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Most Dependable External HDD(or internalHDD+Case combo)

W

Wallace86

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 5, 2007
238
0
I'm actually looking for two HDDs. Looking for a smaller, more portable HDD, such as the WD 320gb passport, or the Iomega 250gb. Also, I'm looking for a huge HDD, 1 or 1.5 TB. I've heared that internal HDDs may offer a more dependable external soloution, when matched with an appropriate case, however, I have no idea what HDDs (internal or external) are more dependable, or how to pick a proper enclosure (if I choose an internal). Any reccomendations? Thanks.
 
Unsure of WD MyBook, internal might be better?

I have two WD MyBook external drives, one of which is working fine, while the other seems to have just died. It worked well for a year or so, but it seems that I've just experienced my first real drive failure. To be fair, I know this can (and eventually will) happen to all drives- but I think this is a little pre-mature.

I also have an OEM Seagate Barracuda that I put in an external case (no-name case I got in Shanghai) that has been good for a couple years, except for some firewire issues that I believe were due to old laptop, not the drive or the enclosure.

Obviously YMMV and all I can give are my own experiences. I don't think I'd buy another MyBook, but I am considering picking up the new Time Capsule from Apple. I might be in the market for a router soon as well as a new drive, so that's an interesting option.

Good luck with your search!
 
I've always had good luck with Seagate hard drives. I am also shopping for hard drives at the moment, and I think I'm going to go with the Western Digital My Book Studio. It offers USB 2.0, Firewire 400 & 800, and also eSata. I'm really interested in it for the eSata, but the Firewire and USB make it a very attractive drive. I'd shop for prices on them though. Circuit City wants over $70 more than I can get it for from Amazon.
 
I'm satisfied with my OWC Mercury Elite external. Mine is 2x500gb in a RAID 1 array. No problems in a little over a year of use.
 
I'm thinking about going with:
Seagate Barracuda ES ST3750640NS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148152


AMS VENUS DS-2316B2BK 3.5" USB 2.0 Black External Enclosure
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817145656

...can someone confirm that that harddrive is compatable with that particular enclosure? It says it is compatable with a "Parallel ATA 66/100/133 3.5-inch hard drive"....would the seagate qualify as one of those?
 
Also, is it hard to connect the hard drive to the enclosure? What tools will I need (a link would be nice).... And, what kind of precautions do I need to take to ensure that I do not ruin the hard drive by static or anything like that? ---thanks sooo much!!:apple::)
 
hmmm, acually I'm going to go with this enclosure...
AMS VENUS DS-2316CBK 3.5" USB & 1394 Black External Enclosure

The "1394" means firewire connection, correct? Which would connect to my macbook pro, right? Is that firewire 800 or 400? sorry for so many questions!
 
Hi - that combo won't work. The enclosure is PATA, the drive is SATA.

I'd absolutely go with Seagate for a dependable HDD. Every brand has failures, but Seagate has a better rep than most.


Every enclosure has two interfaces - the 'internal' interface, which connects to the hard drive, and the 'external' interface, which connects to your computer.

Internal choices are PATA or SATA, and External are USB2, Firewire 400, Firewire 800, or eSATA (many brands have two or more external options). USB is the most common, and the only choice common to Macs and PC's, if that's important. Firewire is considerably faster for most uses, and most modern Macs have it, so it's a great choice to have.

I'd choose SATA and a combo USB2/Firewire for an enclosure, personally.

I have this IcyDock enclosure which is SATA internal, and both USB2 and Firewire400 external - with a SATA Seagate 750GB drive. The enclosure has a little sled that you screw the HDD into, and the sled just slides in and makes the connections in the enclosure. You can have multiple drives in different sleds, and use it like a giant floppy drive, if you like. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198012

A USB2-only enclosure is cheaper, but considerably less speedy/flexible, and if you're looking at Gigabyte+ drives, I'm assuming you're planning on moving big files, where speed is valuable. I'd urge you to pony up the extra $20 for adding Firewire.

As for a pocket-sized portable drive, I'm increasingly a fan of the Western Digital Passport 160/250/320 series. Good little drives, reasonably priced, attractive enclosure, and mine came with a really nice little neoprene case with a pocket for the USB cable on the outside, which makes a HUGE difference in keeping it all tidy. I got mine at Costco.
 
I have a Western Digital GreenPower 1TB drive (link) in a Rosewill RX81 enclosure (link). The drive is very cool and quiet, I can hear a bit of a ticking sound only when it's doing large reads or writes. The enclosure matches the look of the pro Macs and has USB 2.0, Firewire 400, Firewire 800, and eSATA connections. This combo is a bit more expensive than the WD MyBook Studio, but a heck of a lot cheaper than a G-Drive. Rosewill also makes an identical looking enclosure with only USB 2.0 and eSATA for half the price if you don't need Firewire.
 
theLimit said:
I have a Western Digital GreenPower 1TB drive (link) in a Rosewill RX81 enclosure (link). The drive is very cool and quiet, I can hear a bit of a ticking sound only when it's doing large reads or writes. The enclosure matches the look of the pro Macs and has USB 2.0, Firewire 400, Firewire 800, and eSATA connections. This combo is a bit more expensive than the WD MyBook Studio, but a heck of a lot cheaper than a G-Drive. Rosewill also makes an identical looking enclosure with only USB 2.0 and eSATA for half the price if you don't need Firewire.
Click to expand...

I noticed that Rosewill does not have a built in fan -- Wouldn't an enclosure with a fan be better/increase life of HDD, as it would be cooler?

And what does it mean where it says that the HDD is " Western Digital Caviar GP WD10EACS 1TB 5400 to 7200 RPM" --which is it, 5400 or 7200?
 
