Ext. Hard drive worth the money? - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

MissKat · 07-20-2009, 09:23 AM

How many of you have an ext. HD? Is it worth the money? I only use a laptop and if I were to get one, which would be better/more suitable and why? 2.5'' or 3.5'' drive? I was told to go with 2.5'' since its laptop size, therefore making it more portable and no need to plug into seperate AC outlet. But 2.5'' ones also run slower and was told have no fan due to the smaller casing?

mykalberta · 07-20-2009, 10:22 AM

Costo has 250 GB WD Passport drives for $90ish.

I have 2 of them and I bought one for my parents. Well worth the money. The speed only really matters if you are constantly R/W to the drive. If you are using it for backup then it shouldnt be a problem.

I basically backup stuff on there that I dont want to lose.

Those WD drvies come with a soft zipper case, USB dongle and the drive itself.

For you it depends on what and how much you want backed up. If you are archiving just throw them on a DVD. If you want it as a constant backup in case your NB dies then go with the HD.

Russic · 07-20-2009, 11:30 AM

I have several external drives just because I'm a bit of a back-up freak. You can get a 1TB (1000 Gigs) drive from Future Shop for about $130. It would be a lower quality drive than the one mykalberta mentioned, but in my experience all drives die and I've seen little difference between the high and low quality drives.

This is still my dream:

The Drobo is a casing that can hold up to 4 drives. Plug it into your computer and it shows as one massive drive. If (when) one of your drives fail, the data is simply shuffled to a safe spot so you never lose anything. Fairly pricey and not something I'd buy unless I had immensely important data, but a man can dream.

mykalberta · 07-20-2009, 11:31 AM

They had that on sale on the Dell deals last week. I was tempted.

Swayze11 · 07-20-2009, 11:35 AM

I have this:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=351

I use it for my macbook with timemachine, works perfect. Backs up my whole HD without even knowing. The speed on this one is actually pretty impressive, western digital has always been the brand I buy.

Bobblehead · 07-20-2009, 11:35 AM

What would you be using the external drive to do?

If it is just for occasional archiving then size/weight/speed probably doesn't matter.

If you are needing to haul it around with you then size is an issue. If you are running a database off of it (or any application that is accessing a lot of data randomly) then speed is an issue.

If you are using it for long periods at a time then a fan is more important. A few short periods at a time and it won't generate enough heat to worry.

So a lot depends upon how you plan on using an external drive.

OBCT · 07-20-2009, 11:39 AM

In my experience, yes, they are worth the money.

I picked up a 1 TB Iomega® eGo™ Desktop Hard Drive w/ USB 2.0 connectivity down here in the States (on sale @ Fry's last week) for $85. It comes with a USB cable and a power adapter (must be plugged into a regular outlet to function -- cannot power itself through the USB supplied power of the computer it's plugged in to.

Since I couldn't find out very much info about the drive online before buying it, I decided to splurge on Fry's 3-year warranty for $20, which is actually better than most manufacturers' warranty programs in my experience. That came to $105 for a huge drive that looks nice and is guaranteed to work for 3 years (or I get an instant exchange for a brand new same or newer version of the same, whatever is in stock @ Fry's)... not too bad.

It doesn't have crazy great specs in terms of cache, buffer, or access/read/write speeds, but like mykalberta above, I'm only using it to back-up everything I have every week or so in case my computer's internal hard drive fails. If you're looking to do very frequent back-ups, continuous back-ups, or are backing up sensitive or critical data, I'd suggest going with a drive a little more expensive (ie. faster and less likely to fail).

It doesn't really matter what size you get. As far as external hard drives go, they're basically the same as other electronic components - you'll pay a premium for smaller size. If that's important/useful to you (since you only have a laptop, then it might be), then go with the smaller size if you can afford it. I went with a regularly sized external drive and consider it an acceptable size and weight. Nothing too annoying, but certainly not "exceptionally" small. It works for me.

In terms of price... shop around. As you can tell from the deal I got, these things aren't as expensive to make as they want you to think. I'm not sure really sure where you'll find the best prices in Canada, but Costco is known for good prices and a good return policy/warranty program for electronics.

MissKat · 07-20-2009, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

What would you be using the external drive to do?

