Portable external HDD vs. internal HDD with enclosure

[logicalxm]

Hi,

I wanted to get an additional HDD to be used as a backup to my media files. This HDD is one that I won't insert into the computer case and would basically update once a month or so (and of course it will be used in case a backup restoration will be required.

The general capacity I'm looking at is 500gb.

I did some searching and came upon the "Western Digital My Passport Essential 500gb 2.5" drive. By the reviews they seem to be more reliable than other external HDD, even the MyBook line from Western Digital.
However, I do not have any experience with portable or external HDD.

On the other hand, I can buy a reliable internal Western Digital, Maxtor or Seagate drive with 1tb capacity (which is more than I need), and therefore, I will buy an enclosure to the HDD from Vantec or other maker, I do not have any experience with HDD enclosures as well, but know it is not difficult to do and commonly employed.

Of course, I would prefer to get the Western Digital My Passport model because it is so small and compact and easy to plugin into the USB. However, I will not need to transport the HDD, I will just keep it in my closet or drawer and bring it out once a month to add more data. Speed of transfer is not very important, USB 2.0 would suffise.

My main priority when purchasing would obviously be the stability and lastingness of the drive. I need to know that in a period of 5yrs (when kept properly), I would still be able to retrieve the info on the HDD.

So what is better, an external portable HDD or an internal HDD with an enclosure? Both come up to the same cost.

Thanks.

 

[deanx0r]

I think both are prone to failure, and it is just a question of WHEN it will happen. Depending on how important the data is to you, you may need some form of redundancy in the form of mirror drives or RAID5 array. You also have to account accessibility, and expandability. My personal favorite is the Drobo as it provides you data redundancy without the headaches of managing RAID arrays. Its best feature imo is dynamic expandability.

Have a look at this demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sENCMKXBUc

 

[Old Hippie]

If you buy seperates the warranty will not be voided if the drive needs to be removed for troubleshooting.

That alone is enough for most to take the "roll-ur-own" path but there's usually a longer warranty period for the drives bought seperately and installed in the case.

If you're concerned with size, just buy a 2.5" 500GB drive and install in a 2.5" external case and go about your merry way. :beer:

 

[Russwinters]

Hello,

I work in the Data recovery field as a technician, and want to share my knowledge.


External drives suck. Don't buy the premade externals (ESPECIALLY WD and Seagate).


As it's already been said an internal HDD's warranty is valid even if you put it in an enclosure.


My recommendation: get a nice enclosure (with some kind of active cooling/exhaust)

get a good internal drive; if you want WD, get a Black, 5 year warranty; but I recommend against WD as if you have to do recovery on it, the cost is muuuch higher.


If seagate, get 7200.12 series only, nothing else.


I would recommend a Samsung or hitachi, as they are the most realiable drives around atm.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Russwinters
I would recommend a Samsung or hitachi, as they are the most realiable drives around atm.

If either Samsung or Hitachi were the most reliable, they would also be the best selling. The reason you see 10x as many Seagates and Western Digitals in your business is because they sell 15-20x as many drives as Samsung or Hitachi. That also makes them more reliable then, doesn't it?

 

[betaflame]

No, it's brand names. Surely you understand how that affects sales. They also have absurd amounts of marketing and press.

 

[Russwinters]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: Russwinters
I would recommend a Samsung or hitachi, as they are the most realiable drives around atm.

If either Samsung or Hitachi were the most reliable, they would also be the best selling. The reason you see 10x as many Seagates and Western Digitals in your business is because they sell 15-20x as many drives as Samsung or Hitachi. That also makes them more reliable then, doesn't it?

In fact, you are wrong. My assumptions of reliability are not based off any kind of marketing numbers (Obviously, Seagate hold ~33% of the market, and WD ~30%) but my recommendations are based of technical knowledge of the build quality of each manufacturer's current drives. In the past (2005 and before) I would not recommend a Hitachi ever; in fact, if you are looking into getting a notebook drive I will steer your away from hitachi very quickly. In the data recovery world it is very well known that Samsung makes hands down the best quality drives with the best materials. Are they flawless? Absolutely not. No matter who the maker is all hard drives are extremely flawed devices and it's insane how many people trust so much important data on them.

