suggestions for an external hard drive?

TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- USA - West Coast / Las Vegas
-- suggestions for an external hard drive?
Pages (2): [1] 2 »

Posted by bucke on Aug-01-2007 15:24:

suggestions for an external hard drive?

well i seem to be running out of space on my hard drive due to a bad downloading habit which has gotten worse over the past couple of months. so i want an external hard drive with a lot of space maybe around 500-800gb but i've been reading some reviews about some being unstable and all. can anyone recommend a good brand/model? possibly for a decent price also?

Posted by skell on Aug-01-2007 15:51:

I'm getting a Drobo soon. Read around the interwebs for all the buzz surrounding it. It's quite a nice setup.

Posted by bucke on Aug-01-2007 16:05:

yeah looks like a cool concept. so its basically like a management device for 4 other internal hard drives? how stable is it? its pretty pricey $500 for the drobo plus i'd have to buy the internal drives. this thing doesn't have any space on it by itself right?

Posted by |Thrax| on Aug-01-2007 16:25:

drobo is sweeet.
damnit we gotta stop trying to sell the kid shit he doesnt need..

Frys:
External Harddrive enclosure - $59
Segate 750GB ATA - $200ish or less

Or:
Buy a Seagate whatever
Lacie whatever

They are all the same.

Posted by bucke on Aug-01-2007 16:29:

whats an external hard drive enclosure? do i need an enclosure if i buy an ext hard drive?

Posted by skell on Aug-01-2007 16:32:

lol, sorry...i didnt see the 'decent price' part in his original post.

bucke: what's cool about drobo is that it'll work with as little as one drive (though having at least 2 makes obvious sense) and you can keep scaling it as sata drives get bigger and cheaper. i think this solution will work for me for years to come and i would definitely suggest it if you're looking for a solid long-term solution.

but yeah, i don't like buying external drive after external drive. it gets old and sloppy. =/ ... but take thrax's advice if you're on a tight budget ;]

Posted by Isolator on Aug-01-2007 16:32:

A friend just bought this and is really happy with it. I had been looking at picking one up... price is rediculously low.

http://www.amazon.com/Iomega-Limite...85222887&sr=8-1

Posted by skell on Aug-01-2007 16:35:

quote:
Originally posted by bucke
whats an external hard drive enclosure? do i need an enclosure if i buy an ext hard drive?

an external enclosure allows you to put an internal drive into it's (bare) case, which then allows you to connect the drive via USB2. it's basically a do it yourself external storage option. but be careful, there are many shit enclosures out there that are loud or run too hot if left on all the time.

if you have a little more to spend, i'd say get a reputable external drive off of newegg.com

Posted by |Thrax| on Aug-01-2007 16:38:

Buy what he just posted, that is a great deal.

out.

Posted by Isolator on Aug-01-2007 16:47:

FYI, looks like Amazon has a 500GB Iomega for only $119 too.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...rd_i=B000HI7P0I

Posted by skell on Aug-01-2007 16:48:

quote:
Originally posted by Isolator
FYI, looks like Amazon has a 500GB Iomega for only $119 too.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...rd_i=B000HI7P0I

holy christ! that's tempting.

bucke: you should do that for sure.

Posted by skell on Aug-01-2007 16:51:

ok, maybe i havent checked prices in a while, but the amazon deal is similar to a 500GB Maxtor on newegg for about the same price.

you have options.

Posted by CND on Aug-01-2007 16:58:

I have two Western Digital 500GB which I purchased from Costco. I have all my music on one and use the other as a backup that I keep at my office. Just in case . . .

Easy to use. Memory is so cheap these days.

Good luck.

Posted by GPC on Aug-01-2007 17:02:

quote:
Originally posted by skizzell
I'm getting a Drobo soon. Read around the interwebs for all the buzz surrounding it. It's quite a nice setup.

That is sweet. I need one. I'm about maxed out at 750GB right now. All music and pics.

Posted by bucke on Aug-01-2007 22:42:

i'll probably look for one at fry's this weekend. i don't like buying this type of stuff online this way if its defective or it breaks down i can return it instead of having to deal with shipping it back and forth. that drobo looks really tempting but i'm just not willing to go all out right now.

Posted by RobertStern on Aug-01-2007 22:49:

quote:
Originally posted by bucke
i'll probably look for one at fry's this weekend. i don't like buying this type of stuff online this way if its defective or it breaks down i can return it instead of having to deal with shipping it back and forth. that drobo looks really tempting but i'm just not willing to go all out right now.

