External Hard Drive Recommendations

[benjamming]

I've been searching for 7200 rpm & USB 3.0 but are there more important factors? My new laptop HDD is 500GB. See a better external hard drive somewhere else? I think that I like the 2.5" form factor.
Hitachi 500GB from Newegg
Hitachi 500GB
7200 rpm
USB 3.0
2.5" form factor
2-year warranty
Cloud backup included as well
$108 with shipping

Now for larger form factor options. If I went this route, It would stay on the desk in the study.
This particular one seems to be the least expensive but most reviews indicate the drive arrives dead on arrival b/c of mfg issue not being plugged into panel but a simple fix. It's bigger, but the HDD in the laptop is only 500GB.
Eagle Tech 2TB from Newegg
Eagle Tech 2TB
7200 rpm
USB 3.0
3.5" form factor
1-year warranty
$133 with shipping

I think that this one from Seagate would be a better backup drive in the larger form factor. However, there seem to be quite a few concerns of what the specs really are. Some say it's not 7200rpm or it's not USB 3.0, etc.
Seagate 1TB from Newegg
Seagate 1TB
7200 rpm
USB 3.0 (? - picture on Newegg is of USB2.0 drive per Seagate pictures)
3.5" form factor
2-year warranty
$147 with shipping

Thanks for the help.

 

[cchase]

The other advantage of the 2.5" drives is that most of the 3.5" drives require a power supply. As you've noticed, they are more expensive on a /gb basis.

I've had great luck with Hitachi drives, for what it's worth.

If you don't have a USB 3.0 port on your computer, having a 3.0 drive isn't going to get you anywhere.

 

[benjamming]

Laptop has (1) USB 3.0 port. It's a Toshiba Qosmio model X770-BT5G24. Good point on the external power source required for the 3.5" drives.

 

[bepperb]

I have a Seagate 500mb external drive. The box said usb 2, with a sticker saying USB 3, and it's usb3.

I know this probably adds confusion, but I think it's likely they switched controllers without changing packaging and model numbers.

I wanted 2.5 because I didn't want a power brick. I have a neoprene case that holds the drive and the cord I can fit in a pocket. I use a lot of Hitachi drives and like them as well.

 

[Donald]

What are you storing on the external drive? Backups of your main HD or things like pics? If its more than backups, then in my estimation it needs to be a RAID setup. I have lost stuff on an external HD. Now I have RAID 1.

 

[JHZR2]

Any recommendations on a 2.5" type drive bigger than the 500MB?

Would love 2TB, but not sure they exist.

Any benefit to the bigger drives at this point? I suppose so if buying one of the ultra-long runtime server drives, but otherwise, anything? I need no real speed, would just use it to archive and leave offsite, like in a safe deposit box.

 

[PandaBear]

Hard drive capacity is usually limited by magnetic density and read/write head sensitivity.

If you look at the size of a 2.5" vs 3.5" you will see a significant platter size and thickness difference. I haven't yet seen any 2.5" drive with more than 2 platter but it is very common on 3.5" to have 3-4 (even 5 in some extremely high capacity one).

So no, you won't find anything 2.5" bigger than 1/3 of the largest capacity 3.5" of the same era, regardless of cost.

 

[CBR.worm]

Seagate has a USB 3.0 1.5TB 2.5 inch drive, although it is not very fast. about 3x the speed of USB 2.0 limits, but not as fast as the seagate free agent desk drives.

The Freeagent desk drives that I have bought have come with 5,900 rpm drives in the 2tb models which are actually very high throughput - just 20msec access time. a benefit is they run cool.

I have a number of the 3TB Go flex desks that all have 7200 RPM drives in them - ST3300651AS's to be exact. 2 of them are very fast 1 of them has different firmware that slowed the seeks down from 13msec to 20msec. They get pretty hot and I am concerned about their long term reliability. The newer, squarer case style has the slower firmware and better cooling.

The 1tB seagates I bought were 7,200rpm, but that could have been luck of the draw.

WD external drives are almost all 'Green' drives which I have not had good luck with. One time I got one that had a WD2001FASS drive in it which was very fast.

If you can wait, prices are at an all time high right now. Hopefully in a few months they will drop back to reasonable levels.

 

[JHZR2]

I have to say that if the OS supports and budget allows, this is a pretty, portable HDD:

It has an SATA to USB cable, not sure if it is USB 3.0. But it looks nice

 

[2Fast4U]

Look into home NAS drive. Picked one up 2 months ago and loving it. Works great with laptops and tablets.

 

[crinkles]

http://www.verbatim.com.au/en_AU/product...otes/asset/7718

I paid $80 today for one of these. Being the end of the year I change my external backup drive - every 2 years to buy some insurance. My previous one was a WD 3.5" 500 GB with power brick - extremely annoying.
The new one is only USB 2 put it is a pocket sized 2.5" 500 GB.

I need to backup pictures, music, documents... nothing teachnically challenging but important nonetheless.

Any tip[s for backup software? I have Vista 64 bit.

 

[Donald]

I use to use Ghost and do full image backups. With Win 7 a equivalent backup is free. Main point is do not have anything important to you stored only in ONE place.

 

[Mustang_Cougar]

I've been using two 1TB WD Passport 3.0 SE's for about three months now as back-up storage for our server and they've been great. Unfortunately, I see that prices have went through the roof of late...I think I paid ~$80 or so from Staples, but Amazon now lists them for $138 (ouch!).

Anyway, if you do go w/Staples, shoot me a PM and I can give you a $25 OFF $100 coupon code (online/phone orders only); I get these things all the time for my business account and hardly ever use them.

M_C

 

[PSS]

A flood in Thailand a few months ago created a big shortage in hard drives. The price has gone through the roof!