What Brand of External Hard Drive?

[annnewjerz]

I am going to purchase an external hard drive this week, all of those 8.5mb RAW images are slowly but surely eating away at my new laptop.

So - the question is, what brand is best? I have been looking at Western Digital and HP, but I saw an ad for a Black Friday sale that was a 1TB hard drive made by Verbatim for $130 - which is about the same price at the 500GB I am looking at by HP.

Also - what size is best? I know eventually one may fill up, but is a 500GB better than a 250...or would 2-250's be better?

Thanks!
Ann :wizard:

[gometros]

When it comes to finding a drive to store precious photos, I would not look to cut dollars, but for quality. A lot of the reviews on some of the lower end drives cite noise, cheap rear panels and flimsy construction as some of the problems. I spent $231 for a G-Tech 500GB drive. It has high reliability and very fast transfer rate. It doesn't make sense to buy two drives where you can buy one. WHy use up an extra USB port?

[annnewjerz]

When it comes to finding a drive to store precious photos, I would not look to cut dollars, but for quality. A lot of the reviews on some of the lower end drives cite noise, cheap rear panels and flimsy construction as some of the problems. I spent $231 for a G-Tech 500GB drive. It has high reliability and very fast transfer rate. It doesn't make sense to buy two drives where you can buy one. WHy use up an extra USB port?

Sorry if I didn't explain well enough, but I'm not looking to cut dollars. I know nothing about external hard drive brands and wanted to get feedback on Verbatim.

I have purchased a Gateway computer, a Canon camera and various other good brand things on Black Friday...a good deal is a good deal, if I can save money on something that is good quality but normally a lot more money, why not?? :goodvibes

Any link for the HD you purchased? If not...mind sharing what the specs for it were?

Thanks.
Ann

[dburg30]

IMO, head to newegg.com and look at their external drives. Check the reviews and go from there. But, bottom line IMO is you need MULTIPLE backups of things like pictures and videos. But it takes diligence to make sure you have backups. To do it right you should even get multiple drives and store one of your backups away from your house. A family member, a bank etc etc. Even if you have a back up if you have a fire, God forbid, that back up will do NO good if it's in the house!!

You can also look into some online storage places. I have a smugmug account, and I think the middle plan you can have unlimited storage for jpg files (not videos and RAW though).

And I used to get like 2 250's. Heck with that, Get the 500. Again, unless you get 2 250's and rotate them out, or make one your 'away' back up..

[annnewjerz]

IMO, head to newegg.com and look at their external drives. Check the reviews and go from there. But, bottom line IMO is you need MULTIPLE backups of things like pictures and videos. But it takes diligence to make sure you have backups. To do it right you should even get multiple drives and store one of your backups away from your house. A family member, a bank etc etc. Even if you have a back up if you have a fire, God forbid, that back up will do NO good if it's in the house!!

You can also look into some online storage places. I have a smugmug account, and I think the middle plan you can have unlimited storage for jpg files (not videos and RAW though).

And I used to get like 2 250's. Heck with that, Get the 500. Again, unless you get 2 250's and rotate them out, or make one your 'away' back up..

I do have a smugmug and also burn all of my pictures to DVD twice (although it doesn't always happen immediately after taking them - one copy at our house in a fireproof box, one at my Mother's). The external hard drive is more for back-up, but also to free up the space on our internal hard drive. It's a brand new computer and since I got my D60 I can already tell it's going a little slower between all of the pictures and the programs I have uploaded. Right now I plan to purchase one external hard drive because there is so much other stuff I need (see the Naughty or Nice thread :scared1: ). Eventually, I will get a second and maybe a third, a fourth...who knows! :thumbsup2

I have looked on newegg and also got feedback from the IT manager at my work. He seems to think that Western Digital, as well as HP are both good reliable brands (even though they could fail at any point no matter how good the brand). I sent him the specs and they are the same for the HP 500GB I am looking at, as well as the Western Digital...so now I just have a decision to make.

