REQ: Need Advice On Buying External Hard Drive

I plan to spring for a new external hard drive (USB). Anyone care to
offer advice on what is good and what is not? What I should watch out
for good or bad?

250GB appeals to me.

Thanks

G

gecko <alpha@olympus.net> wrote:

> I plan to spring for a new external hard drive (USB). Anyone care to
> offer advice on what is good and what is not? What I should watch out
> for good or bad?
>
> 250GB appeals to me.

It's so cheap these days to need to watch out for anything. Well, may be
just stay away from Maxtor which I just don't have any luck with Maxtor hard
drive (now sold to Seagate so I am shy away from Seagate as well even I
never owned any Seagate .. may be 2.5" hard drive? or way back in 80's?).

My Maxtor story (or stories?), I started my first Maxtor somewhere in
mid-late 80's and got my first hard drive problem 4-5 months later, got the
replacement (I like no question asked policy) and 2nd Maxtor failure within
2-3 months, got 2nd replacement and failed again after 6-7 months. By that
time the price dropped so I didn't care for replacement but went for newer
and larger Maxtor (it coast $400-500 a pop then) and it failed after 5-6
months, then failed once more and I didn't care to get the replacement, but
switched to Western Digital and have been using WD ever since (but WD
warrantee policy suck big time, so I don't have much to sing about WD).

About 2-3 years ago I thought I would give Maxtor another try to see with
my own eyes after around 2 decades of technology and improvement, so I
bought a 250GB and it too failed after 2-3 months. Got the replacement and
failed again after about 1 month, but the drive is still usuable except
90-95+% it won't be recognized my CMOS. I can't use it on my system so I
installed on my grandkids system and the problem is still there for years.

Also, why 250GB when external 500GB is just around $100-130 (depending on
the sale), and if you don't like the pre-made external then you can buy your
own 3.5" enclosure and install the 3.5" HD yourself.

> Thanks
>
> G

On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 09:38:43 -0500, Joel <Joel@NoSpam.com> wrote:

>gecko <alpha@olympus.net> wrote:
>
>> I plan to spring for a new external hard drive (USB). Anyone care to
>> offer advice on what is good and what is not? What I should watch out
>> for good or bad?
>>
>> 250GB appeals to me.
>
> It's so cheap these days to need to watch out for anything. Well, may be
>just stay away from Maxtor which I just don't have any luck with Maxtor hard
>drive (now sold to Seagate so I am shy away from Seagate as well even I
>never owned any Seagate .. may be 2.5" hard drive? or way back in 80's?).
>
> My Maxtor story (or stories?), I started my first Maxtor somewhere in
>mid-late 80's and got my first hard drive problem 4-5 months later, got the
>replacement (I like no question asked policy) and 2nd Maxtor failure within
>2-3 months, got 2nd replacement and failed again after 6-7 months. By that
>time the price dropped so I didn't care for replacement but went for newer
>and larger Maxtor (it coast $400-500 a pop then) and it failed after 5-6
>months, then failed once more and I didn't care to get the replacement, but
>switched to Western Digital and have been using WD ever since (but WD
>warrantee policy suck big time, so I don't have much to sing about WD).
>
> About 2-3 years ago I thought I would give Maxtor another try to see with
>my own eyes after around 2 decades of technology and improvement, so I
>bought a 250GB and it too failed after 2-3 months. Got the replacement and
>failed again after about 1 month, but the drive is still usuable except
>90-95+% it won't be recognized my CMOS. I can't use it on my system so I
>installed on my grandkids system and the problem is still there for years.
>
> Also, why 250GB when external 500GB is just around $100-130 (depending on
>the sale), and if you don't like the pre-made external then you can buy your
>own 3.5" enclosure and install the 3.5" HD yourself.

I have an enclosure now, rather old. It works badly and so I thought
a new external, self contained, portable, would do better. My past
posts show my problems.

Thanks

G

On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 09:38:43 -0500, Joel <Joel@NoSpam.com>
wrote:

>gecko <alpha@olympus.net> wrote:
>
>> I plan to spring for a new external hard drive (USB). Anyone care to
>> offer advice on what is good and what is not? What I should watch out
>> for good or bad?
>>
>> 250GB appeals to me.
>
> It's so cheap these days to need to watch out for anything. Well, may be
>just stay away from Maxtor which I just don't have any luck with Maxtor hard
>drive (now sold to Seagate so I am shy away from Seagate as well even I
>never owned any Seagate .. may be 2.5" hard drive? or way back in 80's?).
>
> My Maxtor story (or stories?), I started my first Maxtor somewhere in
>mid-late 80's and got my first hard drive problem 4-5 months later, got the
>replacement (I like no question asked policy) and 2nd Maxtor failure within
>2-3 months, got 2nd replacement and failed again after 6-7 months. By that
>time the price dropped so I didn't care for replacement but went for newer
>and larger Maxtor (it coast $400-500 a pop then) and it failed after 5-6
>months, then failed once more and I didn't care to get the replacement, but
>switched to Western Digital and have been using WD ever since (but WD
>warrantee policy suck big time, so I don't have much to sing about WD).
>
> About 2-3 years ago I thought I would give Maxtor another try to see with
>my own eyes after around 2 decades of technology and improvement, so I
>bought a 250GB and it too failed after 2-3 months. Got the replacement and
>failed again after about 1 month, but the drive is still usuable except
>90-95+% it won't be recognized my CMOS. I can't use it on my system so I
>installed on my grandkids system and the problem is still there for years.

