Best external Hard Drive? [Archive]

zim

Nov 4, 2005, 07:49 PM

I have had a lot of luck with the D2 series from Lacie (http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10511). Currently I have 2 of them, a 160GB and a 200GB, and am looking at purchasing a 3rd, 250GB. The new ones have a triple interface, USB 2.0, Firewire 400 and Firewire 800, so they work great for daisy chaining too.

oops... I missed the whole part about <100. Honestly, you should buy buy a drive at least capable of backing up your entire primary drive, if that is what you will be using it for. You should be on the look out for a 5200 rpm set up, any faster and you will be putting out my cash.

CanadaRAM

Nov 4, 2005, 08:38 PM

Under $100? You'll have a hard time finding a new one at the price.
Over 20 Gb -- the minimum size these days is 80 Gb.
You can look for sales on the Acomdata external hard drive -- if you have a local store that's advertising a sale on the "USB2" 160 Gb Acomdata, ask them to open the box for you. You'll probably see it has a Firewire connection as well as a USB2 connection.

Otherwise, buy an external Firewire case for US$40 - $50, and install the IDE (Parallel ATA) hard drive of your choice, new or used whatever you can find in your budget range.

Laser47

Nov 4, 2005, 08:54 PM

I find it cheaper if you buy a hdd and a exclosure seperately. Ive seen a 160, 7200rpm hard drive in a compusa paper for 60$ and you can get a firewire enclosure for around 40$.

asherman13

Nov 4, 2005, 08:54 PM

Otherwise, buy an external Firewire case for US$40 - $50, and install the IDE (Parallel ATA) hard drive of your choice, new or used whatever you can find in your budget range.

a firewire case/enclosure? how does that work?

----

would that (total) cost <100$?

CanadaRAM

Nov 4, 2005, 08:57 PM

would that (total) cost <100$?
Depends entirely on how good a sale you can find on a hard drive mechanism of sufficient size for your liking.

Installing the drive is a matter of 2 minutes and a screwdriver.

EricBrian

Nov 4, 2005, 09:02 PM

I find it cheaper if you buy a hdd and a exclosure seperately. Ive seen a 160, 7200rpm hard drive in a compusa paper for 60$ and you can get a firewire enclosure for around 40$.

That is what I did and it works GREAT! :)

EricBrian

Nov 4, 2005, 09:10 PM

I got a case like this one:
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=50137257&pfp=SEARCH

But, it wasn't that expensive. Got it from CompUSA.

And then, I bought a 200 GB drive.

Works like a charm and is VERY fast.

EricNau

Nov 4, 2005, 09:17 PM

I hear LaCie is good.
Here's one (http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/72603/wo/MZ7khXub5tbw28UPw1k100ebTc5/3.SLID?mco=97125559&nplm=TD269LL%2FA) that fit your description (kinda).

This one is nice because it's small (tape cassette sized), lightweight, uses both USB & Firewire, and I think best of all it doesn't require a power adaptor.

Flyinace2000

Nov 4, 2005, 10:41 PM

I also built my own drive. Check new egg for a FW/USB2.0 enclosure and wait for a good deal on a hard drive. I got a 200 gig external drive set up for just under 100 bucks. Works like a champ. Has OSX installed on it with discwarrior and some other Rescue stuff. It has saved my butt twice for repairing my interal drive.

EricBrian

Nov 4, 2005, 10:58 PM

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=SY-UEN-3MYS-AL&cat=HDD

~Shard~

Nov 4, 2005, 11:03 PM

Sorry, I'm too lazy right now to do it for you, but search for "enclosure", "HDD", "hard drive" and "external" in various combinations in the Forums and you'll find a myriad of threads which already discuss the pros and cons of external HDs versus HD enclosures, and so forth. Hopefully that will be some help to you as well. :cool:

Michael7k

Nov 4, 2005, 11:59 PM

i'm looking for a decent firewire external HD for me to backup my ipod videos onto. any recommendations for +20GB, <$100, external hard drive?

Macworld Dec 05 issue mentioned the Black Series Triple Interface as desktop hard drive while portable went to LaCie design by FA Porsche. The article was of interest as I also have been looking for an external hard drive.

