External HD deals? Recommendations?

[Bsmooth]

Just wondered what yo've heard abot for deals on external HD's. I don't have any backup storage at all, so I really should get some ASAP.
I've heard good things abot Western Digital, not so good on Seagate(uesd to be all I ever had).
I did a search but new ones come out all the time. Already lost some great images of Nova Scotia, so I know back ups are an essential.
The book series of HD's from WD looks good also, let me know what you think.

[basroil]

I have five mybook drives between three computers and they are fairly fast and reliable. In fact, the only one to go sour (my first mybook, probably due to a bad power supply which has been continually been upgraded throughout the line) only stopped writing (writes at between 1kb/s and 100kb/s if it's happy), still reads at full speed (25mb/s+). Nothing like my Seagate, which decided to kick the bucket for no reason at all, taking 320gb of data with it (all was backed up just a few weeks before)... And at least I abused the mybook before it died, exposing it to about 10 plane rides and a few accidental turnovers, the seagate was in a well ventilated desk with a UPS...

[02bfishn]

Read some good reviews about LaCie - just got 2 1TB's from BH (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/553698-REG/LaCie_301315U_1TB_Triple_Interface_External.html) - plugged right in and the included backup software worked great - very pleased so far.

[MaxxuM]

I would recommend the LaCie Rugged (http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10949) series for on the go backups/storage. I can attest to their ability to take a beating. For more long term storage like archiving and backup I would go with a NAS solution. If you still want a regular external, most brands are fine these days, but I would avoid any that stand vertically. I've killed a few drives when I'm messing around with wires or pull headphones and tip it over onto its side. The last drive I killed that way was a WD My Book which tipped over while writing.

[Damian75]

Everyones mileage will very but I am not a fan of WD external HD's I have no problem with there actual drives but between myself and 2 friends we have had 8 go bad this year. Fortunately there was no data loss as we were able to pull the drives out and put them in new enclosures and have been working fine since. I have just seen too high a failure rate on there enclosures. Just my experience your mileage may vary.

[BeritOlam]

...most brands are fine these days, but I would avoid any that stand vertically. I've killed a few drives when I'm messing around with wires or pull headphones and tip it over onto its side. The last drive I killed that way was a WD My Book which tipped over while writing.

Ohhhh....thanks for bringing up, old painful memories. Maxxum! :o :o :o ;)

This is great advice though!

[ChasP505]

Everyones mileage will very but I am not a fan of WD external HD's I have no problem with there actual drives but between myself and 2 friends we have had 8 go bad this year.

I had a WD MyBook 500gb drive fail on me a few months back, but it's identical twin is still in service and chugging along just fine. I also have a pair of 1TB HD Caviar Black HDs which I use with an eSATA external drive dock. This is the first WD product that has failed on me so I'm not ready to write off WD external drives yet. I'd have no reservations about buying a new one today.

[Damian75]

I had a WD MyBook 500gb drive fail on me a few months back, but it's identical twin is still in service and chugging along just fine. I also have a pair of 1TB HD Caviar Black HDs which I use with an eSATA external drive dock. This is the first WD product that has failed on me so I'm not ready to write off WD external drives yet. I'd have no reservations about buying a new one today.

Yeah I have no problem with there drives I just lost all faith in there external enclosures. At this point I only use single external HD's in the portable variety for travel and use a mix of a local Drobo and offsite server for all my true backups.

[BeritOlam]

Yeah I have no problem with there drives I just lost all faith in there external enclosures...

I think this has *always* been the limitation of externals. Drives will fail, of course, especially if you tip them over ;) ;)....but I think the enclosures often conk out before the drive itself.

[Radtech1]

Cost per gig on the externals is somewhere between "noticeably" and "substantially" higher than bare drives. You want a recommendation? This:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/drives/a7ea/

[Rontech1]

Just wondered what yo've heard abot for deals on external HD's. I don't have any backup storage at all, so I really should get some ASAP.
I've heard good things abot Western Digital, not so good on Seagate(uesd to be all I ever had).
I did a search but new ones come out all the time. Already lost some great images of Nova Scotia, so I know back ups are an essential.
The book series of HD's from WD looks good also, let me know what you think.

I have a WD Mybook 320 g usb external and recently purchased a WD Mybook 1 TB external that is ethernet connected on my network through my router. I really like the speed of the ethernet from a router. Use them both for bu with the usb as primary and the ethernet as complete bu for the whole system: the usb Mybook, 2 laptops and both WD 160g sata's in my desktop.
Hope this helps some,
Ron

[neeko]

I'd weigh in on the Lacie drives. I deal with alot of external drives and have seen my fair share of Lacie drives dying. A majority of their drives do not have proper ventilation and die from overheating.

[narlus]

i've owned 9 external drives...the oldest (maxtor 300gb) is still working fine. i've had a seagate 500 and a WD 500 fail on me. i've been very happy w/ the three 1TB Fantom drives i've purchased.