What brand should I go for in finding an External Hard Drive

[bigizzy75]

Hey Head-fi,

I was going through my music on my computer and I found out that I have 28 gigs worth of music on a 60 gig hard drive laptop. And well I said "Its time for external hard drive". Its a XP laptop and I wanted to know what brand are known for not breaking down.

Thanks in advance,

Izzy

 

[FallenAngel]

Don't go with an "external" hard drive, get yourself a nice Seagate hard drive and buy a $20 hard drive enclosure. Usually it'll save you money over buying a package deal and you get to choose the exact model of hard drive you want.

 

[Agent Kang]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FallenAngel /img/forum/go_quote.gif Don't go with an "external" hard drive, get yourself a nice Seagate hard drive and buy a $20 hard drive enclosure. Usually it'll save you money over buying a package deal and you get to choose the exact model of hard drive you want.

plus the 5 year warranty

 

[indigo]

I just bought a Seagate Freeagent portable drive. Highly recommended!!

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1172880154821

I also looked at the Western Digital Passport but Seagate's 5 year warranty sealed the deal.

 

[Joeywhat]

Most external drives also feature a 5 year warranty...I know the Seagate and WD ones do.

As for saving money with a separate enclosure...won't happen. My Seagate Free Agent (250 GB) cost about $5 more then the internal 250 GB drives.

 

[wes.coleman]

I'd say Western Digital or Seagate. I'm in love with this from WD, though. USB or ethernet. That makes me all tingly

. You can also get it in a 1TB in case you only want to store half of the Library of Congress, lol

 

[ecclesand]

I have the Seagate FreeAgent. Works great, small footprint, and you can't even hear it.

 

[FallenAngel]

Holy crap, that's expensive - 160GB for $110!? I bought a 500GB Seagate and for under $150 a few months ago and they only get cheaper.

Grab the 500GB Seagate from TigerDirect for $110 or check out their other selection, no point in overpaying at BestBuy, EVER.

 

[Schalldampfer]

What FallenAngel said. Except, TigerDirect had some problems with customer service the last time I heard about them.

 

[Seaside]

I would do what FallenAngel recommended. Using TigerDirect or not is your choice though. Bestbuy sometimes has them on sale, so check it out if you want to buy local.

Anyways, Getting lengthy warrantee would be nice but that does not mean much. You gonna loose your music/data when your HDD crashes. Warranty service will not revive those music from the dead HDD. I think both Seagate and WD are nice HDD makers even if I had better luck with seagate so far.

The best way to deal with is to keep your backups somewhere else, update them regulary. Another HDD or DVD writer would help.

 

[bigizzy75]

hmm thanks guys. So Seagate is the way to go. How long to Hard drives last before they die on you. Or do they do that spontanously?

 

[fat pat]

Western dig fan here, but you really cant go wrong with seagate either. a hdd should last you upwards of 5 years. especially an external that isnt running all the time. but it more matters on the particular drive and your usage of it. some will have defects in them that will blow out prematurely

 

[Seaside]

How long a HDD is going to last?

I don't think anyone can give you straight answer.
My 6 yr old seagate and 9 yr old WD HDD still working fine, while my 8 month WD old HDD failed on me. So, I do not think a particular maker makes longer lasting HDDs than others. I think it really depends on your luck. Bad drives usually go belly up on you in few days to few monthes, so that give you a chance to use warranty service. I personally think the HDD did what it supposed to do if it last more than 2 years.
Do not think too much about it. Just buy a HDD, and do whatever you think is needed, and make sure you have a backup somewhere. In that way, you will be OK even if your HDD failed on you.

 

[RYCeT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FallenAngel /img/forum/go_quote.gif Don't go with an "external" hard drive, get yourself a nice Seagate hard drive and buy a $20 hard drive enclosure. Usually it'll save you money over buying a package deal and you get to choose the exact model of hard drive you want.

It's not exactly correct, I got a seagate freeagent 500 gb for $120.00 on frys (free shipping included). Last week, there's another special from bestbuy for that same drive for $130.00
I just checked on frys, They have that drive for $119.99 (no free shipping though) http://shop3.outpost.com/%7BVeB99OMB...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Btw, currently I have 3 500gb seagate drive, 2 diy & 1 Freeagent. The DIY cost me around $150 each (shipping included) from newegg. I don't like the freeagent eventhough it's cheaper.

 

[bigizzy75]

Whats wrong with free agent?