External Hard Drives

What is a external hard drive to buy? I have looked over several sites, and many sites say they crash within weeks or months. I was wondering if anyone here owns one and can tell me which company you went with and how it has been working so far.

I bought a Western Digital 250GB hard drive about 2 months ago and it's been going strong and have filled up all but about 10 gigs of it. Have had no problems with it.

I made my own external harddrive.. 400 GB Seagate IDE in a 3.5" USB2.0/Firewire Aluminum Case I bought off woot.com

If you want to buy it, I can sell it for $225 =]
or if you want to build your own, I can point you in the right direction...

If you buy one retail, they are just sooooooo expensive compared to internal HDs....

-Joe

[quotef69716ecee="toebash"]I made my own external harddrive.. 400 GB Seagate IDE in a 3.5" USB2.0/Firewire Aluminum Case I bought off woot.com

If you want to buy it, I can sell it for $225 =]
or if you want to build your own, I can point you in the right direction...

If you buy one retail, they are just sooooooo expensive compared to internal HDs....

-Joe[/quotef69716ecee]

I'm going to get a Western Digital My Book Preminum 320GB for under $150 D

I've owned several. I prefer to build my own, but I do have a 300GB Maxtor OneTouch external also.

They don't "crash and die within weeks or months," any moreso than internal drives (which they are the same thing, just in an external enclosure). Whoever told you that is ignorant. Now if you carry them around a lot and abuse them, then yeah, but if you handle them with care like you would any HDD, then no. My oldest one is at least 3 years old now. The Maxtor is at least a year old. No problems from any of them.

If you have a firewire interface, I'd pay a little more and get a firewire capable drive. But USB 2.0 is still good enough for most folks.

See this is why I trust FIG Forums more than reviews at epinoin or amazon, which is why I posted the question to start with. I think I am going to go with a Western Digital My Book. Now on to the bank to get my CC that is 4 weeks overdue, and then to DontCostAnything.

building your own is always beneficial because you know exactly whats going into it yet can end up costing a few extra dollars. If you have the extra money I wound invest in a good seagate or wester dig and a decent enclosure. If you would rather pre built look for a lacie or a seagate or wester dig mybook.

http//www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?catid=18&threadid=631762&newest=1#last

Build your own, takes like 10 minutes.

get a maxtor hd. They always have sick deals and buy and external enclosure from newegg

I got a 250gb internal WD from Best Buy for like $80 after instant rebates, and the case was $50. Definitely a lot cheaper than buying a 250 external.

http//www.supergooddeal.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=4a300j0&Click=16748

140 dollars with 2 year warrenty, put into the case, and the case itself

[quoted1699d9a40="TryinToGetPaid"]http//www.supergooddeal.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=4a300j0&Click=16748

140 dollars with 2 year warrenty, put into the case, and the case itself[/quoted1699d9a40]
That's horrible. A 5400RPM Maxtor? You can get a 300GB Seagate for less than the $92 being charged for that right now, or even a 400GB Hitachi (but it's after rebate).

link for the seagate?

Do a search on outpost.com, they have it. There are always deals for external cases too for under $30.

[quote3a6d719a8d="tylerc"]I got a 250gb internal WD from Best Buy for like $80 after instant rebates, and the case was $50. Definitely a lot cheaper than buying a 250 external.[/quote3a6d719a8d]

80+50=130

<---320GB WD $120

pwned!

Congratulations?

I don't recommend using exclosures. The harddrive will be very fragile compared to normal external harddrives because they are built to withstand more shock.

I got a 250GB WD external a while back from dell for around $78

I got 2x300gb Maxtor 16mb cache drives for $60 each out the door at staples. 3 year warrenty on each

I made my external drive with a 400GB Seagate IDE HDD and an aluminum enclosure (USB2 & Firewire) for about $125 total.

I thought I had firewire on my computer, but i found out i dont....

Also, for those interested.. Here is a link to an article in popular mechanics on building your own harddrive.

http//www.popularmechanics.com/technology/computers/1926952.html

[quotec33f9929f7="ChaSongjo"]I don't recommend using exclosures. The harddrive will be very fragile compared to normal external harddrives because they are built to withstand more shock.[/quotec33f9929f7]
Disagree. Have you ever opened an external HD? They're pretty much exactly the same as a quality enclosure.

Now if you're buying the cheapest $19 enclosure and plan to move your drive around a lot while running, then maybe. But one of mine is an el-cheapo aluminum enclosure with a plastic drive tray that bends and flops the drive around inside the enclosure shell, and even it still works after several years of knocking around. My other enclosure is higher quality. Either way, I've never had a failure or even minor data corruption from an external enclosure.

As long as you're not jarring the drive while it's powered up and spinning, you can't hurt a HDD by routine bumping around. HDD's park the heads when powered down and are almost impossible to break or cause data problems with even routine abuse. Heck sometimes we lifixli HDD's with stuck actuator arms by dropping them from a 3-4 height onto the floor or hard tabletop several times. It's called GRM (Gravitational Repair Method). )