Thread: HDD help

hey guys, soim thinking of buying an external HDD,
and i was thinking of WD but im having second thoughts since they crashed for waffles.
so, can anyone of you guys recommend a good HDD for me, 1.5 tb or 1TB

please tell me why you have chosen it too, this is not a spam thread where ou can just post your favorite HDD brand.



thanks guys!!.

I have a seagate expansions one, it's nice and small, quite quiet and has a long usb included, that's a plus I think.

I chose this as I needed a big external HDD and saw that the 1TB was only £50 on amazon so I thought go on then, that's the only real reason I chose it though. I didn't have the money to buy a better one :001_tongue:

I have several internal (4) and external (3) drives ranging from 160G 10K RPM to 1TB 7.2K RPM and they are all WD and have never had a problem with any of them - I would highly recommend WD to anyone who is looking for a good HDD

IMO, it's just pure luck if your HDD can survive for years. I have 1 Seagate since 2002, 1 WD since 2004, one Maxtor (sold to Seagate), and a 1TB WD Desktop Element External last year. So all you do is to stick to one of those brands and pick one with speed and capacity that suits you.

Well now in your case you have mainly two choice one is go for an

1.external power or internal power(like go or Desk one).
2.do you need esata,firewire(In my case this is the feature I really want).

My pick:
external power with esata:
i will go for
Seagate FreeAgent XTreme even though it has external power but I don't care much about look...Even it has little issue you may wanna check them before taking any decision of buying it :)

I have 8 hard drives, 6 of which are WD's.

Every brand will have DOA and drives fail over time. I've had the best experience with WD.

Brand:
I would go with a Seagate or Western Digital as they seem to be the biggest and most reliable. You'll see people who either despise or swear by certain brands based on personal experience. Truth is all hard drive brands will have their fails and most brands have had a bad batch once in a while.

3.5" vs 2.5":
3.5" drives are your typical desktop drives in an external case. They're generally cheaper, higher capacity and faster (higher rpms). They require an external power supply. The higher end 3.5"s sometimes have auto backup software included.
2.5" externals are your smaller laptop drives and a more portable and robust for moving around - although never move it around when it's plugged in. Some brands market their special shock protection but I don't know how much real data there is on this or how effective it is. Generally, more expensive, lower capacity and slower (lower rpms) They typically do not require an external power supply and draw power from USB or firewire. There are exceptions though - I think eSata drives still require an external power source.

Connectors:
You'll be limited to what ports your computer has. USB 2.0 is the most common and most compatible with different computers. Firewire is typically faster but this is also dependent on your OS - Mac people seem to like Firewire. eSata is again faster and supposedly the new standard although this remains to be seen with some manufacturers now spruiking USB 3.0. You could also consider a NAS (Network attached storage) drive but they are much more expensive.

Capacity:
Just get what you'll need but remember you'll probably always need more in the future. Some of the larger capacity (1.5TB, 2TB) but older model drives may be slower (lower rpms). Obviously consider price as well.

Sorry if this post got a bit too long.
I'd probably get something like the Seagate Expansion drives. Seagate Expansion is your basic 3.5" USB 2.0 7200rpm drive. But really it depends on what you're going to use it for.

I have 4 WD HDD : 120, 160 and 2x 1 TB ... and I had them for more than 2 years now and everything seems to be good ... it's a good looking, small, and you can say it doesn't crash "I have a friend who have 160 GB external HDD and he throw it on the ground and nothing happened"

so I recommend WD ... but recently I have been looking for any HDD which is not made in CHINA "sorry but I hate chinese manufacturing" .. and because I am in shitty country all HDD are made in china except buffalo, and in some stores they have WD Malaysian made.

So my recommendation is ... don't pick your HDD by it's manufacture, but see where it is made "I personally prefer HDD made in USA, Japan, Malaysia"

Hi pikmiky
This is what i baught the other day m8 but it is a desktop hard drive, it is an iomega Prestige 1.5tb Desktop Hard Drive i bought this for 90 pound (if u havnt guessed im from the uk) and its brilliant for me cheep and tons of space

Specifications-
Transfer rate:
USB 2.0 480 Mbits/s

Memory cache: 8MB or grater
Format: NTFS
Dimensions:
7.82"x4.75"x1.22"
199mmx121mmx31mm
Weight: 2.15lbs(0.98kg)
System Requirements
PC:Microsoft windows 2000;professional;XP;Windows Vista;256MB RAM
MAC:Requires Mac OSx10.3-10.5 128MB RAM