External Hard Drive

[Corvet]

Which External Hard Drive is more reliable and more suitable as extra data
storage, 2.5" or 3.5"?

 

[Paul]

Which External Hard Drive is more reliable and more suitable as extra
data storage, 2.5" or 3.5"?

It might depend to some extent on the size of the drive.

You can start by reviewing internal drive mechanisms, to get some ideas
as to how reliable the mechanism is.

*******

This 1TB 2.5" doesn't have very good reviews. It happens to be 12.5mm
high, so many 9.5mm enclosures won't take it. It also happens to be
Advanced Format with 4KB sectors.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136545

(The "Advanced Format" declaration is in small letters on the label, near
the beginning.)

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/22-136-545-Z02?$S640W$

This 320GB drive is not advanced format, and has a large number of reviews.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136280

Five star 77% (913)
Four star 11% (127)
Three star 5% (58)
Two star 3% (40)
One star 4% (53)

*******

This is a 1TB 3.5" results

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

Five star 74% (2,178)
Four star 10% (284)
Three star 4% (119)
Two star 3% (78)
One star 9% (273)

Comparing the 4% to 9% and assuming at least some of those are failures
of some kind, the 3.5" looks worse.

This Seagate competitor is pretty dismal.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433

Five star 53% (712)
Four star 12% (166)
Three star 6% (74)
Two star 7% (89)
One star 22% (299)

If you drop down to 320GB, I think that is a short stroked single platter 500GB
technology. This still isn't matching the best 2.5" result I could find.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148469

Five star 65% (89)
Four star 14% (19)
Three star 7% (9)
Two star 2% (3)
One star 12% (16)

*******

In summary, buy a 2.5" product, select less than the highest capacity,
hope to get old (more reliable) stock.

Now, the fact I can't buy a 320GB WD drive in an external enclosure, tells
you that drive was old stock. So I'd buy a separate 2.5" USB enclosure,
one of the 320GB 2.5" drives, and assemble it myself.

Paul

 

[pjp]

Which External Hard Drive is more reliable and more suitable as extra data
storage, 2.5" or 3.5"?

Think that's likely as much chance as anything what might be better. I've a
500Gb that's got a WD disk in it has been flawless for few years now. The
enclosure I also have has housed all kinds of 2.5/3.5 PATA/SATA drives over
the years, most have worked though memory reminds me some didn't with no
idea why.

I'm looking at getting another 1T one now as price seems right. My decision
is more practical. I almost "demand" external power supply rather than
running off USB power which is easy to determine but why most of them don't
give you an Off switch is puzzling to me as I hate having to unplug
something to turn it off (too much hassle digging among the cables).

 

[choro]

Do me a favor, will you and keep plugging and unplugging your external
hard drive! You won't *see* anything happen because you can't see all
your folders and files on the hard disk itself.

And BTW for anybody reading this my advice is: DO get decent USB cables.
I once lost the entire contents of an external HD due to a wobbly
mini-USB cable on my 2.5" external HD Drive. No need to tell you that I
went out shopping for a decent USB cable and chucked out the old wobbly
one. I was lucky in not losing any of my user files which I recopied
onto my reformatted external HD Drive from my desktop machine!

 

[Paul]

Just a reminder, if you do get another USB cable, you should keep it
as short a possible.

That depends on whether it carries power or not.

Raw USB wire, comes in various gauges for the VCC and GND wires
(for carrying bus power). 20 gauge wire is thicker than 28 gauge,
and has less voltage drop. The price penalty of using good wire,
is pretty steep.

http://www.pacificcable.com/More_Pages/BulkWire/Bulk-USB-Wire.html

MCC-USB-0-250 20 AWG Power, 28 AWG Signal Bulk USB Cable 250 Ft. $129.00
MCC-USB-2-250 22 AWG Power, 28 AWG Signal Bulk USB Cable 250 Ft. $140.00
MCC-USB-4-250 24 AWG Power, 28 AWG Signal Bulk USB Cable 250 Ft. $81.00
MCC-USB-6-250 26 AWG Power, 28 AWG Signal Bulk USB Cable 250 Ft. $96.00
MCC-USB-8-250 28 AWG Power, 28 AWG Signal Bulk USB Cable 250 Ft. $70.00

If you use a very short USB cable, there is little voltage drop, even
if the wire gauge for power is 28 gauge.

Some devices need lesser amounts of bus power (like my USB mouse might be using
less than 100mA). A 2.5" hard drive on the other hand, may be drawing
500mA most of the time, and up to 1 ampere during spinup, and then
the wire gauge for the power wires is all important. I expect the voltage
drop then, would be pretty significant (as the 1 ampere is out of spec).

3.5" external drives aren't bus powered, and don't make heavy demands on
the USB cable. In that case, if you wanted to use a fifteen foot cable,
I wouldn't expect a problem. The 3.5" drive usually has its own power adapter.

Paul