External Hard Drive That Isn't Junk

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Oubadah

676 posts

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#103512 8-Jun-2012 15:42

Requirements:

- At least 1TB
- Not too much over $150
- Would prefer USB 3.0, but 2.0 would do. ESATA would be a huge boon.

I found some that seemed to fit the bill, but looking at the amazon reviews makes me cringe. So many reported failures. And quality control of hard drives in general seems to have gone down recently. Also, last time I was looking there were certain drives that had issues with parking too often (some eco feature from memory), I want to avoid any like that.

I don't mind 3.5" with power pack, but logic tells me that 2.5" would probably be smarter as those drives are designed for mobility (lighter internal parts so less likely to get damaged from impact, and less wear of tilted while running etc.)

Any recommendations?

Was looking at these two until I read some reviews:

seagate

HP

mattwnz

20515 posts

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#637893 8-Jun-2012 16:09

Oubadah: Requirements:

- At least 1TB
- Not too much over $150
- Would prefer USB 3.0, but 2.0 would do. ESATA would be a huge boon.

I found some that seemed to fit the bill, but looking at the amazon reviews makes me cringe. So many reported failures. And? quality control of hard drives in general seems to have gone down recently. Also, last time I was looking there were certain drives that had issues with parking too often (some eco feature from memory), I want to avoid any like that.

I don't mind 3.5" with power pack, but logic tells me that 2.5" would probably be smarter as those drives are designed for mobility (lighter internal parts so less likely to get damaged from impact, and less wear of tilted while running etc.)

Any recommendations?

Was looking at these two until I read some reviews:

seagate

HP

How about an esata enclouse and an internal hard drive for it. This is what I did, and has been far better than the external drives I have purchased(which were WD and seagate) The seagate one seems to reguarly disconnect itself, and display a USB malfunctioning warning which is annoying. Haven't worked out if it is the drive or a problem with the PC, as it seems to work on other computers fine.

nickb800

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#637907 8-Jun-2012 16:35

The premade ones typically use 'green' drives, to save power and avoid heat issues. Sounds like the parking heads is an issue for you, so i doubt you will find a premade solution, unless you go to the ridiculous like Lacie.

You can get 2.5" usb powered enclosures for next to nothing, and get a 'modern' laptop hard drive drive (2.5"), which will have energy saving tech and sudden movement sensors. Might be more like $200 for a 1TB solution, but this will be much better than the bog standard seagate/WD premade ones

mattwnz

20515 posts

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#637932 8-Jun-2012 17:10

Oubadah: Requirements:

- At least 1TB
- Not too much over $150
- Would prefer USB 3.0, but 2.0 would do. ESATA would be a huge boon.

I found some that seemed to fit the bill, but looking at the amazon reviews makes me cringe. So many reported failures. And? quality control of hard drives in general seems to have gone down recently. Also, last time I was looking there were certain drives that had issues with parking too often (some eco feature from memory), I want to avoid any like that.

I don't mind 3.5" with power pack, but logic tells me that 2.5" would probably be smarter as those drives are designed for mobility (lighter internal parts so less likely to get damaged from impact, and less wear of tilted while running etc.)

Any recommendations?

Was looking at these two until I read some reviews:

seagate

HP

The seagate one is the same as I ahve got, apart from mine being 1GB,a nd that is the one that has problems. It does however have a 3 year warranty. It seems that some new ones only have a 1 year warranty. I am not sure why they have reduced the warranty on them, possibly less competition. Seagates used to have a 5 year warranty one them

Oubadah

676 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 12

#637952 8-Jun-2012 17:34

mattwnz:

The seagate one is the same as I ahve got, apart from mine being 1GB,a nd that is the one that has problems. It does however have a 3 year warranty. It seems that some new ones only have a 1 year warranty. I am not sure why they have reduced the warranty on them, possibly less competition. Seagates used to have a 5 year warranty one them

IIRC, WD and seagate reduced their HDD warranties across the board (or maybe excluding enterprise grade), some excuse like "we're focusing resources on SSD development".

vexxxboy

4336 posts

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#637962 8-Jun-2012 17:46

i bought a iomega prestige 1TB hard drive a year ago and have been impressed , it sits on my desk in its stand and i have never had a problem with it, also like the off/on switch with it to . It just looks and feels solid would buy another one.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

eXDee

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#637988 8-Jun-2012 19:21

For 3.5", Seagate use the same drives in their external drives as internal. Assuming the stock isn't 8 months old, it's a 7200rpm SATA3 model.
Western Digital use 5400RPM Green drives in their Elements and Mybook range. Not sure about the 'elite' range or whatever the model up from that is.

To be honest hard disks failure rates these days don't seem to be consistent for any particular brand. Some people claim one brand is more reliable than another based on their anecdotal evidence, but this is hardly enough to make claims of reliability.

I'd probably get one of the seagate drives and then make sure as per usual, that important data is always backed up.

Dell

Shop now for Dell laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

Ragnor

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#638489 10-Jun-2012 15:34

Oubadah: .

I found some that seemed to fit the bill, but looking at the amazon reviews makes me cringe.

Remember to take into account the negative bias inherent in online reviews..., people almost always post reviews when they have problems and almost never post a review when everything is good.