The Icy Dock also does not contain a fan - I was under the impression that the advantage of using an internal HDD within an external enclosure over a regular external HDD was that most ready to buy externals do not have a fan...or is it just the extra "spacyness"?
 
Deanster said:
Hi - that combo won't work. The enclosure is PATA, the drive is SATA.

I'd absolutely go with Seagate for a dependable HDD. Every brand has failures, but Seagate has a better rep than most.


Every enclosure has two interfaces - the 'internal' interface, which connects to the hard drive, and the 'external' interface, which connects to your computer.

Internal choices are PATA or SATA, and External are USB2, Firewire 400, Firewire 800, or eSATA (many brands have two or more external options). USB is the most common, and the only choice common to Macs and PC's, if that's important. Firewire is considerably faster for most uses, and most modern Macs have it, so it's a great choice to have.

I'd choose SATA and a combo USB2/Firewire for an enclosure, personally.

I have this IcyDock enclosure which is SATA internal, and both USB2 and Firewire400 external - with a SATA Seagate 750GB drive. The enclosure has a little sled that you screw the HDD into, and the sled just slides in and makes the connections in the enclosure. You can have multiple drives in different sleds, and use it like a giant floppy drive, if you like. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198012

A USB2-only enclosure is cheaper, but considerably less speedy/flexible, and if you're looking at Gigabyte+ drives, I'm assuming you're planning on moving big files, where speed is valuable. I'd urge you to pony up the extra $20 for adding Firewire.

As for a pocket-sized portable drive, I'm increasingly a fan of the Western Digital Passport 160/250/320 series. Good little drives, reasonably priced, attractive enclosure, and mine came with a really nice little neoprene case with a pocket for the USB cable on the outside, which makes a HUGE difference in keeping it all tidy. I got mine at Costco.
Click to expand...

Hey - I'm leaning towards the Icy dock now, It seems to have the best rating on Newegg.....I guess it does not matter that it lacks a fan (not to mention that it will match my MBP nicely :)) So that will basically support any 3.5" HDD, including a 1TB?
 
im picking up 2 icy docks as well, along with two WD hard drives (500 gb and 1 TB). WD hard drives have never failed me yet :D
 
Wallace86 said:
I noticed that Rosewill does not have a built in fan -- Wouldn't an enclosure with a fan be better/increase life of HDD, as it would be cooler?

And what does it mean where it says that the HDD is " Western Digital Caviar GP WD10EACS 1TB 5400 to 7200 RPM" --which is it, 5400 or 7200?
Click to expand...

I transferred 450+ GB to it in one sitting and the enclosure got just warm to the touch. My Penryn MBP at idle is warmer than this drive after a couple hours of writing.

The 5400 to 7200 RPM supposedly means it is a variable speed motor, spinning at 5400 to save power and ramping up to 7200 when needed. I haven't noticed any performance issues, and I'm inclined to believe it may just be marketing hype. I can simultaneously read and write multi-gigabyte files and maintain saturation on the FW400 bus. I haven't tried FW800 or eSATA yet. At this kind of data density, I think bus would be the bottleneck for anything but the eSATA connection, whether the drive is 5400 or 7200.
 
theLimit said:
I transferred 450+ GB to it in one sitting and the enclosure got just warm to the touch. My Penryn MBP at idle is warmer than this drive after a couple hours of writing.

The 5400 to 7200 RPM supposedly means it is a variable speed motor, spinning at 5400 to save power and ramping up to 7200 when needed. I haven't noticed any performance issues, and I'm inclined to believe it may just be marketing hype. I can simultaneously read and write multi-gigabyte files and maintain saturation on the FW400 bus. I haven't tried FW800 or eSATA yet. At this kind of data density, I think bus would be the bottleneck for anything but the eSATA connection, whether the drive is 5400 or 7200.
Click to expand...

Hmm, well I think I may have to copy your entire setup, lol. Although I may go with a seagate over the WD, I donno....so many choices! thanks for the help everyone.
 
theLimit said:
The 5400 to 7200 RPM supposedly means it is a variable speed motor, spinning at 5400 to save power and ramping up to 7200 when needed. I haven't noticed any performance issues, and I'm inclined to believe it may just be marketing hype.
Click to expand...

The drives appear to be fixed speed. All the tests I've seen have indicated a 5400rpm spindle speed. It's marketing hype.

Top of the driveThe manufacturer is careful in not directly citing spindle speed, instead nominally positioning the Caviar GP as a "7200 RPM-class" drive. Under its "IntelliPower" moniker, WD claims a "A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and cache size designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance." Some folks have misinterpreted some admittedly vague specs on WD's website. Under "Rotational Speed," the manufacturer cites "IntelliPower (5400 to 7200 RPM)." This does not mean the drive dynamically changes its spindle speed during operation... indeed, such a feature would entail considerable mechanical engineering and would in many ways defeat the point -- rapidly accelerating and decelerating the spindle's speed would increase rather than decrease net power draw. Rather, the IntelliPower term indicates that the GP family as a whole does not have a set spindle speed (nor a set buffer size, for that matter). Different capacity points may feature differing spin speeds and buffer sizes. For those that must know, WD admits "sub-6000 RPM operation" for the 1-TB Caviar GP (more on this on the following page).
Click to expand...

Source: http://www.storagereview.com/1000.sr?page=0,1
 
External HDD with esata Western Digital @7200rpm

Does anybody know if there are any External HDD with esata, firewire 800 and USB2.0 that go at 7200rpm between 750gb and 3Tb, from a trustable brand (specially Westen Digital)? There is a site which states that the WD MyBook Studio 1Tb goes at 7200rpm, but it doesn´t say anything at the WD site (they don´t mention the speed).
Thanks
 
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