[Bomo.is.ooc]

While I consider myself generally lucky in the terms of having electronics die on me, I have absolutely no luck with external hard drives. I've owned two, a Seagate Freeagent M-series and a Western Digital Mybook, and they've both died on me after about 6 or 7 months of use. Being a student, my primary computer rig is my macbook pro. Due to a couple factors, I can't easily use a desktop along with my notebook (the main factor being extra cash...).

This is the point in the post where these two previous things are combined into a problem/question:

I'm very rapidly running out of space for music on my single hard drive in my notebook, and have decided that the best option is to test my luck again with an external hard drive. The first question is which one would head-fi recommend? Also, would it be recommended that I store my music and play it directly off the external disk, or would the strain of the amount of run time on it cause another premature death? Are there any kind of general external disk rules that I should know (other than the normal hard disk / electronics upkeep stuff)?

I should note that the Mybook by WD was one of the original ones in that line, so there may now be improvements I don't know about where as the Seagate is a much more recent purchase. If WD has vastly improved their external line, or if I just happened to buy a lemon, I'd be willing to give them another shot. The same goes for Seagate, though with a bit more hesitation mainly out of bad blood due to the turmoil of the more recent death.

I think this is the best forum for this post, but I could be wrong...

I should add that for space, I'd prefer something around 320gb or higher, but I figure that the size doesn't matter a whole bunch when considering the line of products from a maker.

 

[insyte]

Hmmmm I don't know why these products are dying out on you but they are good brands. Be sure to back up your files on a dvd first. Im planning to buy a WD Mybook myself once I have the funds

 

[Ratzilla]

Do you know if you want a 3.5" hard drive or a 2.5" hard drive?

If you plan on moving the hard drive around, a 2.5" might be better but you'll pay approximately 3 times more for it to be smaller. However, with 2.5" all you need is a USB cable to connect to a PC. If you go with a 3.5" hard drive, you'll need a separate power source. There is e-sata in the works so that you can get power from e-sata but i don't know if the technology is available yet.

Remember that you can always get a hard drive and then buy an enclosure for it.

Personally, I think the 3x capacity is worth it over the need for a power supply but thats me.

As for your external hard drives dying, are you moving them around while they're being used?

 

[npcraig]

I also use a Macbook Pro as my only computer right now. This is the setup that I have and I would recommend it to you also:

MacBook Pro
-Music (~85GB) and pictures (~10GB) are on this and are run off this (Songbird and Picasa)

LaCie 500GB Ext (This has Firewire 800, which your MBP should have so you will get ~2x speed of USB 2.0)
-Music and pictures are backed up on this too
-Videos (~200GB) are on this so that I can take it with on trips or just hook it up to play anything I want to watch
-It's port powered so you can take it and use it without an AC adapter

and

MyBook 500GB
-I just have this set up at my desk where I usually use my MBP and run it as a Time Machine drive to back up everything on my MBP regularly
-Needs an AC adapter so I keep it hooked up at my desk

The prices are pretty good on both of these on Amazon:
LaCie 500GB is $160
MyBook 500GB is $83

 

[Bomo.is.ooc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ratzilla /img/forum/go_quote.gif Do you know if you want a 3.5" hard drive or a 2.5" hard drive? If you plan on moving the hard drive around, a 2.5" might be better but you'll pay approximately 3 times more for it to be smaller. However, with 2.5" all you need is a USB cable to connect to a PC. If you go with a 3.5" hard drive, you'll need a separate power source. There is e-sata in the works so that you can get power from e-sata but i don't know if the technology is available yet. Remember that you can always get a hard drive and then buy an enclosure for it. Personally, I think the 3x capacity is worth it over the need for a power supply but thats me. As for your external hard drives dying, are you moving them around while they're being used?

I don't need the drive to be portable. Anything I need to take to class will be documents and maybe photos, nothing so large that I need huge chunks of space for.

As for moving it, neither of them would have been moved much. The first one sat on my desk and was moved once to take to school, the second one was bought and used at school and died there too. No hard bumps or anything that should cause entire drive failure would have hit them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by npcraig /img/forum/go_quote.gif I also use a Macbook Pro as my only computer right now. This is the setup that I have and I would recommend it to you also: MacBook Pro -Music (~85GB) and pictures (~10GB) are on this and are run off this (Songbird and Picasa) LaCie 500GB Ext (This has Firewire 800, which your MBP should have so you will get ~2x speed of USB 2.0) -Music and pictures are backed up on this too -Videos (~200GB) are on this so that I can take it with on trips or just hook it up to play anything I want to watch -It's port powered so you can take it and use it without an AC adapter and MyBook 500GB -I just have this set up at my desk where I usually use my MBP and run it as a Time Machine drive to back up everything on my MBP regularly -Needs an AC adapter so I keep it hooked up at my desk The prices are pretty good on both of these on Amazon: LaCie 500GB is $160 MyBook 500GB is $83

That actually sounds perfect. I think I might skimp out a bit and go for the 250gb LaCie, just to save about $70. I think 250, plus the 500 My Book will work well. I'd also have to do this in two steps, buy one then the other. (Being a student freaking sucks when it comes to expensive things...)

