Harddrive Advice

[sjpetry]

I am in the market for an external harddrive and I can't decide between these two. Which one should I get? They are both 250GBs. But one is Firewire and the other is USB 2.0. The USB one has a 16MB cache while the other has an 8MB. I don't care about atheistic because it will be hidden.

My second question is which one will be faster for large file transfers?

Here are the drives:


Maxtor
Capacity-------250GB
Cache----------16MB
RPM------------7200 RPM
Interface-------USB 2.0

LaCie
Capacity-------250GB
Cache----------8MB
RPM------------7200 RPM
Interface-------Firewire

If you have any recommendations for other drives I will be grateful.

Thanks Everyone.

 

[WildCowboy]

If large file transfers are important to you, the LaCie will be better. Firewire is able to sustain significantly higher transfer speeds than USB 2.0.

 

[EricNau]

Yes...I'm not sure about brands (I hear LaCie is good though), but get something with Firewire...It is much faster than USB 2.0. (Common misconception - Even though USB 2.0 says it can go at 480 mb/s, while Firewire advertises only 400 mb/s, numerous tests say that Firewire is faster.)

 

[ipacmm]

I would get the LaCie drive, I have the D2 drive and it works really good for data transfer and is really fast, I have never had any problems with it.

 

[sjpetry]

Yes...I'm not sure about brands (I hear LaCie is good though), but get something with Firewire...It is much faster than USB 2.0. (Common misconception - Even though USB 2.0 says it can go at 480 mb/s, while Firewire advertises only 400 mb/s, numerous tests say that Firewire is faster.)

And even having twice the cashe won't help?

 

[JesterJJZ]

LaCies are great.

 

[risc]

Here is another vote for LaCie, their external drives are great.

 

[EricNau]

And even having twice the cashe won't help?

I would have to say "no." More cache would help, but USB 2.0 just can't go as fast as Firewire.
(If anyone knows different, let me know.)

 

[sjpetry]

Thanks everyone. I am going to buy the LaCie.

 

[EricNau]

Thanks everyone. I am going to buy the LaCie.

Good Choice

 

[~Shard~]

For the record, to anyone who doesn't know this, Lacie doe not manufacture their own hard drives. In fact, they have been known to use Maxtor drives in their products, so by comparing Maxtor to Lacie, you may be making a useless comparison. Lacie drives are only as good as the drives inside, so keep this in mind.

Personally, I recommend Seagate drives. Excellent drives and great warranty - 5 years. I have personally witnessed nothing but troubles with Maxtor drives, but that's just personal experience.

Just my $0.02. I just see a lot of people out there who incorrectly think Lacie actually manufactures hard drives themselves.

 

[EricNau]

For the record, to anyone who doesn't know this, Lacie doe not manufacture their own hard drives. In fact, they have been known to use Maxtor drives in their products, so by comparing Maxtor to Lacie, you may be making a useless comparison. Lacie drives are only as good as the drives inside, so keep this in mind.

Personally, I recommend Seagate drives. Excellent drives and great warranty - 5 years. I have personally witnessed nothing but troubles with Maxtor drives, but that's just personal experience.

Just my $0.02. I just see a lot of people out there who incorrectly think Lacie actually manufactures hard drives themselves.

They Don't That's weird, I really thought they did. Then what exactly is LaCie good for, just looks?

 

[~Shard~]

They Don't That's weird, I really thought they did. Then what exactly is LaCie good for, just looks?

Glad to educate - as I said, this is a common misconception.

 

[EricNau]

Glad to educate - as I said, this is a common misconception.

This really makes me reconsider ever buying that brand (even though I have heard great things about them).

 

[~Shard~]

This really makes me reconsider ever buying that brand (even though I have heard great things about them).

Don't get me wrong, Lacie gets good ratings and reviews on their products, and in the end that's all that matters, however many people think they're buying a Lacie hard drive when they're in fact buying a Seagate, Maxtor, Fujitsu, whatever drive. I'm not saying Lacie makes bad products, quite the opposite in fact, but as I said, some people seem to have this misconception when it comes to their drives.

