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OT: External Hard Drives

D

David C. Holley

Flightless Bird
Can anyone recommend any external hard drives?

(or a more appropirate newsgroup)
 
M

meerkat

Flightless Bird
Re: External Hard Drives

"David C. Holley" <David.C.Holley> wrote in message
news:-OEr6pmAlKHA.5728@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>
> Can anyone recommend any external hard drives?
>
> (or a more appropirate newsgroup)

Always a personal choice.
Most people have their favourites.
Mine is Seagate, because of the 3 year warranty.

bw..
 
H

HeyBub

Flightless Bird
Re: External Hard Drives

David C. Holley wrote:
> Can anyone recommend any external hard drives?
>
> (or a more appropirate newsgroup)


I think they're pretty much commodity items now.

I got a Terabyte drive made of bamboo (I'm not kidding) called (re)Drive [I
guess that means "recycled"] for $77 retail.

Sometime this month, Iomega will be including a software sync program with
their drives which looks pretty good.
 
D

Daave

Flightless Bird
Re: External Hard Drives

David C. Holley wrote:
> Can anyone recommend any external hard drives?
>
> (or a more appropirate newsgroup)


What are your specific needs?

Do you want something portable that you can fit in your pocket?

Or do you want something less portable that will almost always be close
to your PC?

What will this drive be used for? Backing up data and/or storing images
of your PC's hard drive? Or an actual *clone* of your PC's hard drive?

What is the make an model of your PC and/or motherboard? And most
important, does it have any eSATA ports?

(Since the hardware newsgroup is more appropriate, this part of your
thread will now be cross-posted to it.)
 
U

Unknown

Flightless Bird
Re: External Hard Drives

Buy the one with the best reputation for dependability.

"David C. Holley" <David.C.Holley> wrote in message
news:-OEr6pmAlKHA.5728@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Can anyone recommend any external hard drives?
>
> (or a more appropirate newsgroup)
>
 
T

Twayne

Flightless Bird
Re: External Hard Drives

In news:-OEr6pmAlKHA.5728@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl,
David C. Holley <David.C.Holley> typed:
> Can anyone recommend any external hard drives?
>
> (or a more appropirate newsgroup)



ACOM (best; have two that have outlived three WD drives.
Maxtor/Seagates are decent (same company now).
WD (Western Digital usually OK but have had two new ones fail lately)


Use google to source them.
 
D

David C. Holley

Flightless Bird
Re: External Hard Drives

Ideally, I'd like a large enough HD that serves as a backup to my laptop and
separately stores images. The laptop (a Dell) is a 80GB that's around 40GB
at this point. I'm [NOT] looking for anything portable or that'll fit in my
pocket.



"Daave" <daave@example.com> wrote in message
news:eanVyKGlKHA.1824@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> David C. Holley wrote:
>> Can anyone recommend any external hard drives?
>>
>> (or a more appropirate newsgroup)

>
> What are your specific needs?
>
> Do you want something portable that you can fit in your pocket?
>
> Or do you want something less portable that will almost always be close to
> your PC?
>
> What will this drive be used for? Backing up data and/or storing images of
> your PC's hard drive? Or an actual *clone* of your PC's hard drive?
>
> What is the make an model of your PC and/or motherboard? And most
> important, does it have any eSATA ports?
>
> (Since the hardware newsgroup is more appropriate, this part of your
> thread will now be cross-posted to it.)
>
 
D

Daave

Flightless Bird
Re: External Hard Drives

Good information.

Although you didn't provide a model and model number, the fact that your
laptop's hard drive is only 80GB indicates you have no eSATA ports. :)
If you did, then you probably would have wanted an eSATA drive because
of the transfer speed.

The only other question:

Do you want to purchase the two components (drive plus enclosure) and
assemble them (which is easy) or spend a little extra and purchase an
already pre-assembled external hard drive?