 

[logicalxm]

Thanks for the replies guys.
It looks like I will not buy an external HDD.
It just looked attractive to have a small portable external HDD such as this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136301

But because of the reliability of internal HDD and my generally positive experience with them and the feedback here, I decided I'll be getting an internal HDD+enclosure. I'll probably get 1tb WD SATA HDD and will use it as my 1st back-up and will put it inside the case and will use my current 500gb HDD as the external HDD since I do not need over 500gb capacity as a back-up. Haven't yet decided on the enclosure tho and how much should I spend on it or whether to get a ventilated enclosure; have to do some research.

As a side note, I have 2 internall HDDs at the moment, one is Maxtor 250gb IDE and the second one is Western Digital 500gb SATA. I must say that I'm satisfied with both of them and have not experienced any failures..

I know generally that people have mixed reviews about HDD brand names and there is no general agreement. One person says that he only used Maxtor or Samsung HDD for his business and 20% of the failed, the other says that he only used WD and none failed or half of them failed. I guess many factors come into play. Me personally, I seem to like WD and know they are quite reliable (but not perfect due to the mixed reviews)

Thanks!

 

[Old Hippie]

I decided I'll be getting an internal HDD+enclosure.

Wise choice.

HDs, even the green drives, get hot.

If you're planning on using the drive for more than 1 hr. at a time, get active cooling.

The Antec MX-1 is a great case.

 

[yh125d]

You seem to think that the hard drives in external HDs are somehow different from normal internal drives. They aren't. I have a 1TB external drive and a 2x1TB external, and they all came with WD Green drives, a commmon internal HD. There's really no difference between buying an external HD and an internal + enclosure, except being positive beforehand which model HD you're getting. The internal + enclosure route isn't inherently more reliable

 

[betaflame]

Really? I have a green 1TB in a fanless enclosure that never gets more than warm.

 

[Russwinters]

Originally posted by: yh125d
You seem to think that the hard drives in external HDs are somehow different from normal internal drives. They aren't. I have a 1TB external drive and a 2x1TB external, and they all came with WD Green drives, a commmon internal HD. There's really no difference between buying an external HD and an internal + enclosure, except being positive beforehand which model HD you're getting. The internal + enclosure route isn't inherently more reliable

Mmmm in fact they are different (~80% of the time)

They WILL be the same model as an internal drive quite often, but that is not what is important. With WD there is a suffix WD2000BB-xxxxxx

The xxxxxx specifies information about the components, the two middle digits is regarding the headstack.

You will notice that these suffix will be very different on external drives, this is because they use very different revisions of the preamp/head interface (cheaper to make, and less reliable)

There is also a DCM number (Drive configuration matrix) basically this is an even more in-depth breakdown of the make up of the drive.


With other manufacturers the criteria is different, but the point is that the drives used in external drives like Mybooks and others are not as reliable as their desktop counterparts. Even if they have the same model number.

 

[rcpratt]

Thanks for the information, Russ.

 

[Emulex]

i rock external drives for D2D2D all the time. the wd green are very solid.

just roll your own enclosure and get a drive that has a solid warranty. make sure its not an oem that doesn't have a good direct warranty.

 

[Old Hippie]

Originally posted by: betaflame
Really? I have a green 1TB in a fanless enclosure that never gets more than warm.

I was also under the impression that these green drives run cooler and they may, but not that much.

I have a 1.5TB Samsung geen in a HD dock and accidently left it run for @ 4hrs.

It didn't make the case's paint tacky like a WD black did but it was definately hot enough you wouldn't want to hold it.

I wouldn't run an external for any length of time without a fan.

You threshold for high HD temps may differ from mine.

 

[betaflame]

I have a 1TB WD Green in a Fantom enclosure and it never gets past warm. Probably due to the 5400RPM, but there's another datapoint.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: Old Hippie
If you buy seperates the warranty will not be voided if the drive needs to be removed for troubleshooting.

That alone is enough for most to take the "roll-ur-own" path but there's usually a longer warranty period for the drives bought seperately and installed in the case.

If you're concerned with size, just buy a 2.5" 500GB drive and install in a 2.5" external case and go about your merry way. :beer:

+1... never EVER buy an "external enclosure drive"... they are just internal drives in an enclosure... and if you open it up to recover your data then you void your warranty!
you can buy an EMPTY enclosure for 20$ and put ANY internal drive of YOUR CHOICE in it. Then if you need to open it up, you CAN.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...%201053807123&name=3.5"