which external harddrive?

[bengasman]

i am looking to get an external harddrive, 200gb or more.
any recommendations on make or model? should be easily reconised by most computers as i want to use it for desktop and laptop, thinking along the lines of plug and play via usb

 

[Spark123]

It may be worthwhile considering a NAS (Network Attached Storage) drive which plugs into the network via a router/switch etc, these are accessable from any PC on the same network without the need to have a host PC running.

 

[Doc Lenny]

This looks good value to me.

500gb for £66 delivered

 

[singalong]

The price of external hard drives appears to be dropping all the time.

At the moment the Seagate Free Agent range is good value - I bought the 320GB version before Xmas from Maplin.

I also use another Seagate external drive drive (one with an integral mains switch) as well as a Western Digital and Combo units. All have given me good service and no problems.

 

[paul1982doncaster]

I would stay away from the seagate as the customer service is terrible and the drives are substandard. The drive in the freeagent is a standard seagate barracuda 7200rpm I would buy another Maxtor but rather than pitch for one 500gb get two 250gb and back up files to each one using a program like norton ghost any additional files make backups on at least two dvd's. If possible always pitch for a 2.5inch hard drive because these are manufactured to better shock tolerances than a standard 3.5 as you will find in most external hard drives. Stay away from freecom, seagate and lacie ( freecome use a variety of drives as do lacie ) and this makes it a pick and mix combo. My overall advice is if your data is worth saving then pay the extra - I am speaking from experiance and many a long call to seagate on an american number to no help. GOOD LUCK

 

[^woody^]

What could go wrong with a HD that you need to phone up customer support?

It works or it doesn't - if it doesn't return it.

Alternatively you can find an answer in no time on the many internet forums.

Apart from that bad batch a few years ago (Maxtor?) all the leading drives today are OK - the only difference is performance, and features of the external unit.

Why go the the expence of a 2.5" drive when 3.5" are better value with no real issues when used in an external housing?

My external drives are just normal HDs which I have put in Belkin housings.
I also have a Buffalo NAS as a central file sever for other family to access and save to - and I think that a NAS is a better solution to using portable drives (unless you take your drives out with you)

 

[bengasman]

Thanks for all the tips folks.
I still have to work for a living so price is an issue to some degree. Cheapest is rarely best I have found out.
Stability and sturdiness are important to me as I tend to be kinda rough with my stuff.
Harddisks have never been shock proof, but I remember the days when they were so fragile you were not supposed to move them at all when hot, park them when switching off and you still had to be careful.
If 2.5 is noticeably stronger, I will fork out a bit more and get one of these

 

[Deluks]

If you are only using it around the house, or maybe only taking it out n about on the odd occasion, a 3.5 is the way to go, far cheaper than a 2.5.

How's about this?

 

[paul1982doncaster]

Basically I had a seagate freeagent 500gb from amazon.com plugged it in worked fine for 3 days after I transferred all data on to it then formatted my pc !!!!! Everything fine I then proceeded to copy some music back to my pc went to turn the volume up on the speaker and knocked the drive over from freestanding to on its side, note not on the floor just on its side the drive then made persistant beeping noises - wouldt power down unless unplugged from the mains - I called amazon who to be fair where quite prepared to replace however the data was worth more to me. After 4 hours on the phone speaking to an indian call centre whilst calling a USA number I finally agreed the bargain price of just £800 to send the drive couriered back to seagate to remove my data. . . . . Fair dues they sell rubbish drives I couldnt get anyone to properly understand my complaint about a brand new drive and sub standard goods and I needed the data. 3 days later a courier arrives 3 weeks later I get a email from seagate advising me due to the platter sticking together and the write head has scratched the platters, I could go ahead with the data recovery process but to fix this problem it would be a further $1200 with no gaurantee the data I would get back would be useable infact the 95% of the time the data would be useless. I then asked for the drive to be shipped back to the uk still footing the £800 bill for seagate data recovery experts to look at the drive. On the advice of a friend I tried a company in sheffield known as ABC Data recovery who I must say told me exactly the same as seagate did but for a cost of wait for it . . . . . drum roll please . . . . . . £0.00 thats right £0.00 They guy I spoke with advised me on hard drives as he fixes them on a daily basis and says he very rarely sees Maxtor hard drives and pretty much exaclty the same as you did. In reply to your post as to why not look on the net before calling seagate ( Trust me after spending 10 mins on the phone to them I searched for days on the net before calling them again, I downloaded every program possible to try and get it to work - I even took apart the external hard drive made it into a internal hard drive switched it to master drive and tried to salvage anything I could but to no avail, I was kinda hoping the experts ( seagate ) could have sorted it. I bought the drive because it was supposed to be quality and was nearly double the cheapest at that time. Take my advice or dont its up to you just trying to save you the time - p.s I have since used 2.5 inch drives and even dropped the maxtor out of my suit pocket and the thing still works perfect, I just use that as my backup to the other drive. Good Luck

