computer. It is quite cool and dependable.

Scott

[jcw122]

Seagate forever!!! I do NOT have experience with external HDDs, but I can say that Seagate provides the longest warrenties for their products. Their products are also on par with, if not better than, Western Digital's. That excludes the Raptor series of course :D

[trek 9.8]

Thanks a lot. It looks like western digital is the way to go


Trek 9.8

[motion_projekt]

It depends on what you want to do. If you want portable SmartDisk Firelite is the way to go or the Western Digital one at costco. They both are really really good. I have a Firelite Firewire 400 100GB and its freaking beautiful. I know it the max size for the firelite is 160GB. It also depends on what kind of computer you have. On my powerbook g4 i couldn't power the USB drives but i could power the Firewire ones. Like i said it all depends on what you want. Portability vs. Size.

[Echo_]

Just grab the hard drive of your choice and an external enclosure. Much cheaper

[SunTsu]

Just grab the hard drive of your choice and an external enclosure. Much cheaper

Yes, this is cheaper and it's also more scalable, because you can take out an old drive and put in a new one. The problem I've had with enclosures though, is that they have been a bit slower than the other ones.

The Costco one is a sweet deal for 500GB. If you shoot RAW, then I figure you need some pretty big. Mines is already about 137 GB full.

[purelithium]

Yes, buy an enclosure and slap a Seagate drive into it, if you need to get a bigger drive in the future, you can swap it out easily, whilst maintaining the warranty of the drive itself.

[Aaagogo]

if u are computer tech inclined, it will save you about 50% to buy a external h/d, a 500 GB is like $150 now, and get a decent 5.25" external enclosure for ard 35-50 and you have a 500GB external H/D for about $200.

U'll get around 1/2 the storage space for around the same price if you get the ready made ones

[purelithium]

Why get a 5.25", a 3.5" enclosure will do just fine, the 5.25" is for CD/DVD drives...

[nwa2]

Also have a WD external HDD here, 250Gb, can't remember price got it a few years ago (less than £180 then). Plug and go, USB 2, never given me any trouble.

Neil...

[Aaagogo]

lol, yeah, typo, was helping a friend setup a external dvd rewritable.

oh yeah, if going for the 500GB, you need to be technically inclined to get the external drive to recognize the drive.

else, stay below a 300GB for now, i think that's the max the external enclosure can support right now.

Why get a 5.25", a 3.5" enclosure will do just fine, the 5.25" is for CD/DVD drives...

[Jason77]

i like the idea of buying an enclosure to use the hard drive from my old G4 tower as extra storage. are there certain brands that are better than others?

[lenny7]

stay below a 300GB for now, i think that's the max the external enclosure can support right now.

I just bought this drive enclosure this morning
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=203084790&loc=101&sp=1
$20 shipped after rebate. The specs indicate the max capacity is 750MB.

[zwhitworth]

I'd get one that has gets its power over USB. That way you don't have to haul around 2 cords, 1 having a huge AC Adapter. I had a WD MyBook. It worked great, but it isn't mobile. I traded it in for an internal SATA drive since it didn't move for the two months I had it.

[padylyn]

Hi everybody,
I bought a 300gb Seagate USB external HD for €129. in PC WORLD in early December. It seems to be working very well. I think it was a 'special offer',
It takes a few seconds to start up when 'called',

Regards, padylyn

[Quad]

oh yeah, if going for the 500GB, you need to be technically inclined to get the external drive to recognize the drive.



I have made 500's in Vantec USB2/eSATA enclosure they work with no troubles at all.

On a USB port I found the utilites given by the people like Maxtor (and probably WD, Lacie etc as well) to turn off the drive after a time to be very valuable, but only if you want it on line at all times. The external boxes (on USB) do not seem to respond to turn off signals from windows.

[Lord_Malone]

I think I'm going to purchase this one when it's back in stock.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822154150

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll200/22-154-150-02.jpg

Right now I'm using a Samsung 250gb hard drive with a Ultra enclosure I purchased for Iraq in 2004.

[tomd]

Another vote for the WD 250 gig essential. Basically plug it in and you are ready to go. You can then click and drag files onto it, they'll copy and you're done.
Tom

[motion_projekt]

im still voting for portable hard drives.

[Dan-o]

I also have a WD external and seems to work fine. Didn't work very good as a scratch dish for CS2 so I also bought a 300g internal.

[johnnybfan]

I have 2 Western Digital 250GB external drives. No problems.

[Tony-S]

Office Max has a 250 gig USB2 for $100 and a 500 gig USB2 for $200 through Saturday.

[EORI]

Another vote for Seagate (for their superior warranty and customer support), although the 500gb external drive I just ordered arrived DOA via UPS. Amazon did a very poor job of packaging, and UPS probably played football with the box. Expecting a replacement within a few days.

My primary PC currently has two Western Digital 250gb hard drives, and they have worked flawlessly the last 3 years.

[AJ711]

Why get a 5.25", a 3.5" enclosure will do just fine, the 5.25" is for CD/DVD drives...
Most of the 5.25" enclosures come with fans, which helps reduce heat. It also has a greater amount of surface area, which helps to transfer heat from the drive to the surrounding air (if you buy a metal case). Heat kills drives, so keeping them as cool as possible always helps.

I currently have (1) 300GB Western Digital and (2) 250GB WD drives sitting in enclosures. One is for my MP3 collection (all my CDs ripped into digital format) and the others house various files and pictures. Ideally, I'd like to build a tower unit that does nothing other than house HDs for use with backing up files/programs. For now, USB external enclosures will work just fine with my laptop, especially when it comes time to transport them back Stateside when my work in Germany is done.