External Hardrive questions.

ScreamKing · 12 Nov 2006 at 11:58

Hi All,

I would like to buy an External Hardrive but I'm not really sure how reliable they are these days. I'd like to place my photo collection on there but I'm scared they may go kaput at some point.

I would probably also consider putting all my main files on there including applications I download and so on (to keep the operating systems clean of clutter and easier to manage in case of formatting, etc).

What should I be looking for?

I was thinking of going for the Western Digital MyBook Pro 500GB, but because of the concerns I have above I was thinking perhaps two 250GB versions would be a better choice?

I will be using it on my Windows PC but also my Macbook Pro as well.

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

BigToe · 12 Nov 2006 at 15:36

Personally, I'd buy the hard drive and enclosure separately. That way you can go for any size you want, you have a range of different designs and cooling solutions, and you can swap the drive out for a larger/different one in the future without changing the whole unit. I bought a 120GB hdd and "Icy Box" from here ages ago for my office machine and it's proven very useful. Looks cool too :cool:

As for reliability I'm no expert, but if you get a decent enclosure with good cooling I can't see any problems. I'd probably trust a hard drive in an external enclosure more than an internal one actually as I've known people to lose all their drives (not to mention other components) when their PSU went "pop".

mctiny · 12 Nov 2006 at 15:44

BigToe said:
Personally, I'd buy the hard drive and enclosure separately. That way you can go for any size you want, you have a range of different designs and cooling solutions, and you can swap the drive out for a larger/different one in the future without changing the whole unit. I bought a 120GB hdd and "Icy Box" from here ages ago for my office machine and it's proven very useful. Looks cool too

As for reliability I'm no expert, but if you get a decent enclosure with good cooling I can't see any problems. I'd probably trust a hard drive in an external enclosure more than an internal one actually as I've known people to lose all their drives (not to mention other components) when their PSU went "pop".

I'm with you on this one, I got hold of an Icy-Box and Maxtor 160Gb drive and it's been running finr for about a year now, even flew to brasil, And back, working in temps rising to 45c outside and still yet to fail me.

This drive holds my music, photos, videos,doc's, basiclally everything.

ScreamKing · 13 Nov 2006 at 12:38

Thanks for your suggestions. I wasn't actually planning on going down this route but then I'm not really sure why it would be a better way to go anyway?

It would be cool to hear from folks out there who have had experience of some of the external drives available from OC.

james.miller · 13 Nov 2006 at 12:40

you can get a LOT of photos on a few dvd-r's. Its a small price to pay for piece of mind. I have mine on my PMP, my pc and the most important ones uploaded to photobox. I'll never lose every source im sure lol

Methanoid · 21 Nov 2006 at 13:52

james.miller said:
you can get a LOT of photos on a few dvd-r's. Its a small price to pay for piece of mind. I have mine on my PMP, my pc and the most important ones uploaded to photobox. I'll never lose every source im sure lol

I backup to DVD-R but I don't RELY on them as I have come back 2 years later and found them unreadable when they have been stored properly too. I use external HD to have two copies of all important data. Chance of both HDs failing at same time is slim. I also sync between my two PCs the really important stuff to provide a 3rd copy on HD. Chances of all 3 HDs failing VERY slim!

I'm a big fan of NAS drives and external drives

photoshop · 21 Nov 2006 at 15:35

I have a Lacie 300gb USB 2.0 model and its been doing its job for over a year now. I like it. I've backed up all my DVDR's, Music, Pictures, Academic files etc on it. Im running out of space on it and will soon buy the Lacie 600gb.

Dont forget kids: Always back up to more than 1 source to be safe. There is no gurantees in this world!

I personally back up to 3 sources; my SATA drive, my external lacie and burn a copy to dvdr. I keep it on my sata for easy access as i only turn *** Lacie on when i need to copy things over to it or vice versa. And DVDR should the HDD's fail.