External Hard Drives

[buttplug]

I know quite a few of you guys here have them, and I am looking for some suggestions for a good external hard drive to use as a backup. I'm not really sure about what size I want, it will mostly depend on what I can afford. The biggest thing for mew would be reliability, and being able to leave it on for a few hours without it slowing down.

[joliet_jane]

I've been happy with using an enclosure for a 2.5 or 3.5 form factor drive. That way, you can upgrade to a larger drive easily, swap in many different drives, or even use it to troubleshoot your boot drive by using it on another computer. Also makes HD imaging/copying easier.

A lot of people have moved from IDE to SATA. So there are all these nice IDE drives lying around. Pick one up on ebay and when it dies, just get another one. Make sure you enclosure is IDE, of course.

These past threads may help also:
http://clockcrew.cc/talk/showthread.php?t=78597&highlight=external
http://clockcrew.cc/talk/showthread.php?t=64982&highlight=external
http://clockcrew.cc/talk/showthread.php?t=69784&highlight=external

[buttplug]

So far this seems like these are the best deals (I didn't know 1tb of storage could be so cheap!):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822204079
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148332
If I can get my hands on an IDE HD that someone doesn't want anymore, I may use that and get this enclosure for it:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817716036
But all I have right now is one with a measly 20 GB

[FluxCapacitorClock]

Are you planning on having it be portable?

[killerbite]

i would just get a 500gb HD or 1T HD w/e ya whant and get an exturnal case its good if u have a lot of stuff for school of just goin round to mates house's to get some moives or w/e

[FluxCapacitorClock]

i would just get a 500gb HD or 1T HD w/e ya whant and get an exturnal case its good if u have a lot of stuff for school of just goin round to mates house's to get some moives or w/e

Only after I had nearly 1TB did I realize how easy it is to use the space when you have it.

[buttplug]

Only after I had nearly 1TB did I realize how easy it is to use the space when you have it.

Naw it dosen't have to be portable, it is just going to stay on my desk. I know you got one before, what kind was it again?

[SoBe Clock]

MyBook is the most reliable brand of externals I've come across. I've had one for 4 years now and it still runs like it did the day I bought it.

[Sombra]

People argue that you should look for quality... I disagree. All the companies use the same technology for hard drives these days, I would suggest you look for the cheapest hard drive per gigabyte and go for that.

Slickdeals.net is a great place to find cheap tech stuff, presently there's a 1.5 TB hard drive on there for about $150 but admittedly it's internal. Still if you look around on the internet you can find some great deals.

[joliet_jane]

presently there's a 1.5 TB hard drive on there for about $150 but admittedly it's internal.

Add an enclosure and it becomes external. Every external drive out there is just a HD in a box.

[SoBe Clock]

http://www.ecost.com/detail.aspx?edp=41483993&source=EWBBASE&cm_mmc=CSE-_-google-_-ewbbase-_-Storage&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=41483993

MyBook. It's honestly the only external hard drive that I've never even heard of it having problems. They never overheat, and as my 4 year old one shows, they don't get problems due to age.

[buttplug]

Add an enclosure and it becomes external. Every external drive out there is just a HD in a box.

I wanted to do this with the hard drive he mentioned because it seems like a good value being if the drive died I could keep the enclosure and get a new drive. But looking at all the external drives, they only support up to 750 GB
So it looks like I will try the MyBook, but I have a question for Sobe if he is still reading this thread. Are you able to lay the drive on its side horizontally instead of vertically? I would be afraid for knocking it over since my desk is pretty cluttered and messy.

[SoBe Clock]

I wanted to do this with the hard drive he mentioned because it seems like a good value being if the drive died I could keep the enclosure and get a new drive. But looking at all the external drives, they only support up to 750 GB
So it looks like I will try the MyBook, but I have a question for Sobe if he is still reading this thread. Are you able to lay the drive on its side horizontally instead of vertically? I would be afraid for knocking it over since my desk is pretty cluttered and messy.

I've never had mine vertical. That's a different model than mine, but it looks the same, so there should be no problem having it horizontal.

[buttplug]

I've never had mine vertical. That's a different model than mine, but it looks the same, so there should be no problem having it horizontal.

Awesome thank you!

[SoBe Clock]

Awesome thank you!

No problem

[FluxCapacitorClock]

I got this one and it's served me pretty well. I carry it around in a backpack all day. Suppose that says something about durability considering it's still perfectly fine even with that.

[buttplug]

I got this one and it's served me pretty well. I carry it around in a backpack all day. Suppose that says something about durability considering it's still perfectly fine even with that.

Do you use the firefire or USB connections?

[FluxCapacitorClock]

Do you use the firefire or USB connections?

USB

[EtchASketchClock]

MyBook is the most reliable brand of externals I've come across. I've had one for 4 years now and it still runs like it did the day I bought it.

Not so much here.
I got mine a couple years ago and its been shitting out CRC errors if I try and do too much.
The files aren't bad since I can restart it and the problem file will work again.