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External Harddrive - Yes or No?

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Tedesco!

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I've been contemplating getting one for backup purposes, but I've heard that most units (Maxtor, WD) have had a history of performing quite poorly. Is anyone using an external drive, and if so, have you had any problems?
 
I have an internal hard-drive that's loaded into an external enclosure that's connected to my computer via usb 2.0

2 years and no problems yet.

Just my 2 cents.
 
I have 2 WD's (just got a 160gb 3 weeks ago). Have no complaints. Though both are internal. I would just go with a DVD burner since they are so cheap (see the NES thread) since I always trusts discs to hd.
 
I'm thinking of going with the External HD because I can throw a lot on to it, back up with ease, and I won't have to deal with a plethora of discs.
 
I use a 60GB laptop HD in an enclosure to caddy data from work and home. It's small, I throw it in a backpack without worries, and it's worked reliably.
 
Tedesco! said:
I'm thinking of going with the External HD because I can throw a lot on to it, back up with ease, and I won't have to deal with a plethora of discs.
Click to expand...
Not to be indecisive, but I've used a 40gb Buslink external firewire HD for my G4 for 4 years with great success. At the time, EVERY review I read said BUSlink sucked. Drives are hard to gauge. According to the internet, every drive sucks or will be the ultimate horror story for your data. I guess you just have to bite the bullet. That said, go for firewire (or whatever is in Win terms) because USB backup speeds are slow as shit.
 
Well, I just got WD 120 GB external HD and I haven't had any troubles. It's USB 2.0. It's kinda slow in transferring data, but I just wanted something where I could just throw all my music and everything else on since my laptop only has a 40 GB HD.
 
There's nothing wrong with external HDs, but don't forget that they're nothing more than an internal drive inside of an external enclosure.

If you go to newegg and check the prices on an internal drive + external enclosure, you'll see that you'll be saving a bundle of money that way, and you'll have much more control over what type of HD you're getting.
 
Get an enclosure and an internal drive to put in it (or use a semi-old one -- keeping in mind hard drives don't have incredible shelf life). Unless you need an incredibly small drive to carry with you everywhere (form factor of dedicated external drives tends to be better), you'll save money in the long run by doing that.
 
I thought USB2 was faster than firewire ?
Click to expand...


http://www.cwol.com/firewire/firewire-vs-usb.htm
Question: USB 2.0 is faster than FireWire...right?
Answer: No, actually FireWire is faster than USB 2.0.

Question: Hold on...USB 2.0 is a 480 Mbps interface and FireWire is a 400 Mbps interface, how can FireWire be faster?
Answer: Raw throughput rating numbers alone don't tell the whole story, as explained below.

The throughput numbers would lead you to believe that USB 2.0 provides better performance. But, differences in the architecture of the two interfaces have a huge impact on the actual sustained "real world" throughput. And for those seeking high-performance, sustained throughput is what it's all about (reading and writing files to an external hard drive for example).

Architecture - FireWire vs. USB 2.0


*

FireWire, built from the ground up for speed, uses a "Peer-to-Peer" architecture in which the peripherals are intelligent and can negotiate bus conflicts to determine which device can best control a data transfer

*

USB 2.0 uses a "Master-Slave" architecture in which the computer handles all arbitration functions and dictates data flow to, from and between the attached peripherals (adding additional system overhead and resulting in slower, less-efficient data flow control)

Performance Comparison - FireWire vs. USB 2.0
Read and write tests to the same IDE hard drive connected using FireWire and then USB 2.0 show:

Read Test:


* 5000 files (300 MB total) FireWire was 33% faster than USB 2.0
* 160 files (650MB total) FireWire was 70% faster than USB 2.0

Write Test:


* 5000 files (300 MB total) FireWire was 16% faster than USB 2.0
* 160 files (650MB total) FireWire was 48% faster than USB 2.0

FireWire - Still the Performance King!
As the performance comparison shown above confirms, FireWire remains the performance leader. And is the best choice for DV camcorders, digital audio and video devices, external hard drives, high-performance DVD burners and any other device that demands continuous high performance throughput.
 
