External Hard drive: Which one is best?

[Motiondrops]

Hello: Due to my work, I need to constantly backup information in external hard drives. In the past year I had a pretty bad experience with Maxtor and Lacie. 5 drives died on me (not at the same time).....The installation of Leopard had something to do with it.

I also got various Western Digital drives and one died on me (luckily still under warranty) and another one giving a hard time...(note: firewire 400/800/USB)

At the moment I need to buy a few and would like to know about what the most reliable external drive in the market?

Any thoughts?

 

[danny_w]

I have 3 WD MyBook drives (1 USB only, 2 USB/FW400/eSata) that have so far been very quiet and reliable, but I have not had any of them more than 6 months. I had an OWC Mercury Elite Pro that just died on me (just short of 3 years old); I just replaced this one with one of the MyBook disks. I also have a couple that I made using Rosewill aluminum cases (USB/FW400) that are still going strong after more than 3 years.

 

[macworkerbee]

Well, you kind of summed up my reply in your post by stating having problems with most of the major brands. Nearly every major brand of external HD has a number of reported issues as well as many happy users. I've spent a lot of time researching this very topic and have decided that you can't truly trust any of these brands over another as they are almost identical products and almost all have a few failures or more on record.

My best advice would be to try ordering from OWC, the OWC branded drives are usually good quality, because they have a great warranty program and their customer service is great when you have trouble with HDs bought from them.

Good luck in your search.

 

[danny_w]

Well, you kind of summed up my reply in your post by stating having problems with most of the major brands. Nearly every major brand of external HD has a number of reported issues as well as many happy users. I've spent a lot of time researching this very topic and have decided that you can't truly trust any of these brands over another as they are almost identical products and almost all have a few failures or more on record.

My best advice would be to try ordering from OWC, the OWC branded drives are usually good quality, because they have a great warranty program and their customer service is great when you have trouble with HDs bought from them.

Good luck in your search.

The OWC drive that just died on me only had a one year warranty if I recall. I would probably stay away from them myself.

 

[CWallace]

I use 750GB WD My Books for Time Machine and extra storage and they have served me well.

 

[esco]

I just go to newegg and look for a high-capacity drive internal HDD that has a lot of great user reviews. I then toss it into a IcyDock external drive case and call it a day. I've done this with three drives over the past couple of years and they've worked flawlessly.

 

[Chromako]

If you want a pre-assembled drive, G-technology should be quite nice. Stylish, quiet, and they use quality drives. Or if you wish to do it yourself and perhaps save some cash, Icy-Dock with a Hitachi drive should do quite nicely. As someone who has gone through many disks, I have found Seagate to be pretty unreliable and Hitachi stellar. Western Digital seems to have served me well, but I have only used three of them... Oh. Icy-Dock's status light could land a small aircraft. Just so you know.

 

[PcBgone]

I just go to newegg and look for a high-capacity drive internal HDD that has a lot of great user reviews. I then toss it into a IcyDock external drive case and call it a day. I've done this with three drives over the past couple of years and they've worked flawlessly.

I second this, however I use a Vantec Enclosure(except for my new Hitachi I got off of ebay, it will have a kingwin enclosure)

 

[Motiondrops]

Thank you all for you reply. I had the feeling you can't really trust any hard drive, but I wanted to have some hope and listen to what other people think. I guess I will stick to WD and try some of the options you recommended.

Lacie is a no no, 5 drives, they all died.

Thank you all!