Any comments on the LaCie's performance? It's not a brand I've heard a lot about, though I've definitely seen that drive before.

Also, on the back up program on the My Book, do the back ups take up the entirety of the disk regardless of size, or is the rest of the available space still usable?

 

[npcraig]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bomo.is.ooc /img/forum/go_quote.gif That actually sounds perfect. I think I might skimp out a bit and go for the 250gb LaCie, just to save about $70. I think 250, plus the 500 My Book will work well. I'd also have to do this in two steps, buy one then the other. (Being a student freaking sucks when it comes to expensive things...) Any comments on the LaCie's performance? It's not a brand I've heard a lot about, though I've definitely seen that drive before.

250gb should be fine (I sprung for 500gb because of my HD movies take up quite a bit). So far my LaCie has been perfect and I haven't had any problems (I got it in November 2008 so it isn't too old). I still can't get over how fast FireWire 800 is and with no need for an AC adapter I easily take it around on my college tennis trips.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bomo.is.ooc Also, on the back up program on the My Book, do the back ups take up the entirety of the disk regardless of size, or is the rest of the available space still usable?

I don't use the program that comes with the MyBook, I just use Time Machine which is built into Leopard. It keeps hourly backups every 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups until the disk is full. All you do is plug it in and it set it as a Time Machine drive and it will automatically do it all for you (just make sure it isn't backing up when you unplug it).

How much music do you have now? and how big is your current MBP drive?

 

[Bomo.is.ooc]

I've got about 50gb of music, 20gb of pictures, 20gb free and the rest of it is taken up by movies, games, docs and the like, all on the stock 120gb drive (111gb in reality).

I don't see myself going over 150gb of music for a while, though I do have access to a lot of CD's from the guys I live with and am in the process of converting all my CD's into ALAC rather than the 192-320kbps mp3 files that they currently are.

 

[uraflit]

i heard from somewhere that the "rule of thumb" is to take the amount of space you 'think' you need, then doubling it. that's the size of the hd you should be buying.

it certainly held true for me, i thought a 160gb was fine 3 years ago, now, my 500gb is almost full!

 

[jonathanjong]

Here's my suggestion:

Get 2 external hard drives, one 2.5", one 3.5". Use the 3.5" (say...1TB?) for backups, and use the 2.5" (say...320?) for everyday use. You'll use both for more than music, I'm sure. These things have a way of filling up.

 

[RCGA]

How about an internal HD with an enclosure? I think WD internals come with a 5 year warranty...

 

[Bomo.is.ooc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RCGA /img/forum/go_quote.gif How about an internal HD with an enclosure? I think WD internals come with a 5 year warranty...

I've thought about that one too. I'd need a good enclosure...any recommendations on that front.

The more I think about it, the more I'm leaning towards the 250gb LaCie portable drive for now, then building/buying a larger capacity stationary one in about a month or so.

 

[Bomo.is.ooc]

After doing a bit more reading and thinking, I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with the small portable / large stationary set up, but build them.

The warranty on OEM hard drives is much longer than the warranty on the pre-made externals. I'd prefer to have something that is at least supposed to last for 2 more years (until I'm done with undergrad.), and then have the option to replace it should it die.

I'm leaning towards:
This 750gb drive inside of this
enclosure. And then This 320gb laptop drive inside of this enclosure.
Anyone know something that I don't about any of these and have good reason not to get them?

Edit: Changed the drives, I found the 5 year WD warranty, vs. the 3 year warranty.

 

[jilgiljongiljing]

Lacie is very good with warranty repairs and sending replacements. I have had good experience with them replacing a faulty power supply promptly without bothering me with countless emails and phone calls. But yeah, you have to have multiple externals, one as main and one as backup and then perform a backup once a month or so. This way, worse case scenario, you can send in a broken drive for repairs while you still have your data intact on the other one

 

[RCGA]

Unless you have the external HD on all the time, IMO any HD enclosure is "good enough". Something for $20 on Newegg will do you.

I was in the same position as you a month ago and discovered that I could get a higher quality internal HD with a 5yr warranty (vs. a 1 or 2yr one with a "pre-made" external), and MUCH more space for less.

IMO, if you're going to buy two, get one big internal HD with an enclosure, and a smaller WD Passport

 

[Aleatoris]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RCGA /img/forum/go_quote.gif Unless you have the external HD on all the time, IMO any HD enclosure is "good enough". Something for $20 on Newegg will do you. I was in the same position as you a month ago and discovered that I could get a higher quality internal HD with a 5yr warranty (vs. a 1 or 2yr one with a "pre-made" external), and MUCH more space for less. IMO, if you're going to buy two, get one big internal HD with an enclosure, and a smaller WD Passport

I also think this is the best solution. Internal 1TB drives go for like 130 bucks (Canadian). I use Vantec enclosures, but those maybe a tad more expensive. It even works well when I need to carry lots of data around. I would opt for eSATA, as that is the fastest connection you can get. Of course, your mobo has to have eSATA ports.