External hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter steve
  • Start date Start date
S

steve

I just bought an Seagate external hard drive which works fine. I'd
appreciate any feedback on how long I can expect it to last. Thanks
and have a nice weekend.
 
steve said:
I just bought an Seagate external hard drive which works fine. I'd
appreciate any feedback on how long I can expect it to last. Thanks
and have a nice weekend.
Click to expand...

the life of an external drive is about the same as an internal type...

it could die in a month...or it could die in 10 or 15 years...

so no matter what you do. backup all important data to dvd's
 
I just bought an Seagate external hard drive which works fine. I'd
appreciate any feedback on how long I can expect it to last. Thanks
and have a nice weekend.
Click to expand...

Funny you should mention this, I was just now researching external
drives and took a break to check the groups. I would suggest you go
to Amazon and search for your particular drive and read user reviews.
As an example, the Seagate 200 GB external has 71 reviews ranging
from great to died right away and everything in between. Same story
on other brands as well. I am going to stick with DVD data backup.
 
philo said:
the life of an external drive is about the same as an internal type...

it could die in a month...or it could die in 10 or 15 years...

so no matter what you do. backup all important data to dvd's
Click to expand...

In my personal experience I find that hard disks are far more
reliable than burnt CDs. By extrapolation I suspect that they
are also far more reliable than burnt DVDs. I would therefore
not recommend them as a long-term backup medium.

As you say, I found no difference between internal and
external hard disks, as long as they are handled properly.
 
Falcon said:
Funny you should mention this, I was just now researching external
drives and took a break to check the groups. I would suggest you go
to Amazon and search for your particular drive and read user reviews.
As an example, the Seagate 200 GB external has 71 reviews ranging
from great to died right away and everything in between. Same story
on other brands as well. I am going to stick with DVD data backup.
Click to expand...

If your data is important to you then don't rely on one method for backups.
All methods have pitfalls. Multiple backups to different media is the best
strategy.

Kerry
 
I bought an IcyBox external USB enclosure and put a Maxtor 160GB HDD in it.
Noticed it always seemed very warm and HDD failed at a month old.
Now I always tell people if asking about external HDD's:
1. Power it off when not in use.
2. Buy one with it's own mains power, don't depend on USB port supplying
enough current.
3. Buy one with a cooling fan in it.
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
In my personal experience I find that hard disks are far more
reliable than burnt CDs. By extrapolation I suspect that they
are also far more reliable than burnt DVDs. I would therefore
not recommend them as a long-term backup medium.

As you say, I found no difference between internal and
external hard disks, as long as they are handled properly.
Click to expand...

Gotta say you're right. Even MS pressed installation CDs somehow develop
visible flaws, no matter how nice I've handled them and never touched the
reading surface.

After swapping from a circa 2004 motherboard to a current one, the bios CHS
interpretation factor also is still at least a minor issue. So recovering
data from such a hard drive(s) can be problematic. CD and DVDs written in
CDFS are not subject to this. Nor are external hard drives.
 
....
Gotta say you're right. Even MS pressed installation CDs
somehow develop visible flaws, no matter how nice I've handled
them and never touched the reading surface.

After swapping from a circa 2004 motherboard to a current one,
the bios CHS interpretation factor also is still at least a
minor issue. So recovering data from such a hard drive(s) can
be problematic. CD and DVDs written in CDFS are not subject to
this. Nor are external hard drives.
Click to expand...

You two are definitely in the minority and I suspect that, if
DVDs aren't lasting, then you are doing something wrong. I've
never had a CD or a DVD fail on me except a couple of CDs that I
put labels on before they discovered the adhesive was reacting
with them and ruining them. I've got data disks going back 7
years now and no matter which one I pull out, they're still fine.
Of course I handle/store them properly.
Same situation with everyone else I know.

Pop
 
Kerry Brown said:
If your data is important to you then don't rely on one method
for backups. All methods have pitfalls. Multiple backups to
different media is the best strategy.

Kerry
Click to expand...

That's the best advice of all so far. My important data is
backed up to a hard drive, an external hard drive, and a DVD,
plus some super importants to two DVDs, one kept in the safe.
I don't believe in backing up the system files though; even
before I used a ghost, they're just too easy to recreate that
more than one or two backups of them just isn't necessary.

pop
 
steve said:
I just bought an Seagate external hard drive which works fine. I'd
appreciate any feedback on how long I can expect it to last. Thanks
and have a nice weekend.
Click to expand...


What's the length of the manufacturer's warranty? That's how long its
manufacturer hopes and thinks it will last.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of
chains and slavery? .... I know not what course others may take, but as
for me, give me liberty, or give me death! -Patrick Henry
 
PopS said:
...

You two are definitely in the minority and I suspect that, if
DVDs aren't lasting, then you are doing something wrong. I've
never had a CD or a DVD fail on me except a couple of CDs that I
put labels on before they discovered the adhesive was reacting
with them and ruining them. I've got data disks going back 7
years now and no matter which one I pull out, they're still fine.
Of course I handle/store them properly.
Same situation with everyone else I know.

Pop
Click to expand...

Read the following

http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/contents.html

CD-R and DVD+-R can last a long time if quality media is used and they are
stored properly. Very few people use quality media because of the expense.
Even fewer people store them properly. In the real world I have seen many
customers lose data because their backups were on CD-R or even worse CD-RW
and they didn't periodically test them.

Kerry
 
What's the length of the manufacturer's warranty? That's how long its
manufacturer hopes and thinks it will last.
Click to expand...


Yup. OTOH, treat it as if it's going to die before you turn it on
tomorrow morning. If it's being used for backups, expect it to
corrupt with no obvous error message during your next backup.
 
thanks a lot for your answers

Yup. OTOH, treat it as if it's going to die before you turn it on
tomorrow morning. If it's being used for backups, expect it to
corrupt with no obvous error message during your next backup.
Click to expand...
 
steve said:
I just bought an Seagate external hard drive which works fine. I'd
appreciate any feedback on how long I can expect it to last.
Click to expand...

Anywhere from one day to ten years.
 
Back
Top