David C. Holley wrote:
> Ideally, I'd like a large enough HD that serves as a backup to my
> laptop and separately stores images. The laptop (a Dell) is a 80GB
> that's around 40GB at this point. I'm [NOT] looking for anything
> portable or that'll fit in my pocket.
>
>
>
> "Daave" <daave@example.com> wrote in message
> news:eanVyKGlKHA.1824@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> David C. Holley wrote:
>>> Can anyone recommend any external hard drives?
>>>
>>> (or a more appropirate newsgroup)

>>
>> What are your specific needs?
>>
>> Do you want something portable that you can fit in your pocket?
>>
>> Or do you want something less portable that will almost always be
>> close to your PC?
>>
>> What will this drive be used for? Backing up data and/or storing
>> images of your PC's hard drive? Or an actual *clone* of your PC's
>> hard drive? What is the make an model of your PC and/or motherboard?
>> And most
>> important, does it have any eSATA ports?
>>
>> (Since the hardware newsgroup is more appropriate, this part of your
>> thread will now be cross-posted to it.)
 
D

David C. Holley

Flightless Bird
Re: External Hard Drives

Doesn't make any difference. I was looking at a Seagate drive, but I kept
seeing reviews that it'd crap out after a relatively short period of time.

"Daave" <daave@example.com> wrote in message
news:%23tK7YKLlKHA.1536@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Good information.
>
> Although you didn't provide a model and model number, the fact that your
> laptop's hard drive is only 80GB indicates you have no eSATA ports. :) If
> you did, then you probably would have wanted an eSATA drive because of the
> transfer speed.
>
> The only other question:
>
> Do you want to purchase the two components (drive plus enclosure) and
> assemble them (which is easy) or spend a little extra and purchase an
> already pre-assembled external hard drive?
>
>
> David C. Holley wrote:
>> Ideally, I'd like a large enough HD that serves as a backup to my
>> laptop and separately stores images. The laptop (a Dell) is a 80GB
>> that's around 40GB at this point. I'm [NOT] looking for anything
>> portable or that'll fit in my pocket.
>>
>>
>>
>> "Daave" <daave@example.com> wrote in message
>> news:eanVyKGlKHA.1824@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>> David C. Holley wrote:
>>>> Can anyone recommend any external hard drives?
>>>>
>>>> (or a more appropirate newsgroup)
>>>
>>> What are your specific needs?
>>>
>>> Do you want something portable that you can fit in your pocket?
>>>
>>> Or do you want something less portable that will almost always be
>>> close to your PC?
>>>
>>> What will this drive be used for? Backing up data and/or storing
>>> images of your PC's hard drive? Or an actual *clone* of your PC's
>>> hard drive? What is the make an model of your PC and/or motherboard? And
>>> most
>>> important, does it have any eSATA ports?
>>>
>>> (Since the hardware newsgroup is more appropriate, this part of your
>>> thread will now be cross-posted to it.)

>
>
 
T

Twayne

Flightless Bird
Re: External Hard Drives

In news:eYb2b6KlKHA.3476@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl,
David C. Holley <David.C.Holley> typed:
> Ideally, I'd like a large enough HD that serves as a backup to my
> laptop and separately stores images. The laptop (a Dell) is a 80GB
> that's around 40GB at this point. I'm [NOT] looking for anything
> portable or that'll fit in my pocket.


In my own experience:
500 Gig, even 1 Terabyte prices have come way down lately, along with 360Gig
and 250 Gig especially. 500 would probably do you nicely, and keep a fairly
large history of backups plus allow the storage of some important system
discs, if that's what you want. Then again if you only want one or two
backups kept at a time, something in the order of 250 Meg might suffice, but
.... it could get tight fairly quickly. 360 Gig would be a better minimum
IMO. But if you go for the Terabyte, then you have provided for the future
when you'll very likely be adding larger and more drives to your system,
depending on how much data you create, etc..

