External HDD?

[Anon_F]

Looking at getting an external HDD to store films/music/videos on & to back up my hard drive.
Would probably want between 320GB to 1TB.
But where's the best place to buy it from?
Any good/bad makes to get/avoid?

 

[Ian]

This one looks like a good buy (and Seagate are decent):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00238KZPM

There's also this WD one which is a bit cheaper:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002E7HEVU/

Both have free delivery and look like good buys

 

[Quadophile]

Brands you could consider:

Western Digital
Seagate
Lacie

If I were you I would not consider anything smaller than 1TB, the reason being the prices for 1TB drives have stabilized and these drives are now shipping as standard with many desktops out there.

 

[Quadophile]

Me and Ian think alike, However Ian beat me to it, when I saw the thread there were no replies.

 

[itsme]

Seagate for me 5***** Iomega 4****I like the one Ian put a link to> Seagate

 

[floppybootstomp]

Many times have I offered this opinion and I'll say it again.

Hard disks are sold by companies that manufacture them in many different factories throughout the world.

Although the hard disk supplier companies design and plan the basic product the end product is very much dependent on the quality of materials and production used in their making.

And that, of course, will depend on the factory and to some extent it's location.

On top of that some manufacturers will supply orders for other companies which are the same disk but with a different badge.

What this means to me is that the purchase of a hard disk is very much pot luck so I'd say go for a known make, specification and price rather than listen to people's recommendations for certain makes.

Any advice any individual will give you will very likely be based on their own experience with certain makes and you will find this advice varies a great deal, probably because of the reasons I have outlined above.

Were I to use this method to recommend certain makes then in all honesty all I could recommend would be Maxtor and Hitachi drives cos those are the ONLY two makes that haven't let me down and I've been using hard disks for 14 years now. Lots of them.

By the same maxim were I to advise against purchase of one make because of my own experiences of hard disk failure then Western Digital would be the biggest rogue of hard disk manufacturers ever cos I've lots of those fail on me.

But no, I'll still buy a Western Digital disk if it suits my requirements. And their Velicoraptors are superb.

And for what it's worth - and this is not entirely logical - I favour Hitachi at the moment despite the fact they took over manufacture of IBM hard disks which had possibly the highest failure rate of hard disks ever in history.

Perverse huh? But Hitachi disks have been good for me.

So, my advice, just three things - known leading makes only, specification, price. And perhaps if it's an external disk - cosmetics.

Though it may be worth considering buying a caddy and putting your own hard disk in it yourself - this provides flexibility and usually a more robust device.

And FWIW all I've said above applies to optical drives as well, and that includes Plextor.

 

[Abarbarian]

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/10037...a=tsid:11518|cc:|prd:10037381|cat:Hard+Drives

Get one of these and a PCI e-sata card for the pc and you can swap away to your hearts content. I cover mine with a cloth at night to keep out the dust rather like a parrot cage cover. The e-sata 300 interface is as fast stink. So are the Samsung F3 drives and they are quiet very quiet.
You could pay more for one with usb ports or card ports but I did not need any extra ports so I went for a similar type by Icy Box which can do 2.5" drives aswell.

More versatile than a enclosure type but not so portable though I have travelled with mine with the hdd in a clam shell and the dock in its original box, bit bulky but safe to transport.

 

[floppybootstomp]

After reading Abarb's post I have to say that's a good idea.

I have an external dock also that takes 3.5" & 2.5" HDD's and I keep this in a metal box (from IKEA) with all the seperate HDD's (4 at present) in those little clear hard plastic folding enclosures they're delivered in. Nice and safe, fast and flexible storage.

My dock is USB though, the slowest option, but it does me.

And all my current hard disks are either Samsung (2 failures so far) and Hitachi (no failures so far).

I favour both makes.

 

[inu22]

I don't know...I have really bad experience with WD - Aldo that is from a few years back - not sure on the quality today.

I would personally go for either Seagate or Hitachi. I own 2 pc's and have both discs - they have served me well for more then 5 years now. No problems whatsoever.

 

[muckshifter]

[off topic] I removed two unrelated posts, no need for an explanation from me [/on topic]

 

[floppybootstomp]

[off topic] I removed two unrelated posts, no need for an explanation from me [/on topic]

Aye, well done, I was on the verge of saying something myself.