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Portable HDDs- Which is best?

E

E3000

Member
Hi guys,

I been shopping around for a 'laptop' portable HDD and almost every one I come across seems to have at least one person bitching about the included backup software on the drive. I seems these days most manufacturers build such software into the firmware so it's harder to just ignore it and use the drive as you (or I) would normally use a PC external.

What I would like to know is who makes the best laptop external hard drives, which has the least annoying software (or none at all) as I would just like to use it for extra/mass storage. I am not looking to have no regular scheduled backup running on it.

I have also heard a lot about double-pronged USB cables that take 2 ports. I would prefer to avoid that if possible but obviously no specification mentions this.

Note: I am not too bothered about USB3 at this time.

Thanks all,

E3000
 
I like the Buffalo mini stations. I have a 500gb which is usb 2.0 (but still transfers at around 30mb a second) and my buddy has the 1tb version. The version he has is a tad thicker, but still very small overall and uses a usb 3.0 plug. Anyway these drives do have included software, but do not install it automatically and do not run any backups automatically either. I'm sure his drive runs faster, but the thing I like about mine is that if I lose my cable I can use a standard mini usb cable while his is proprietary.
 
IMHO, the best portable laptop HDD is an external case fitted with a good quality HDD Connections and cables depend on your laptop. I happen to like eSATA because I have that port, and the difference between it and USB3 is puny.

The need for a "Y" connection (USB) is often required because a single laptop USB port does not provide enough power to run the drive. The alternative is often a separate power module.
 
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Whether you need a two pronged cable depends on the power output of your systems' USB ports. As corkyg mentioned, many laptop ports don't supply enough juice, but flaky, or old desktop ports don't always supply enough juice either (i.e. the issue isn't restricted to laptops).

My favorite portable HDDs are the ones I make myself with an OEM laptop disk and an enclosure. They sometimes cost a bit more but they're flexible in that you can upgrade it easily later if you find yourself needing more space, and they'll typically have a 3 year warranty on the drive rather than a 1 year warranty as is the case with most pre-made portable externals. E.g. enclosure at $10 and 640GB drive at $58. At $68 total that's actually $2 less expensive than the cheapest 640GB pre-made portable HDD on Newegg.
 
Seagate GoFlex Pro.

Fastest bus powered 2.5" HDDs 7200 rpm but limited in size 500/750 naturally.

Seagates software can simply be deleted, no BS virtual cd shit that you can't get rid of.

Cables support anything from USB2 to USB3, FW, eSATAp, etc, and are detachable and non proprietary standard SATA connectors and can be used to slave up any SATA drive that can be bus powered.
 
I just bought an ICYBOX USB2.0/eSATA enclosure, and added a 500Gb Hitachi 7200rpm drive. But that drive require 2 USB ports to power it, so if you just buy a low power 2.5" drive you should be fine.
 
E3000 said:
Hi guys,

I been shopping around for a 'laptop' portable HDD and almost every one I come across seems to have at least one person bitching about the included backup software on the drive. I seems these days most manufacturers build such software into the firmware so it's harder to just ignore it and use the drive as you (or I) would normally use a PC external.

What I would like to know is who makes the best laptop external hard drives, which has the least annoying software (or none at all) as I would just like to use it for extra/mass storage.
Click to expand...
Get rid of the software. Your best bet is to get one that doesn't have special HW/firmware with hidden partitions and other BS (I hate the new WD Essentials!).

I'm somewhat fond of Toshiba, for premade ones.
I have also heard a lot about double-pronged USB cables that take 2 ports. I would prefer to avoid that if possible but obviously no specification mentions this.
Click to expand...
USB doesn't have enough power per plug. Either you use 2 A connectors, or a wall wart. I prefer the double USB option.

If you want the best, get a good 2.5" enclosure (I'd get eSATA and USB, myself), and a 2.5" drive.
 
I have used both homemade enclosures with 7200 rpm drives, and my buffalo mini station which is a 5400 rpm blue scorpio wd drive (5400) and on any system I have tested it on I have not seen any differences. Both will totally saturate the usb 2.0 on transfers same as my patriot rage xt. In otherwords somewhere between 25-35mb a second depending on the system. My buddie's external usb 3.0 drive also transfers at about 30mb/s on a 2.0 port
 
86waterpumper said:
I have used both homemade enclosures with 7200 rpm drives, and my buffalo mini station which is a 5400 rpm blue scorpio wd drive (5400) and on any system I have tested it on I have not seen any differences. Both will totally saturate the usb 2.0 on transfers same as my patriot rage xt. In otherwords somewhere between 25-35mb a second depending on the system. My buddie's external usb 3.0 drive also transfers at about 30mb/s on a 2.0 port
Click to expand...

I was asking a leading question. :sneaky:

Sustained transfers over USB 3.0 are basically equivalent for 5400rpm and 10000rpm drives. The bottleneck is the bus, not the HDD's spindle speed.
 
Gigantopithecus said:
Have you tested whether using a 5400rpm vs 7200rpm hard drive makes a difference over USB 2.0?
Click to expand...

Rotational latency and random access time will be faster but both will be crippled to 35 MB/s I avoid USB 2 like the plague. Ill shut down and throw the drives in a desktop and go SATA to SATA before I bother with USB 2 if there is more than a GB. If the data is lots of tiny files and it's not even doing 15 MB/s on USB 2 then it doesn't matter, youre back to mechanical limits of shitty 50 yr old data storage technology.
 
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