External Hard Drives

[Gamergirl89]

So yeah...I've been looking around for a external hard drives for my laptop since I'm now down to 75 gigs out of 185. I'm interested in ones that are 320gigs and above. Price isn't really an issue with me (as long as it isn't above $300), but I would like to know which is a good brand (Western Digital, Simple Tech etc.). Also I wouldn't some people's personal opinions about their own external hard drives as well.

[Petie]

I'm personally using a Western Digital MyBook (500 GB) and I have had no problems. In terms of brand, I'd recommend Western Digital or Maxtor. Both are very reputable companies and make good products. Price wise, I think I paid $135 for mine and they go on sale all the time. Granted, mine is the basic model. There are higher end models which do the exact same thing but come with backup software. However, unless you need the software, I wouldn't sped the extra money. It's not worth it.

Now that the recommendations are done, I'd like to throw in one very important caution. Never, ever move your laptop with the hard drive connected to it, especially if the drive is spinning. I made the mistake of thinking I had more cable than I did and dropped my hard drive four or so feet to the ground while it was being written to. Unfortunately, this caused a head crash (physical damage to the disk) and I had to replace it. While they are fairly sturdy, shock like that is a sure-fire way to destroy your drive so just be careful when moving around.

Anyway, I hope this helps. It's been a long day and I'm pretty tired so if I forgot something or this post ends up being somewhat incoherent, I apologize. Just let me know if you need anything else.

[JuttingRock]

I have a 320 GB Western Digital EIDE with an Adaptec enclosure kit and it totaled about $130, but the prices have dropped considerably since I bought it. It had a mechanical failure shortly after I got it but it was still on warranty and got another for free and its been working fine ever since.

I heard that the MyBooks have had the same problem that my original drive had, where they like to randomly shut off and make clicking noises, only more of them are affected. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try your luck and get one since it is pretty reasonably priced, just keep your receipt.

[Pelafina]

I've also been contemplating one of these, thanks for the help.

[Gamergirl89]

Originally Posted by Petie

I'm personally using a Western Digital MyBook (500 GB) and I have had no problems. In terms of brand, I'd recommend Western Digital or Maxtor. Both are very reputable companies and make good products. Price wise, I think I paid $135 for mine and they go on sale all the time. Granted, mine is the basic model. There are higher end models which do the exact same thing but come with backup software. However, unless you need the software, I wouldn't sped the extra money. It's not worth it.

Now that the recommendations are done, I'd like to throw in one very important caution. Never, ever move your laptop with the hard drive connected to it, especially if the drive is spinning. I made the mistake of thinking I had more cable than I did and dropped my hard drive four or so feet to the ground while it was being written to. Unfortunately, this caused a head crash (physical damage to the disk) and I had to replace it. While they are fairly sturdy, shock like that is a sure-fire way to destroy your drive so just be careful when moving around.

Anyway, I hope this helps. It's been a long day and I'm pretty tired so if I forgot something or this post ends up being somewhat incoherent, I apologize. Just let me know if you need anything else.

Well I saw this online @ walmart:
Walmart.com: Maxtor 500GBMAXTORLITE 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive: Computers
But the price seems iffy to me. Thats pretty damn cheap for 500GB...

[JuttingRock]

With storage space going into the terabytes now, gigabyte hard drives are going to seem pretty cheap.


I have no experience with Maxtor, but the 500GB MyBook is the same price on Amazon, so its your call.

[Zook]

I'm using a 300GB Western Digital and I'm very happy with it. You really don't need a terabyte unless your storing A LOT of stuff, like half of IBM.

[Milkman]

I use a FreeAgent 500GB External.
Came with backup software and everything.

$200 Canadian.

which would be more expensive for an american now since the CDN Dollar is higher =/

[square-enix]

You can either go the external enclosure + internal hard drive route or the already built external hard drive route.

The already built external hard drive are the brands like "FreeAgent" or "MyBook". The advantage here is that the "basic" version of these products about $20 USD cheaper than their self made counterpart. The cons are that the case construction is poor. There is very little room for circulation and most do not come with fans. So, it's not a very good to keep them on for long periods of time. The "basic" versions only offer connection via USB 2.0. For those who care about transfer speed, the versions that offer IEEE 1394a and eSATA cost about $40 more than the basic. ($20 more than self made)

Just reverse everything I typed about brand name external hard drives to get the pro/cons of self made external hard drives.

The standard price today for 500GB hard drives is $100 USD, so there's nothing suspicious about the Maxtor deal. Granted, I've never read a positive review about Maxtor but 500GB drives from Seagate/Western Digital are the norm.
Anyway a

External Enclosure + 640GB (actual storage space will be around 600GB) SATA Hard Drive will cost
$30 + $100 + Shipping (For whatever reason, newegg started selling 640GB Western Digital Hard Drives for $100)

Brand Name External Hard Drive 500GB SATA Hard Drive (actual storage space will be around 468GB)
$100 - $130 + Shipping (Depends which company you go with)

[Gamergirl89]

Originally Posted by square-enix

You can either go the external enclosure + internal hard drive route or the already built external hard drive route.

The already built external hard drive are the brands like "FreeAgent" or "MyBook". The advantage here is that the "basic" version of these products about $20 USD cheaper than their self made counterpart. The cons are that the case construction is poor. There is very little room for circulation and most do not come with fans. So, it's not a very good to keep them on for long periods of time. The "basic" versions only offer connection via USB 2.0. For those who care about transfer speed, the versions that offer IEEE 1394a and eSATA cost about $40 more than the basic. ($20 more than self made)

Just reverse everything I typed about brand name external hard drives to get the pro/cons of self made external hard drives.

The standard price today for 500GB hard drives is $100 USD, so there's nothing suspicious about the Maxtor deal. Granted, I've never read a positive review about Maxtor but 500GB drives from Seagate/Western Digital are the norm.
Anyway a

External Enclosure + 640GB (actual storage space will be around 600GB) SATA Hard Drive will cost
$30 + $100 + Shipping (For whatever reason, newegg started selling 640GB Western Digital Hard Drives for $100)

Brand Name External Hard Drive 500GB SATA Hard Drive (actual storage space will be around 468GB)
$100 - $130 + Shipping (Depends which company you go with)

Well I rather just buy the thing in store to avoid shipping fees and all that extra shit. Anyways I'm more interested in the 1TB drive since it should last my whole college career. If I got that one, how much actual storage space would I have?

[Milkman]

honestly, 1TB is great. but not needed.

i went 5 years living off of 60GB.
And i never filled it up ever.

I only bought my 500GB external a few weeks ago.

[Agent007]

Well latelyt around here, you can but a TB HD for less than 250. You'll never run out of space but that's a good price considering how much other HD's are.

[square-enix]

Well I rather just buy the thing in store to avoid shipping fees and all that extra shit. Anyways I'm more interested in the 1TB drive since it should last my whole college career. If I got that one, how much actual storage space would I have?

Computer related items are usually cheaper online but money isn't an issue for you so go with the in store pick-up route. A 1TB hard drive external hard drive (which in most cases is simply two 500 GB hard drives) will be 936GB of hard drive space. Pricing for 1TB should be $200 at minimum and probably peaks at $230. Shouldn't really be any higher.

It doesn't matter if you buy four 250GB hard drives or two 500GB hard drives, or any other combination that totals 1TB. Your actual hard drive space will always be around 6.4 percent less than the advertised amount.

Edit:
Came across


The Samsung one also comes with a enclosure deal. The "deal" is only a $5 savings.

Costs around $142-$150 (for enclosure and 750GB Samsung hard drive) when factoring in everything.