Good luck in your search.

http://www.iomega.com/direct/products/family.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=27290767&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=20125151&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=63191&bmUID=1131169296937

CanadaRAM

Nov 5, 2005, 12:17 AM

Macworld Dec 05 issue mentioned the Black Series Triple Interface as desktop hard drive while portable went to LaCie design by FA Porsche. The article was of interest as I also have been looking for an external hard drive.

Good luck in your search.

http://www.iomega.com/direct/products/family.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=27290767&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=20125151&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=63191&bmUID=1131169296937
Yeah... but the smallest iOmega is almost double the OP's budget.

Can't follow the Apple store link on the LaCie Pocket drive, but Apple sells the 40 Gb LaCie FW & USB 2.5" drive for US$119

~Shard~

Nov 5, 2005, 12:42 AM

One note that I like to make when people are discussing Lacie drives, is that Lacie does not actually manufacture their own hard drives. They put everything together, and come up with a great complete package for the most part, don't get me wrong, however many people have the misunderstanding that Lacie actually makes hard drives - they don't. Pop open a Lacie drive and you will most likely find a Maxtor or Seagate drive inside.

Just wanted to mention that for what it's worth. :cool:

balamw

Nov 5, 2005, 12:47 AM

They put everything together, and come up with a great complete package
Sounds familiar, isn't that largely what Apple does in many areas too?

In this case though the main issue is thermal management and LaCie does a fairly decent job of keeping their external drives cool and functioning at their peak. This is harder to achieve with a cheap plastic enclosure.

B

~Shard~

Nov 5, 2005, 12:50 AM

Sounds familiar, isn't that largely what Apple does in many areas too?

Absolutely, that was my point. Apple themselves do not make any of the components inside their machines, but look at the final product. :cool:

In this case though the main issue is thermal management and LaCie does a fairly decent job of keeping their external drives cool and functioning at their peak. This is harder to achieve with a cheap plastic enclosure.

Yes, they do indeed do a good job. And yes, it's harder to achieve with a "cheap plastic enclosure" - hence why it makes good sense not to buy something cheap like this, and buy a high quality one. ;) It is no different than buying a high quality external drive rather than a cheap one, it's just common sense. :cool:

Marky_Mark

Nov 5, 2005, 04:14 AM

EricNau

Nov 5, 2005, 12:37 PM

http://www.datakits.co.uk/store/index.php/cPath/90_168?osCsid=440eb8155b99add5a87bdb60b27c693f

I know it's not Firewire, but Freecom's 250GB USB2 drive rocks! I've got one and it's great. Cheap too - about £100 in the UK would translate into about $100 in US in my experience.
I just used the converter widget, 100 UK would be $178.55 in the USA.
(How can I make the pound symbol, that is the pound, right??)

Nikore

Nov 5, 2005, 12:50 PM

I personaly own one of these, and I really like mines! http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/

sjpetry

Nov 5, 2005, 02:08 PM

I just used the converter widget, 100 UK would be $178.55 in the USA.
(How can I make the pound symbol, that is the pound, right??)
He doesn't mean a direct conversion. Electronics are generally cheaper in the US.

Marky_Mark

Nov 5, 2005, 03:06 PM

I just used the converter widget, 100 UK would be $178.55 in the USA.
(How can I make the pound symbol, that is the pound, right??)

Yep, that's a Pound Sterling sign - dunno how you'd make the symbol on anything other than a Uk keyboard. Shift 3 for me.

You have to remember that prices of electrical goods isn't just a straight conversion at the prevailing exchange rate. Electrical goods are just cheaper in the US, and it's often (very unfairly) a there-or-thereabouts £ --> $ swap. That's why NYC is flooded with Brits at Christmas time. Shopping, man, shopping!

EricNau

Nov 5, 2005, 03:15 PM

Yep, that's a Pound Sterling sign - dunno how you'd make the symbol on anything other than a Uk keyboard. Shift 3 for me.

