External Hard Drive

[TyeDyeSkyGuyParticipant]

I’m looking to add an external hard drive to my computer but I’m not sure what I’m looking for, or should be looking out for.

I want a hard drive thats about 500GB and that’s all I know! What should I be looking for, and what should I avoid?

This is for a PC running Windows XP. I only have USB 1.0 so if you know of a faster connection until I get a new computer, please let me know that as well.

[hogrodMember]

First off I would recommend buying online because it will be much cheaper. I usually buy all my computer parts from newegg.com.
I would first install a USB 2.0 PCI card in your computer, USB 1.0 is way to slow for large files. I have used a few of these in peoples computers, and have never had an issue.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815166002

As for an external hard drive, you can buy a pre-made one or buy your own enclosure and hard disk. The main advantage of building your own is getting more than a year warranty and maybe saving a few dollars. Either way you go I usually buy seagate hard drives, they are the only manufacture with a 5 year warranty on hard drives.

[TyeDyeSkyGuyParticipant]

@hogrod wrote:

First off I would recommend buying online because it will be much cheaper. I usually buy all my computer parts from newegg.com.
I would first install a USB 2.0 PCI card in your computer, USB 1.0 is way to slow for large files. I have used a few of these in peoples computers, and have never had an issue.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815166002

As for an external hard drive, you can buy a pre-made one or buy your own enclosure and hard disk. The main advantage of building your own is getting more than a year warranty and maybe saving a few dollars. Either way you go I usually buy seagate hard drives, they are the only manufacture with a 5 year warranty on hard drives.

Thanks! I found some great info on newegg that explained all the numbers. I ordered a USB 2.0 card from them for under $10!!! I’m still researching which drive to buy, but I’m leaning toward a Western Digital 320GB, 8MBcache, 7200RPM model.

[EnergySaverMember]

I just bought THREE of the Western 500gb for backing up data at our office … they’re great!

You will likely find it for less elsewhere, but this is the unit we went with:

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1225188

Something to be aware of … some drives come format to only handle file sizes up to 4gb … which for many people is fine … but if your doing a large data backup using a backup utility that puts on the files in one file, you may start a backup and then hit that limit. However, the solution is simple … just reformat the drive (right click, format), it will then be set to handle unlimited file sizes … it’s just a pain to start a backup and then get a message and have to start over. FYI, formating a big drive like that takes a couple hours. I’ve found in the past that some brands of drives are already setup (like Maxtor 160gb), but some (like the Western 500gb) are not … not sure why, but not that big of an issue.

[K0rplParticipant]

I have to Say Western Digital My Book.

Actually the 500GB ones are on sale at BestBuy for 129.99

I have two of the 250GB ones…..

Love em.

Justin

[K0rplParticipant]

Oh, Forgot to Mention. I run 2590gb externals Western Digtal Mybooks NTFS, as opposed to FAT32..

Justin

[hogrodMember]

I am very surprised at all the recommendations for western digital hard drives. I fix computers for living and out of all the dead or error riddled hard drives I have replaced, over half were western digital brand.
I also listen to the security now podcast, episode 81 was on hard drive reliability and Steve Gibson echoed my results when he said he finds more western digital drives have issues. listen here

Heres my story of why I will buy seagate for life, besides the much longer warranty…. I had a 120gb seagate in my personal computer that started to have a few errors after 3years, I sent it in and within a week got my replacement. when I opened the box to my surprise they replaced my 120gb drive with a 250gb one. if I had bought any other brand I wouldn’t have even had a warranty after three years, so I would have had to buy another hard drive at full price.

All hard drives will eventually fail, so the warranty is everything.

[SammyClawsMember]

Just to confuse things even more, I have used Western Digital, Seagate and Maxtor drives and have had great success with all of them. The lastest portabel USB drives we have purchased for our company has been the Maxtor. But it is true, get a brand name with the best price with the longest warranty is the one to go with.

Also I have bought a lot of stuff at NewEgg, they have a great reputation.

[ToecutterMember]

I like my Western Digital drives…I’ve never had a problem with them…..I’ve had a couple Seagate’s go bad…the last one was a month or so ago in the comp at our firehouse…we bought it from Dell the spring of ’06, and of course they only got the one year warranty…well the drive gave me fits earlier this year, I ended up doing a chkdsk on it and found it had problems…repaired it after the chkdsk and did a reinstall on everything and all was well till late this summer, sounds like the armature is sticking, it was making a buzzing noise, and after messing with it for a while it started working…well, with all the reports I do for our fire calls and what the chief and the other officers do, I decided it was time to swap it out…I called about the warranty on it…well Dell and Seagate decided to use me as a tennis ball sending me back and forth, so I gave up and bought a 200 gb WD for $55 from Newegg….never had a problem with Newegg, and I’ve been dealing with them since the late 90’s when they had their online auctions and it was egghead.com…

Later
Phil

[Author]

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