Which External hard drives for storage?

Delvis · 30 Jan 2011 at 11:04

Hello all

Just looking for some advice, I'm looking for one or a couple of external hard drives to store some of my files as my previous (250GB) drive is now full...

I'm wondering if its worth just getting the one 1TB drive or would it be worth getting a second etc for backing up the other drive?

Can anyone recommend which to go for? (going by OcUK shop obv)...?

Thanks in advance

Budget is anything from £0 to about £60 i guess, may be able to push slightely more

EDIT: Or...can anyone recommend brand names? As OcUK's list isnt huge, and other stores have more options for example

JonJ678 · 31 Jan 2011 at 14:45

Western digital's external hard drives have been faultlessly reliable for me. I hear their RMA is good, but I've no idea as none of them have given up yet. Their desktop essentials range is cheap. As far as I can tell all the desktop enclosures use the same ("green") hard drives regardless of price.

Hard drives are inherently pretty unreliable (despite my good fortune with WD), so I tend to view any data which isn't backed up as data that may be gone tomorrow without warning. Fortunately most of the data I've got would be annoying to replace, but not disastrous. If you're in a similar boat, perhaps a 1TB drive to hold all your data, and backup the more critical 250GB to the existing drive?

USB is probably the best choice. It isn't quick, but e-sata can be somewhat unreliable, USB3 isn't universally adopted and ethernet is expensive.

Delvis · 31 Jan 2011 at 16:26

JonJ678 said:
Western digital's external hard drives have been faultlessly reliable for me. I hear their RMA is good, but I've no idea as none of them have given up yet. Their desktop essentials range is cheap. As far as I can tell all the desktop enclosures use the same ("green") hard drives regardless of price.

Hard drives are inherently pretty unreliable (despite my good fortune with WD), so I tend to view any data which isn't backed up as data that may be gone tomorrow without warning. Fortunately most of the data I've got would be annoying to replace, but not disastrous. If you're in a similar boat, perhaps a 1TB drive to hold all your data, and backup the more critical 250GB to the existing drive?

USB is probably the best choice. It isn't quick, but e-sata can be somewhat unreliable, USB3 isn't universally adopted and ethernet is expensive.

Thank you for the input, I will have a look this evening at some prices

Delvis · 1 Feb 2011 at 12:09

Next question...

How backwards compitable is USB3.0? Or is it not worth the risk? I'd love to get a NAS box but they're way too expensive

Also...Buffalo? Heard they are pretty decent, but having not owned any i wouldnt know

BennyC · 1 Feb 2011 at 12:25

Recently just brought myself 2 x 2TB Samsung F4's on this week only for £65 each. These are then going in an external raid enclosure to be used in RAID 1 (mirrors the drives) so should one fail the other is backed up. I'll probably add a third and keep this out of the enclosure and back up once a month 'just in case' they should both fail.

It's probably a little more money than you are willing to spend but another option to consider.

With some cheaper drives and a cheaper enclosure you could probably do it for little over £100. There are enclosures out there that offer backwards USB 3.0 compatability as well as USB2.0 + e-sata + firewire 400/800 connectivity but they aren't cheap.

Delvis · 1 Feb 2011 at 12:42

BennyC said:
Recently just brought myself 2 x 2TB Samsung F4's on this week only for £65 each. These are then going in an external raid enclosure to be used in RAID 1 (mirrors the drives) so should one fail the other is backed up. I'll probably add a third and keep this out of the enclosure and back up once a month 'just in case' they should both fail.

It's probably a little more money than you are willing to spend but another option to consider.

With some cheaper drives and a cheaper enclosure you could probably do it for little over £100. There are enclosures out there that offer backwards USB 3.0 compatability as well as USB2.0 + e-sata + firewire 400/800 connectivity but they aren't cheap.

Cheers Benny, I'd love to setup my own Raid etc but i just dont have the money...Just after a decent USB external really, that wont break instantly and can withstand a lot of use

There are a fair few over on the rainforest but having not been involved with hardware directly for a long time i have no idea on branding anymore...

BennyC · 1 Feb 2011 at 12:53

Delvis said:
Cheers Benny, I'd love to setup my own Raid etc but i just dont have the money...Just after a decent USB external really, that wont break instantly and can withstand a lot of use

There are a fair few over on the rainforest but having not been involved with hardware directly for a long time i have no idea on branding anymore...

I've not been on in the hardware scene since C2D came out as that was when I made my last rig! Since stuck with laptops and more recently a MBP.

I had a Seagate 1.5TB drive from a high street electrical retailer. Had it for 6 months and it then began clicking and clunking constantly whenever it was plugged it. Imminent fail I suspected so I returned it. Also that very week another Seagate Freeagent drive I brought 4 years or so ago finally died too after making some odd whinning noises. My opinion would be to avoid Seagate drives. However they now have a 2TB on offer for £90 which my return was replaced for which I sold to my brother so I coul dhave the cash to fund my RAID setup.

My brother also has a WD passport drive which I can't fault and is working well for him.

An option could be to pick up a 2.5" sata drive and then pop it into a USB caddy of your choice?