Personally I use two external terabyte drives, and alternate them from month
to month. That way if one is ever compromised badly or goes belly up, I
still have the other one with only slightly older data on it. The idea is to
keep one completely disconnected at all times, in my case, so viruses,
electrical problems, etc., can't get at it.
Terabytes might sound like overkill, but it's not; I'm backing up 5 drive
letters and a lot of data plus the OS whenever anything gets installed or
uninstalled; around 18 Gig total goes into a Full backup, the rest are
incrementals.
I got into 2 externals because the one WD external I had went belly up;
the drive itself became completely unable to spin up to proper speed. Never
did get all the data replaced, but thanks to the occasional DVD backups and
the other drive, it wasn't a large loss. I'm not near so lazy about
creating DVD copies for permanent backups since then<g>. But use RW types
for DVDs; it's a lot cheaper in the long run<g>!

HTH,

Twayne




>
>
>
> "Daave" <daave@example.com> wrote in message
> news:eanVyKGlKHA.1824@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> David C. Holley wrote:
>>> Can anyone recommend any external hard drives?
>>>
>>> (or a more appropirate newsgroup)

>>
>> What are your specific needs?
>>
>> Do you want something portable that you can fit in your pocket?
>>
>> Or do you want something less portable that will almost always be
>> close to your PC?
>>
>> What will this drive be used for? Backing up data and/or storing
>> images of your PC's hard drive? Or an actual *clone* of your PC's
>> hard drive? What is the make an model of your PC and/or motherboard? And
>> most
>> important, does it have any eSATA ports?
>>
>> (Since the hardware newsgroup is more appropriate, this part of your
>> thread will now be cross-posted to it.)
 
D

Daave

Flightless Bird
Re: External Hard Drives

I usually go to Newegg.com and sort by best rating. If there is a very
small percentage of negative reviews, I can live with that, especially
because of the warranty. Here is one possibility for a pre-assembled
unit:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822101123

Here's another (yes, it's a Seagate):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148404

Same price, but it's larger by 180GB.

The above two drives are 3.5 inches. You might decide that 2.5 is
better. It certainly is if you are looking for something you can fit in
your pocket. You could also physically place a drive that size in your
laptop if the original drive dies.

But if you are *only* interested in storing images, then a larger drive
(3.5") is probably the way to go. And you might find that you would
prefer 1TB or larger.

You can also use newegg to compare prices and ratings of internal drives
and USB enclosures. Just narrow down to what you are looking for and
sort by rating.


David C. Holley wrote:
> Doesn't make any difference. I was looking at a Seagate drive, but I
> kept seeing reviews that it'd crap out after a relatively short
> period of time.
> "Daave" <daave@example.com> wrote in message
> news:%23tK7YKLlKHA.1536@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>> Good information.
>>
>> Although you didn't provide a model and model number, the fact that
>> your laptop's hard drive is only 80GB indicates you have no eSATA
>> ports. :) If you did, then you probably would have wanted an eSATA
>> drive because of the transfer speed.
>>
>> The only other question:
>>
>> Do you want to purchase the two components (drive plus enclosure) and
>> assemble them (which is easy) or spend a little extra and purchase an
>> already pre-assembled external hard drive?
>>
>>
>> David C. Holley wrote:
>>> Ideally, I'd like a large enough HD that serves as a backup to my
>>> laptop and separately stores images. The laptop (a Dell) is a 80GB
>>> that's around 40GB at this point. I'm [NOT] looking for anything
>>> portable or that'll fit in my pocket.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "Daave" <daave@example.com> wrote in message
>>> news:eanVyKGlKHA.1824@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>>> David C. Holley wrote:
>>>>> Can anyone recommend any external hard drives?
>>>>>
>>>>> (or a more appropirate newsgroup)
>>>>
>>>> What are your specific needs?
>>>>
>>>> Do you want something portable that you can fit in your pocket?
>>>>
>>>> Or do you want something less portable that will almost always be
>>>> close to your PC?
>>>>
>>>> What will this drive be used for? Backing up data and/or storing
>>>> images of your PC's hard drive? Or an actual *clone* of your PC's
>>>> hard drive? What is the make an model of your PC and/or
>>>> motherboard? And most
>>>> important, does it have any eSATA ports?
>>>>
>>>> (Since the hardware newsgroup is more appropriate, this part of
>>>> your thread will now be cross-posted to it.)
 
D

David C. Holley

Flightless Bird
Re: External Hard Drives

What do mean by

"But use RW types for DVDs; it's a lot cheaper in the long run<g>!"

