What is a good external hard drive?

Post by **Doctor Fugue** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 9:12 pm

I don't know much about computers, so I thought I would ask your help.

I'm looking to buy an external hard drive. What are some good brands?

I want reliable, portable, PC and Mac compatible, either USB alone or USB and Firewire, the size doesn't have to be very big...250GB is more than enough but if bigger is a better deal then I might go for that.

It will be used mainly as a backup for recordings, and to transport sessions between studio and home; I won't be using it every day.

I'm currently looking at the Seagate FreeAgent Go. Any suggestions would be great, thanks!

Post by **marurun** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 10:21 pm

I recommend Seagate over all other manufacturers for one reason and one reason alone. They offer a 5 year warranty on many retail (not OEM, however) products. Most mfgs dropped to 1 year warranties and hard drive quality has fallen. Even if Seagates aren't better than the competition, at least you can get it replaced when it croaks.

Whatever you get, make sure it's something with a 3 or 5 year warranty, because if the mfg is willing to stand behind the product that long it means they are more likely to produce something durable enough they won't have to replace it all the time.

Post by **selfdestroyer** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 10:42 pm

Like marurun said, Seagate. I pick these up for 99$ at Office Depot all the time. I have 2 terrabytes [4 externals] on my work computer. They are on 24/7 and run great.

I definitely recommend them.

http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=660780

Post by **fox099** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 11:57 pm

I use Acomdata drives because they support Firewire and USB2. Firewire is definately your best bet for connection because it has a higher average file transfer rate. They are pretty cheap nowadays at about 80-130 dollars depending on how big you want your drive to be.

Post by **peace4myheart** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 12:46 am

I have a cheap external HDD, but it always heats up so quickly that I worried sometimes when I leave it on for too long, i.e. more than two hours. Do u guys have that problem???

Post by **Cerulean** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 4:19 am

peace4myheart wrote:I have a cheap external HDD.

mmmmm no. My WD external dosent heat up that much. also yours being cheap is a likely culprit.

Post by **Doctor Fugue** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 5:17 am

Great! Thanks for the replies. I'll probably get a Seagate, but I'll have a look at those Acomdata ones too, I hadn't heard of them before.

The Seagate FreeAgent Pro looks perfect, but I'm going to be transporting it around quite often. Do they travel well? Or should I go for the FreeAgent Go which their website implies is better for portability?

Post by **Ivo** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 8:19 am

I think flash disks are going to overtake mechanical ones soon. Are they already cheap enough to be seriously competitive? That tech is particularly adequate for laptops and (small, portable) external drives, so maybe it's worth looking into one of those.

Ivo.

Post by **Doctor Fugue** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 9:34 am

Ivo wrote:I think flash disks are going to overtake mechanical ones soon. Are they already cheap enough to be seriously competitive? That tech is particularly adequate for laptops and (small, portable) external drives, so maybe it's worth looking into one of those.

Ivo.

Do you mean the solid state flash drives or keys or whatever? I just looked at Best Buy for a general idea of price and a 16GB one costs almost 140CAD. For the same price I could get 250GB in a mechanical drive. Good idea, but maybe they're not quite ready to compete.

Post by **selfdestroyer** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 11:42 am

The Seagate FreeAgent Pro looks perfect, but I'm going to be transporting it around quite often. Do they travel well? Or should I go for the FreeAgent Go which their website implies is better for portability?

I also use a loose one here at work that I take to users desk to backup/image computers to. It works great and seems to be pretty sturdy.