External 1.5Tb hardrive? i cant Choose one!

[Entry]

Hiya, im going to buy a 1.5 Tb hardrive, and was looking for recommendations on the best makes/manufacturers out there.

Seagate, maxtor, western union?

Here is an example: http://www.dabs.com/products/seagate-1-5tb-expansion-usb-3-5--5K39.html?refs=52120000-47210000

Has anybody here got good knowledge of what are the best company/makes who make large hardrives?

And any you would avoid?

Thanks.

[themaster1]

western union? western digital you mean.
I highly suggest you discard all of Seagate Hdd models. Read this if you're not convinced
Western digital seem ok but 1.5Tb drives what a nightmare to defrag such a drive not to mention if it dies . I'd rather buy 3 x 500gb drives but that's just me..

[edDV]

External USB will run half max speed. For near full speed you need eSATA. What is your application. What speed do you need?

[Entry]

yea i meant western digital. speed isnt too much an issue

will be used for - Storage, not to move around,

and it wont be on/in use all of the time

[lordsmurf]

I bought a Seagate 1.5TB SATA drive, and my own eSATA enclosure.

[ron spencer]

I agree with lordsmurf....never buy the so-called "external hard" drives. Get a nice enclosure and buy the hard drives on sale. That way you can expand when your needs change and sell the old drives. If just backing up stuff, get a 2.5" enclosure and a slow 5400 rpm laptop drive to put in. then put in safety deposit box offsite

[PuzZLeR]

"External" hard drives are that bad? If it's a speed thing, personally, I think they're fast enough for most people, even in this forum. But if there's something else we should know about them other than some overheating light, please do tell.

The 15-20 (lost count) "external HDDs" of the known "better" brands that I've accumulated over the last near 5 years have yet to show a problem. Honestly - 100% reliable.

But from my experience I would indeed say avoid the cheapie brands that have those "amazing deals" on them. I did buy two of them, mostly for backup, and indeed BOTH had problems. They had no support and broken links on their "sites" - avoid at all costs.

[ron spencer]

sorry....I meant external in the sense of a black box that when it breaks it breaks. With a separate enclosure, you get added flexibility

[PuzZLeR]

Ahh, I do love those LaCie all-black boxes (and I do mean "all black") designed by Neil Poulton. Not only are they of excellent quality, they are absolutely breathtaking and stunning to look at.

http://www.lacie.com/ca/products/product.htm?pid=11355

Worth every penny IMO.

[lordsmurf]

The only exception is this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XE09OK?ie=UTF8&tag=thdifa-20&linkCode=as2&camp=17...SIN=B000XE09OK

That's a pre-built 1TB RAID 1 (mirror) drive. Two 1TB drives inside a really nice slick-looking USB2+Firewire+eSATA enclosure.

Love it so far.

For $250, it's hard to buy a RAID 1 eSATA enclosures with a pair of 1TB drives!

I wanted a portable solution that created an auto-backup of my photos, with top notch speeds in Bridge. This did it.

RAID 1 can be disabled. It's also available for RAID 0 (JBOD).

[FTW]

agree w/ PuzZLeR...those Lacie drives are pretty sweet. Have a few myself, no complaints.

Don't get one of those 1.5TB Seagate FreeAgent drives. Apparently a grip of people have been having problems with them...myself included.

[lordsmurf]

Problems? Like what?

[FTW]

Within a few days of owning the drive I began hearing that noise typical of a failing hard drive...that noise of the arm "clicking" again and again. Sorry, don't know any technical terms to describe what's going on internally but I've heard that sound before...and it wasn't good.

[PuzZLeR]

Within a few days of owning the drive I began hearing that noise typical of a failing hard drive...that noise of the arm "clicking" again and again. Sorry, don't know any technical terms to describe what's going on internally but I've heard that sound before...and it wasn't good.

Yup, you're correct about it being not good. In fact, clicking means bad, bad news. This was a problem with one of the cheapies that I bought - and recovering data from such a drive can run you up to over $1000.

Glad you like the black LaCies. They've become my "main" drives, while all the others have been relegated to backup duty only.

... honestly, and I repeat here, they really are visions of beauty...

[lordsmurf]

Yep, one of my old WD drives is in the freezer right now.
If that doesn't help, I'll replace the mainboard.
If that still doesn't work, I'll just have to pay the $700-1200 quote. Gulp!