Best SATA drive for ~£70, and some info on External HDD boxes

p4radox · 12 Feb 2006 at 14:43

Hello there.
My 3 year-old Maxtor 80Gb PATA drive failed yesterday, and is now not being recognised by my system (and other systems I have tried it in). I fear that it is completely kaput. What would be the best drive to go for for about £60-£70? I'd also like to upgrade to SATA. At the moment I'm considering the Samsung Spinpoint 200Gb, as I've heard it's quiet and fast.

I'd also like to invest in a secondary HDD to use as an external backup solution in one of those fancy little enclosures. What would people recommend? I'm thinking of another Samsung, maybe an 80GB SATA Spinpoint, and an "Icy Box External Enclosure - Serial ATA to USB 2.0". I assume this allows me to plug in the HDD to the USB2 ports? Does it need an external power source too?

Thanks

AndyC · 12 Feb 2006 at 14:49

I have a pata icy box and yes it does need external power, although it's inline against the usual wall wart.

smids · 12 Feb 2006 at 15:27

For an external drive (which is essentially just a storage drive) you'll need a seagate for the reliability offered. As for the main drive, I suggest Hitachi, Seagate or WD as they are all good drives.

deadeyedic30 · 13 Feb 2006 at 21:58

Second for Seagate and WD. As for size go 250Gb if you can afford it otherwise 200Gb

Rambaud · 14 Feb 2006 at 17:29

I have been using a 320Gb WD in a PATA IcyBox (Firewire rather than USB) for the past month with no problems.