Best External HDD?

[Havok83]

Okay so I currently have a Seagate 500gb FreeAgent that I bought ~ 3 years ago. Its been working great but I kinda feel its on its way out so I want to replace it before that happens. Ive looked at new FreeAgents but Ive been seeing bad reviews bc apparently they arent as reliable as they used to be. Im hesitant about getting a Western Digital MyBooks bc they are the reason why I got the FreeAgent in teh first place. I bought 2 Mybooks which failed within 3-4 months so Im not to keen on them. Has their quality/reputation changed? Im looking for a 1-1.5tb HDD. Any out there that some can reccomend

 

[corkyg]

I too have a Seagate FreeAgent 500 GB - it works well, and has not exhibited any problems in about 2 years. I also have the little FreeAgent Go for my laptop, and it is OK. But, my choice is to roll my own using Vantec NexStar 3 cases and putting in better performing HDDs of my choice. If I were to upgrade now, I would get the new Vantec that is USB 3 and connect to a USB 3 controller card (PCI or Express.)

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/31...d_w_nexstar_3_superspeed_enclosure/index.html

 

[malch]

I bought 2 Mybooks which failed within 3-4 months so Im not to keen on them. Has their quality/reputation changed? Im looking for a 1-1.5tb HDD. Any out there that some can reccomend

I used to be a fan of the MyBook. But recently, I bought a 1TB Mybook and the performance was horrible compared to my existing 500GB and 250GB Mybook drives. I spoke with WD who pretty much confirmed it was a price to be paid for the newer "improved" firmware. They also told me it's a lottery as to whether you get a 5400 or 7200 rpm disk inside. Well, that sucked and I RMA'd the thing.

After a fair amount of research looking at alternatives, I went with the LaCie d2 Quadra. They cost a little more but...

1. You get a nice metal versus plastic case.
2. You get USB-2, eSata, and Firewire interfaces. It came with a complete set of all of those cables too.
3. Quality seems to be high.
4. Performance is just what you'd expect from a 7200 rpm drive

I think it's a very decent option. Alternatively, you could wait a bit and see if more USB-3 product options emerge over the summer.