External Hard Drives...

In for some answers as well.

 

I have it..a 320GB external, the Western Digital My Book. Great unit. I can hook up you up with a deal brother..check yo PMs.

 

This is what I have:

My Book Essential Edition
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=232&language=en

500 GB. Picked it up from Best Buy for $180 after a 10% off coupon. They are getting cheap! Plus, it's black, which you'll like.

The "Premium" edition came with backup and Ghost software that I didn't want and cost extra.

They have a new series out, the "Pro II" editions which you can look at.

Your major concerns are: Do you need the FireWire interface? Or are you ok with USB2 (and on some models, basic--but not the latest fast--FireWire?) I don't use the FireWire interface so did not need the triple interface.

500 GB is PLENTY unless you're doing video editing. 500 GB will hold plenty of pictures, video, and music.

My other concern though is that this is good as a backup drive but what we REALLY want is instant auto "RAID" where there are two independent drives in one unit and one is always a mirror of the other, so it one fails, you don't lose all your data. That's what I really want and will get at some point. (Some of the My Book Pro II's have this I think - 2 500 GB drives but had some bad initial reviews and were $$$). Without the RAID, I don't feel comfortable putting all my media on a single drive--the My Book is just a backup of a bunch of misc stuff right now.

Also, the MyBook will not be as fast over the USB2 or firewire interface as an internal drive on your PC or Mac or whatever, period, but it's still pretty zippy (just would not want to run your OS off of it ).


Hope this helps.

--Mike

 

Check out Newegg.com and just put together your own. You'll just need an external case and a hard drive. It's nearly plug and play--put the hard drive in the case, format it on your computer and your good to go. I just ordered a 500gb drive and a case for $200. SATA drive, USB 2.0 case, it's happy movie ripping time!

 

i have four external hard drives, 200-300gig each. i think they cost about $250-300 each, plug and play USB, it's great.

 

I just picked up the 1TB MyBook and i love it.

the good thing about these is that they have multiple interfaces [FW 400, 800, and usb2]

my other externals have just been old IDE HD's that i've put in an enclosure.

ive had bad experienced with WD's internal drives [bought 1, and RMA'ed it 3 times...3 different ones and they failed all 3 times within months], but all my experiences with their externals have been good.
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My dad bought a small one designed by Pininfarina that looks neat.

I've had good luck with my western digital external hard drive, i have another too, its called buslink when i plug it in, i dont know who made it though.

 

Definatly very easy to use. Just plug it in to the wall and the USB port and you're good to go. No additional drivers needed..should pop right up.

 

My hard drive crashed about a month ago and I lost a bunch of stuff. Thank God for email and the fact that I rarely delete anything! Anyway, in the wake of that incident, I went to Staples and bought a 160GB My Book for around $80. Nothing to it, just plug it into a USB port, load the software (I think I had to do that) and you're in business. Saving stuff to it is a cinch. It shows up on "My Computer" as the "L" Drive It's the size of a cigar box, so even though my desk is small, space isn't a problem. It's also very quiet. I recommend it highly.

 

I have a couple (well had) of Iomega 250 GB external hard drives that I use as redundant back ups. IIRC they were $90 each..... they have worked great for me though one recently died after I dropped it about six feet onto a hard floor.

 

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/

These drives are amazing.

Also head good things about mybook like posted above. Also had bad experiences with internal WD SATA drives, went with Seagate.

Stay away from Maxtor and Lacie. Nightmares...

 

Cant go wrong with Seagate or Western Digital, the two are leading manufacturers for drives. Between the two WD is the one I would go with. Their 2 1/2 inch external drives(MyBook) are the best in the market. By the way Seagate bought Maxtor, but kept the name. So Maxtor drives are Seagate drives.

 

Loading the software is optional. Also the name of the drive will vary computer to computer. When I use it on my desktop it's G:, my laptop it's E:, etc..etc..

 

If anyone's looking at a 1TB, I reccomend against the LaCie Bigger Disk Extreme...unless you're up to some modding. It's fast with FW 800, but the fans are ridiculously loud, and need to be replaced (2 fans).

 

As far as the software goes, skip it. We are using ours for backups and instead installed MS Scheduler.

 

Interesting. On my desktop, the G: drive is the SD card reader.

 

if your needs stop at 50gb, why buy significantly more than you need. By the time you need more space, they will be cheaper and the products will advance in terms of speed etc. Just a thought.

I bought a 80gb a year or so ago for $85 (it was the cheapest one I could find), it hooks up seamlessly via USB and is extremely easy to use.

 

Well, I'm glad to see at least someone started a thread like this. I want to do the same thing as will but my plan was to go with an external enclosure HD that can be swapped out if needed. I'm not thoroughly convinced that any hard drives over 250 GB are stable for long-term use.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817185006

$21.99 for the case + add whatever 3.5 hard drive USB 2.0 drive size you want = external storage.

 

I have 2 external HD's but my favorite is the Maxtor 300GB. It has firewire so it transfers SO much faster then my other hd with USB 1.0.

 

Sounds great Carb. As I've said I love my MyBook, it's very quiet and I've brought it with me on trips and have hooked it up to various computers without a hitch.

 

Good choice, Carbon.

Picked up a 500G MyBook the other day also, and just finished plugging it in...and transferring data as we speak.