Based on the reviews that I did find on a Seagate 1TB, it seemed as if the
larger drivers were more prone to failure. I was thinking about going 500GB
to counteract that. I do like the idea of going with 2 drives to alternate
the backups.

"Twayne" <nobody@spamcop.net> wrote in message
news:-OmHDb8LlKHA.5608@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> In news:eYb2b6KlKHA.3476@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl,
> David C. Holley <David.C.Holley> typed:
>> Ideally, I'd like a large enough HD that serves as a backup to my
>> laptop and separately stores images. The laptop (a Dell) is a 80GB
>> that's around 40GB at this point. I'm [NOT] looking for anything
>> portable or that'll fit in my pocket.

>
> In my own experience:
> 500 Gig, even 1 Terabyte prices have come way down lately, along with
> 360Gig and 250 Gig especially. 500 would probably do you nicely, and keep
> a fairly large history of backups plus allow the storage of some important
> system discs, if that's what you want. Then again if you only want one or
> two backups kept at a time, something in the order of 250 Meg might
> suffice, but ... it could get tight fairly quickly. 360 Gig would be a
> better minimum IMO. But if you go for the Terabyte, then you have
> provided for the future when you'll very likely be adding larger and more
> drives to your system, depending on how much data you create, etc..
>
> Personally I use two external terabyte drives, and alternate them from
> month to month. That way if one is ever compromised badly or goes belly
> up, I still have the other one with only slightly older data on it. The
> idea is to keep one completely disconnected at all times, in my case, so
> viruses, electrical problems, etc., can't get at it.
> Terabytes might sound like overkill, but it's not; I'm backing up 5
> drive letters and a lot of data plus the OS whenever anything gets
> installed or uninstalled; around 18 Gig total goes into a Full backup, the
> rest are incrementals.
> I got into 2 externals because the one WD external I had went belly up;
> the drive itself became completely unable to spin up to proper speed.
> Never did get all the data replaced, but thanks to the occasional DVD
> backups and the other drive, it wasn't a large loss. I'm not near so lazy
> about creating DVD copies for permanent backups since then<g>. But use RW
> types for DVDs; it's a lot cheaper in the long run<g>!
>
> HTH,
>
> Twayne
>
>
>
>
>>
>>
>>
>> "Daave" <daave@example.com> wrote in message
>> news:eanVyKGlKHA.1824@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>> David C. Holley wrote:
>>>> Can anyone recommend any external hard drives?
>>>>
>>>> (or a more appropirate newsgroup)
>>>
>>> What are your specific needs?
>>>
>>> Do you want something portable that you can fit in your pocket?
>>>
>>> Or do you want something less portable that will almost always be
>>> close to your PC?
>>>
>>> What will this drive be used for? Backing up data and/or storing
>>> images of your PC's hard drive? Or an actual *clone* of your PC's
>>> hard drive? What is the make an model of your PC and/or motherboard? And
>>> most
>>> important, does it have any eSATA ports?
>>>
>>> (Since the hardware newsgroup is more appropriate, this part of your
>>> thread will now be cross-posted to it.)

>
>
 
D

DaffyD®

Flightless Bird
Re: External Hard Drives

I own a 500 GB Western Digital My Book Essential 2.0 which I bought on sale
at Best Buy for about $89. I've been very happy with it and it's been a
lifesaver. I deleted all of the WD software--which was time consuming--and
it works fine. I'd like to get a 1-1.5 TB external drive next but haven't
decided what brand to buy yet.
I look at New Egg, Best Buy, and Costco and read the reviews.
HTH.
--
DaffyD® ( : []=

If I knew where I was I'd be there now.

"David C. Holley" <David.C.Holley> wrote in message
news:-OEr6pmAlKHA.5728@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Can anyone recommend any external hard drives?
>
> (or a more appropirate newsgroup)
>
>
> __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus
> signature database 4770 (20100114) __________
>
> The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
>
> http://www.eset.com
>
>
>




__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4772 (20100114) __________

The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

http://www.eset.com
 
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