 

[Deluks]

To be fair, you gave the drive a shock, probably while it was reading/writing, a big no-no for any brand of hard drive. Yes laptop drives are more durable in that sense as they are in machines that get moved about a lot, but they cost a lot more as a result.

The moral of the story is, don't be a clumsy oaf. I've never had a problem with any seagate products, and if the drive breaks then I send it back under warranty, Data is never included in any manufacturers warranty so you can't expect them to reclaim all your data free of charge all because of rough handling.

All drives fail or go wrong, just pick a drive with a decent warranty, I'm currently using a Samsung, 5yr guarantee

 

[paul1982doncaster]

To be fair, you gave the drive a shock, probably while it was reading/writing, a big no-no for any brand of hard drive. Yes laptop drives are more durable in that sense as they are in machines that get moved about a lot, but they cost a lot more as a result.

The moral of the story is, don't be a clumsy oaf. I've never had a problem with any seagate products, and if the drive breaks then I send it back under warranty, Data is never included in any manufacturers warranty so you can't expect them to reclaim all your data free of charge all because of rough handling.

All drives fail or go wrong, just pick a drive with a decent warranty, I'm currently using a Samsung, 5yr guarantee

How can you say being clumsy oaf would cause this? I forgot you must live in my house and saw the accident?????????????? This was knocked over less than 3 inches surely a drive of this standard and cost would be able to handle that? Inside the drive its fixed in with 4 poxy rubber fixers 3mm wide, the guy asked about seagate and I gave him my advice and from what was passed on to me by an expert. This is a standard internal seagate barracuda drive which is supposed to be used internally. This drive has little shock tolerance compared to a 3.5 inch drive!! im assuming that you are not an expert nor do you fix drives on a daily basis or have even had my experiance. Sure I dont disagree its slightly more expensive for a 2.5 inch but its like comparing a 1st class flight to a economy class. I have never had a problem with my internal seagate hard drive but they sell sub standard seagate external. To make it cheaper mate get 1 x 2.5 inch cases from maplin and 1 x 2.5 from dabs / somewhere like that you will save loads.

 

[JohnD]

"Clumsy Oaf" seems to have hit a nerve

 

[bengasman]

The quality and care of use of the above seagate could be argued, the way seagate handled it is very poor.
That alone will cause me to steer clear of seagate. The combined information is most useful.

thanks for making the effort

 

[Alison556]

I got a Maxtor 320gb external drive from PC world for £55 I think it was.

I'm frightened to recommend it in case I jinx it and it breaks, but it's been tickety boo!

 

[Deluks]

Ultimately an oem purchased drive from an online retailer, coupled with a good quality enclosure gives you the best of both. If the enclosure hardware fails you can remove the drive yourself and recover the data without invalidating your waranty. Or if the drive itself fails, you can return it under the guarantee and reinstall when the replacement arrives.