External drive quality from drive manufacturers

[bgc99]

I noticed on Newegg that alot of external drives from the likes of Seagate, Western Digital have many bad reviews. I've always thought Seagate internal drives were good quality but the external reviews are very poor. Don't they use the same "internal" drives in the external enclosures they sell?

BGC

 

[RebateMonger]

External drives are more prone to failure than internal ones. Additional failure opportunies include:
1) Handling damage to the external drive.
2) Overheating due to poor cooling. Amost NONE of the name-brand external drives have a cooling fan.
3) Failure of the USB/SATA/Firewire interface board inside the external housing.
4) Cabling or connector damage.

 

[jjmIII]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
External drives are more prone to failure than internal ones. Additional failure opportunies include:
1) Handling damage to the external drive.
2) Overheating due to poor cooling. Amost NONE of the name-brand housings have a cooling fan.
3) Failure of the USB/SATA/Firewire interface board inside the external housing.
4) Cabling or connector damage.

That is why you build your own with fan enclosure, and 5yr warranty hdd :thumbsup:.
I used this one...with this drive.

 

[bgc99]

Originally posted by: jjmIII

That is why you build your own with fan enclosure, and 5yr warranty hdd :thumbsup:.
I used this one...with this drive.

I guess everything but the lack of cooling would apply whether you build your own or not. The length of the drive warranty doesn't help with lost data but I get your point.

BGC

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: jjmIII
That is why you build your own with fan enclosure, and 5yr warranty hdd :thumbsup:.
I used this one...with this drive.

I'd never seen that particular drive enclosure before.

I've used several aluminum Apricorn EZ-Bus housings from Newegg.com. It has a large horizontal fan like the Rosewill model suggested. But the later reviews said that the newest Apricorn models (combined e-SATA/USB) were having problems with fan life. Too bad most housings don't have a fan-speed alarm, though.

 

[Emperor88]

Has anyone even known a drive to fail from overheating? Anyone remember that google survey (from their own drives in datacentres) from a while back which showed that heat had no effect on drive failure?

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
1) Handling damage to the external drive.
2) Overheating due to poor cooling. Amost NONE of the name-brand external drives have a cooling fan.

Those are the two most common IMO. Those external drive enclosures that stand upright like a tiny tower are just asking to be knocked over... and I know someone who did just that and the drive died. I also knew someone who had several die due to heat.

A lot of the external enclosures are made to just look good. I mean seriously, Porsche external hard drive? Pininfarina external hard drive (they're an Italian design house responsible for quite a few supercar designs)? Design by Neil Poulton? I mean, who the fuck is Neil Poulton anyways, and how come his name is attached to an external hard drive?

Originally posted by: Emperor88
Has anyone even known a drive to fail from overheating? Anyone remember that google survey (from their own drives in datacentres) from a while back which showed that heat had no effect on drive failure?

Yes, I've known drives to fail from overheating. They're pretty tough, but it can happen.

 

[Elixer]

Originally posted by: Emperor88
Has anyone even known a drive to fail from overheating? Anyone remember that google survey (from their own drives in datacentres) from a while back which showed that heat had no effect on drive failure?

I guess it depends on just how hot they get.
While heat can play a role, it isn't the primary reason why drives fail. Most of the time it is because they use cheap parts, and those parts fail.
In that survey, they should have named names, but they didn't, so we are all left wondering which brand fails the most.

And you can bet that both seagate & wd know if a fan would be needed or not, and judging by what they are putting out, they feel it isn't needed for normal operating environments. If it was needed, (as in, they would be getting a ton of RMAs), you can bet they would throw in a 25 cent fan in each case.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
External drives are more prone to failure than internal ones. Additional failure opportunies include:
1) Handling damage to the external drive.
2) Overheating due to poor cooling. Amost NONE of the name-brand external drives have a cooling fan.

Heck, many of the name-brand externals don't even have convection vent holes, nevermind fans.
The newer Seagate FreeAgent drives do have vent holes, but the older ones do not.

I've got three connected, and two Mad Dog IDE aluminum enclosures, and no failures yet. (Knock on wood.)

 

[dunkster]

From posts I've read, complaints about external drive housings seem mainly about (lack of) cooling, whiny little 40mm fans, failures of whiny 40mm fans and difficulty in replacing failed whiny 40mm fans.

My own requirement for an external backup is to clone my main drive to external drive, creating a drop-in replacement in the event of main drive failure. This is done weekly at best, more likely monthly.

The drop-in docking stations work very well for this. Mine (Thermaltake blacX) has an eSATA port for good transfer speed. If your board has no eSATA port (mine doesn't), you can buy a $3 SATA/eSATA cable with bracket and plug into a SATA connector on your board.

No fan - none needed since the drive is in open air. Perform the backup, power down, put the drive away safely.

Hope this helps!