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External Hard Drive Opinions...Help!

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Jwenz
Posts: 8893 - Karma: 7,633
so basically I have 2 external hard drives. Both the same. Fantom Drives. One of them just crashed. Doesn't work any more, and warrentee is up. Lost lots of shit. I am now in the market for a new. Very reliable. Very good external hard drive. I am wondering what you guys have had and what has worked for you. Anything to go against and what not. I need your help. I can look at other peoples reviews at well, but sometimes are untrustworthy. Like this one. HELP! Any suggestions are welcomed
Nov 25 2008 5:30PM
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k-rob
Posts: 14217 - Karma: 2,891
Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 1TB External Hard Drive

this is what i use, it's sick. never had any problem with it and i doubt i ever will. not the cheapest though, but if you don't need a full terabyte then you could probably get something cheaper.
Nov 25 2008 5:36PM
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BigJew
Posts: 6974 - Karma: 79
One thing people have to realise is that a fall of only 6 inches is enough to kill a hard drive while it's spinning, so you have to be super careful with your HD's.
Nov 25 2008 6:49PM
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Pippin
Posts: 4846 - Karma: 661
One thing in particularly people fail to realize is the life span of HD's. That is to say people assume them to last quite a while so they buy t-bytes of storage, but HD's last 5-ish years depending on the handling of them, i don't mean to critizise people that use them to put film on them cause that takes up a lot of space but i know a lot of people that have gotten t-bytes and they do movies. Just keep that in mind.
Nov 25 2008 7:37PM
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Xave
Posts: 2672 - Karma: 18
I personally have a Western Digital Mybook 1 TB, and a LaCie 250 Gb portable. Both I have used a lot (video editing with the LaCie and torrenting 24/7 for weeks on the MyBook) for about a year now. And so far I've had no problems with the WD, but I lost 40 Gb of video on my LaCie at once for no reason while I was in the middle of a rendering.

I prefer WD, and at home we have 2 other WDs, which have never failed. Only downside is you get only a 1-year limited warranty. The other brand I would recommend is Seagate. They offer excellent and reliable drives, and are so full of it that they give you a 5-year warranty. On a hard drive this kind of thing matters. But I think they are a little more expensive, I haven't ever bought one.

I think you should check out WD and Seagate, and depending on the size, portability, connections you want choose accordingly to your price range. But these two brands will get my respect forever. And I suggest not to buy from an obscure and unknown company, because their drives might really well fail more often.

Finally, I think you should really do backups of your stuff. Either go RAID on your ext. hard drive, or manage to buy 2 and get one to be the exact copy of the other, but always turned off and stored except when doing the backup. In case your ext. drive fails, you go in your closet and have another one exactly the same to whip out.
Nov 25 2008 8:08PM
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thegreyarea
Posts: 3265 - Karma: 34
Either buy a RAID 1 external enclosure or a Drobo ( http://www.drobo.com/ ). Drobo's are amazing for redundancy and upgrading.
Nov 26 2008 9:55AM
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fragglemuffin
Posts: 3312 - Karma: 444
i have a Western Digital MyBook 500gb and i have never had a problem
Nov 26 2008 12:39PM
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RtC.
Posts: 1156 - Karma: 28
WD is where it is at. Firstly they make the most reliable product on the market. This has been backed up with tests in PC mags and such.
Secondly they actually make around 60% of all the hard Drives on the market. Not just for them, but for most companies out there. There technology is superior though.

There is one other company that is worth buying but I can't remember them right now.

WD for life.
Nov 26 2008 12:46PM
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freeskibum82
Posts: 6355 - Karma: 5,055
WD MyBook 750gb at walmart Black friday for $88
Nov 26 2008 2:39PM
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photowill
Posts: 158 - Karma: 10
lacie rugged series
absolutely bomber
Popular Science did a test and (while not spinning) it was dropped from like 12 or something feet and it still worked. i personally dont want to find this out for myself, but nevertheless theyre great hd's
Nov 27 2008 2:05PM
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whistlerdan
Posts: 90 - Karma: 299
Agreed, the LaCie Rugged drives are good.  That is what i take with me when I am away from home.  My home setup is an array of  Western Digital drives.

The thing you have to remember is that its not a case of IF a drive will fail, its a case of WHEN will it fail.  All drives WILL fail eventually, even if you just put them on your desk and dont touch them for years.  Eventually they will fail and if you dont keep a backup you WILL loose everything.

The only way to protect your files if to have a redundant backup of everything.  2 of every external drive with identical files on it.  Ideally you want to have an off-site backup too.  The same files but in another locations to protect against things like robbery and fire.  No good having lots of backups if they all burn in a house fire.  I guess the extent to which you keep things backed up depends on the worth of the files.

dc
Nov 27 2008 7:30PM
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