External Hard Drives...

[ront]

I am looking for an external HD to start backing up some pictures off of my PC HD. I was in Costco last night looking and they have a Western Digital 1TB for $140 and a Maxtor 750GB for $100. The WD has a 3 yr warranty and the Maxtor a 5 yr. This is really all the money I can spend, so I am just looking for advice on which may be the better unit. I know any HD can crash, but does one have a better reputation?

Thanks for any input, Ron

[Dirk]

son't buy the maxtor .. buy lacie or WD , maxtor used to be good but isn't anymore
(i konw from p.e. and now suffer from p.d.m s.d (post dramatioc Maxtor Stress Disorder)

goodluck

[spystyle]

I like having an external HDD

I only plug it in when I intend to do a backup. That way if there is a crazy power surge that destroys everything that's plugged in, that backup disk will still work

To make my backups I use a program called "Karen's replicator"

Karen's replicator won't delete anything by default, you have to set it up so it will delete files on the destination drive. That way you don't have to make a complete backup from scratch every time - it will mirror the source drive exactly. Deleting files that are no longer there and copying new files, while not processing files that are unchanged. This saves a lot of time rather than manually making a complete backup.

I keep all my stuff in a single folder with multiple sub folders. Then I just have Karen's replicator copy that single folder to the external drive. I think it's a good way to go, rather than backing up your entire hard drive - that way you don't waste time and hard drive space copying system files (like the windows folder).

For example :

c:\downloads\my documents
c:\downloads\images\family pics
c:\downloads\images\2008 Halloween
c:\downloads\docs
c:\downloads\games

It's really handy, I just plug in my external drive, fire up Karen's replicator and tell it to do what's scheduled. That's it. Do it monthly or more and you'll be all set.

I still believe in making occasional DVD-R backups, just in case both my primary hard drive and my backup hard drive fail. I'd probably be inclined to do this once a year.

If you were worried about your residence exploding or something crazy like that you could store your yearly backup in a small safe, or at a friend's house.

Have fun
Craig

[George R]

As I understand it Maxtor is now owned by Seagate. I wouldn't give a plugged nickel for all the Maxtor drives in circulation. Maxtor is the only drive I have ever had fail, and apparently I'm not alone. Seagate was tops I have 2 hi capacity seagates plus a couple of smaller capacity seagate drives and have never had any trouble with any of them. YMMV

[Joves]

Originally Posted by spystyle

I like having an external HDD

I only plug it in when I intend to do a backup. That way if there is a crazy power surge that destroys everything that's plugged in, that backup disk will still work

To make my backups I use a program called "Karen's replicator"

Karen's replicator won't delete anything by default, you have to set it up so it will delete files on the destination drive. That way you don't have to make a complete backup from scratch every time - it will mirror the source drive exactly. Deleting files that are no longer there and copying new files, while not processing files that are unchanged. This saves a lot of time rather than manually making a complete backup.

I keep all my stuff in a single folder with multiple sub folders. Then I just have Karen's replicator copy that single folder to the external drive. I think it's a good way to go, rather than backing up your entire hard drive - that way you don't waste time and hard drive space copying system files (like the windows folder).

For example :

c:\downloads\my documents
c:\downloads\images\family pics
c:\downloads\images\2008 Halloween
c:\downloads\docs
c:\downloads\games

It's really handy, I just plug in my external drive, fire up Karen's replicator and tell it to do what's scheduled. That's it. Do it monthly or more and you'll be all set.

I still believe in making occasional DVD-R backups, just in case both my primary hard drive and my backup hard drive fail. I'd probably be inclined to do this once a year.

If you were worried about your residence exploding or something crazy like that you could store your yearly backup in a small safe, or at a friend's house.

Have fun
Craig

I have never used that program. The best way to keep an external alive is to only power it up when backing up. Ive seen far too many people that leave them plugged in all the time. That isnt how they are supposed to be used. Id get the WD too. 1 TB at that price go for it. Plus you can back up your whole system to boot. Also you should back your photos up on at least one web host. I use Smugmug myself and, have a place where all it is, is backup. It is better to have two sites but one will do. The likelihood of losing all three is pretty slim.

[amcrimmins]

Don't buy the Maxtor. I bought one in October and my daughter knocked it over by accident and ruined it. I lost everything I had on it.

[spystyle]

Originally Posted by amcrimmins

Don't buy the Maxtor. I bought one in October and my daughter knocked it over by accident and ruined it. I lost everything I had on it.

Well ... "Knocked it over" could kill just about any hard drive, as far as I know.

Although they are called "hard drive" they should be thought of as "carton of eggs" - they are crazy fragile. It's like a tiny record player inside and if you drop one from a height of just 3 feet it'll likely be a fatal problem.

I handle hard drives as if they were a cartons of eggs.

Dig the guts here

And I agree, Western Digital is the nice

Cheers,
Craig

[amcrimmins]

Originally Posted by spystyle

Well ... "Knocked it over" could kill just about any hard drive, as far as I know.

When I say knocked it over, I am talked it was upright and knocked onto its side, not dropped from any height whatso ever. She was reaching across the table it was sitting on and bumped into it and down on its side it went. Never worked after that.

My cousin works for Geek Squad and I was going to have him look at it, but just haven't had time.

[loraksus]

The Maxtor "One Touch" drives have had a history of problems where the fat table would get screwed. Go to Amazon for reviews and you'll see a trend. It doesn't appear that they care about the issue because this has been going on for well over a year now.

Lacie's quality has dived in recent years. Avoid their "Porsche" drives in plastic enclosures like the plague. They overheat and die.

