• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Good and reliable External HD?

I've had both a 3.5" Seagate external drive, and I have 3 2.5" USB3 powered portable HDDs... I greatly prefer the portable drives. The 1TB external drive ran very hot (50C) and required separate wall power. The USB portables, on the other hand, have all served very well, in my experience.

As a test, I pulled the drive out of the hot external enclosure and installed it in my PC (it's just a standard Barracuda drive, after all...) and it still remains today, running as cool as the other drives. I installed a 500GB Hitachi drive in the Seagate enclosure, and that drive started to idle at 45-49C, too... so I believe the 'hot' drive was a result of a poorly designed enclosure, not the drive(s) itself. YMMV.
 
I find that the most reliable externals are those where I choose the case and add a HDD of my choosing. My current choice is Vantec NexStar case with WD black HDD.
 
How much capacity do you need?

Are you looking for a USB-powered external HDD, which would mean a 2.5" drive, or is a 3.5" drive that requires a power adapter acceptable?

Do you care whether the drive is 7200RPM or 5400RPM?

-----------------

If you're looking for a 2.5" drive and 5400RPM and 2TB are fine, then this one, which contains a Seagate/Samsung Spinpoint M9T drive:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FRHTTIU

You can also buy the bare drive and put it in your own enclosure, but it will be more expensive:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I8O6OQ4
 
what corkyg said about the vantec nexstar X2 - i've got 3 i've been using for 5-6 years with no issues whatsoever

as to which make drive, i've had too many seagate drives go out, some that only saw use (or power) when they were turned on for a backup copy - i clone my OS drive ever week or so - two of the seagates went tits up after 3-4 years, after what could not have amounted to 1/4 year "on" time.

I've since moved to WD Green - for two reasons, i'm a cheap bastard, and the WD Green 4 TB comes up for sale for $99, and $25 / TB is hard to ignore. 2nd reason, i can leave them turned on, as the "Green" is geared to going to sleep if not used for 1 hour. The 10 second wait for them to "wake up" is a little irritating, but again, it's only once every week or so

But from various user reports, WD seems to have the popular vote in terms of reliability

fwiw
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top