Please recommend a USB2 external HD

[tochiro]

Hello,

I would like to buy a reliable USB2 external hard drive (about 750 Gb).
I had a bad experience with a Maxtor recently. Could you please
recommend a reliable make?

Thank you.

 

[Paul]

I run 6 Maxtor's, 3 of those are external. At least 3 are over 6 years
old...............with no problems.

My point............ANY make of drive can FU.

But checking the reviews for the various USB2 external
drives, on a site like Newegg, will show you how many
people are losing their data. If I wished to have a
large external hard drive, I would buy a USB2 enclosure,
one with a fan for cooling, and buy a raw drive mechanism
and install it in the enclosure. That is going to work
better than one of those airtight shoeboxes that the
disk manufacturers are selling.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817145044

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/productimage/17-145-044-06.jpg

If the fan is of the right type (probably a 40mm in the example
above), you can always find a replacement at your local electronics
store. I like a USB enclosure, where the fan can be replaced
easily with a screwdriver and plugging a cable in place.
That way, I can install a ball bearing fan if a replacement
is needed.

There are some enclosures, that have a larger fan (a plus). But the
fan is integrated into the housing, such that it cannot be replaced.
The 40mm sized fan is smaller, and not as nice, but it likely
can be replaced when needed.

Cooling is what the prebuilt external drives lack.

Paul

 

[Joel]

I run 6 Maxtor's, 3 of those are external. At least 3 are over 6 years
old...............with no problems.

My point............ANY make of drive can FU.

You must be one of few Maxtor Luckiers. I never have any luck with Maxtor
and it started way way way back in around mid 80's and I decided to end the
Maxtor in late 80's ... then in early 2000's or I thought Maxtor may have
the problem solved so I bought the 250GB which only last for few short
months (3-4 months?), and got the replacement which wasn't last more than
1-2 weeks.

Yes, the replacement is still 1/2 alive 1/2 dead which I put on my
grand-kids' system which can be detected by the computer 1/4 of the time,
and 3/4 of the time if boot to CMOS first. Yup! I had it on my computer
first before moved to my grand-kids' because I can't deal with the problem,
when my grandkids don't use the extra hard drive so it doesn't matter if
it's dead or alive.

Also, that's one of the reasons why Maxtor is sold to Seagate.

 

[Joel]

One of the luckiers ????? Maxtor sold millions of drives so I think I would
be looking elsewhere for the cause........5 bananas perhaps.

Well, as I said I was one of the vitims of 5-6 bad Maxtors (4 in around
mid 80's and 2 in around 2006). And that's the reason why Maxtor has
finally closed its door (about 2 years ago?).

The only thing Iliked about Maxtor its "no question asked policy" which
worked fine in 80's and worked fine in mid 2000's. But the problem that
it'sn't worth the trouble so I didn't even care for another replacement
after all the replacements were failed in short period of time (or still
under warrantee).

 

[CBFalconer]

.... snip ...

Well, as I said I was one of the vitims of 5-6 bad Maxtors (4 in
around mid 80's and 2 in around 2006). And that's the reason why
Maxtor has finally closed its door (about 2 years ago?).

The only thing Iliked about Maxtor its "no question asked policy"
which worked fine in 80's and worked fine in mid 2000's. But the
problem that it'sn't worth the trouble so I didn't even care for
another replacement after all the replacements were failed in
short period of time (or still under warrantee).

Maybe you installed them all on a machine with a bad environment,
such as excess heat, no cooling, bad power supply, etc.