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Storage: Too many bad reviews on all external HD's
Too many bad reviews on all external HD's
by rayray512 - 12/11/07 11:04 PMI'm just a computer newby that purchased an iMac (320GB)... I want to purchase an external HD to store media files and use the "Time Machine" program.
But I'm stuck in a predicament. I've been reading reviews after reviews in every website imaginable. Even products that the editors give high scores on, I'll read horrific stories on user reviews.
After several days of this, I'm thinking there is no "best pick" for an external HD.
Experts, have mercy on me and please provide advice.
Merry Christmas.
I have one explanation. It's called FAT32.
by R. Proffitt
- 12/12/07 6:06 AM
In reply to: Too many bad reviews on all external HD's by rayray512
Almost all the drives arrive READY TO USE (a good thing) but to accomplish this the vendors have to supply the drive in FAT32 format. Now that's not such a bad thing but FAT32 is not tolerant of file system damage that can occur when people unplug the cable, lose power, etc.
The fix is simple. After you get the drive, use your OS's native filesystem (NTFS for newer Windows, others for others.)
There are some dud units out there but I don't find the issue to be that widespread except for one thing. These units are just "hard disks" and prone to all the problems we have inside the computers we have now plus additional issues of drops and the FAT32 issue. So they will be less reliable than an internal.
Since we all maintain backups this shouldn't be a problem. (oops, that's not true!)
Bob
All of the externals I have (and I have several)
by VAPCMD - 12/13/07 9:20 AM In reply to: Too many bad reviews on all external HD's by rayray512are built from separate enclosures and hard drives. Most of the enclosures are Adaptecs but they've stopped marketing their external enclosures. The nice thing about them is they're well built, run cool, very compatible and they support HDDs up to 1TB
The nice thing about mixing and matching is you get the components you want and most of today's HDDs come with 3 or 5 year warranty vice one year for most of the retail external HDDs I've seen.
I'd take a hard look at the Antec MX-1 ... it's designed for SATA HDDs and supports external eSATA ... comes with the stuff to support it and it's USB 2.0 also. In addition it has active cooling so there's less danger of any HDD overheating. Note...the HDDs in the Adaptec enclosures didn't get hot but the enclosures don't have active cooling.
That said...I recommend adding HDDs internally wherever and whenever possible...it eliminates a number of failure points introduced by USB, Firewire and external drives.
Hope this helps.
VAPCMD
You may be right
by Dango517 - 12/14/07 5:52 PM In reply to: Too many bad reviews on all external HD's by rayray512Way to many problems being reported here on Cnet about these. More then likely the USB connection instead of a standard IDE or SATA is causing the problem. Add an internal drive instead or replace your internal drive with a larger one.
Just avoid LaCie
by ElmoKajaky - 12/14/07 6:50 PM In reply to: Too many bad reviews on all external HD's by rayray512Whatever external drive you get, avoid LaCie. I've had some horrifically bad support from them.
Other companies' drives can be pretty reliable (I like Seagate and Hitachi, for instance), but whatever you do, backup your vital data, and then back it up again!
It's more than that....my sense is too many folks are
by VAPCMD - 12/14/07 7:54 PM In reply to: Just avoid LaCie by ElmoKajakybuying externals when they really need and should buy internals. I call it the 'Easy Button' for increasing/adding HDD space. It's certainly more trouble to install a hard drive internally but when you weigh that against the problems I see from posters here and elsewhere, the odds seem to be overwhelmingly favor of you having problems with an external over an internal. So the initial convenience and ease of use are soon offset by earlier problems merely accessing your precious data..especially for those whose only copy of their data is on an external hard disk.
For those with laptops and those that really really need 'externals' for transportability ... externals are great.
VAPCMD
HD Enclosures
by The Digital Guy - 12/14/07 7:39 PM In reply to: Too many bad reviews on all external HD's by rayray512As VAPCMD said:
Take a look at the Antec MX1 enclosure.I have one for my Windows Home Server and it is fantastic. One on the big +++ is the quiet fan and the way it circulates the air keeping your hard drive 10-15C cooler than if in your PC. I also use nothing but Seagate drives(I have 5 TB worth). I only use 500GB and 1TB drives. I think the best value for your money would be a 500GB drive with the Antec MX1 enclosure.
Here's the BEST deal right now on the Antec MX-1:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371008&Tpk=antec%2bmx-1
External harddrives
by forkboy - 12/14/07 9:25 PM In reply to: Too many bad reviews on all external HD's by rayray512I agree with you that it seems like there are a lot of complaints about external hard drives by folks. While I can't claim to understand why this is the case, it is possible (although not probable) that some folks simply make mistakes in how they use them. They may be using backup software with which they aren't familiar and don't learn to properly use.
But I don't think you should let folks negative reviews stop you from purchasing an external backup hard drive. While I'm not making any particular claims, my Iomega has served me well since purchasing it almost one year ago.
I suppose the safest thing to do is purchase from a well-known and reputable manufacturer (like Iomega, Western Digital, Maxtor, etc.)
Redundancy is the key!
by drpills - 12/14/07 9:45 PM In reply to: External harddrives by forkboyI have had two external drives (a Maxtor OneTouch, a WD MyBook, and two Seagate FreeAgents) - note that the Maxtor and WD both croaked after less than a year, and so my current setup is two FreeAgent 750GBs on FireWire that I run my backup software into (each external drive is used to store the backups to my 1TB system drives).
