Can anyone recommend a good brand? Ive tried Seagate and Western Digital external drives and they have all failed within two years. They just seem to self destruct. Interesting enough after 3 PC's and 2 Mac's never had an internal HD crash.
I've only ever used Iomega. I got a 1 TB drive (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001D7REJ4/) in August 2009 and it still works; I only upgraded because I needed more space and wanted a duplicate backup in case against all odds my computer and my backup failed around the same time. I got this 2 TB drive (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003HIXOOQ/) from them in September 2011, so I haven't had it long enough to speak to its longevity, but I can say that it's functioned perfectly so far and worked just fine out of the box, and the Firewire connection has been noticeably better than the USB connection of the previous drive. And in December I got another 2 TB drive (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035JFV5W/) to store rips of my Blu-rays and DVDs in case they get damaged (and also to facilitate playing Blu-rays on my non-BD-supporting Mac); all I can say about that one is it works fine so far. But so far Iomega's products haven't caused any frustration or, more importantly, loss of files, so I'm happy to recommend their stuff.
Thanks very much! I think I will try the brand you recommend. I am so leery of the other two now. Not too mention their customer service(s) has been less than spectacular. I'm looking for a 2TB drive so sounds like that will fit the bill.
Not sure what you mean by internal drive with a separate enclosure/dock. Can you explain a little more? I have a Mac OS X 10.5.8. Intel Core 2 Duo.
10Arrows is correct. Looking for a back up drive. Back things up every few months then unplug it for safe keeping. I need two actually, as my internal HD is quite small so I don't keep a lot on it. I need one to hold all my stuff and a second for safe keeping all my stuff.
Stay away from Seagate. I am using my second back up external drive. Seagate GoFlex. It is constantly turning itself off every hour or two then rebooting on its own. When ever it disconnects I get a message that the device was not properly discounted. WTF? Western Digital may have crashed on me after a year or two, but Seagate seems buggy as hell from the get go, plus unreliable.
My advice would be to buy an internal hard drive + empty aluminum enclosure/case as Maleficio suggested. The pre-made external hard drives are usually made of cheap plastic materials and don't dissipate heat very well, so putting together your own external drive usually gives better results. There are tons of different models to choose from (such as on newegg.com), just read the reviews and choose one that's the right size (3.5" for a desktop size drive) and has the connections you want (USB, FW, eSATA, etc.):
Here's a pretty cool-looking one (except that it costs $50) and it has a video there showing how to put together your own external enclosure. Every model is different, of course, so just use this as a general guide:
@ piano632 - Thank you for the feedback and links. I will certainly look into this and read the information you provided.
You get more bang for your buck by buying the enclosure and internal hard drive separately since you can buy high quality versions of each as opposed to being potentially stuck with the sub-par quality of one external drive.
Thankfully I never actually have to remove the drive from it and the USB 3.0 Cord sticks out from the case when I keep it almost zipped up close. I've dropped it gently from time to time and the case and drive both work.
Can anyone recommend a good brand? Ive tried Seagate and Western Digital external drives and they have all failed within two years. They just seem to self destruct. Interesting enough after 3 PC's and 2 Mac's never had an internal HD crash.
I have 8 WD drives and nary a problem. Just a word of warning, hard drive prices are sky high at the moment due to flooding in Asia. If you can hold out until second quarter 2012, prices should recover to previous low prices. My 5 2TB drives cost me only $400 in the summer, but if I bought those now I'd be paying closer to $800.
Thanks for all the information. Its been an education. Looks like I need to do both. I would like an external for full back-ups. (which will be disconnected and stored elsewhere) and an internal as a storage device which I will use daily.
Weird that some of you are having problems with Seagate drives. I've been using them for a few years now and have never had a problem. They work as they should for me and are totally reliable.
Whatever product you name, someone's going to have had a bad experience with it and someone's going to say, "Gee that never happened to me".
I have Seagate and Western Digital external USB drives and they've never let me down.
My oldest Seagate is six years old.
Incidentally, if you go for a drive that's powered by USB, bear in mind any failure you experience may be due to your computer not being able to distribute enough power to the drive, not the drive itself. Having spare USB ports isn't the issue.
I have 4 external drives ('cos I care about my itunes library that much) and one of them is a 3.5-inch externally powered one. Less portable, but more robust and immune from USB power shortage.
Just an FYI, I am pretty sure both external drives physically crashed. My WD was making really bad clicking noises and was super hot. The Seagate was making more noise than normal and was also super hot.
Whats ironic is I am at my computer all day. Yet the WD failed "over night" and the Seagate failed while I was away from the computer for a few hours.
