Best External drive?

Hey guys im looking to get an external drive for the backing up of media files on my computer. I want something that is 500GB. What would be recommended in terms of reliability, design, and value?

I am currently leaning towards the WesternDigital MyBook series of drives but I am not sure which exact one yet. PS. Where is a good place to buy one of these?

Thanks in advance

WD, Seagate, Maxtor has their own line of external hard drives, but you can also find their drives in other external enclosures. I haven't tried their external products, but if I was to recommend something, it would be something with those drives inside (especially the Seagate or WD).

If you go with buying an external enclosure + a drive, Samsung is pretty good too. Their drives seem to runner cooler, so they might be a good candidate for fanless enclosures.

Originally Posted by Phr3sh

Hey guys im looking to get an external drive for the backing up of media files on my computer. I want something that is 500GB. What would be recommended in terms of reliability, design, and value?

I am currently leaning towards the WesternDigital MyBook series of drives but I am not sure which exact one yet. PS. Where is a good place to buy one of these?

Thanks in advance

i have a comstar 250 gb usb 2.0....works great no problems...i bought it on sale at future shop for 80$
if u need faster i suggest firewire

I'd suggest going with Seagate. I bought an external 500 gb hdd and it's still going strong. Picked mine up on eBay

I have 2 Seagate external aluminum enclosures that have housed a variety of drives over the years. They are far more solid than plastic enclosures, don't get too hot despite having no active cooling (thank you, aluminum) and just work fine.

I recommend either buying a drive from Seagate or similar with a decent enclosure (Dell often has good prices on the Seagates) or throwing an aftermarket drive with a long warranty into a good enclosure.

Best external drive = one with eSATA.

Originally Posted by rabbit

Best external drive = one with eSATA.

i have one with esata, but i dont use it. do u need to own a desktop to take advatnage of that feature?

i have one with esata, but i dont use it. do u need to own a desktop to take advatnage of that feature?

Technically, you can use it with a notebook. eSATA is just an SATA port on the outside. With the right cable/adaptor, you can connect an eSATA drive to a notebook, but it's kind of stupid, obviously, since you need to remove the built-in HDD in order to do so.

Maybe in the future, manufacturers will clue in and add an eSATA port to notebooks. It's not like notebooks are getting any smaller, and the SATA controller is already there.

In any case, it's nice to have the option of eSATA.

Originally Posted by rabbit

i have one with esata, but i dont use it. do u need to own a desktop to take advatnage of that feature?

Technically, you can use it with a notebook. eSATA is just an SATA port on the outside. With the right cable/adaptor, you can connect an eSATA drive to a notebook, but it's kind of stupid, obviously, since you need to remove the built-in HDD in order to do so.

Maybe in the future, manufacturers will clue in and add an eSATA port to notebooks. It's not like notebooks are getting any smaller, and the SATA controller is already there.

In any case, it's nice to have the option of eSATA.

You could get an expresscard-esata or pcmcia-esata adapter as well for notebooks.

Originally Posted by rabbit

i have one with esata, but i dont use it. do u need to own a desktop to take advatnage of that feature?

Technically, you can use it with a notebook. eSATA is just an SATA port on the outside. With the right cable/adaptor, you can connect an eSATA drive to a notebook, but it's kind of stupid, obviously, since you need to remove the built-in HDD in order to do so.

Maybe in the future, manufacturers will clue in and add an eSATA port to notebooks. It's not like notebooks are getting any smaller, and the SATA controller is already there.

In any case, it's nice to have the option of eSATA.

I believe most Santa Rosa base notebooks have an eSATA port. I know my Asus G1S has one, so do some of the newer Dells.

As for external drives that are pre-built, LaCie is another brand. They tend to use better drives, I think all the one's I own have Seagates in them. I personally like LaCie's series of drives that are designed by F.A. Porsche. They are actually a good design that doesn't waste space, the also feel sturdy. Their D2 lines also fell even more sturdy but are a little to heavy for my liking if you intend to use it as a portable drive.

Seagets's current line of Free Agent drives look great but again, the design of them makes not view them as good drives to carry around as they are a little big and the way the drives has a base that houses the connections seems like it takes up more room then it needs to. Although, the studio I work at just had a server recovered by a pro company that does, well hard drive recovery and they sent back out data and a few Free Agent Pro external drives. So they can't be too bad in terms of quality.

Lastly, WD's MyBook. They look alright, but it feels like there is so much casing around the hard drive, but it feels a little hallow, so I don't know if it feels sturdy. Although for work I've shipped our MyBook drive a few times to LA and New York and it's always worked when it's returned so it can't be too bad.

Over all I'm a fan of the LaCie F.A. Porsche drives for simple design and size. The only reel drawback to LaCie products is they use a custom connection for the power adapter so if it breaks or loose one it can be a pain to get a replacement.

So if you want to buy pre-built I say LaCie for portability or Seagate's Free Agent for occasional portability.

Or you could always just buy a drive and you own enclosure and save a few bucks and get exactly what you want need.

I think the MyBook series looks the best by far, and plus I like how they have the capacity gauge that lights up. Only thing I worry about is reliability but WD seems to be pretty decent.

Anyone else have any experiences with the MyBook series?

depends on how much you like warrenties, seagate has a longer warrenty than wd, but ive had no problem with wd externals so far