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External Hard drives - recommendations please?

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by onbliss

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I have a desktop and a laptop at home - XP based. I want to back up data, most important are the digital photos collected over the years, to external hard disks; that I could place in a fire-safe box.

As the combined data storage from my two machines exceeds 500GB, I was thinking of buying two external HDD - not as a redundancy measure but thought it be better than buying one 1TB HDD.

I was looking at a Seagate piece - called FreeAgent at Best Buy. It is priced at $169.xx.

Any other place or brand to buy?

Reliability and size matters to me more than the speed.

Thoughts or recommendations are appreciated!!!

11 replies

by demosthanese

Seagate is always a safe choice. Thats my preference when building. You may also think about picking a network storage adapter for it since you are storing from 2 different comps. Kool little gadget that works a lot like a print server, but for you hdd. Below is a link for one on amazon which has space for 2 hdds which would work great for your purposes it sounds like. you can just google network storage adapter to shop around.

http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DNS-120-Network-Storage-Adapter/dp/B0002Z45J0

by onbliss

...at home. Would I be plugging the network storage to it, right? I will read more about it. But then I wouldn't be able to put this in my fire-safe box, would I?

And, thanks for your thoughts.

by tig2

A Western Digital "My Book" for that purpose. I have the 250 Gig version although they come both larger and smaller.

It is roughly the size of a Tom Clancy novel in paperback- ~2 inches thick, ~4.5 W x ~6 L. It moves easily between computers and is small and unobtrusive.

I have had really good luck with this- plug it in and it works.

by onbliss

... I did consider them.

Hope things are going on well with you. Forecasts calls for some snow tomorrow. Drive and keep safe.

by jmgarvin

Make sure it's USB powered. There's nothing worse than having to plug the damn thing in as well as find a free power outlet.

On that note, I've also had more failures if they have an external power source.

by dr dij

but have sept UPS for the backup drive. they are dirt cheap.

I like the older silver seagates, have been rock solid for me. Even used as a primary drive for a while but too slow on saves of massive files.

Remember, that whatever you use, if w2k or xp crashes or power goes out on the backup drive without windoze closing it even if you haven't done anything recently it seems to damage it, and no choice but to reformat if you want to get all your free space back. You won't necessarily lose all your files.

I had serious issues with a 750 gig seagate one touch:
my w2k system WOULD NOT BOOT with the thing attached to usb port. However it WOULD recognize it if I plugged it in after booting. Possibly because they have boot sector on this and recovery software.

2nd prob: the power switch didn't work to turn it off. I could use the power switch to turn the thing on but not off even holding it for infinity. (creepy non-switch, 'touch' switch). The one touch also got REALLY HOT at base where I had it sitting on a painted wood shelf. Scary.

The older silver ones work great, use them as backups now. 300g, probably 500 gig, etc.
don't know if still available, probably.

you can also get an e-sata hybrid drive which does both usb and e-sata. Fry's didn't have pci e-sata cards so I skipped it. only pci-x which didn't fit the slot.

by onbliss

[i]you can also get an e-sata hybrid drive which does both usb and e-sata. Fry's didn't have pci e-sata cards so I skipped it. only pci-x which didn't fit the slot[/i]
One of the models I remembered had the e-sata. If I get the one that did not have the e-sata and had just the USB, I should still be able to connect to the USB while the system is running right? Just like I would connect any other USB device to the USB drive, or does it require me to shut down the system and then attach the external HDD?

by forum surfer

Why not by an external eSata adapter from an online reseller for under $50? (Assuming your mobo has onboard sata support!) Then you can use whatener sata hdd you have lying around...or pick up a new one. Last I checked 500gig Western Digitals were just under $100. Since any backup device like this is only as reliable as the hdd you use, you're all set! You can even get a case if you wish if you can't bear the thought of a nak~ed hard drive on your desk. Either way, you can do it yourself for well under $150 with shipping even if you have to purchase a new hdd. But to each his own, I don't like the "push button back up software solutions" or buying something I can build myself. Good luck on your decision, just my 2 cents.

by onbliss

...I do not mind naked hard drives on the desk. But my intention is to get as small as possible and store it in the fire-safe boxes. Right now all the digital photos are in CDs, and my wife keeps taking pictures of our kids :-))) Looks like there is no stopping there.

by onbliss

...I do not mind naked hard drives on the desk. But my intention is to get as small as possible and store it in the fire-safe boxes. Right now all the digital photos are in CDs, and my wife keeps taking pictures of our kids :-))) Looks like there is no stopping there.

by gelfling6

If you get the Seagate Freeagent drive (I had a standard, not sure if the pro has the same problem.) be sure to only use it sparingly. The drive is prone to thermal problems, because of poor ventilation. I bought a 500GB standard to rescue a bad 500Gb ATA internal. When I began transferring files, it suddenly began flashing, and the computer reported back drive not recognized, then eventually the drive dismounted on its own, losing a few MB data. After the 2nd time of this happening, I got fed-up, and cracked the case. So much for thinking I could put the drive out of the case, into the machine afterwards. the interface card in the bottom, is USB to SATA. the drive inside, was a (Ironic) Seagate SATA drive. I bought a SATA external case from CompUSA (prior to their announced closing of stores), and the drive showed more problems. (looked totally blank NTFS, but was able to rescue connecting the drive to another machine and running (again, Ironic,) CHKDSK from the command prompt, while scandsk from the properties menu failed. I've since added a external fan to the CompUSA case, to keep the drive cool.

The Freeagent case, has very little ventilation except for the holes on the bottom, but next to NOTHING near the top. the result, the drive runs hot, and the USB to SATA interface card in the base overheats too! The case is next to irreplaceable once you try to open it. (I imagine Sea also trashes the returns.)

Just a caveat from one owner of one of these external behemoths.

Stephen

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