You have to be the one user in a billion who had this
happen. Statistics seem to imply certain generations of
Maxtor were worse than average but maybe 10% failure rate
not dropping like flies in months, over and over again.

That doesn't make WD a bad choice though, if it works for
you then it has proven itself acceptible.



>
> Also, why 250GB when external 500GB is just around $100-130 (depending on
>the sale), and if you don't like the pre-made external then you can buy your
>own 3.5" enclosure and install the 3.5" HD yourself.

More platters to reach higher capacity means more motor
wear, more motor power (driver circuit heat) and overall
more drive bearing and PCB heat... this being in an external
enclosure that is often passively cooled, will tend to
reduce it's lifespan.

Extending this, if the drive will be running for longer than
it takes to back up a few GB at a time, an enclosure with a
fan would be a good idea unless noise reduction is more
important than lifespan. Beyond that, there are several
alternatives and spot-pricing may reveal the best option/$,
though it is generally best to avoid generic products and
seek reviews on any potential candidates.

"gecko" <alpha@olympus.net> wrote in message
news:brjbi31h104pjde62ssph9mmmhs1bgthlp@4ax.com...
>I plan to spring for a new external hard drive (USB). Anyone care to
> offer advice on what is good and what is not? What I should watch out
> for good or bad?

Some USB disks spin down after a period of inactivity, others don't. Whether
you consider this to be a good thing or a bad thing depends on what you are
doing. I use Seagate USB disks at work which do spin down when not in use,
unbranded ones at home which don't. Also the power connector on the Seagate
looks to be a standard power connector which implies that if the power
supply died I would have a fighting change to get a replacement, the ones I
use at home use a very non-standard power supply connector.

Whatever you go for remember that you ought to make provision to back
everything up. If you are buying the usb disk for your backup then ensure
that you have at least two - and keep one off site (in your draw at work or
at home, for example).
--
Brian Cryer
www.cryer.co.uk/brian

On Oct 29, 12:45 pm, kony <s...@spam.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 09:38:43 -0500, Joel <J...@NoSpam.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> >gecko <al...@olympus.net> wrote:
>
> >> I plan to spring for a new external hard drive (USB). Anyone care to
> >> offer advice on what is good and what is not? What I should watch out
> >> for good or bad?
>
> >> 250GB appeals to me.
>
> > It's so cheap these days to need to watch out for anything. Well, may be
> >just stay away from Maxtor which I just don't have any luck with Maxtor hard
> >drive (now sold to Seagate so I am shy away from Seagate as well even I
> >never owned any Seagate .. may be 2.5" hard drive? or way back in 80's?).
>
> > My Maxtor story (or stories?), I started my first Maxtor somewhere in
> >mid-late 80's and got my first hard drive problem 4-5 months later, got the
> >replacement (I like no question asked policy) and 2nd Maxtor failure within
> >2-3 months, got 2nd replacement and failed again after 6-7 months. By that
> >time the price dropped so I didn't care for replacement but went for newer
> >and larger Maxtor (it coast $400-500 a pop then) and it failed after 5-6
> >months, then failed once more and I didn't care to get the replacement, but
> >switched to Western Digital and have been using WD ever since (but WD
> >warrantee policy suck big time, so I don't have much to sing about WD).
>
> > About 2-3 years ago I thought I would give Maxtor another try to see with
> >my own eyes after around 2 decades of technology and improvement, so I
> >bought a 250GB and it too failed after 2-3 months. Got the replacement and
> >failed again after about 1 month, but the drive is still usuable except
> >90-95+% it won't be recognized my CMOS. I can't use it on my system so I
> >installed on my grandkids system and the problem is still there for years.
>
> You have to be the one user in a billion who had this
> happen. Statistics seem to imply certain generations of
> Maxtor were worse than average but maybe 10% failure rate
> not dropping like flies in months, over and over again.
>
> That doesn't make WD a bad choice though, if it works for
> you then it has proven itself acceptible.
>
>
>
> > Also, why 250GB when external 500GB is just around $100-130 (depending on
> >the sale), and if you don't like the pre-made external then you can buy your
> >own 3.5" enclosure and install the 3.5" HD yourself.
>
> More platters to reach higher capacity means more motor
> wear, more motor power (driver circuit heat) and overall
> more drive bearing and PCB heat... this being in an external
> enclosure that is often passively cooled, will tend to
> reduce it's lifespan.
>
> Extending this, if the drive will be running for longer than
> it takes to back up a few GB at a time, an enclosure with a
> fan would be a good idea unless noise reduction is more
> important than lifespan. Beyond that, there are several
> alternatives and spot-pricing may reveal the best option/$,
> though it is generally best to avoid generic products and
> seek reviews on any potential candidates.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

