[VictorBoyko]

i normally use firewire HDDs with my macbook pro for everyday work (photography)

i really loved the solutions of LaCie with their netword hard drives (http://www.google.com/products/catal...187#ps-sellers)


are there any clear disadvantages (or advantages) of using ethernet connection over firewire?

i plan to connect directly to computer, not to router (as wifi speeds are slow).

[mduell]

They're slower; don't do it unless you're going to share it on the network and you don't want to have to keep a computer on all the time.

Also, don't buy LaCie for either Firewire or ethernet; there are better, less expensive brands out there.

[Morbiato]

Have had trouble with external Ethernet hard drives. Three - yes THREE - LaCie drives failed and despite being repaired [?] under guarantee [one twice] then all failed again; so gave up on them. Replaced with a Western Digital and ripped CD collection onto it - which takes a LONG time - this has now failed.

Are there any reliable drives out there?

[bluedog]

I've had horrible luck with westerndigital drives starting with their 20GB drives which have ALL failed right after their MTBF and out of warranty. The build quality is obviously scraping bottom. That said its hard to say one manufacturer is better than another. Sad fact is, drives will fail.

Keep redundant backups. Thats the only reasonable solution that increases your own overhead in keeping track of them. I suggest DVD backups for critical files and an external drive you regularly backup for your everyday files. Refresh your DVD backups at least once every 2 years (to ensure they don't deteriorate and become unreadable.

Don't keep your only copy on a single drive (or worse a striped-raid array - RAID0).

Seagate has had reasonably better quality but I've had several of theirs fail over the years, also.

[seanc]

Working as an IT technician, I can tell you that all makes and manufacturer fail.

We purchase Seagate primarily because they're quiet, reliable and have an excellent warranty. Occasionally we've had to buy something else in between (WD or Hitachi) if we were desperate and our suppliers were low on stock, but we stick to Seagate where possible.

I've probably sent 10 back but come across 20 dead, since Sept. 2007. Some were in a pile when I arrived, so I tested them and sent back the ones which were still within their 5 year warranty period. Bear in mind that these are from our machines and other makes and models that customers call us out to, so who knows where they've all come from.

Since then we get the occasional 80GB IDE drive that develops issues but most of the 80GB drives still have warranty left. I sent 3 drives back today.

A couple of the most recent to go back were in a batch of 12 which I bought, one DOA, one died within 2 weeks and another 5 months later. I don't think it's too bad considering I've purchased hundreds of them, I think the aforementioned 2 were damaged by the users when they moved offices.

[dimmer]

For a direct connect, firewire is better in the short term at least -- as others have said, it's faster. It's also much easier to manage than an entry level SAN. As technology progresses, firewire will most likely die off, but even so you should be able to take the drive from an external unit and move it to another without major hassle. If you don't have an urgent need for network access, I'd go firewire.