I've no idea how these perform, might be worth researching:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-088-SA&groupid=1657&catid=1660&subcat=1667

I do know that the Samsung F4 drives I've got are on par with/ out perform the WD Caviar Black drives (Black = high speed, Blue = average, Green = quiet/low power) which are more expensive. Doesn't appear to be an F4 2.5" about though.

Plus a caddy for £10-15 and the jobs done. It'll also be pretty portable too.

Edit: WD Passport drives appear to have USB 2.0 & USB 3.0 so future proof for a little while. The SE model is a larger drive at around 750GB-1TB and slightly out of budget at £75-90.

Delvis · 1 Feb 2011 at 12:57

BennyC said:
I've not been on in the hardware scene since C2D came out as that was when I made my last rig! Since stuck with laptops and more recently a MBP.

I had a Seagate 1.5TB drive from a high street electrical retailer. Had it for 6 months and it then bagin clicking and clunking constantly whenever it was plugged it. Imminent fail I suspected so I returned it. Also that very week another Seagate Freeagent drive I brought 4 years or so ago finally died too after making some odd whinning noises.

My opinion would be to avoid Seagate drives. However they now have a 2TB on offer for £90.

My brother has a WD passport drive which I can't fault and is working well for him.

An option could be to pick up a 2.5" sata drive and then pop it into a USB caddy of your choice?

With regards to Seagate, I can confirm they used to be naff as hell back in the day of my building PC's job (so testing in excess of 1000's of them

)...However Maxtor are with them now, so they should be a little better...Althought Maxtor had their issues occasionally also.

I've been thinking about WD, they've always been pretty decent, not as many of them failed when we used to test them which is why I thought about them

However I then remembered Buffalo, and I once went to a conference thing with them there and they were spouting all sorts saying they were good (But naturally they could be doing just that...sputing dribble)

I'll have a look at the 2.5" drives, see what comes up, its just nice to have a working enclosure ready to go I guess

BennyC · 1 Feb 2011 at 13:16

Delvis said:
I'll have a look at the 2.5" drives, see what comes up, its just nice to have a working enclosure ready to go I guess

All I've got with my 2.5" enclsoure is the circuitry/end plugged on and two screws. Plug in the USB cable and it's good to go.

lego · 1 Feb 2011 at 14:32

JonJ678 said:
Western digital's external hard drives have been faultlessly reliable for me. I hear their RMA is good, but I've no idea as none of them have given up yet. Their desktop essentials range is cheap. As far as I can tell all the desktop enclosures use the same ("green") hard drives regardless of price.

.

I would have to agree on the RMA service, just had mine replaced in under a week. However, this is now the third drive i have had RMA'd to WD.

Only drive which is yet to fail is my external Hitachi 750Gig, which is remarkable as it is my download / Media drive and gets a lot use (Downloads, unrars, encoding ect)

Delvis · 1 Feb 2011 at 15:07

BennyC said:
All I've got with my 2.5" enclsoure is the circuitry/end plugged on and two screws. Plug in the USB cable and it's good to go.

Well yes, I know how they work, its just the faffing around with buying three individual parts which isnt always cheaper

BennyC · 1 Feb 2011 at 15:52

Delvis said:
Well yes, I know how they work, its just the faffing around with buying three individual parts which isnt always cheaper

Wuss

Delvis · 1 Feb 2011 at 16:15

BennyC said:
Wuss

Just the money and simplicity really...If I had the money I'd buy a decent NAS box

BennyC · 1 Feb 2011 at 17:22

Delvis said:
Just the money and simplicity really...If I had the money I'd buy a decent NAS box

Only joking. I was looking at NAS boxes recently then decided it was overkill and that a external raid enclosure would do just fine for now!

Delvis · 2 Feb 2011 at 08:51

BennyC said:
Only joking. I was looking at NAS boxes recently then decided it was overkill and that a external raid enclosure would do just fine for now!

Yeah

It's just for the network aspect really, that's the only reason i'd do it

a1ex2001 · 2 Feb 2011 at 12:01

I've just built a WHS which for now has 2TB of storage on a samsung F4 I wanted to back this up to an external drive so I can keep a copy of all my files offsite. My origional plan was to buy a second F4 and an external enclosure, I ditched this when I discovered I could pick up a western digital elements 2TB external drive for less. The drive in the eclosure is a caviar green it performs perfectly for what I need and I would definately recomend it.

Delvis · 2 Feb 2011 at 15:20

a1ex2001 said:
I discovered I could pick up a western digital elements 2TB external drive for less. The drive in the eclosure is a caviar green it performs perfectly for what I need and I would definately recomend it.

Hello

Thanks for that, i'm probably edging towards the WD's to be honest, so thank you, ill have a look around for prices

frustin · 6 Feb 2011 at 19:01

BennyC said:
Recently just brought myself 2 x 2TB Samsung F4's on this week only for £65 each. These are then going in an external raid enclosure to be used in RAID 1 (mirrors the drives) so should one fail the other is backed up. I'll probably add a third and keep this out of the enclosure and back up once a month 'just in case' they should both fail.

It's probably a little more money than you are willing to spend but another option to consider.

With some cheaper drives and a cheaper enclosure you could probably do it for little over £100. There are enclosures out there that offer backwards USB 3.0 compatability as well as USB2.0 + e-sata + firewire 400/800 connectivity but they aren't cheap.

so what are you getting?