What size is the drive that is in the tower now? Would you be better
off to buy a 500gb as an internal and take your present drive out,put
it in a Vantec NexStar3 inclosure and use that as your usb connected
storage drive? I am running a WD 80gb internal with a Maxtor 40gb in
the said inclosure and have been for years with no troubles. The
Maxtor was my internal for 7 years with no problems. Just a thought. -J

jinxy <willandsue@rogers.com> wrote:

<snip>
> What size is the drive that is in the tower now? Would you be better
> off to buy a 500gb as an internal and take your present drive out,put
> it in a Vantec NexStar3 inclosure and use that as your usb connected
> storage drive? I am running a WD 80gb internal with a Maxtor 40gb in
> the said inclosure and have been for years with no troubles. The
> Maxtor was my internal for 7 years with no problems. Just a thought. -J

You are still using 40GB and 80GB these days? My current system has (3)
300GB 7200 WD and (1) external 500GB SATA, and I am still fighting to free
up more disk space.

I am using VENUS D53 enclosure and it seems working fine. I don't know if
there is any better now, but it was one of the top choices when I bought it
(and had to pay little extra for it comparing to many others).

gecko <alpha@olympus.net> wrote:

<snip>
> > Also, why 250GB when external 500GB is just around $100-130 (depending on
> >the sale), and if you don't like the pre-made external then you can buy your
> >own 3.5" enclosure and install the 3.5" HD yourself.
>
> I have an enclosure now, rather old. It works badly and so I thought
> a new external, self contained, portable, would do better. My past
> posts show my problems.

Well, either way you still end up with an 3.5" hard drive inside an
enclosure, so either you have some manufacture puts some specific 3.5" hard
drive inside 3.5" enclosure for you, or you buy and do yourself.

One of the reasons I don't buy the pre-assembled external hard drive cuz I
don't know if the hard drive is a normal IDE/SATA hard drive that we can
install on computer as internal, or a special design for specific external
case????

> Thanks

On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 17:33:02 -0000, "Brian Cryer"
<brian.cryer@127.0.0.1.ntlworld.com> wrote:

>"gecko" <alpha@olympus.net> wrote in message
>news:brjbi31h104pjde62ssph9mmmhs1bgthlp@4ax.com.. .
>>I plan to spring for a new external hard drive (USB). Anyone care to
>> offer advice on what is good and what is not? What I should watch out
>> for good or bad?
>
>Some USB disks spin down after a period of inactivity, others don't. Whether
>you consider this to be a good thing or a bad thing depends on what you are
>doing. I use Seagate USB disks at work which do spin down when not in use,
>unbranded ones at home which don't. Also the power connector on the Seagate
>looks to be a standard power connector which implies that if the power
>supply died I would have a fighting change to get a replacement, the ones I
>use at home use a very non-standard power supply connector.
>
>Whatever you go for remember that you ought to make provision to back
>everything up. If you are buying the usb disk for your backup then ensure
>that you have at least two - and keep one off site (in your draw at work or
>at home, for example).


Given a soldering iron, solder, a short length of wire and
some heatshrink tubing, you could drill a hole in the
enclosure casing and install a female socket which matches
whichever connector is on the replacement PSU you'd buy if
the need arose. Granted this seems like a lot of work, but
maybe about 5 minutes which could be less time than it would
take looking around for a PSU with a special connector.

On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 13:47:18 -0500, Joel <Joel@NoSpam.com> wrote:

>gecko <alpha@olympus.net> wrote:
>
><snip>
>> > Also, why 250GB when external 500GB is just around $100-130 (depending on
>> >the sale), and if you don't like the pre-made external then you can buy your
>> >own 3.5" enclosure and install the 3.5" HD yourself.
>>
>> I have an enclosure now, rather old. It works badly and so I thought
>> a new external, self contained, portable, would do better. My past
>> posts show my problems.
>
> Well, either way you still end up with an 3.5" hard drive inside an
>enclosure, so either you have some manufacture puts some specific 3.5" hard
>drive inside 3.5" enclosure for you, or you buy and do yourself.
>
> One of the reasons I don't buy the pre-assembled external hard drive cuz I
>don't know if the hard drive is a normal IDE/SATA hard drive that we can
>install on computer as internal, or a special design for specific external
>case????

Yah - I guess I would not know that either. I just figured that just
maybe my past problems might have something to do with the box
circuitry and connections. When I sometimes disconnect said
connections and then re-connect them again, and the thing starts
working, then I figure something might be ornery there.

Thanks again
G