I really like the FreeAgents - they run silently and fairly cool without any fan noise.
Re: External Hard Drives
by VAPCMD - 12/15/07 9:43 AM In reply to: External harddrives by forkboyre: "While I can't claim to understand why this is the case, it is possible (although not probable) that some folks simply make mistakes in how they use them. They may be using backup software with which they aren't familiar and don't learn to properly use."
For the most part it's nothing more than additional points of failure.
USB ports, USB Cables, external enclosure with electronics, AC adapters, AC power cords, etc.,. All of these things plus the portability add to the increased vulnerability of external USB drives ...especially those that are turned on and off, plugged and unplugged, connected and removed ...it's just the nature of external drives.
That said I personally own several external devices all built from separate HDDs of choice and good quality enclosures. I have multiple external hard drives (3.5" and 2.5") and an external CD-DVD. I disconnect and unplug them when not in use and make it a point to never put my only copy of anything on them. Good components, proper use and careful handling reduce at least some of the potential problems using external drives.
VAPCMD
Build your own
by Lofty17 - 12/15/07 2:10 AM In reply to: Too many bad reviews on all external HD's by rayray512I've had horrible luck with WD Mybook external drives. My failures have both been due to the enclosures. My first drive wouldn't power up. My second drive lost Firewire connectivity.
I finally gave up and extracted the disk drive and installed it into an Antec enclosure, which I highly recommend.
Please note that RayRay512 said he has an iMac
by EscapePod - 12/15/07 6:56 AM In reply to: Too many bad reviews on all external HD's by rayray512If its the model I'm thinking of, its not so easy to install/replace the internal drive. I've built many external drives for friends and family using the box similar to Antec or another ruggedized one from CompUSA, and they have been very reliable, and fast. As stated earlier, you get a better warranty with the internal drives that you use to build your own external drive box. Of course, that doesn't help much when you lose all your data when a drive fails.
Believe most here undestood ' iMAC' and similarly
by VAPCMD - 12/15/07 10:44 AM In reply to: Please note that RayRay512 said he has an iMac by EscapePod'laptops' and the unique problem they present for backup and expanded disk space. There are certainly fewer alternatives for such devices.
When I first started building my own external HDDs ..I used the Adaptec enclosures mainly because Adaptec makes good stuff and the enclosures handled drives up to 1TB when others only handled drives
in the 200GB-300GB range. The last Adaptec I put together was the model that supports USB 2.0 and eSata .... the eSATA is noticeably faster than USB. Unfortunately Adaptec stopped making USB enclosures
so as time time goes on, I've had to look for new enclosure alternatives. I've given Antec MX-1s and hard drives my sons-in-law
and have recommended same combo to friends. Nice enclosures with active cooling...so far so good.
VAPCMD
More likely a usage problem
by Zouch - 12/15/07 2:53 PM In reply to: Too many bad reviews on all external HD's by rayray512I have three external USB hard drives, two 2.5" and one 3.5" - all home built by putting a regular disk in an enclosure from the local computer store. All drives were PATA. The 2.5 drives (40 GB and 80 GB) were from notebooks I upgraded and the 3.5" was a new Seagate 300 GB. I've had no problem with any of them, these on a PC - I see no reason why a Mac should be any different.
However, friends have run into problems, almost invariably with 3.5" drives. In a couple of cases, the problems arose when the units were moved while powered on. Unlike 2.5" drives that are assumed to be used in a portable device, though moving them while spinning is not recommended, 3.5" drives are designed for desktops and other such (relatively) fixed machines. I suspect that they are much more senitive to being moved while powered on and this may be the cause of some of the problems.
Good practice would suggest that you should place the drive on a firm surface where it is to be used, plug in the USB cable and then switch the power on (note, most 2.5" drives are self powered from the USB port, so plugging the cable in will power them up). Whichever type you are using, when finished, use the system tray icon to stop the drive (or the Mac equivalent - I assume it has one) and wait for confirmation that it is safe to remove the hardware, then turn off the power before you move it. If you don't get the confrmation or the system says it can't be stopped at this time, leave it until you next power off the machine (which you do overnight to save the planet, don't you?!).
This routine has worked for me - your mileage may vary.
Depends on what you're doing with the external hard drive
by jmdaines - 12/16/07 1:16 AM In reply to: Too many bad reviews on all external HD's by rayray512My experience with external hard drives has not been too good. I had 3 Maxtor OneTouch 320 Gb, of which 2 have failed, both within weeks of each other. Maxtor (or Seagate as they are now) where not interested in solving the problem, which was a failed interface card, not the drive itself. So I don't buy any Maxtor or Seagate products any more. For those of you with these particular drives, if your PC fails to recognise the drive then the chance is the interface card has failed. I stripped out the drive and placed it in a third party caddy and carried on.
Aside from Maxtor's failure to address their faulty components it also transpired that the Firewire implementation on the OneTouch 320 Gb drives was not "the full implementation". Consequently it was not possible to daisy chain multiple drives via Firewire, which is somewhat cheeky...or dare I say it cheap.
In summary, don't believe the marketing from the manufacturers and check these kind of forums for a general opinion. I've switched to Lacie external drives, but don't have too much usage to be able to comment. I note someone else has had a customer services problem; however when I researched external drives after the Maxtor fiasco, Lacies had the popular vote. Good Luck!
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