Just purely backup and maybe run the odd video off it since Ill probably store some movies on it. It will sit on my desk 100% of the time, dont plan on moving it with my laptop.

Im thinking ill go with 1TB since that seems to be the biggest and can never have too much space.

peter12 · 07-20-2009, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MissKat

Just purely backup and maybe run the odd video off it since Ill probably store some movies on it. It will sit on my desk 100% of the time, dont plan on moving it with my laptop.

Im thinking ill go with 1TB since that seems to be the biggest and can never have too much space.

Who has 1 TB of useful data just sitting around? Do you make porn films?

BlackEleven · 07-20-2009, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peter12

Who has 1 TB of useful data just sitting around? Do you make porn films?

I remember buying my first 1GB hard disk and thinking "there's no way I'll ever fill this thing!!". If you want to go way back, I can remember thinking a 40MB HD was big.

Over the course of time it's not really that hard to fill 1TB with a couple DVD or CD-rips, photos shot in RAW, and regular HD backups.

3 Justin 3 · 07-20-2009, 01:10 PM

I NEEDED an external Harddrive from all my music/tv shows, and my mom ended up getting me a 250GB for christmas. I really like it, I think it is a Seagate, and it has been reliable as hell (I have knocked it over countless times). The only problem is size, I really need more space though and want to jump on a 1TB one, I only have 10GB left!

I use it for everything though, I run all my music/video's off of it, so if it ever died there goes all my stuff, and I am screwed.

Just research the one your looking for to make sure it doesn't succumb to too many problems. If you want to use it like I use mine, you need a really reliable one.

sclitheroe · 07-20-2009, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peter12

Who has 1 TB of useful data just sitting around? Do you make porn films?

People who have given up on physical media. It's unbelievable how heavy, and how much space, 300+ CD's takes up...now, with everything ripped and nicely encoded at a reasonably future proof bit-rate, not so much.

Russic · 07-20-2009, 03:01 PM

Oh ya, start hoarding everything and suddenly 1TB is not nearly as big as you'd think.

Vulcan · 07-20-2009, 03:46 PM

A couple of things to look for is whether the drive has an on-off switch and whether it is connected by USB or Sata. Sata is faster if your computer has an external port.

Another thing you can do is buy an external case and put your own HD in it. Some of these cases (docking station) can easily be used to exchange your HDs.

MissKat · 07-20-2009, 04:10 PM

Thanks everyone for the input. Ive decided to get a 3.5'' desktop drive since I dont plan on lugging it around anywhere (plus theyre more bang for your buck than a 2.5'').

Whats a good place to buy from?

Future shop has a 1TB Lacie for $160. Think ill probably grab that since ive heard good things (not sure what actual brand of drive is inside). They have some 1TB for $139 but theyre Comstar and I dont know if I could trust that brand.

Vulcan · 07-20-2009, 05:06 PM

This place has a good selection. Here's some with free shipping.

http://www.newegg.ca/Store/SubCatego...al-Hard-Drives

I have a western digital and an Hitachi from them.

TSXCman · 07-20-2009, 05:16 PM

i keep about 1 TB internal memory and 1TB in externals. lots of media and games

MoneyGuy · 07-20-2009, 05:55 PM

How hard is it to install an extenal HD? How tech savvy does one have to be? Is it just a matter of plugging it in somewhere and you're good to go? Are external HDs much more costly than internals? If the price is comparable, why not just install an external HD instead of an internal one, so that upgrading if you like (or unplugging it to take with you for security perhaps) is easy? Thanks for answers as this interests me.

LockedOut · 07-20-2009, 06:00 PM

Consider buying a HD and external case separately. External hard drives usually only come with a one year warranty. If you buy separately, the warranty on the hard drive is usually 3 or 5 years depending on the brand.

llama64 · 07-20-2009, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

How hard is it to install an extenal HD? How tech savvy does one have to be? Is it just a matter of plugging it in somewhere and you're good to go? Are external HDs much more costly than internals? If the price is comparable, why not just install an external HD instead of an internal one, so that upgrading if you like (or unplugging it to take with you for security perhaps) is easy? Thanks for answers as this interests me.

If you buy a unit that is already put together, it's as easy as plugging it into your USB port (think a big cumbersome flash/thumb drive).

By put together I mean it comes as one unit - rather then as separate units.