Buying an external enclosure and then the hd is a bad idea.... you are going to spend way more $$ and the enclosure designs suck unless you spend a lot.

Bro, don't waster your time!!!

just go here: Office MAX good till Saturday, but I would go fast, they have already sold out online, but most stores still have them in stock

Maxtor 750GB External $189.99

LINK

If you are too late, go to Best Buy, they have the Western Digital 500GB My Book external for $129 till saturday.

Western Digital is pretty much the best quality out there.

Posted by RobertStern on Aug-01-2007 22:54:

quote:
Originally posted by skizzell
I'm getting a Drobo soon. Read around the interwebs for all the buzz surrounding it. It's quite a nice setup.

if you got money to blow, Drobo is pretty cool... But you could build a Server for that price that you could do a hell of alot more with and still do everythign the DROBO does.

just seems super duper way too expensive... It should be like $200

Posted by RobertStern on Aug-01-2007 23:05:

Found some More SICK DEALS!!!

IOMEGA 1TB $249.99

I have bought a lot of stuff from J&R, really good company.

Fantom (Apple Mac Tower Looking) 1TB $269.99 - $30 Rebate = $239.99

Buy.com ultra reliable!!

Maxtor 750 GB $199

Seagate 750GB $215

IOMEGA 500GB $109

Western Digital 500GB My Book $129 Circuit City

If you can't find what you want here, you are on crack! You won't find better prices, trust me!

Posted by progressiveMOJO on Aug-02-2007 00:11:

western digital makes really good externals that are usually pretty cheap. I got a 250gb drive for $70 back at Christmas, saw a 500gb drive advertized for $130 recently.

The other option is to buy an internal drive from one of those companies (super cheap these days) and get an enclosure for it, which is like $20-30. Dunno how that affects speed, it's probably a bit slower but in the end that's essentially the same thing you're buying.

I wouldn't buy from any company other than Seagate, maxtor, or WD. With hard drives, reliability is #1 priority.

Posted by in2muzikk on Aug-02-2007 15:30:

Make sure to check out the warranty offered by those companies too, some are only giving 90 days now (which says to me that they expect the shit to break soon after 3 months). I've read that the LaCie externals have very good drives, but extremely cheap circuit boards, and that's usually what fails. If you need to send it back, good luck getting any data back!

CMS Peripherals offers a number of different backup options:

http://www.cmsproducts.com/products_backup.htm

My 250GB external (which is a few years old now) came with an internal cooling fan (which most brands don't offer since it costs more money) and a 3-year manufacturer's warranty! Also includes very easy backup software that backs up my entire C: drive and allows me to boot from the external to run Windows if C: should fail.

Bottom line is to never rely on a single hard drive, all of them will fail eventually, it's just a matter of when. Hopefully a company that backs its products up with a 3-year warranty is building them to last though.

Posted by bas on Aug-03-2007 03:08:

I would suggest looking into an external network drive. Basically it just plugs into an available port on your router and acts as a file server. This way multiple computers on the same network can connect to it.

Of course if your network security is vulnerable then anyone on the outside can hack into it just like they would a computer.

Posted by R!CH on Aug-03-2007 03:10:

seagate makes the best hard drives in the world, period. they've been consistently setting all the new benchmarks and records in the data storage industry for years. i just bought 2 500gb seagates, they're at $100 now. 5gb/dollar, can't beat that!

Posted by RobertStern on Aug-05-2007 02:18:

FOR SALE: SEAGATE 400GB $80

Posted by bucke on Aug-05-2007 04:02:

just bought a 750gb seagate drive from frys. works fine so far hope it holds up to its reputation.

Posted by progressiveMOJO on Aug-05-2007 04:53:

quote:
Originally posted by lex400sc
seagate makes the best hard drives in the world, period. they've been consistently setting all the new benchmarks and records in the data storage industry for years. i just bought 2 500gb seagates, they're at $100 now. 5gb/dollar, can't beat that!

this is definitely 100% true for internal drives. Seagate is the only brand I'll ever buy, they're quiet (hard drives can make more noise than people realize), realllllly reliable, fast, and cheap. Quadruple threat.

now, I haven't researched as deeply into it for externals, but I can't imagine that the company makes anything other than great drives.

Pages (2): [1] 2 »