[Headshot]

OK, NewEgg has some terrific deals now on some external drives I'm looking at.

How would you rate the industry reputation for the following FW/USB2 external
500GB LEAST likely to fail and lose my data? I'm listing these in the order of which I've come to
hear about thru talking to people....

Maxtor
WD
Seagate
LaCie

Thanks!

[lightusr]

One thing to note is that WD and Seagate (the two brands I would consider, possible even LaCie) only have 1 year warranties on their external drives. If you bought your own case and put in a seagate, you'd have 5 years on the drive.

[SpaceMonkey]

There is really no way to know.

Storagereview.com has statistics on drive failure, but the sample size for any drives released in the last year or two is too small to yield any meaningful results. I would just go by the warranty.

[stormyday]

I have been looking at Seagate/Newegg and am considering the Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) series ( Newegg carries the (7200.8 and .9 also). "Perpendicular Recording increases data density while decreasing moving parts for a more dependable drive. Adaptive Fly Height offers consistent read/write performance from the beginning to end of your computing workloads. Clean Sweep automatically calibrates your drive each time you power up. Directed Offline Scan runs diagnostics when storage access is not required."

Anybody have any experience with these new drives?

[ghporter]

Note that Segate has acquired Maxtor. That may change things a bit.

I've had great success with Maxtor up until just the past month. My 250GB SATA drive has decided to fail on me-the first Maxtor I've ever had fail. In the past I've had problems with WD drives being heat sensitive, but that's not necessarily a problem today-they learned and seem to have products that are just as reliable as any others.

With all things, back up frequently and aggressively.

[lightusr]

I read in another thread somewhere that as areal density density increases, drive transfer rates etc. will speed up. So if the only difference is the way the data is stored, I think its safe to say that it performs just as well as other seagate mobile drives.

In a nutshell, I've had great luck with seagate drives and I'd assume this works just as well.

I'd like to answer the OP more directly tho, I always back my data up because I know I can't depend on things like failure rates to guarentee my data won't be lost.

[gnomexp]

Seagate makes EXCELLENT internal drives. I'd find an enclosure and stick a Seagate in. Get that full five-year warranty.

Otherwise, I'm personally in love with my G-Drive, from G-TECH. Firewire 800, daisy-chaining, 7200 RPM, and a nice two-year warranty.

[kg109]

I came on here looking for roughly the same info, as my Western Digital external FW "Media Center" drive is acting up. The drive funtions and I can access the data ok, but if I try to copy to it in any way, I get an "error code -8065".

I emailed WD to find out what the hell is going on. I've had the drive since early '03 and use it often. If I have to, I'll buy another internal drive and just put it in this enclosure. I need a new internal also, and will likely go with Seagate on both.

Its a huge downer when HDs fail; I've had Maxtors go, and now this WD.

Originally Posted by Headshot

OK, NewEgg has some terrific deals now on some external drives I'm looking at.

How would you rate the industry reputation for the following FW/USB2 external
500GB LEAST likely to fail and lose my data? I'm listing these in the order of which I've come to
hear about thru talking to people....

Maxtor
WD
Seagate
LaCie

Thanks!

[FTrain]

It's confusing for me to figure out what might be the best external hard drive because I guess I don't really understand all of the info it gives about them when I'm shopping for them. For example, I'm looking at MacMall, and their best selling external hard drive is a Fantom brand drive, 250GB, Firewire and USB 2.0, for $99.99. Then I see that the seventh best seller is a G-Tech brand drive, 250GB, Firewire and USB 2.0, for $185. Why would the G-Tech drive command $85 more? Is it just brand? Are Fantom drives notorious for problems? Does the G-Tech just have better components?

[Bolero421]

Originally Posted by FTrain

It's confusing for me to figure out what might be the best external hard drive because I guess I don't really understand all of the info it gives about them when I'm shopping for them. For example, I'm looking at MacMall, and their best selling external hard drive is a Fantom brand drive, 250GB, Firewire and USB 2.0, for $99.99. Then I see that the seventh best seller is a G-Tech brand drive, 250GB, Firewire and USB 2.0, for $185. Why would the G-Tech drive command $85 more? Is it just brand? Are Fantom drives notorious for problems? Does the G-Tech just have better components?

I don't know those two brands myself, but the difference in price could be attributed to many factors:

1) Brand name recognition
2) Higher / Lower RPMs
3) Cache size (8MB or 16MB)
4) Number of platters aka data density
5) Software included (ie backup programs)
6) Difference in component quality

Personally, I wouldn't touch anything outside of Western Digital or Seagate (although you have to watch out for re-branded Maxator drives with them). I've had nothing but trouble with Maxator drives; between two of my friends and I we had 7 Maxator drives go bad on us within a year.

I myself have been running 3 WD internal 3.5" drives in my desktop for over 6 years with no problems. I've heard that Seagate makes great external drives/enclosures. Only other brand I would really put my money on would be Toshiba, and then only on their portables

My $0.02

[imitchellg5]

The LaCie Porsche drives have a two year warrenty I believe.