Sponsored Links

External..

Hey..

I want to get an external HDD..

I think around the 320g mark is fine...looking to the future though, are 500g ok..or better to fill a 320g then buy another??

I hear good things for the Western Digital 'My Book' series and have seen them for around £70. (I are got a firey wire port)

Any recommendations to other types..reliability being key, obviously.

:)
 
I have a LaCie 500Gb HDD (USB2.0 - couldn't find a cheap Firewire one) and it works fine, no problems. It's even pretty fast with the data transfer, although my one only has 8mb cache.

You can get USB 500Gb HDDs with 16mb cache for around £70 - I'd go for one of those.

Andy
 
me too.. around £80 seems good value for money considering other drives...
 
Sponsored Links
I have a Maxtor 40GB USB 2 external Drive which 4 years old and now full recently bought a Lacie 320GB from Amazon for £63 also USB 2 I would recommend either of them .Shop around price wise , as they can vary over a wide rang of prices .
 
try and steer clear of external drives in plastic enclosures... last one l had melted the enclosure..

in fact l generally buy the drives and a few enclosures from http://www.envizage.com might be an expensive way to do it but at least l know l can replace the hardware when it dies.
 
My son has a 250GB My Book which he got from Amazon (at his own expense). Works fine and is adequately speedy. It has not caught fire so far.

The bad news is that more storage space leads to more downloading. So I had to upgrade my broadband package to avoid the monthly excess download charge.

Grrr.
 
I tend to buy the enclosure and drive separately. I've been using Seagate drives because of the 5 year warranty. Delayed write errors have been causing problems under one of my machines using FireWire - something to be avoided. :hrmph:
 
Sponsored Links
The bad news is that more storage space leads to more downloading. So I had to upgrade my broadband package to avoid the monthly excess download charge.

Heh - I've already got a 24mb connection - I don't need an excuse for more downloading, though I may end up with a stack of external HDD's :)

The one I have wwas apparently "designed by F.A. Porsche". If it was then he was feeliing a bit lazy, since it's just a silver box with some small grooves for stacking multiple drives.

Anyways, this is the one I bought (from the same shop I bought it from too):

http://www.it247.com/Product/215-30...che_USB_20_hard_drive_500_GB_Hi_Speed_USB.htm

£70 for 500gb is pretty good IMO.
 
Hi Aweegin,

All our office machines have a Western Digital 320GB My Book attached, and are 100% perfect to ensure documents are backed up and putting files for storage.

They also appear as a mountable drive, therefore can be further expanded to become network drives.
 
If its for sharing stuff, you may want to consider a NAS box. Basically the same thing, except you plug it into the network and it shows as a shared drive.

They cost more, but the advantage of this is that you can access it from anywhere on your network. So if you have a wireless network, you can access this drive from that (most wireless routers have some wired connections you can use for the drive).

So you could have all your movies/music on this, accessable to your whole network. And you wouldnt have to keep a machine on, just the drive.
 
Downside to using a cheap NAS box is that you're going to be limited to typically 100 megabit/second (for wired at least), as opposed to 480 Mb/s for USB 2.0. This can be a bit frustrating during large file transfers. I prefer to use my (expensive) NAS box with gigabit Ethernet ... :hrmph:
 
Sponsored Links
WOW..lots of replies!!

Ok ok..1st, Bultler...you mention fanless, are these ok, i imagine them getting hot?? Remember we put a Samsung Spin Point in my pc? It is great..so Freecom is interesting. It's why i always ask here 1st, cos you guys are all knowing..lol


The network thing is a good idea, but atm not for me..my donated laptop is so old i cant run much for videos and i plug my mp3 to my amp for tunes..but a worthy thought in the future maybe!

I really want it for, obviously storage..but also mostly backing up..i'd like a second of all i have acquired..also as i am considering a format and clean start sometime in the future when i have the time and patience for it..lol

So back up mainly. Therefore i would need the backup software i guess..i just noticed the MyBook premium (i think) comes with it..and they had good rep.


I'm not urgent..but i have had a false start or 2 and it makes you think..just the wrong one and it'd just be better to be backed up!! lol


EDIT..What is e-sata? Is that any use? HERE is my board with only 1 internal HD. For example HERE My Book again..sry. Seems they cost a fair bit more..but is it worth it?
 
Last edited:
Think I've asked this before but can't recall which topic and that's in my own forum, for shame :) . Anyway do any of these external USB drives allow you to make an image of your HD that can then be restored directly using a USB boot option (where BIOS supports)?

Reason I ask is because DL-DVDr's don't store enough for a proper HD backup and my Samsung Q1 is a UMPC, so I need some method to backup and restore if the HD totally corrupts.
 
Mark J..not a clue!! :shrug: lol

Everyone else..thank you very much.

Following what Butler said about Freecom using Samsung drives..as I have one we fitted 2+ years ago and has never been a bother..it sounded good.

Thanks Andy Akbray for pointing out the buffer size..i probably wouldn't have even thought of that!! :)

Freecom 500g should keep me going for ages and ages!! Though, it also means maybe i wont delete as much stuff..lol

It says it comes with back-up software so That should be good..otherwise I may return..lol

:p
 
Ok..

Can anyone recommend any back-up software? Free would be good as ever. :rolleyes:
 
Sponsored Links
My Lacie External drive had a back up facility included on the drive .Do not know what it is like though because I had to continue with my Orlogix Back up my PC program in order to continue with the incremental back ups ( it just adds any new stuff to an existing back up )
 
miffie, just noticed the tag, how was ubuntu then?? what made you switch back to the devils spawn (windows!)??
 
Captain ,Ubuntu will be fine in about 12 months time at the moment too much is missing .It is the best one that I have tried so far, but not quite there yet .
 
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Vodafone UK ISP Logo
Vodafone £24.00 - 26.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
NOW UK ISP Logo
NOW £24.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £25.99
145Mbps
Gift: £50 Reward Card
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £17.00
200Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Youfibre UK ISP Logo
Youfibre £23.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (6027)
  2. BT (3639)
  3. Politics (2721)
  4. Business (2440)
  5. Openreach (2405)
  6. Building Digital UK (2330)
  7. Mobile Broadband (2146)
  8. FTTC (2083)
  9. Statistics (1901)
  10. 4G (1816)
  11. Virgin Media (1764)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1582)
  13. Fibre Optic (1467)
  14. Wireless Internet (1462)
  15. 5G (1407)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules