Thread: External Storage Solution

Hi folks,

I'm pretty much out of space on my internal HDDs, so I'm looking to expand externally. Please give me your opinions on the best external drive (specific models please!) - don't care about size or form factor, just looking for reliability and a very low failure rate. If you are familiar with Network Attached Storage, I'd also appreciate your opinion on the best NAS box, preferably capable of RAID 5 and < $500 USD.

Thanks!

I have had a lot of luck with LaCie little disk. Lightweight and holds enough data for me.

lol I have 3 internal hard drives at about 1.2TB and 2 external drives at about 1TB...5 usb thumb drives totaling about 16GB...and im just about out.

Thanks guys!

Rennu, do you use the externals to back-up your internals or just as additional storage? What models are your externals?

For a NAS you can just build one for pretty cheap. Pick up a Dell Perc 5/i raid card and throw it in an older/cheap PC.

The only external drive I have is a Fantom Green Drive. It is just some random brand but it has a Western Digital Green drive in it so the reliability should be good and I haven't had any problems.

Another alternative which I have done before is pick up an external enclosure when they are on sale, then you can pick up any internal HDD to use with it. You can usually get better deals on internal drives, plus they have their standard 3 or 5 yr warranty. Some of the cheaper external drives only have a 1 yr warranty.

I prefer to use an external enclosure and standard internal HDD. I have never had any issues and you get control which HDD you are using.

I used to have multiple drives in my PC for backup but have moved to only externals for backup purposes. If someone steals your computer or there is a fire your PC is toast. Place your backup external HDD's in your gun safe or fire safe box and you are good to go.