Huh. You'd think the people behind USB should've thought about making USB2 faster than the obvious rival FireWire.
 
It's an architectural issue, and one that can't really be solved without removing the requirement for backward compatibility. This would defeat the entire purpose of a UNIVERSAL bus.

More importantly, they don't really give a shit. USB is on way more computers than firewire, and that's the bigger selling point.
 
Is it really cheaper/better to buy the caddy and HDD seperately?

If so, please recommend me a nice combo. It needs to work with USB1 (desktop) and USB2 (laptop). No fancy backup knobs required.

...
 
I have five external drives right now, one of which is solely for backups.

I've given up on installing shit inside my computer case because it's annoying.

All the drives work fine, and yes, firewire > USB2.
 
Tedesco! said:
I'm thinking of going with the External HD because I can throw a lot on to it, back up with ease, and I won't have to deal with a plethora of discs.
Click to expand...

Yea, I recently bought a Seagate 300gb external on sale at BBuy and it's fantastic. Very glad I finally did it for the same reasons.
 
I have an external HD, 160GB model from Acomdata. I never had heard of the company, but then I saw something on TV and Rick Rubin had a fleet of them. Not that Rick Rubin is an authority on what is good, but that was all I needed, lol. I have had no problems out of mine, I leave it on 24/7 and it has worked perfectly for about 3 months now. I use it mainly as a backup for my music.
 
You know that's one thing I haven't checked my documentation about....are you supposed to leave them on all the time? I use it about 2-3x a day in a normal situation to store or retrieve and I'm wondering if I should turn it off or not. It seems to go into a sleep mode if I haven't used it for awhile and it doesn't get hot.
 
I'd recommend buy an internal hard drive with an enclosure as well. Just yesterday, I ordered an enclosure as well as a 300 gig hard drive for about $170 off newegg. Since I can also use all the IDE hard drives I already have with it too, it should end up being a lot cheaper.
 
Musashi Wins! said:
You know that's one thing I haven't checked my documentation about....are you supposed to leave them on all the time? I use it about 2-3x a day in a normal situation to store or retrieve and I'm wondering if I should turn it off or not. It seems to go into a sleep mode if I haven't used it for awhile and it doesn't get hot.
Click to expand...


No documentation I have read has said anything either way about that. I assume if it has a power switch I probably am supposed to be turning it off at some point, but I started thinking, "I never turn off my HD inside my PC, so why turn this one off?" Not good logic I know.
 
dskillzhtown said:
No documentation I have read has said anything either way about that. I assume if it has a power switch I probably am supposed to be turning it off at some point, but I started thinking, "I never turn off my HD inside my PC, so why turn this one off?" Not good logic I know.
Click to expand...

It has a power switch because it's using an independent power source. You also should (read: must) not have the power on when you're removing or plugging in a drive, as they're not meant to do that.
 
A Friend Of A Friend Of Mine said:
It has a power switch because it's using an independent power source. You also should (read: must) not have the power on when you're removing or plugging in a drive, as they're not meant to do that.
Click to expand...


So leaving it on 24/7 is fine?
 
I've got a 300 Gig Lacie hooked up via firewire 800. Blazing fast. Works great. I have it partitioned.

Also have 2 400 Gig Lacies at work to back up all my graphic projects. Never had a problem with them either. Use one for video capture. Only had them for 2 years now. Seem reliable.
 
A Friend Of A Friend Of Mine said:
You also should (read: must) not have the power on when you're removing or plugging in a drive, as they're not meant to do that.
Click to expand...

First I've ever heard of this.
 
I've had six external drives, currently have four Maxtor 300gb's hooked up, and the only problem I ever had was a drive that wasn't working right out of the box. So, yeah, highly recommended here.
 
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