You have to remember that prices of electrical goods isn't just a straight conversion at the prevailing exchange rate. Electrical goods are just cheaper in the US, and it's often (very unfairly) a there-or-thereabouts £ --> $ swap. That's why NYC is flooded with Brits at Christmas time. Shopping, man, shopping!
oh, I see. I had no idea, thanks Marky_Mark and sjpetry

If you use Shift 3 to get the Pound sign? How did you get the "$" sign?
I didn't realize that keyboards were that different. I just assumed that the "$" on my keyboard would be replaced with the "£" on your keyboard.
(I used copy & paste to get it that time ;) )

EDIT: I just looked online - wow, all of your symbols are in different places! I kinda like yours more.

Marky_Mark

Nov 5, 2005, 03:16 PM

$ = Shift 4

EricNau

Nov 5, 2005, 03:19 PM

$ = Shift 4
This is probably a stupid question, but why do you need the "$" in the UK?

Marky_Mark

Nov 5, 2005, 03:22 PM

So I can talk to people in California! Bet the weather's nice there - it's ***** here :D

asherman13

Nov 5, 2005, 03:33 PM

So I can talk to people in California! Bet the weather's nice there - it's ***** here :D

it's quite nice, thanks :p

not to, ah, digress from this interesting discussion on keyboards but...

alas, i don't have usb2.0, i'm stuck with 1.1 (and it sucks when you have a 5G ipod, but its worth it). also, i'd like to be able to boot off of the drive and have some quick transfer speeds for when i'm backing up my handbraked DVDs.

anyways, i think that what i'm going to end up doing is cannabalizing a newer HD from an old, unused pc and putting it in a firewire enclosure. that should work, right?

EricNau

Nov 5, 2005, 03:47 PM

So I can talk to people in California! Bet the weather's nice there - it's ***** here :D
Oh, how nice. Guess I can't talk to people in the UK :(
Actually they weather isn't good hear at all. It's P Cloudy & 66 degrees F (19 C). There is rain and more clouds in the forecast for Sacramento, CA.

asherman13

Nov 5, 2005, 03:54 PM

Oh, how nice. Guess I can't talk to people in the UK :(
Actually they weather isn't good hear at all. It's P Cloudy & 66 degrees F (19 C). There is rain and more clouds in the forecast for Sacramento, CA.

well, it's pretty nice over here in the north bay...63?F, granted, but it's sunny! rain tomorrow and monday though...:(

EricNau

Nov 5, 2005, 03:58 PM

well, it's pretty nice over here in the north bay...63?F, granted, but it's sunny! rain tomorrow and monday though...:(
Sun would be nice. 60ish degrees isn't that bad, but it's the sun I want!

Marky_Mark

Nov 5, 2005, 05:33 PM

EricNau

Nov 6, 2005, 01:10 AM

Fantastic - we've completely totalled this thread and turned it into the global weather channel!

You guys in CA, you don't know when you've got it good. We've had gales, 8*C and driving rain for most of the last couple of days in the west of England.

So, anyone, how's it lookin' in Tokyo and Sydney?! :D
Weather Widget Says...
Tokyo - 15*C, raining, sun w/ partial cloud all next week
Sydney - 22*C, Partially cloudy, P Cloudy all next week
:p ;)

ddrueckhammer

Nov 6, 2005, 02:33 AM

Concerning the original question...

I have a LaCie D2 250 GB and a Maxtor One-Touch series of the same size. Both are solid hard drives and neither has died in the 1 year and a half I have owned them so I can't say that one is better than another. The D2 has the triple interface which is nice for hooking up to my girlfriends 17" Powerbook with FW 800 though.

The post earlier suggesting that you build your own external with a drive enclosure is a good way to save money and I would recommend it, but if you don't want to mess with that or want something that will work garanteed out of the box then I would recommend one of the above drives or possibly the an Other World Computing Mercury Elite drive as they did well in the recent reviews in MacWorld.

Also, there is quite a price range in these drives depending on what connections/storage capacity you choose. Another really cool thing that just came out are Network drives that can be accessed wirelessly from any computer with an 802.11 card. My dad purchased a Hawking network drive enclosure and I was able to network to it without a problem. Transfer times do tend to be slower than with firewire or USB 2.0 though....