External hard drives 2424 Responses

Last post: 3 months, 3 weeks ago | Thread started: Jul 28, 08, 4:10 a.m.

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• alexand

  What external HDD do you guys use for backup? I want it to be safe, so thinking I'd like it to have RAID 1. I've been looking at:

  Iomega
  LaCie
  Maxtor
  Western Digital

  and don't know what is more reliable etc etc etc. Ideas?

  Jul 28, 08, 4:10 a.m. – Permalink

• set

  Freecom Freecom Freecom!

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 4:11 a.m. – Permalink

• eatbreathdrive

  I have one 750 G Lacie and another 260 or so G's Lacie again, pretty reliable so far, still, dont forget to burn some dvds and place them in a good environment, HD's, internal/external, cds/dvds, they all die in time eventually.

  • Yeah, that's why I wanted RAID 1. I don't want to loose anything.– alexand1/2

    ... and yeah. I should probably backup old projects to DVD.– alexand2/2

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 4:13 a.m. – Permalink

• alexand

  Hench.

  I actually looked at them too. Was thinking of this: http://www.freecom.com/ecproduct…

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 4:13 a.m. – Permalink

• digdre

  I have a 320Gb HDD from toshiba (2,5") for backups
  and a 160gb from laCie (2") with my design stuff/movies/..

  • 2" drive, do they make them? I thought they were normally 2.5" or 3.5"?!?– alexand1/3

    2.5" laptop size
    3.5" desktop size– alexand2/3

    and 1.8" in some LaCies– ribit3/3

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 4:14 a.m. – Permalink

• set

  alexand.

  I'd definitely recommend that Freecom 1TB.

  I have two Freecom 500GBs and a portable 160gb, they work seemlessly with OS X, they are quiet, stay cool, have a decent ransfer weight and thus far have been 100% reliable

  • Plus they look pretty cool– set1/3

    Transfer Rate* lol– set2/3

    It's a shame the Freecom 1TB Data Tank is out of stock.– alexand3/3

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 4:17 a.m. – Permalink

• broxybluenose

  LACie

  • Every had any problems?– alexand1/2

    I have had some problems with LACie, still good– PSYKHO2/2

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 4:26 a.m. – Permalink

• alexand

  I was thinking of this LaCie.

  http://www.lacie.com/products/pr…

  Anyone had any experience with it?

  • mine have held up perfectly for 4 years. i have one of the porsche models.
    *knock on wood.– bulletfactory

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 4:35 a.m. – Permalink

• Arran

  I know of a few people whose Lacies have conked out without warning, so beware. Having said that, i did invest in one myself... just making sure i back up the back up too.

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 4:58 a.m. – Permalink

• ribit

  If you want it as networked storage, I can recommend these:
  http://www.synology.com

  You have to buy drives separately... 1TB Western Digital SATA 10EACS are good value.

  • this one:
    http://www.synology.…
    – ribit

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 5:14 a.m. – Permalink

• fodcj

  Western Digital are wank for Mac's. I have a Time Capsule which seems ok.

  

  • far too pricey I thought– set1/2

    ... and I don't want this HDD for Time Machine. I want an external HDD with RAID 1 for security.– alexand2/2

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 5:15 a.m. – Permalink

• ribit

  If you are using RAID 1 or RAID 5 or even just backing up the same stuff to two drives it doesn't really matter if the drive is unreliable (only one is likely to break at a time, you just replace it), just go for a good deal on a good brand (I think Western Digital or Seagate win)

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 5:16 a.m. – Permalink

• enjine

  seagate

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 5:16 a.m. – Permalink

• thumb_screws

  I've found the Lacie's to be pretty reliable.

  Steer clear of Iomega found them terrible (drives and their customer service). Bought an Iomega Ultramax 1TB, crashed with in 5 months of purchase and was a shit fight with Iomega to get a replacement. Finally sent a replacement and the replacement fucked out after 2 months. Still in the process of getting them to give us our money back.

  Having said that we have an Iomega Ultramax 1TB that was we bought a few years ago and its still running a treat (touch wood). The build Quality on the new one we purchased was shoddy compared to the old one so might have something to do with who Iomega are using to build the drives.

  Bought a Seagate Free agent pro to replace the Iomega after reading up on them.
  Seagate and Western Digital seem to be the winners.

  My advice is to read as many reviews on whatever drive you go for.

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 5:21 a.m. – Permalink

• formed

  Maxtor - got 6 externals, two internals, never a problem. I've used these for years, backup software works fairly well.

  Got a Lacie and Western Digital (laptop external drives) that have been good too.

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 5:23 a.m. – Permalink

• Stugoo

  got a western digital one. its spot on, totally reliable, recommended by some geeky mates.
  never had an issue.

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 5:56 a.m. – Permalink

• cochino

  Western Digital.

  I've got two of them, 250GB (USB/FW400/800) and My Book Studio Edition 1TB (USB/FW800/eSATA). No problems here. Thou, the spindown time could be bit longer or spinup faster.

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 5:58 a.m. – Permalink

• albo

  I'd recommend Seagate because of their 5 Year Warranty.

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 6:01 a.m. – Permalink

• canuck

  I have a simpleTech, 500gb been working good so far

  Not the one I have, but this looks pretty damn cool

  http://www.simpletech.com/produc…

  • This is the one I have
    http://www.simpletec…– canuck

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 6:03 a.m. – Permalink

• Jaline

  WD. And I use a Mac.

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 6:37 a.m. – Permalink

• i_monk

  I just got a Seagate Free Agent Pro 500gb and reformatted it for Mac.

  All the reviews I've read about Western Digital were terrible, so I avoided them.

  • Really? I heard Lacie is the worst. WD is in the middle somewhere. And Seagate is probably best.– Jaline

  

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  Dog-earJul 28, 08, 6:45 a.m. – Permalink