Reliable External Harddrive - No More WD

[ChadAndreo]

I just had my 500GB My Book essential die on me. This is the second one I know off, since my friend who also bought his on the same day had the same problem.
What brands have you guys had a good experience with?
I have a Seagate that has been a work horse for the past two years, so im leaning towards another one of those unless there is better out there.

[james_in_baltimore]

hmm... don't really know... I am a big fan of wd drives, but the seagates are usually decent too.

[_aravena]

Sure it died? My casing messed up but the drive still worked and I got a new case. My next one though will be a Seagate as a have a small portable that's lasted quite a few years. Seagate is the way I think.

[Wilt]

Seems that all harddrive companies enjoy a period of being 'most reliable' and then dog days of being 'most unreliable'...Seagate, Maxtor, Western Digital, Hitachi, Fujitsu have all been in both positions, and now seems to be WD's turn on the bottom! The ups and downs seem more related to a model or series of drives than to one specific deficient manufacturer, or to the economic ups and downs and management of companies over the years...these companies have stayed in business for decades now, not because they are consistently shoddy products!

[DDCSD]

I really like my Seagate Free Agent (http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-ST305004FDA1E1-RK-FreeAgent-Desktop-External/dp/B000ND75C0/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1219966344&sr=8-1).

[ChadAndreo]

Sure it died? My casing messed up but the drive still worked and I got a new case. My next one though will be a Seagate as a have a small portable that's lasted quite a few years. Seagate is the way I think.

The light is just blinking blue and when I called they said they will send me a replacement drive.

[Rellik]

For the past 2-3 years, I've only bought seagate and haven't had any problems. (knock on wood). I have a Seagate Free Agent external drive as well. Also use a drobo filled with 3 seagates at the moment.

[Jim G]

I've been using Seagate, Samsung and WD for the past few years and haven't had a drive die for three or four years - am going to pick up another backup drive in the next week, though, just to be triply sure.

[cdifoto]

The light is just blinking blue and when I called they said they will send me a replacement drive.
Rip it open, pull out the drive, and put it in a new enclosure.

[Calicajun]

This may sound silly but have you tried pluging the drive into a different USB port? I asks this because my WD (500gig) drive stopped working the other day, would light up for a few seconds then go dead. The WD drive had been plugged into a external multi port USB device plugged into the computer for over a year with no problems until that day. Anyway, after pluging the WD drive directly into the computer it starting working just fine. Not sure why it stopped working but sure glad it is working.

[canondslr]

agree with some people here, my friend's "my book" also died on him and he just took out the drive and put in new enclosure and it works

[Calicajun]

agree with some people here, my friend's "my book" also died on him and he just took out the drive and put in new enclosure and it works

Good to know, just in case mine doesn't come back to life next time.

[neil_g]

could of just been a dodgy batch you both purchased from.

trouble is with external disks is that they get knocked and moved and that degrades lifespan and causes failures. hard drives are fragile.

roll on large storage solid state drives..

[ChadAndreo]

This may sound silly but have you tried pluging the drive into a different USB port? I asks this because my WD (500gig) drive stopped working the other day, would light up for a few seconds then go dead. The WD drive had been plugged into a external multi port USB device plugged into the computer for over a year with no problems until that day. Anyway, after pluging the WD drive directly into the computer it starting working just fine. Not sure why it stopped working but sure glad it is working.

I have tried everything except for removing it from the casing which will be next. I have even used a different cpu.

[Karlo]

I have a 320Gb WD passport . And no WD products died on me or on my dads pc ever and i have been using them as long as i have been building my own pc's.

[ugly_a]

USB Hard drives are really a blessing for a regular user but it really is a disaster waiting to happen. The primary factor in degradation of any hard drive is excessive heat causing malfunction in mechanical movement or the controllers dying, and USB drives like the ones connected to the desktop have the worst track record. If I really wanted reliable storage - one USB drive wouldn't be an ideal solution for me - maybe two, or backup on a separate medium - or install the cooling fan on the drive myself DIY style.

[MDJAK]

I just bought a Lacie portable which when connected via firewire 800 is blazingly quick.

That said, I have two My Books, both for a few years now, and they have performed flawlessly. Unfortunately, any product can die at any time. That's why whenever I buy a new hard drive, I copy my old one on to it. Takes up a lot of space, but this way I have multiple copies of everything.
me