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[Lyte Edge]

Okay, my Maxtor 200gb drive just died this morning. :/

What's the best external HD on the market right now? I'm staying the hell away from Maxtor from now on. (Not sure if Maxtor was the brand people used to warn about here, but I got this drive last summer from my dad and didn't think anything of it at the time)

 

[tedtropy]

Okay, my Maxtor 200gb drive just died this morning. :/

What's the best external HD on the market right now? I'm staying the hell away from Maxtor from now on. (Not sure if Maxtor was the brand people used to warn about here, but I got this drive last summer from my dad and didn't think anything of it at the time)

Just buy an HD enclosure and stick whatever HD you like in it. Seagate makes great, quiet drives. If you want the enclosure to be small and light, just get a laptop-form one. You can get 60GB laptop drives for a little over $100 these days. I bought a very nice looking thin and light aluminum USB 2.0 enclosure for all of $11 shipped. Threw a 20GB laptop HD I had in it and it's working great. Fits in my shirt pocket.

 

[Ecrofirt]

I second the suggestion of getting an internal HD and an external enclosure.

You'll save lots of money, and you can pick whichever hard drive you've like.

 

[Lyte Edge]

Forgot to mention that I have a laptop, so I need an external HD. I'm also looking for something that's at least 120gb if not more. Would prefer something in the range of 200gb or greater.

 

[Ecrofirt]

ok, so what's wrong with getting an external enclosure and a regular HD?

 

[nitewulf]

Forgot to mention that I have a laptop, so I need an external HD. I'm also looking for something that's at least 120gb if not more. Would prefer something in the range of 200gb or greater.

the external HDs that you can buy are just internal drives fitted within an enclosure. what the others in this thread are suggesting is a good idea if you're willing to do a bit of work on your own.
if not, i'd recommend the IBM/Hitachi drives, i've had mine for about two years now w/o any trouble.

 

[AirBrian]

ok, so what's wrong with getting an external enclosure and a regular HD?

If you go with the enclosure/internal hard drive route, make sure your enclosure comes with a fan. My parents’ hard drive crashed last week and I did this exact thing to recover their data. The enclosure they bought did not have a fan and the thing got extremely hot. This cannot be good for the hard drive for extended periods of use.

Personally, I picked up this...

...about two months ago (although for cheaper than it is now). I love it and have had no problems. I've used it to transport files between Windows ME and XP, and both systems recognized it out of the box without any further driver installation.

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=296315&pfp=BROWSE

 

[tedtropy]

Forgot to mention that I have a laptop, so I need an external HD. I'm also looking for something that's at least 120gb if not more. Would prefer something in the range of 200gb or greater.

It's pretty easy to upgrade the HD in even semi-modern laptops if you'd like to go that route. But the external HDs you buy at a store are no different from the enclosure you can buy, it's just that they come with the HD already installed. It's incredibly easy to install your own drive inside an enclosure, you have more control over what kind of HD is in it, and it tends to be quite abit cheaper.

 

[tedtropy]

If you go with the enclosure/internal hard drive route, make sure your enclosure comes with a fan. My parents’ hard drive crashed last week and I did this exact thing to recover their data. The enclosure they bought did not have a fan and the thing got extremely hot. This cannot be good for the hard drive for extended periods of use.

Personally, I picked up this...

...about two months ago (although for cheaper than it is now). I love it and have had no problems. I've used it to transport files between Windows ME and XP, and both systems recognized it out of the box without any further driver installation.

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=296315&pfp=BROWSE

Depends on the drive really, if it's running at 7200RPM or up, yeah I'd definitely recommend an enclosure with a fan. My little laptop HD enclosure is passively cooled, but it's just got an older 4200RPM IBM HD in it and laptop drives are designed to sustain some pretty ridiculous temperatures. That said, the unit never gets anything more than even slightly warm under constant use.

 

[AirBrian]

Depends on the drive really, if it's running at 7200RPM or up, yeah I'd definitely recommend an enclosure with a fan. My little laptop HD enclosure is passively cooled, but it's just got an older 4200RPM IBM HD in it and laptop drives are designed to sustain some pretty ridiculous temperatures. That said, the unit never gets anything more than even slightly warm under constant use.

I'm pretty sure the drive runs at 5400 RPM (part of an HP OEM), but yeah, slower drives (and some laptop ones) probably don't need the fan as much as normal, desktop drives.

 

[bionic77]

This is the external drive I picked up.

Western Digital

Outpost had a deal 2 weeks ago where you could get it for $100. I thought that was a pretty good deal to get a external 200GB drive for that price.

 

[Lyte Edge]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far, guys. I really appreciate it. I think I'd like to go with a brand-name external HD rather than get an internal one and a casing.

Would it be possible to recover the data from my HD? I am still able to hook it up to my computer and the drive does get recognized, but gives me an I/O Error.

 

[goodcow]

This is the external drive I picked up.

Western Digital

Outpost had a deal 2 weeks ago where you could get it for $100. I thought that was a pretty good deal to get a external 200GB drive for that price.

I've had this drive for almost two years, and it gives me no problems at all.

 

[tedtropy]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far, guys. I really appreciate it. I think I'd like to go with a brand-name external HD rather than get an internal one and a casing.

Would it be possible to recover the data from my HD? I am still able to hook it up to my computer and the drive does get recognized, but gives me an I/O Error.

Possibly. Best bet would be to, cough, acquire a copy of Ghost, tell it to make an image of the drive and ignore any errors, then pull what you need out of that image, assuming the data isn't corrupted beyond recovery.

 

[Lyte Edge]

Possibly. Best bet would be to, cough, acquire a copy of Ghost, tell it to make an image of the drive and ignore any errors, then pull what you need out of that image, assuming the data isn't corrupted beyond recovery.

I'm really unfamilar with all this. If I make an image of the HD, would I have to have 200gb available on my PC to access it? My HD is only 60gb...

 

[tedtropy]

I'm really unfamilar with all this. If I make an image of the HD, would I have to have 200gb available on my PC to access it? My HD is only 60gb...

Ghost only creates an image of the data presently on the drive, and even then, in can compress the data quite considerably when it creates the image file. It depends on how full that 200GB drive is. If it has, say, only 70 or 80GBs of data on it, that might compress down to an image small enough to fit on your 60GB drive. It varies.