Which External Hard Drive?

[737TG]

Hi There,
any recommendations/experiences for/of external hard drives? I need at least 80GB...connected by USB, fast, reliable, small etc...
Cheers!

[Mac the Knife]

Some of the external USB drives are picky about power on the USB ports they are plugged into and won't work properly or moan and groan and go ti-tik-tik.

One that I have doesn't like the ports on the front of PCs.

Generally I prefer Western Digital to Seagate, but that's just a prejudice.

Try before you buy if possible.

:ok:

Edited to add: The 1st generation and luggable portable drives all have a dongle separate PSU, and as Heathrow Director says below, obviously didn't have power probs. but the PSU is just one more damned dongle to cart around...

The pocket drives now can run off just USB power but, as I said, some are fussy.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

I have an 80gb Western Digital which runs off mains power, via a small PSU. No problems so far - had it about 3 months.

[Willows]

Try the portables from Lacie. (www.lacie.co.uk) I have my eye on the rugged orange one but it's ££!!! I have two Lacie externals and have had no problems yet.

You could also try Dabs. (http://www.dabs.com) They have a wide range of external drives available.

[Capt Chambo]

You don't mention which computer/OS system you are using, but if you are using a Mac then I can thoroughly recommend the Smartdisk FireLite. It uses a firewire which is only marginally slower than USB2. The disc is preformatted to HFS+ but can be altered to FAT32 or NTFS if you desire (I haven't bothered as HFS+ is recommended for the Mac OSs)

I tried a Lacie and USB2 but it just would not mount so returned it for this Smartdisk Firelite which is simplicity itself.

[Onan the Clumsy]

I've got a Buffalo, cos it wasn't too expensive and could be mounted vertically. I also got it because it came with some nifty backup software to schedule backups and a utility to spool down the drive when it wasn't being used.

Unfortunately the backup software is crap so I use ntbackup and scheduled tasks.

Double unfortunately the spooldown software flat out doesnt' work :{ I know cos I asked them and they said so :*




...oh and no fan, so it's nice and quiet.

[Willows]

You don't mention which computer/OS system you are using, but if you are using a Mac then I can thoroughly recommend the Smartdisk FireLite. It uses a firewire which is only marginally slower than USB2. The disc is preformatted to HFS+ but can be altered to FAT32 or NTFS if you desire (I haven't bothered as HFS+ is recommended for the Mac OSs)
I tried a Lacie and USB2 but it just would not mount so returned it for this Smartdisk Firelite which is simplicity itself.

I thought Firewire (400) was marginally faster compared to USB 2.0 because it has a more sustained rate of data transfer? If you use Firewire 800, it wipes the floor with USB 2.

I also use a Mac. It had a hard drive failure last December but luckily everything was backed up to my Lacie drive which I could boot from via the Firewire cable! :ok: Everything was as it was when I backed up, system settings etc. I managed to install a new drive and then clone it from my back up. Fantastically convenient. :cool:

Have you tired the Super Duper! (http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html) app for backups on your Mac? It has a smart update feature which only replaces files/folders that have been changed since your last backup, saving a lot of time. It also has a schedule feature for automatic runs.

[737TG]

Thanks! :ok:
I use a PC with Windows XP home.
Just been looking at this (http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=48607&TabID=1&source=1&doy=22m3) in Maplin - 250GB for £89.99.
Seagate seems to be a pretty good brand...(?)
Cheers!

[Lord Lucan]

I have four of them now :hmm:

Three different brands, the last three were bought only on the basis of price per Gb.

So far I've had no problems.
The only comment I have would be that a power on/off button on the case is good to have, but not all drives have one.

The other thing I have noticed is that some power transformers seem to run quite a bit hotter than others even on idle - with the drives powered down. Thereby wasting your money.

But you can't get that sort of information on the box.

[737TG]

Yes I think the Maplin deal is good...
Just spotted another more portable drive here (http://www.techdigest.tv/2006/03/plextors_portab.html) from Plextor
Cheers!

[Conan the Librarian]

If portability is important to any of you, then how does a 64GB Flash drive appeal to you?

http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/29/buslinks-64gb-usb-2-0-flash-drive-pro-2-series/

Nifty, isn't it?


Conan

[Willows]

If portability is important to any of you, then how does a 64GB Flash drive appeal to you?

http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/29/buslinks-64gb-usb-2-0-flash-drive-pro-2-series/

Nifty, isn't it?


Conan

$5,000 for a USB key? :{

Flash storage is gonna be the norm in years to come, no moving parts ... less chance of drive failure, faster etc.