Which hard drive ?

[Phyllisva]

I am looking to buy a portable hard drive to back up my computer .... there are soooooooooooooo many on the market -- is one better than the other

[dougsmit]

Originally Posted by Phyllisva

I am looking to buy a portable hard drive to back up my computer .... there are soooooooooooooo many on the market -- is one better than the other

I wish I knew. My only experience with a drive that failed was a Western Digital so, for no better reason, I avoided that brand when I bought another. Knowing nothing about reliability and various other factors, I rather liked my latest LaCie (from Costco) which has an easily stackable design and a convenient on/off switch on the front. This seems a bit like selecting a car because it has nice cup holders but when you are as unschooled as I am you might as well have at least one nice feature. As you have noted, there will be a different selection each time you go to a store and keeping up with HD technology is not my hobby of choice. I will be anxious to see replies you get from those who do study the subject.

[Tom Swaman]

I have two Western Digital drives. Frankly, I think these are very mediocre although I have not experienced any failures to date. I am told there is a drive called"Seagate", hopefully spelled correctly, that is strictly first class. I have also found that much of the software supplied with EHDs is tantamount to useless. I think it is worth taking your time and getting some very good advice before you buy.

Tom

[Paul Shields]

Funny, I've always had problems with WD drives too - can't just be me then .

Seagate make perfectly good drives. I've found them to be pretty quiet these days and haven't had a failure yet. To be honest I've had no reliability issues with many different vendors apart from Western Digital... IBM/Hitachi make some good value disks - I have a number of them in a HW array and they're running fine.

I'd personally recommend getting a 3.5" caddy (literally a few pounds on ebay) and sticking in something like a Samsung SpinPoint (excellent price/performance ratio and very quiet) - though that ratio may be different where you are.

[Rense]

I have a Lacie USB2.0 Mobile Hardrive (160GB) and a Lacie NAS/USB hardrive (500GB). Perfect and nicely designed.

[brian.austin]

Many of the external hard drive "brands" use the same types of hard drives. For instance, LaCie doesn't manufacture hard drives, just the external cases. Open one up and you're likely to find a Western Digital, Seagate, or other manufacturer's drive inside.

External drives by hard drive manufacturers will obviously have their own drive inside (at least I hope so since it would be rather embarassing to open up a Seagate and find a Maxtor inside).

Personally, I'm happy with anything from Buffalo. I've used a few different versions of the products and have never had a failure.

[TonyK]

Just purchased my 2nd AcomData external drive at CompUSA. The first was about 9 months ago and was a 250GB and this is a 500GB. Never had a problem with the first unit (250GB) and the second unit seems okay though I did have some write-delay failures that forced me to re-start the backup.

I avoid WD and also Seagate. Being from OKC, Seagate has a bad reputation with me only because a friend used to work there.

I've always liked Maxtor and though they are now owned by Seagate I still use them.

One constant though; drives will fail. It is not IF but WHEN so always keep data backed up.

Take care,

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by TonyK

It is not IF but WHEN so always keep data backed up.

Amen to that!

[Phyllisva]

Originally Posted by TonyK

One constant though; drives will fail. It is not IF but WHEN so always keep data backed up.

so how many back ups do I need

[Paul Shields]

So long as you have ONE reliable backup, you're OK .

Storage is a really big issue nowadays with DSLR's. We don't have a pile of negatives that we can store away. I've just been finishing off a backup server that consists of 4 500GB drives in RAID5 format (giving around 1.5 terabytes usable storage). I use the Amanda open source backup software to keep multiple backups (full and incremental) on disk. Previously I used an 8 tape DLT stacker, but it just didn't have the capacity I needed - and required you to be a tape operator, which was too much like real work.

I'm paranoid about losing all of my images due to multiple drive failure, so also archive off the images I really care about to DVD. A strict backup regime is vital if you care about your images. Disk storage is cheap enough these days that you can duplicate your backup requirements. Buy TWO external drives and alternate your backup process. It's never a wise thing to keep all your eggs in one basket.

[JDArt]

Originally Posted by Phyllisva

is one better than the other

There are more so-called "enterprise class" hard drives making their way onto the market. These are supposedly manufactured to have longer duty cycles than normal drives, which are not designed to run 24/7. If reliability is of utmost importance, look at these.

Example:

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5000ABYS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

[dgs]

I am in the IT field, and only buy Seagate when I can. They have a 5 year warranty, and when one does break, they are fast to get them fixed. Some of the other brands, don't.

thanks,
Danny

[trentchau]

I used to be an IT guy and back 5 years ago WD was great. Recently though they've went the way of IBM's deskstar/deathstar and seem to have a lot more problems (except their raptor drives, which I have one).

It sounds like the best drives out now are the Seagates, mostly the ones with Perpendicular writing ability. I'm about to get another 500gb.

[jfrancho]

I have seagate ES drives. They are a little bit more expensive, but they haven't let me down.

[Mr Mikey]

Process of elimination over the years from failed hard drives has led me to purchase Maxtor drives, I currently only run Sata drives. Seagate was always my second choice but now Seagate has purchased Maxtor. SO Seagate is now my top choice.
I use external drives for many things, mainly when working on someones system for back up and copying purposes.
I only purchase external drive cases and then buy the hard drive seperate. This gives me the option of using any drive compatible with the external case. Be sure to get USB 2 or if you have the capability use firewire, it does make a difference.

[jfrancho]

eSATA is pretty good. I looked it into it, but ultimately decided to use the internal space in my case, since I already have off-site redundancy.

[Mr Mikey]

Mine is a total stand alone system. I use Internal Sata drives in mine, a 160 primary and replacing my other 160 with a 500 (arriving this week). I have Pata as well as Sata external enclosures for other work. One day I will have me a firewire T-Byte external storage system for total back up of my system, Hopefully Santa will bring me one.

[kevin_c]

I've just bought a Maxtor 500Gb external driver for £70 ($140-$150 ?) from PC world (online or 'collect from store' price) and I'm extremely happy with it.
I also back-up to a second PC we have in the house so I always have 3 copies of all important files etc. in total.

[Rense]

As for backing up photo's: I always & immediately after download to the pc, put them on the external harddisk (using allwaysync from usovlab). After a major editing session the photo's are also transferred to the harddisk. Final photo's also have a backup at smugmug and on DVD.

[JDArt]

Originally Posted by dgs

I am in the IT field, and only buy Seagate when I can. They have a 5 year warranty, and when one does break, they are fast to get them fixed. Some of the other brands, don't.

thanks,
Danny

This is a good point. The best hard drive today really is the one with the longest warranty--regardless of brand. Fact is any brand stinks when the drive breaks. What counts is whether the manufacturer stands by its products.