New external HD

Had an old Maxtor for close to 10 years now. It's been great and still works fine but I'm getting a bit worried that it's getting too old, plus I'm running out of space. I have way too much valuable stuff on here to lose it all.

Any recommendations for a new one? I want at least 1TB for space. Something reliable and not bulky would be ideal. What do you guys use?

i can second the passports...awesome to have on the go...unfortunately my 1tb hard drive is a gigantor WD because i was too impatient to wait for the travel size to come out

  On 4/12/2011 at 5:28 PM, Salvatorin said:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=tb+hard+drive&hl=en&safe=active&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=8612256490756458037#

That's a good one to go for.

Don't be afraid to spend a bit of dollar too, always get good quality. WD is a good brand too.

Good.

I have a western digital MyBook 1TB, it does the job. If you haven't bought one for ten years you are going to be delighted with how little they cost now.

I've never had any issues with G drives.

If you can find one, try get one with usb3. You may not have a computer now that supports the full speed but it is backwards compatible with current usb and if you make your harddrives last 10 years then you'll be thankfull you have it when usb3 becomes the new norm.

I've always been partial to buying the harddrive seperately and an external case by Vantec or Astone. I'm not sure why exactly. Nowadays it probably costs a little more than what buying a specifically external hdd costs but you get exactly what you want.

I definitely don't like the kind that are 'always on' when connected via usb. I like mine to have a deliberate on/off switch.

yeah, id love to have an on/off switch as well...i get incredibly paranoid when its been on for a few hours after i forgot to turn it off...i only use it to play music files..but i have tons of college papers/etc stored on there that could be career ending.

  On 4/12/2011 at 6:14 PM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

i have tons of college papers/etc stored on there that could be career ending.

sync that shit with dropbox http://db.tt/SWWyo5b

don't get a seagate freeagent desk 1.5 tb

they were like super on sale so between all of my flatmates we got 3. 60 bucks a pop i mean hey worth it.

1 was doa, another one died within a week.

the other one has been working fine since, but i'm still nervous about it. not putting anything important on it, anyways.

i mean it was a helluva deal for the one that worked. but they all should work its not like this is fucking rocket science haha.

I got a seagate 7 or 8 months ago and its grand.

But if you want something portable dear god dont buy a Disk drive. Passports are expensive but worth it if you want to bring it round the place.

1TB WD Passport most definitely!

One little thing I have with mine is that the LED keeps blinking even when the pc is turned off.

  On 4/12/2011 at 6:29 PM, disparaissant said:

don't get a seagate freeagent desk 1.5 tb

they were like super on sale so between all of my flatmates we got 3. 60 bucks a pop i mean hey worth it.

1 was doa, another one died within a week.

the other one has been working fine since, but i'm still nervous about it. not putting anything important on it, anyways.

i mean it was a helluva deal for the one that worked. but they all should work its not like this is fucking rocket science haha.

fwiw i have a seagate freeagent 500GB USB external that's about 3 years old now and have never had an issue with it. i have one partition for windows backups and one for os x backups and it's never had a hiccup. as always ymmv... if something is doa then i'm sure you returned it immediately; why would you keep a portable hard drive if you didn't trust it for your backups?

  On 4/12/2011 at 6:46 PM, vincentvc said:

1TB WD Passport most definitely!

 

One little thing I have with mine is that the LED keeps blinking even when the pc is turned off.

unplug it or disconnect the pc completely.

Why don't you just get an internal HD?

  On 4/12/2011 at 6:11 PM, Space Coyote said:

I definitely don't like the kind that are 'always on' when connected via usb. I like mine to have a deliberate on/off switch.

Most drives can spin down when idle. There's no durability and negligible power consumption difference to a completely shut down drive.

Lack of FireWire on these drives...I am in the market for a drive, too, but I need FW400 / 800.

  On 4/12/2011 at 7:18 PM, Deep Fried Everything said:

  On 4/12/2011 at 6:29 PM, disparaissant said:

don't get a seagate freeagent desk 1.5 tb

they were like super on sale so between all of my flatmates we got 3. 60 bucks a pop i mean hey worth it.

1 was doa, another one died within a week.

the other one has been working fine since, but i'm still nervous about it. not putting anything important on it, anyways.

i mean it was a helluva deal for the one that worked. but they all should work its not like this is fucking rocket science haha.

 

fwiw i have a seagate freeagent 500GB USB external that's about 3 years old now and have never had an issue with it. i have one partition for windows backups and one for os x backups and it's never had a hiccup. as always ymmv... if something is doa then i'm sure you returned it immediately; why would you keep a portable hard drive if you didn't trust it for your backups?

yeah no ive only heard of problems with the 1.5gb freeagent desks. everything else is solid afaik.

i kept the one that still worked because it was 60 dollars and after the other two i spent 15 bucks to get a 2 year guarantee on it.

75 dollars for 1.5tb of crap storage. i mostly use it for tv torrents. if it dies, i get an equivalent product, which has already moved up to a 2 tb drive.

so wahey, fuck it. that's an investment.

  On 4/12/2011 at 7:23 PM, plstik said:

  On 4/12/2011 at 6:46 PM, vincentvc said:

1TB WD Passport most definitely!

 

One little thing I have with mine is that the LED keeps blinking even when the pc is turned off.

unplug it or disconnect the pc completely.

  On 4/12/2011 at 6:26 PM, futuregirlfriend said:

  On 4/12/2011 at 6:14 PM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

i have tons of college papers/etc stored on there that could be career ending.

 

sync that shit with dropbox http://db.tt/SWWyo5b

oh wow man. thanks a lot for this! never thought about doing an online "lockbox" storage thingy

i suspect drives last longer when they're not being powercycled on a regular basis. thermal expansion/contraction, etc.

  On 4/12/2011 at 9:01 PM, vincentvc said:

  On 4/12/2011 at 7:23 PM, plstik said:

  On 4/12/2011 at 6:46 PM, vincentvc said:

1TB WD Passport most definitely!

 

One little thing I have with mine is that the LED keeps blinking even when the pc is turned off.

unplug it or disconnect the pc completely.

 

The USB is still a bit active if the pc isn´t completely "off". My mp3-player/usb-sticks behave in the same way until I hit the main-power switch.

WD Passport is boss! I have 2 of them @ 640GB each. USB connection only and super tiny.

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=56057&vpn=WDBACX0010BBK-NESN&manufacture=Western%20Digital%20WD%20Retail

  On 4/12/2011 at 6:14 PM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

yeah, id love to have an on/off switch as well...i get incredibly paranoid when its been on for a few hours after i forgot to turn it off...i only use it to play music files..but i have tons of college papers/etc stored on there that could be career ending.

Most WD shut off when you put your PC to sleep. My 1TB passport does.

  On 4/12/2011 at 6:29 PM, disparaissant said:

don't get a seagate freeagent desk 1.5 tb

they were like super on sale so between all of my flatmates we got 3. 60 bucks a pop i mean hey worth it.

1 was doa, another one died within a week.

the other one has been working fine since, but i'm still nervous about it. not putting anything important on it, anyways.

i mean it was a helluva deal for the one that worked. but they all should work its not like this is fucking rocket science haha.

Seagates are a mixed bag - Litigation Support uses them for client data, and I've seen many go doa just by mailing them in their original shipping containers.

Thanks for the feedback everybody, looks like I'm going for a WD. Just got a bonus at work and filed my tax return so I have some money to burn. Money isn't an issue anyways, this shit is so cheap compared to when I bought 250GB 10 years ago!