Tue, 07 Aug 2012 20:48:12 -0500, (E-Mail Removed) (Ant) wrote:

> Does anyone know of a good reliable external USB HDD to get that is
> fully compatible with Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, etc.? I don't want to
> get an enclosure and want it to be easily portable and light (no power
> brick and AC if possible!).

Meaning you want a very small external 2.5" USB HDD
that is reliably powered via the USB cable itself.

I generally go by real owner reviews at both amazon
and also at newegg.before I buy an item like this.

Also it is in general safer to buy a not so new unit,
so that it has an actual track record.

Since you put emphasis on reliability, buy a smaller
500GB unit, and avoid bigger 1TB and 1.5TB units.

e.g. my most recent purchase was 10 days ago from
a local Costco where they have a small WD 500GB
"My Passport" unit for $70, and also bigger Seagate
units (1TB and 1.5TB for only a few bucks more money.

Checking owner comments quickly showed that the
Seagate units were getting poor owner reviews.

So even though I only saved a mere $10 over
the seemingly attractive bigger Seagate units,
the WD seemed the better all around deal.

Bill

> Sad. Seagate used to be good, but I see other brands not so good too.

Nobody makes every model perfectly, and different runs of them can vary.

Also, as an earlier poster was saying when recommending 500G drives,
drives with fewer platters can be more reliable.

--
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On 8/10/2012 7:08 AM, Ant wrote:

> OK. So smaller sizes are older models then.

There are new smaller sizes. Of course they fill out the lower-priced
brackets. They can be similar to specific larger sizes, but with fewer
platters or only one platter. Same exact platter. So fewer heads to go
whack on a platter.
--
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On Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:40:40 -0700, Ed Light <(E-Mail Removed)> put
finger to keyboard and composed:

>> Sad. Seagate used to be good, but I see other brands not so good too.
>
>Nobody makes every model perfectly, and different runs of them can vary.
>
>Also, as an earlier poster was saying when recommending 500G drives,
>drives with fewer platters can be more reliable.

That would make sense for two different models within the same family,
but I wonder how such comparisons fare when considering two different
generations. For example, I wonder if there is a trade-off against
reduced flying height.

AIUI, as capacities increase within a given technology, the flying
height is reduced. I would think that this would make an earlier
multi-platter drive potentially more reliable than a current
single-platter model of equivalent size.

- Franc Zabkar
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