Posted: 6/25/2010 5:28:50 PM EDT
| Thinking of getting an external HD so I can back up files and re-install Windows without the hassle of a trying to find enough DVDs to burn shit to. Any tips? Any brands to stay away from? What should I look for in one? |
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for how low they have come in price these days, i would stick with a well respected brand. Then consider the type of connection it has (this typically determines transfer speed). I think most are USB 2.0 these days.
I recommend the Western Digital Passport. Works well, is reliable and compact... Since this is for backup purposes and not constant read/write, something like that will work very well. |
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I just picked up a Seagate 'FreeAgent' 320GB (Ultra portable drive) @ wallyworld for $60ish- I just wanted something to keep files, pics, mpgs or whatever on. It has lots of space and the cost isn't huge. Plus being small, it won't take up a lot of room. That sounds like exactly what I am looking for. Basically something I can put all my downloaded crap, pics, MP3s, and such on when I wipe the HD. I do it about every 6 months, and am sick of dealing with DVDs. |
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Don't get Seagate. The only drives I've ever lost data on have been Seagates. They suck. WD would be great except that the WD-branded externals have some weird software crap on them, sort of like those new flash drives (U3? something like that). Stick around long enough, and help/support enough workstations, and you'll find that ALL manufacturers suck at some point in time. (beyond the general "hard drives fail/suck in general") At one point in time I had WD drives dropping like flys (literally dozens in a few months)... but now they seem better. Seagate was awesome for quite some time and now they are having tons of issues. Don't get me started on IBM and Maxtor. Hitachi took over the DeathStars, and so far those are doing OK (knock on wood) in production use. Venturing into my first batch of Samsung drives now... hopefully they perform well. All that is not to disagree with Seagate sucking/WD being good (at the moment)... more to point out that hard drives can and will fail more frequently than most other parts, IME. Don't rely on just one copy no matter which manufacturer you use... heck, two copies of data is even iffy! |
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Acomdata makes a good external enclosure in either USB 2.0 or eSATA, for around $40shipped + cost of the HDD if you don't have one already. This is the enclosure I use and it's been good to me, has the interface to use both IDE and SATA HDDs. I use a Western Digital Black 640GB in mine, same model drive that I use in my desktop. With the external HDDs, I've had all sorts of drive failures and data loss. I also noticed that some or even most of these external HDDs typically don't carry the same length warranties that the internal HDDs carry...another reason I use an external enclosure. Plus this way, you don't have to deal with all that bundled backup/syncing software. |
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NewEgg had 1 terabyte drives with a USB / eSATA hot swap cradle (Thermaltake) for $80 a couple days ago. Keep in mind, at USB speeds a 300 gb hard drive may take several hours to copy. It's a good investment though, they turn out to be useful in lots of ways (like, making backups!). |