External Hard Drive Questions! :)

[JSB_01]

Ok, so I want to get a couple of external hard drives, one for me and a friend. I at least need a 160 GB one, and I would like the other to be 500 GB. I searched on JUB and found this link:

http://www.justusboys.com/forum/showthread.php?t=176621&highlight=external+hard+drive

The external hard drives at Newegg have really good prices, but some of the reviews have me worried. Quite a bit of them mentioned the hard drive failing after a year or so, with some even lasting only a few months.
I'm worried that if I put my pictures and music (and porn ) on it, then it will fail and I'll lose everything! Is this a common problem with external hard drives? Also, some reviews said that the drive would get hot after extended use; should that be something else that I should consider? Any general tips on external hard drives? Sorry, I'm really un-savvy when it comes to technology, so any helpful information will go a long way!

 

[thermodynamics]

The issue with external hard drives failing is because the drives ARE FRAGILE, though dramatic improvements have been made in the last 10 years. They do pretty well when they're OFF, because nothing is moving. But when they're on, they really do not like getting moved/bumped/etc. The temptation with an external HDD is to treat it as a "portable" drive. It isn't. It should see very little moving in its life, if you want to keep it and its data around.

Regarding heat...Yeah, the drives get quite warm. That's the nature of the beast. They're built to deal with it adequately. Many external drive enclosures are made out of aluminum which improves heat transfer "slightly" over other metals or plastic. Don't listen to people who say aluminum is "great". It isn't. I'd rather not drag out my heat transfer books to prove it. Some enclosures have fans in them. That's great, though they can be a bit noisy.

I bought a cheap one a few years ago, and I was rather ticked that its power switch was in the back of the case. So when I turn my computer off, I have to reach around the back of it to turn it off. Better to get one that shuts off automatically when the USB bus turns off, or, get one with a power switch in front.

As far as brands go...I'm quite biased toward Seagate. They are the most quiet, and their reliability is as good or better than their competitors.

 

[xolinlevh]

i have one of those Western Digital "mybook" things, 320 or 360 gig external usb 2.0 ones. i love it, good and fast, never had any problems. i just plug it in and go.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

a friend of mine had a maxtor one touch fail on him. i recently got the data back for him, and reformated the drive. it seems ok now, but i don't know what caused it to fail to begin with. he might have been using it "too much." although i don't even know what too much would have been.

i've heard nice things about the western digital my books though.

here are some reviews of some 500 GB drives
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/08/17/500_gb_external_storage_tested/

 

[JSB_01]

Thanks for the help guys! Few more questions:

So should I use the external hard drive primarily for back up, and try to not access the files too often? And how often do ya'll use yours, and for how long at a time? Should I get a back up for my back up?

I'm just really worried about losing my files; some of those reviews kind of gave me doubts about getting an external hard drive.

 

[star-warrior]

I installed some software to watch the USB shenanigans and it was quite interesting.

Now you got me curious. What kinda things?

 

[Paws]

I had some hard disks crashing in my cheap external case because of overheating. So...

- use the external disks for backups only/to copy things back and forth, don't work on them and leave them on all the time
- get a quality case with a fan
- don't get one without power switch, those that start and shutdown with your computer mean you'll have to keep them on all the time
- don't plug out the cable while the case is switched on -> data loss might happen
- if you really want to feel safe, get a Raid1 solution: a case with two hard disks of the same size, but you only use one of them and everything you copy to it is being backed up on the second one as well, so if one crashes, you still have the other one
- stay away from Western Digital

 

[utsasciguy]

I've got a 500GB Western Digital MyBook drive. Works great though when it gets used too much I would get "paging errors" and videos would get choppy. The joys of usb. So now I keep things I use alot on the main drive and use it like an archive.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

A friend of mine had his external fail on him. he was using firewire though. i think i said above it was a maxtor one touch, but he also asked if he should turn it off or unplug it. before he was using it all the time, and in fact his screen saver was even running from it. do you guys think firewire has similar "issues" as USB?

 

[johnscott]

I have a 500GB one. I leave my computer on pretty much the whole time, perhaps turning it off once a week. I do this for torrents etc. Anyway, I want to turn my external HDD off every evening. How should I do this? Should I:

1. My Computer >> Right Click >> Eject >> Then switch off at at HDD via switch

OR,

2. Just switch of via switch at the HDD?

 

[thermodynamics]

Option 1 is preferred.

 

[JSB_01]

- if you really want to feel safe, get a Raid1 solution: a case with two hard disks of the same size, but you only use one of them and everything you copy to it is being backed up on the second one as well, so if one crashes, you still have the other one

Does any know where I can find one, or what a reliable website/brand would be?