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General discussion

What large External Hard Drive to Buy???

May 12, 2005 7:57AM PDT

I'm looking for at least 250GB and up to 500GB external hard drive. After reading the CNET reviews it seems that some of the most popular models have serious issues of reliability and functionaliy. Does anyone have any suggestions on what brand/model I should go with?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Discussion is locked

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All mine and at the office are reliable.
May 12, 2005 9:43AM PDT

What is not reliable is the data retention. One slip of the mouse and I've seen people wipe the data out. At least the drive is still good.

-> That, in my opinion is why you read they are not reliable. Just like any hard disk, it's not a backup and the data will vanish.

Bob

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What large External Hard Drive to Buy???
May 14, 2005 1:00PM PDT

I have a Maxtor One Touch 2 300GB external HD plugged into, by usb2, a Dell 4600 with XP. I have had no problems with it. I leave it plugged in all the time but turn it on and off as needed. I've had it for approx. 5 months and like I said, no complaints so far once I was able to figure out how to switch from Fat32 to NTFS.

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Western Digital : Buyers BEWARE!
Nov 15, 2005 11:04PM PST

It was implied that WD had good customer service. Im a long time branded user. I had some bad drives in the past and had it exchanged. But recently I had one incident with my drive that makes me have second thoughts about their products. I bought a 250g external hard drive from an online company. Within less than a year the drive goes bad. I open it to find out the serial #...didnt have one. I scanned the drive and sent to WD. Customer Service replies with a phrase we dont warranty these "white label" drives (the front plate is silver vs. black). Huh? so does that mean if we buy a computer we should open it to make sure the HD isnt a Western Digital , furthermore if it is, Make sure it isnt a "white label" one.... is that feasible? You would think common sense comes into play here....but i guess some of these company now a days dont have any accountability.

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RE: Western Digital : Buyers BEWARE!
Nov 18, 2005 4:28AM PST

First off sorry to hear you're a dell user! Happy
Secondly the drive gennerally isn't under warranty when it comes in an enclosures, it's the whole unit .... I bet there's a serial number on the external case (if it's a WD enclosure)? If not ... then I would guess these were third party enclosures with white label drives added?

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POV, but ext. HD do...
Nov 8, 2010 10:03PM PST

White label = 3rd party builder/logo isn't the HD make

In effect, HDs are brought in bulk and then build by some vendor which sells them under "their logo", label like Simple Technologies, BubbaPC or Buffalo Tech., etc.. While they may use the same actual HD inside these are NOT the same whole units as Seagate or WD builds that they sell under their own logo. You have to look for warranty or support by the logo sold under.

Next, if you read here on the forums all the issues ext. HDs have, they aren't the best for prolonged storage. IMHO, all ext. HDs(any brand) are bound to cause some issue whether it be user or actual h/w failure. So, don't count on these as your primary back-up or long term storage for pics, data, or audio, sooner or later something happens. Also, it has been IMHO the primary cause of failure is "heat build-up". Most ext. HDs use "passive heat exchange" and it just sits in its own heat build-up and stews. That's not too bad for 1-platter media HD but is for multiple platter media and/or very large HDs. So, if you want an ext. HD to last, plug-in when needed and UNPLUG PROPERLY(dismount). Don't have it always plugged in and use as needed, its prone to fail. Of course, this is my opinion and generally I've found other reasons for failure to include dropage, pets, sunlight, power glitches and kids. Last, sometimes the users does a boo-boo and acted upon the wrong HD(stroage area) and deleted or swapped whole data elsewhere then back by user action or s/w feature(over-worked).

tada -----Willy Happy

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Looking for the same thing
Nov 18, 2005 3:45AM PST

I have looked at Netgear SC101,Buffalo TeraStation NAS and Maxtor Shared so far none of them got great reviews (from the users that posted comments on CNET).

Have you ever mad up your mind on some devices?

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RE: What large External Hard Drive to Buy???
Nov 18, 2005 4:43AM PST

You can have problems with any HDD ... the best thing to do is never buy newley released hardware ... wait for about 6 months before buying it ... by that time the mfg'r has had enough reports to fix any bugs (common practice for computer companies to release hardware before fully tested) and change hardware.

I've owned maxtor, WD, and seagate and have never had problems with my HDD's ... I think it's because of the above and because I always mount an intake fan to keep the HDD's cool .... The main failure of a drive is poor cooling (besides the obvious as mentioned above) ... Blow the dust bunnies out of your case every 6 months or so and mount a fan in front of the hdd's ... you shouldn't have any problems!

If you're so concerned with loosing data it would be best to buy raid card and set up your system with RAID 1 (mirroring).

I always buy whats on rebate ...

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external hard drives
Nov 18, 2005 5:56AM PST

I have a 160 g Iomega and it has worked fine for a year. Almost all of the name brands will give good service. I leave it plugged in but turn it off and remove the USB plug when not in use. This keeps my image backup of the system drive safe from power surges and viruses. Make sure you use the ''external device safe to remove'' icon on the task bar to ensure all files are closed and caches emptied to prevent drive corruption.

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extnal harddrive
Nov 8, 2010 12:57AM PST

I have a SIMPLE DRIVE 1 TB I have had it for about 3 years now I leave it on constantly and the only trouble I had with it was the usb cord that came with it went bad I changes it and have had no trouble with it it is a one touch back up and works like a charm. I bought it at BEST BUY cheap and plan on buying another one hear real soon