External Hard Drives

[Die Hard]

Feels like my external drive is spinning all the time.  It's warm anyway.  And, what good does a warranty do you in a year, or two weeks for that matter, when your drive fails and they replace it with a nice, new, empty drive?

It does wonders. Anyone who don't backup their data deserves what happens when a drive fails. It's not like these drives cost serious money these days; buy two.

[Meatwad]

I have been eyeing one of those external drives that you plug Cat-5 cable into for network storage. Would be really useful when I need something from there when im away from home without having the desktop running 24/7

[Nilsen]

I use two 320gb WD passport drives (they are cheap) and not needing external powersupply is great. I have all my music ripped to them and no troubles with studders when playing from them. Both drive have the same files, on one i have all my music ripped in apple lossless and on the other the same music is ripped to FLAC and used as backup.

I also have a SONOS ZP90 ZonePlayer hooked to my main stereo that playes all of the above files from my PC. I will soon get a 1TB WD NAS drive hooked up to the network so i wont need to have the lappy on for playing music on my stereo.

[FLOTSOM]

well i have a WD 320 gb external that i bought 3 years ago, the first year of its life it lived under the bech seat of my tow truck and stored music videos and work files. i had a dash mounted laptop that ran my gps and work files so as long as i was in the truck the comp was on and so was the hard drive. i had an inverter store under the seat for ac power. now i spent at least a third of my time on back roads and dirt roads under less than optimal conditions. after i removed it from the truck it has spent the last couple of years getting daily use as my back up and utility drive. i have had no issues with it. as it goes it has its own built in fan and as long as i dont place it in an air restrictive enviorment then it never gets above room temp.

personally i dont shut off my comp except to do an immediate reboot, i dont shut down and leave off unless there is a need (i.e. repairing or replacing internal parts ect) computers and their internal components are like any other man made device, subject to accelerated failure due to cool down and reheat. once your comp comes up to its operating temp you will cause less wear and tear by leaving it running staying at temp than you will by cooling it and then heating it up again.

i have left mine on for almost 2 years without many complete shutdowns and have had no issues with it. i dont know if i would consider it the rule or if mine is an exception, but im content with it either way.

i am more than certain that there are plenty of people who would argue this, but to them i will just say go back to metallurgy 101 and reread the part that tells what happens to metals that are subject to continual heating and cooling. plastics fare no better in this environment.

if you are going to use it for important stuff i would say get a ac powered one with a built in fan, make sure it can breathe freely and you should do fine. i would also suggest that using a worm drive or it equivalent to back up anything of real importance. anything can happen at any time so having a backup that is almost impossible to corrupt is smart not matter what your saving.

good luck

[TilDeath]

If you have a Firewire port in the rear this will give you better performance then USB 2.0

[Die Hard]

If you have a Firewire port in the rear this will give you better performance then USB 2.0

Not noticeably. External SATA port on the other hand will give the drive the same performance as an internal hard drive.

[Eagler]

I find this more versatile if you are going to use faster sata drives:



you can use it as an esata or usb2.0 external drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153071

[Die Hard]

Do you own one? Does it power down the drive when inactive?

If not then I much prefer one of these: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/index.asp?cat=8

[sluggish]

That's just wrong Eagl. Purpose built external drives like Seagate Agent, Maxtor OneTouch or WD My Book all shut down after a few minutes of inactivity, whether the computer is on or off. And they come with 3 or 5 year manufacturer guarantees. I have several terabytes worth of external drives. No problems.

Whenever I shut the computer down or even just put in standby mode the hard drive shuts down.

[Rich46yo]

USB-3 is supposed to be coming out with some obscene Data rates. I even do video on USB-2.0 drives, but prefer my SCSI and 1394B externals. 1394b is firewire at twice the speed of regular firewire, tho your computer might only have a 1394a port you can put in a 1394b PCI card. I have about 3 terras strung out over 4 1394b drives for backup of video files and projects. Never any problems.

[Die Hard]

You get more than 10 megabytes per second with USB 2, so it is more than capable of streaming xvid videos. Even playback of H.264 full HD video is no problem.

[Fulmar]

If you plan on having that External HD travel with you, I'd probably stick with USB 2.0 because almost every computer has a USB port (even 1.1 is functional if u need it to be).  Firewire 1394a is going to give you better transfer rates, especially on larger computer.  Firewire ports are becoming more and more common, but not as popular or numerous on the computer as USB.  eSATA is going to be quite a bit faster yet, but, in popularity its not very common on off-the-shelf comps or older PCs.

But if u plan on this being just attached to your PC, use the fastest port you have available.  eSATA > Fireware > USB