 

[EricNau]

Don't get me wrong, Lacie gets good ratings and reviews on their products, and in the end that's all that matters, however many people think they're buying a Lacie hard drive when they're in fact buying a Seagate, Maxtor, Fujitsu, whatever drive. I'm not saying Lacie makes bad products, quite the opposite in fact, but as I said, some people seem to have this misconception when it comes to their drives.

It just really makes you think about all of the other brands out there also.

 

[~Shard~]

It just really makes you think about all of the other brands out there also.

Oh for sure, absolutely. As with anything, you have to do your due diligence when making a purchase. Far too many people out there make uninformed purchases and don't fully research what they're planning on buying.

 

[EricNau]

Oh for sure, absolutely. As with anything, you have to do your due diligence when making a purchase. Far too many people out there make uninformed purchases and don't fully research what they're planning on buying.

Very true. I almost bought a Windows instead of my iMac . That would have been a mistake.

 

[~Shard~]

Very true. I almost bought a Windows instead of my iMac . That would have been a mistake.

You know it! Glad to hear you made the right choice.

 

[Nuc]

My advice

From my experience Maxtor external enclosures suck!! The drives don't however. I had 2 of the Maxtor enclosures fail. I removed the drives and put them in another external enclosure and haven't had a problem since.

You will get off cheaper by buying a HD (I got a great deal from Compusa) and then buying a enclosure (w/ USB2 & FW) off the net.

Just my advice,

Nuc

 

[~Shard~]

From my experience Maxtor external enclosures suck!! The drives don't however. I had 2 of the Maxtor enclosures fail. I removed the drives and put them in another external enclosure and haven't had a problem since.

You will get off cheaper by buying a HD (I got a great deal from Compusa) and then buying a enclosure (w/ USB2 & FW) off the net.

Just my advice,

Nuc

Completely agree. Just search the Forums for other threads on hard drive enclosures and you'll read similar comments. The biggest thing to look for in an enclosure is the Oxford 911 chipset - this is a must.

 

[sjpetry]

From my experience Maxtor external enclosures suck!! The drives don't however. I had 2 of the Maxtor enclosures fail. I removed the drives and put them in another external enclosure and haven't had a problem since.

You will get off cheaper by buying a HD (I got a great deal from Compusa) and then buying a enclosure (w/ USB2 & FW) off the net.

Just my advice,

Nuc

I this hard to do?

 

[~Shard~]

I this hard to do?

Using HD enclosures? No, it's even easier than it used to be. Simplistically, buy your enclosure and your internal HD. Plug in your HD inside the enclosure. Plug in the enclosure to your USB/FW port. Done.

And now you have a internal HD which is cheaper that its external counterpart would be, and if it fills up, you just slap in a new one and put the filled one away for storage. With the increasing capacities and decreasing prices for storage, this solution make a lot of sense over an external HD solution.

 

[EricNau]

Using HD enclosures? No, it's even easier than it used to be. Simplistically, buy your enclosure and your internal HD. Plug in your HD inside the enclosure. Plug in the enclosure to your USB/FW port. Done.

And now you have a internal HD which is cheaper that its external counterpart would be, and if it fills up, you just slap in a new one and put the filled one away for storage. With the increasing capacities and decreasing prices for storage, this solution make a lot of sense over an external HD solution.

Just curious, what good is a HDD if you can access it?
EDIT: can't

 

[~Shard~]

Just curious, what good is a HDD if you can access it?

Hard drives are very useful when you can access them.

I'm assuming you meant the exact opposite of what you said. So you are referring to storing it away? I just meant that if the HD was simply for storage - backing up your system, or archiving a bunch of data (perhaps someone has a "Illegally Downloaded Movies" HD ) - then you could put that HD away and plug it back in when needed, meanwhile putting in a new HD into the enclosure if necessary. With an external drive, what you have, you're stuck with.