external hard drive

[Iwant2BAprincess]

Help-I am looking into these but don't really know what I am looking for-can any of you recommend a reliable brand or tell me what I need to look for-My vacation pictures are patiently waiting to be upload but I have no where to put them-TIA

 

[jade1]

I have a Maxtor that is working great (but for how long), I had 2 other brands that crashed and burned-lost a lot so don't trust them.

 

[Groucho]

Historically I've had the worst luck with Maxtor but they are just rebadged Seagates now, so who knows. (I have had to send back a 500g external Maxtor under warranty at work...)

I would go for one with a 3.5" drive (as opposed to the small ones that use the smaller, more expensive, less reliable 2.5" laptop drives) with at least a 3-year warranty. Seagate/Maxtor have 5-year warranties and I think someone else might now, too.

Ultimately though - hard drives are, by their very nature, not reliable; even the best ones can fail early and sometimes the worst ones last for years.

 

[oregondaddyof2]

I would go Western Digital... They are awesome, and the company is great to work with if there are any problems... I have 2 hard drives hooked up, 1 500 GB and a 1 TB.... Both are Western Digital and I have never had an issue...

 

[ukcatfan]

I have had no problems with my Seagate. I also have a Samsung, but it has caused me some heartburn. I have not tried to figure out what is going on with it yet, but it goes through a complete diagnostic on boot up probably once every four to five boots. That makes me worry about how well it is backing up my data.

 

[YesDear]

Do you want an external to take with you or one to attach to your computer at home?

I use Western Digital at home and have an Iomega as a travel one. I have have had good luck with both.

 

[blackears]

I have 2 250G Seagates, one for work, one for home, and they are the Passport size. So far, so good. I did ask my IT guys at work, did internet reviews, etc, and got alot of info...It all boiled down to Ford vs. Chevy....I like the size of the Passport due to the fact I can put it in smaller pockets in my bag.

 

[webshark3]

Brand doesn't matter. I've owned them all. THE important thing is that your photos are ALWAYS in two locations (CD and Hard disk, DVD and Hard Disk, 2 Hard Disks, Flash and Hard Disk, etc....).

Some online storage is pretty cheap too if that works for you. I think you can get unlimited upload to Moxy for $4.95 a month. Again, I'd also keep a Hard Disk backup at home.

 

[Iwant2BAprincess]

thank you guys-I have always kept a disc backup so this will be in addition to it.

 

[zackiedawg]

I use a Maxtor harddrive as a main backup unit for my entire harddrive, and two Passports for my photos currently. I like to have one system that backs up everything, and then the two smaller ones that each just carry backups of all my photos (I'm of the idea that there can never be enough backup copies).

As I inch towards shopping for a new computer, I am planning on getting multiple harddrives in a RAID (one constantly mirroring the main drive, and one as a separate drive that I can manually copy photos over to), then continuing my backup procedure on the externals too. My main problem is space - I'm still working off 250GB drive on my computer and each backup - but I'm about 80% full - and filling fast. So I have to hunt for 1-2TB drives...this is getting expensive!

 

[MICKEY88]

I got tired of using external drives so in February I bought a dock and a pair of 1tb internal drives for my trip to WDW, each night I connected to my laptop uploaded myu pics, then copied over to one of the drives...

about a month ago I went to best buy to pick up another 1tb drive,WD on sale for 109, while there I noticed they had a dual dock that had an esata connection, in addition to the usb..,, the difference betwen 480mb and 3 gig per second transeer speed sounded like a good idea.. plus it gave me a way to connect 2 1tb drives at once, so once I uploaded pics I could make a backup copy right away, unfortunately I discovered that my pc didn't have an esata port, so back to best buy, bought the esata card and installed it..

I'm loving the speed, it gives the convenience of having an extra internal drive for pics, but eliminates the need to open the case to install or swap out drives..

 

[creativeamanda]

I have a Western Digital that I purchased a while back. My hard drive has a 1TB hard drive, and I just got a travel Memorex, but that is for work. The Western Digital has lasted forever. I am certain I have at least pictures on it from 2005.

 

[MICKEY88]

I have a Western Digital that I purchased a while back. My hard drive has a 1TB hard drive, and I just got a travel Memorex, but that is for work. The Western Digital has lasted forever. I am certain I have at least pictures on it from 2005.

I hope you have a back up of those pics,, it's not a question of if a hard drive will fail, it's a question of when..

 

[MOmousefan]

I recently purchased my second WD My Book 1 TG external drive. I have enjoyed WD drives for years and their reliability is first rate. 1 drive is used to store active projects and the new one is a backup that I keep at a daughter's house. Since I have been shooting HD videos the storage capacity is dwindling. I format the drive to NTFS and do not use the software that comes with the drive.