Good External Hard Drive?

[Net]

I'm looking for 1 TB around $100.

Seems like they all have some bad reviews. I look at the WD all black 1 TB on newegg, has 5 stars but theres 16 people who had very bad experiences.

Plus it has no power button.

Why are there so many bad reviews for externals where people say their drive failed.

where can i get one that is "safe"

 

[AnnonUSA]

people tend to bitch more about bad experiences rather than rave about trouble free hardware.

 

[wjgollatz]

Do not get the current crop of Western Digital My Book hard drives if you want to heavily use the eSATA interface. WD has their controllers set up to NOT transfer SMART information through the eSATA interface. Only the USB part of the controller can read the SMART info. You will not get it through the eSATA interface. Not even their own diagnostic tool can read the data and will report that your drive has FAILED the SMART Status.

I'd find an external enclosure that does pass the SMART data (and has a fan) and fill it up with an OEM hard drive. You will end up paying the same amount of money, or even less. A 500gb hard drive is about $60 or less, and an external enclosure is about another $30. So, about the same price in the end, but you get to pick your enclosure. I have this WD as a gift, which is going to be in an enclosure soon.

The SMART Data is something new to me, but something that is very useful, as it will flag different sorts of data that are failing out of specification that will indicate a failing hard drive, or convey the urgency to replace it.

 

[egale]

You are probably better off making your own. There are many good enclosures out there and you can pair it with most internal drives. I may not be the cheapest way to go but you are assured of a higher quality product.

 

[wjgollatz]

Just to clarify, the eSATA SMART data is a problem on the My Books, not sure about this model, so I would find out before you buy it if you are still interested in it and want to use eSATA much more than USB.