Best external Hard drive

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...f=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1247278564&sr=1-16

Western Digital 1TB drive is great.

I recommend Western Digital personally

I use the 1TB MyBook with Firewire

Woof, Woof - Dawg

As much as I was happy buying a G-Tech, I bought my G-Raid was the assumption that one of my other drives would fail like I read about online, every drive I have owned has worked flawlessly, so for me the G-Tech was not really completely worth it.

But everyone has their own experiences, but I imagine that most of them are positive. Sure, there are these threads about how person x's drive failed and person y wouldn't buy anything but them. I own three drives that there are plenty of horror stories about.

No one (except MacDawg) would ever post: "I love my Western Digital 1TB Drive", unless someone posts a horror story about one. Companies ship tons of drives daily, not everyone will be perfect.

The best advice is to find one that has a good warranty and excellent customer service. And then avoid reading these threads so you don't lose any sleep.

Or you could be OCD, anal and paranoid like me and have two back-up drives...

1TB is prbly a good size to start at it, I would say most people looking for non-mobile externals start at that size, here is a recent thread about that...
More literature found here.
Here, is another thread on 1TB Hard Drives
This one is about LaCie...
Here is another, there is some more discussion about LaCie in there...
Here is one on USB 1TB, I'd stick to Firewire...
And if all else fails, MRoogle

+2 for Western Digital

Get two externals if you're afraid of failing. I have my backups in two separate drives so the possibility that my two externals and my internal HD will al fail in same day is one out of trillion.

is the time capsule not good?

I have a bunch of EZ Quest Monsoons of assorted sizes. They are not speed demons but have seemed very reliable, which is my focus. I think the larger ones (or maybe all of them) use Hitachi drives; some people dislike them but for me, so far so good and I've had a few of them for over four years. I always do redundant backups... just in case.

bumzo1 said:

Any final thoughts?

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To muddy your waters The additional security they provide makes them well worth the few extra bucks, IMO.

thegoldenmackid said:

Or you could be OCD, anal and paranoid like me and have two back-up drives...[/URL]

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I didn't realize I was OCD, anal, and paranoid!

One Time Machine backup here at the house and one bootable clone at the office (in case of fire at home.) If you have data you CANNOT afford to lose, you better have at least two backups. And one of those off-site.

All it takes is one power spike and every hard drive in your house is fried (all those plugged in anyway). Fire, tornado... you get the picture.

I was also wondering if the Time Capsule was worth it too? Is is better to just get an airport extreme and hook it up to an external?

speedviper said:

I was also wondering if the Time Capsule was worth it too? Is is better to just get an airport extreme and hook it up to an external?

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price wise, I say yes. Plus an external is more convenient if you need to move it, rather than taking your entire time capsule with you.

Well if your willing to pay for a Drobo is almost a fail proof plan.

bumzo1 said:

I'm willing t pay for quality because I do not want the drive to fail.

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You and everyone else. No amount of money you pay will guarantee a drive to be good for life. Just assume they're going to fail and you won't be disappointed.

bumzo1 said:

Any final thoughts?

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I don't think anyone should buy a canned drive. If something goes wrong while it's still under warranty, you have to send the entire drive in. You cannot open it to determine if it's the drive or the controller board that's failed. If you buy a bare drive and enclosure and assemble them, you can always disassemble to determine which failed. Most of the time it's the controller and not the drive. Thus, you get to keep your drive and all its data.

miles01110 said:

You and everyone else. No amount of money you pay will guarantee a drive to be good for life. Just assume they're going to fail and you won't be disappointed.

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so true, and this is why, like another poster said, you have multiple backups and in multiple geographic locations. I got, I think 6 external drives, 3 are time machine backups, one at my parents house, one at my place, and one at my safe deposit box. My safe deposit box also has a 1tb that is the backup of my other 1tb's drives that are backups monthly, weekly if I have the time.

Call me crazy and you'll probably be right, but I know for near certainty, if my house burns down, or if the bank explodes (hey, you never know), I still have a backup someone on the planet.

I used to use Western Digitals, but their box's kept causing me trouble. Their drives are fantastic, but the enclosure, not so much. I currently have LaCie's and so far so good, about 2 years in on most of them and no problems.

G-Techs are the gold standard for consumer external drives. Expensive, but maybe worth it.

I would say at bare minimum, grab one with a metal enclosure, as it keeps it cooler, in my experience.