[dburg30]

I do have a smugmug and also burn all of my pictures to DVD twice (although it doesn't always happen immediately after taking them - one copy at our house in a fireproof box, one at my Mother's). The external hard drive is more for back-up, but also to free up the space on our internal hard drive. It's a brand new computer and since I got my D60 I can already tell it's going a little slower between all of the pictures and the programs I have uploaded. Right now I plan to purchase one external hard drive because there is so much other stuff I need (see the Naughty or Nice thread :scared1: ). Eventually, I will get a second and maybe a third, a fourth...who knows! :thumbsup2



Great!! I'm glad to see you doing your best to protect them!! I admit I sometimes get lax and dont get them backed up as soon as I should!

[YesDear]

I got a 1tb WD drive last year on black friday for $199.

[DebºoºS]

I got a 1tb WD drive last year on black friday for $199.

What a deal! Where was that ?

[Wingman]

I am going to purchase an external hard drive this week, all of those 8.5mb RAW images are slowly but surely eating away at my new laptop.

So - the question is, what brand is best? I have been looking at Western Digital and HP, but I saw an ad for a Black Friday sale that was a 1TB hard drive made by Verbatim for $130 - which is about the same price at the 500GB I am looking at by HP.

Also - what size is best? I know eventually one may fill up, but is a 500GB better than a 250...or would 2-250's be better?

Thanks!
Ann :wizard:

Would this be you on option for storage or would you have them somewhere else as well? I use a western digital external drive and have had zero issues. I bought it at Staples about 4 months ago for $99 after instant rebate. This external is set to back up my photos weekly from the primary drive. I only use it as a back up to my primary drive, so I can't say that I sleep well at night because of my choice. I sleep well at night because they are stored in multiple locations.

500 gb is a lot of space, you may be better served to get two 500 gb drives to back each other up. By the time you fill up the drives, the prices on the larger ones will be almost nothing.

[boBQuincy]

Google ran a test of hard drives and found no significant difference between brands (like WD, Seagate, Maxtor, Hitachi, etc.). What they did find was a big increase in the chance of failure after two years.

Most companies like HP and such do not make their own drives and we have no way of knowing where they buy them. As noted, redundancy is the key to data reliability.

[YesDear]

The deal in the 1tb was a Circuit City early bird special.

[bostran1]

As BobQuincy alluded to, there are only a small handful of hard drive manufacturers (I believe they generally are Fujitsu, Hitachi, Maxtor, Seagate (which now owns Maxtor I think), Toshiba, and Western Digital). Most of the companies selling external drives don't make the physical drive, just the enclosure and connections.

Another thing to keep in mind is the type of connection you want to use. Generally that would be USB or Firewire. Firewire (especially Firewire 800) will let you transfer data much faster than USB (making your backup go much faster). Of course, you need to make sure you have a Firewire port.

I have a Maxtor that sits behind my TV an works as my media drive for movies and it is fine, a little on the loud side if you're at a desk though. I would also suggest taking a look at LaCie along with the ones you indicated.

[annnewjerz]

The deal in the 1tb was a Circuit City early bird special.


I love early bird specials and from what I understand, someone told me on another thread that on Black Friday you can purchase through Circuit City.com to get the Black Friday price and pick it up in your local store so you don't have to pay shipping.

I'm definitely keeping my eyes open for some good Black Fridays deals. For now, I am fine using my internal drive and DVDs for back-up, but sometime by Christmas I know I'm going to have a bunch more photos and would really like the external HD.

