Recommend a new external HD

MatthewA · 12-20-2007, 03:24 PM

I'm at the end of my rope with my LaCie Big Disk 500GB, and now I want to replace it. I am thinking of getting something 1TB or either 2TB (I work with video), and most important of all is its reliability.

Is there anything under $1k that anyone here recommends?

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Michael_K_Sr · 12-20-2007, 05:29 PM

Matthew, do yourself a huge favor and visit Other World Computing's external drives page. Bar none, the finest drives out there in terms of price, performance and flexibility (ports.) My boss has bought P.O.S. LaCie drives for years because of their low cost and we've had no fewer than five of them fail. I only use OWC Mercury Elite drives to back up my own machines and for external storage at the office as well and I've never had a single problem. A quick look at their current pricing shows a 2TB drive coming in at well under a grand.

Adam Lenhardt · 12-20-2007, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MatthewA

I'm at the end of my rope with my LaCie Big Disk 500GB, and now I want to replace it. I am thinking of getting something 1TB or either 2TB (I work with video), and most important of all is its reliability.

I almost bought a LaCie 250 GB drive on Black Friday last year. Fortunately for me I didn't make it through the doors on time, and they were all gone. I saw fortunately, because a little research online quickly showed how unreliable the brand is.

Instead, I went on Newegg and bought a Western Digital Caviar WD2500KS 250GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive /w 16MB Cache that came with a three-year OEM warranty.

To use it as an external, I got a Rosewill [NewEgg's in-house brand]3.5" SATA to USB 2.0 External Enclosure with fan. The pair was offered as a combo deal that only cost $102.00. I've been using it for a year next Tuesday, and it's still running as good as the day I bought it.

Here's the link for the 1 TB model on that same product line:
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar GP WD10EACS 1TB 5400 to 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Here's the link for a Rosewill external SATA to USB 2.0 enclosure that can handle a 1 TB harddrive:
Newegg.com - Rosewill RX-358-S SLV (Silver) 3.5" SATA to USB & eSATA Ext. Enclosure w/Int.80mm fan - Retail

You should probably double-check to make sure they're 100 percent compatible, but the combined cost going that route would be: $259.99 (drive) $44.99 (enclosure) = $304.98

DaveF · 12-20-2007, 08:08 PM

I did the external enclosure as Adam describes for my small 160GB drive. Good solution. I bought a $130 500 GB Seagate drive for my wife. Also a good solution.

You should take note of whether you're getting a true Terabyte drive or a 1TB drive composed of two 500 GB drives. Everything else being equal, there would be a (marginally?) higher risk of drive failure with 2x500 GB solution than a single 1x1000 GB solution.

In my meager opinion, all hard drives are equal. I'd prefer Seagate to Western Digital, as Seagate has a better reputation, but these are commodity devices now.

As for OWC -- as they're certainly buying their drives from the major manufacturers (WD, Seagate, etc.), what makes their products such better quality?

MatthewA · 12-20-2007, 09:51 PM

Thanks. I'll be out of town until Wednesday so I won't be able to follow up on that until then.

How can I tell if something is a "true Terabyte drive" without buying it first? Will the manufacturer say so on its web page or on the box?

Michael_K_Sr · 12-20-2007, 10:48 PM

Quote:

As for OWC -- as they're certainly buying their drives from the major manufacturers (WD, Seagate, etc.), what makes their products such better quality?

They consistently update their enclosures with the fastest FireWire chipsets available. I've done a head to head comparison between my two Mercury Elite Aluminum drives and my co-worker's Western Digital MyBook drives and the transfer speeds aren't even close. In addition the information on the units sold through OWC is totally transparent...just click on the enclosure and size you're interested in and it will tell which manufacturer's hard drive(s) are inside. Try finding that info through LaCie. I do prefer the models with the Seagate hard drives...they're the only hard drive manufacturer to provide a five year warranty on the drives...all of the rest are only three years.

Quote:

How can I tell if something is a "true Terabyte drive" without buying it first? Will the manufacturer say so on its web page or on the box?

At OWC at least, you only need to look and see if the drive enclosure is listed as RAID 0 or RAID 1. If so, those enclosures will contain two drives. If they aren't listed as RAID, they have only a single hard drive inside. I do prefer the single drive units...I have a 750GB one and a 1TB one. Currently the largest single hard drive you can get in an enclosure is 1TB. If you want more than that (1.5TB, 2TB, etc) you'll have to go with one of the RAID 0 units.

Keith Plucker · 12-20-2007, 11:34 PM

I have used several OWC Mercury Elite Pro Classic drives and they have all worked great. No problems at all. I would definitely recommend them.

-Keith

Paul McGowan · 12-21-2007, 08:01 AM

Seagate FreeAgent Pro

haven't had any worries with it whatsoever.

Has anyone here wanted to try a Drobo?

Paul McGowan · 12-22-2007, 10:46 AM

I would love one of these for Christmas... and there's a $50 coupon code at geekbrief.tv currently.

Data Robotics, Inc.

Christian Behrens · 12-23-2007, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MatthewA

I'm at the end of my rope with my LaCie Big Disk 500GB, and now I want to replace it. I am thinking of getting something 1TB or either 2TB (I work with video), and most important of all is its reliability.

Is there anything under $1k that anyone here recommends?

Another vote for the OWC drives. Very reliable and the speed is hard to beat.

Generally, on the Mac there is nothing that beats the transfer speeds of FW800. Even when only FW400 is available, it will beat the transfer speeds of USB2.0 every time. E-SATA is not readily available for the Mac (no drivers built-in), but real-world speeds wouldn't best the tried and true performance of FW800 anyway, so my recommendation is to go with that.

-Christian

MatthewA · 01-01-2008, 04:45 PM

The Drobo looks great, and the price is right for something expandable, but their website is confusing as to whether or not it comes with actual hard drives.

DavidJ · 01-10-2008, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MatthewA

The Drobo looks great, and the price is right for something expandable, but their website is confusing as to whether or not it comes with actual hard drives.

It does not, but I still think it is a pretty good solution. I have not purchased one yet because I am hoping that they come out with a Firewire option.

The LaCie bashing always makes me smile and not because I doubt anyone's experiences (I have heard the same thing from lots of different people over the years), but they have been great for me. I have only had one go down over the years and it was under warranty. LaCie was easy to work with on the service too. All of my other LaCie drives just seem to run and run without any problem. I push them pretty hard in a professional video capacity and they keep up well. I have a few other production companies and friends that feel the same way. I always look at other options, but most of my external drives are LaCie (just got another one last week). I guess I have just been lucky. Keep in mind I am not recommending them for critical data backup where something like the Drobo is more useful.

GlennH · 01-10-2008, 02:11 PM

I'm in the market for a 500GB backup drive for my new iMac. Any opinions of the Iomega Ultramax series?