The seagate freeagent drives spin down, so every time you open up "my computer" it hangs until the drive spins up. Every time you empty the recycle bin, ditto. Annoying. eSata doesn't work worth a damn on the more expensive models.

All the stuff on the market is annoying in its own way, so sure, go for the WD. Just make backups.

[spystyle]

That's interesting to hear. I use the "Eagle raid" with two Western Digital drives and it works fine for me, I've never had an issue.

Let's see if I can Google up my model .... Here we go, the case has it's own web page :

Eagle Tech ET-CSDU2-BK 3.5? SATA to USB dual bay RAID enclosure

IIR I got it off PriceWatch or eBay for like $60. As the name implies, it uses up to 2 hard drives but makes them appear as 1.

Cheers,
Craig

[Rense]

All my external HD's are from LaCie: Good quality.
I have a LaCie minidisk that is operating as a Network attached disk, so I can backup from every computer I have.

I've made structure like:
PC_rense\c-disk
PC_rense\d-disk
PC_girlfriend\c-disk
PC_girlfriend\d-disk

on PC_rense the z drive is mapped to PC_rense
on my girlfriends PC the z-drive is mapped to PC_girlfriend

on each PC I make the backups with Allway sync

[JDArt]

Originally Posted by ront

I am looking for an external HD to start backing up some pictures off of my PC HD. I was in Costco last night looking and they have a Western Digital 1TB for $140 and a Maxtor 750GB for $100. The WD has a 3 yr warranty and the Maxtor a 5 yr. This is really all the money I can spend, so I am just looking for advice on which may be the better unit. I know any HD can crash, but does one have a better reputation?

Thanks for any input, Ron

You can buy a 1 TB hard drive for less than $100:

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives

Those prices you mention are not good.

I have two copies of the model linked above, and they're both great.

[Jonathanp]

I have 13 dead western digital drives on my desk. So I can't say I recommend them. Seagate and Samsung make great drives. Have a look at the Vantec NexStar MX or the Drobo both wicked external case solutions.

[spystyle]

Originally Posted by Jonathanp

I have 13 dead western digital drives on my desk. So I can't say I recommend them. Seagate and Samsung make great drives. Have a look at the Vantec NexStar MX or the Drobo both wicked external case solutions.

Many things can kill a drive, were those drives attached to 13 bad power supplies? Were they in an office that had a massive power surge and no surge protection? Are they pulled from computers that were dropped?

Simply having a lot of dead drives on your desk doesn't really mean anything

[Jonathanp]

Originally Posted by spystyle

Many things can kill a drive, were those drives attached to 13 bad power supplies? Were they in an office that had a massive power surge and no surge protection? Are they pulled from computers that were dropped?

Simply having a lot of dead drives on your desk doesn't really mean anything

ROTFL ~ Are you serious?

Same UPS, Same Office, Same OS, Same function. Storing, editing and creating photos. I am not saying that I don't work my drives hard, but man o man I have lost more backups due to Western Digital then ANY other drive company. That isn't to say that I haven't had other drives fail. Hand over fist the majority of my HD failures are WD drives.

You work for WD or something?

[Joves]

I had 3 WD internals die on me in six months years ago. For me it was the berrings that went bad in each. The best drive I have ever had was a Fujitsu but, Im not sure how good they are now.

[Jonathanp]

Originally Posted by Joves

I had 3 WD internals die on me in six months years ago. For me it was the berrings that went bad in each. The best drive I have ever had was a Fujitsu but, Im not sure how good they are now.

So it's not just me. My friend swears by Fujitsu.
TWIPPHOTO.COM ~ had a great show about workflow and backup options.

[spystyle]

I see, well I don't work for WD but that is contrary to what I've heard and experienced.

Make sure to test those power supplies.

Have fun
Craig

[nyschulte]

Depending on your volume of data and your budget, you could go for 2 drives of 500GB? 2 different brands?

You have as well different grades of disks, i.e. WD 1TB USB:
Western Digital My Book Office Edition 1 TB (WDH1B10000E, Silber)
Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 1 TB (WDH1U10000E, Schwarz)
Western Digital Elements 1 TB (WDE1U10000E, Silber/Schwarz)
Western Digital Elements 1 TB (WDE1UBK10000E, Schwarz)
Western Digital My Book Studio Edition 1 TB (WDH1Q10000E, Silber)

ranging from eur84.- to eur192.- (ok last one has more interfaces)

i stated WD only as an example

[OzzyJim]

Gday,

I personally Use a WD 160GB portable hdd, WD 500GB external and WD 1TB external drives and haven't had a problem with them yet. I also have 2 other WD drives spare and 1 in a PVR - No faults. There is also Samsung drives (same model) in both my main laptop and card reader / backup device, still no problem with them and the WD portable and card reader / backup device do have a bit of a rough time (the portable esp).

I have a lot of HDD's from lots of manufacturers that I use on and off in my pc's including a small 1GB hdd used in a logging pc everyday for about 16 hours a day (A seagate model) and still strong. With any HDD / Electrical appliance they can last 5 min or 50 years.

The worst thing you can do to a HDD is a jolt when it is powered up, I have dropped HDD's onto carpet from 1 foot when not connected to a pc and were fine when re-installed.

Jonathanp and amcrimmins have you tried replacing the logic board of the HDD with another one (same model, firmware and hardware version) to see if it is possible to recover the data from the drives, It does work sometimes but you do need a good drive (logic board to test) and static can destroy the boards when changing them.

James.