I'm looking to get an external hard drive for back-up purposes.  And boy, there is a lot to choose from!!  Has anyone had any particularly great (or terrible) experiences with a particular brand/model?  I'm probably looking for something in the 320 GB range, although that might be a bit overkill.

Don't bother with a "pre-made" external-- buy an enclosure ($30) and any good HD of the appropriate size. I've always had good luck with Seagates. Every Western Digital I've ever had has died, taking tons of data with it.

Quote from: captainspud on May 02, 2008, 07:14:15 AM
Don't bother with a "pre-made" external-- buy an enclosure ($30) and any good HD of the appropriate size. I've always had good luck with Seagates. Every Western Digital I've ever had has died, taking tons of data with it.

Meaning buy an internal HD and a little box for it?  What kind of connection do internal HDs need/take?

They connect with SATA (new-style red cable) or IDE (old-style flat grey ribbon). The enclosure will have a plug on the inside to take the HDD cable, and on the outside it'll be USB or Firewire.

I'll second the drive + enclosure option. It usually comes out cheaper, and gives you much more options depending on your hardware needs.

Also I'll second the Seagate for the Drive itself...

Yes, it's quite a cost savings to set things up like this.  I've looked at a few enclosures and I don't see a lot about size specs.  Are internal HD mounts pretty universal, and thus I don't need to be worried that my HD won't fit my enclosure?

There really are only 2.5" (laptop) and 3.5" (standard) drive sizes.

Some enclosures will take both sizes, but for the most part 2.5" are really only worth the extra cost if you need one for a laptop, or you really need the space savings.

As long as you get an enclosure that accepts 3.5" drives you should be fine in terms of mounting. Just make sure that if you get an IDE drive (older technology), you get an enclosure that supports IDE, or if you go with a SATA drive (newer technology), make sure the enclosure supports SATA.

Make sure you look closely at the features each case comes with.  When our local Comp USA was closing, everything was on sale, 50-75%.  I picked up a nice case that has two front USB ports, and two slots in the front, that take just about any and every type of memory stick there is.  It's been a great boon with the 10 megapixel camera we got not long after that.  ^_^

The only drawback my case has, is that it *has* to be powered up before the computer, for proper boot reconition.  The woman got one as well (pre-assembled, if I remember correctly), and it can be powered up at any point & be recognized.  I suppose my situation might be because of the slots on the front, but I'm not that bothered by it.

I'll add my voice to the support for making your own external HD using an internal hard drive and an external hard drive encolsure. It's a much, much cheaper solution (both for the initial outlay and any possible future repairs).

If you're going the external hard drive enclosure route, just make sure that the one you get supports Auto-Detection (that means you can plug it into your USB port after you boot up your PC, just like you would any USB device like a memory key). Most newer enclosures support this feature on OSes as recent as at least Windows 2000 and Mac OS X.

My personal recommendation would be to get a laptop hard drive (a 2.5" drive), since they don't generate as much noise and heat as standard sized (3.5") drives. Sure, they're more expensive than standard PC hard drives, but they're still cheaper than a "pre-made" external hard drive of comparable capacity. Laptop drives also don't require as much power as bigger standard drives, so many external HD enclosures for laptop drives can run off of two USB slots (one to transfer data, the other to provide power) or a proprietary PoweredUSB^TM slot (instead of taking up an outlet on your power bar/surge protector/wall outlet), which is very convenient. A product I've had some experience installing on customers' PCs is this one. Installation is pretty straightforward, and you only need two free USB slots (one for data, one for power). No need for external or internal power connectors.

On a bit of a tangent... my external enclosure is for a 2.5", and has the two cords. But... it only actually needs one. I've never noticed any difference when I plug the second one in.

Am I hurting it by not using the second plug?

I use the iBook WD model which is 500 Gigs and it has served me well in the 2 plus years that I've had it. Plus I'm assembling a 2.5" external drive with an outer shell that will probably be used to store stuff I use between my laptop and my main PC.. I have plans on picking up a 1 TB drive for it very cheap on eBay or Amazon when my funds allow such an expence.

- CrimsonQuill

Quote from: captainspud on May 02, 2008, 12:45:14 PM
On a bit of a tangent... my external enclosure is for a 2.5", and has the two cords. But... it only actually needs one. I've never noticed any difference when I plug the second one in.

Am I hurting it by not using the second plug?

Probably not if the the thing is running okay with just one USB connection.

You'll probably want to connect the second USB cable (the USB-DC cable) so you have more stable power, though. Most of the newer 2.5" hard drive enclosures need 5 volts and 500 mA of current, which is the maximum power and current that can be drawn from a single standard USB 2.0 connection. Any fluctuation in the throughput could lead to data loss during read/write operations, so having the second USB cable connected (if you can spare the USB slot) is always a good idea.

Depending on your system, you may want to look into a NAS (Network Addressable Storage).  While it's easy enough to network an external hard drive connected to a computer, the NAS gives a lot of flexibility.

I agree with the others as well: I would buy an enclosure and use that with a hard drive instead.

The other cool thing about enclosures is that it makes data recovery easier as well.  I've recovered several fried hard drives of late, and not having to have the hard drive in my computer has really, really helped.

I've found this a good way to run more than one operating system.  Although, I disagree about having problems with a Seagate external HD.  I've never had one, but i have had my share of problems with their Internal HDs.  Now, I have had no end of hell with Iomega and I won't touch anything they make. 

I am also a fan of the enclosure kits, but only for the reason Randy mentioned of trying to get data off of an internal drive without having to crank open up a PC and hope it has an open power and data cable.

But, as far as price goes for 95% of users, I am not sure you are going to do a whole lot better than the pre-built external USB/1394 drives. I mean, you can get, for example, a 500 GB Western Digital external for US$120 and I've seen 1 TB drives for US$220. I think you'd be pretty lucky to shave enough off of that to make up the effort differential between building one versus just walking into Best Buy and walking out with a functional external drive five minutes later.

I'm still liking my iBook WD 250 (though I do need another one pretty soon, as I'm running out of space :lol:)

Western Digital updated the look and features of their mybook, so you might be able to get one from the previous generation on the cheap.

Quote from: stumpy on May 06, 2008, 01:17:40 AM
But, as far as price goes for 95% of users, I am not sure you are going to do a whole lot better than the pre-built external USB/1394 drives. I mean, you can get, for example, a 500 GB Western Digital external for US$120 and I've seen 1 TB drives for US$220. I think you'd be pretty lucky to shave enough off of that to make up the effort differential between building one versus just walking into Best Buy and walking out with a functional external drive five minutes later.

That's especially true if you're buying everything new. I've seen some of the newer Taiwanese 250 GB external HDs selling for $70. Can't vouch for the quality, though.

The savings from using an external HD enclosure is mostly for hobbyists, tinkerers, and tech guys who already have a bunch of spare hard drives lying around, in which case the hard drive is virtually free.