[GrillMouster]

Something to keep in mind when looking for an external hard drive how well they prevent heat build-up. Heat is an enemy of hard drives. Most of the external drives out there do not have a fan and offer practically no ventilation. Additionally, several drives to not have a power switch, and run continuously while the computer is on. I like my LaCie Quadra d2. It has a heat sink-like design that's very effective at dissipating heat, it has an on/off/auto switch, and it has several methods of connecting to the computer (eSata, USB2, FireWire 400, FireWire 800, etc), so I know it will work with my next computer, whether it's a PC or a Mac. There's also a rack that can hold multiple Quadras arranged in a RAID configuration. I like RAID 1 for data security.

[AbsolutLaney]

Personally I like Western Digital hard drive..I find a decent deal for Western Digital My Book Essential 750GB Hard Drive (http://********************/deallink.php?deal_id=145010&ru=283), it is only $130.

[MICKEY88]

one nice thing about seagate is they have a 5 year warranty,

another option that can save money is to buy an internal drive and an enclosure.., for a few dollars more you can get enclosures with fans..

[blackears]

I believe this is what I got to start my back ups on...it's plugged into my wireless router and it works great. I can access it from my laptop and desk top.. My sister has one and it works as a media player for iTunes and such on their TV. It comes w/ one 500G HD and an empty bay for another...I like it so far

http://amazon.com/HP-MV2120-500GB-Media-Vault/dp/B0015313O8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1225888063&sr=1-4

[H.E. Pennypacker]

I like WD for internal hard drives, but I will never buy another external drive from WD. I picked up a MyBook World Edition on sale about 6 months ago for a really great price, but it's pretty much useless. The LAN connectivity promised to let me stream photos, videos, digital music etc. to all the PC's in my house over the network. Not so much. It constantly overheats and has to be powered down. And despite its gigabit ethernet connection, it's ridiculously slow. I, quite frankly, don't trust it to protect my data. It's now sitting on my desk, powered off. At some point I'll probably crack it open, pull out the hard drive and install it internally into my PC.

[gometros]

Sorry if I didn't explain well enough, but I'm not looking to cut dollars. I know nothing about external hard drive brands and wanted to get feedback on Verbatim.

I have purchased a Gateway computer, a Canon camera and various other good brand things on Black Friday...a good deal is a good deal, if I can save money on something that is good quality but normally a lot more money, why not?? :goodvibes

Any link for the HD you purchased? If not...mind sharing what the specs for it were?

Thanks.
Ann

You're in luck. The drive I bought has come down in price: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/536450-REG/G_Technology_908112_01_500GB_G_Drive_Combo_Externa l.html

[MICKEY88]

tiger direct has seagate 1tb internal drives for around 109,
Seagate 1.5TB internal for 149
, and enclosures for 20

[drcandon]

Well..not to put to fine a point on it..it is not the cheap crappy enclosure or how pretty it looks but what is on the inside that counts - the drive itself...

I have been in IT for too many years to count and the only drives I buy are Seagates...and they do get discounted you just have to look around..Since I don't want any litigations I am not going to comment on which drives are the crappiest, but all I can say is when a company backs it up with a 5year warranty and 100,000 hours (CONTIUOUS) or more or MTBF on drives then that says something...

Here in Canada, Future shop repackages their own drives and one month they had WD's in them,next month Seagates..I pick one up check out the serial and internal numbers - if it is a brand I have long experience with I keep it - othewise back it goes...

But with all external drives..when they say they are portible - and IF you want to keep you data - treat then like a carton of eggs...IMHO

[GrillMouster]

...the only drives I buy are Seagates...

I agree. Seagate barracudas are made for servers, where they are expected to run continuously for years.

[Groucho]

Seagates are hard to beat just because of the warranty. There's a very good chance that your drive will fail, I wouldn't buy anything with less than a 3-year warranty and a 5-year is even better.

Seagates certainly aren't immune to failure, but none of them are.

As others have said, the "no-name" ones are always just about always a name-brand drive in a basic case. At work, we recently had a customer with a Simpletech external drive, one-year warranty, that failed. I cracked it open, found a Seagate 160g drive inside, and got it replaced under Seagate's 5-year warranty. :thumbsup2