Recommend 1TB external drive?

Mallomar

Member
Oct 12, 2007
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I've always bought Seagate externals, partly because of their 5-year warranties (all of the other externals I've looked at have only 1-year warranties), but the last one I bought is "clicky," although it's working fine. I searched the forum and someone else had the problem and I'll probably try the solution that seemed to work for them.

But I still need at least one more 1TB external drive, and I'm open to suggestions. I need something off-the-shelf -- I don't think I can put together a regular drive and an external enclosure myself (I'm not technical).

I'll need to be able to use the drive with various computers, so USB is essential, although some of my computers also have FW and/or eSATA ports (or whatever you call them).

FWIW, I only use external drives for backups (I do drive images frequently). I like to alternate drives when I do backups, so if one external drive fails, I still have a recent backup on another drive. (This routine saved my bacon when a catastrophic RAID failure wiped out all of my files.)

So far, I've never had an external drive fail. Even my ancient Seagate (which I think is like 200 GB) still works.

Because I only use the externals for backups, and I do the backups at night, speed is not a big factor. I'm more concerned with reliability.

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance.
 

Mallomar

Member
Oct 12, 2007
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I'd rather not try to put together a regular drive in an external case. I have no experience in this area, and I don't know how complicated it is.

I'd prefer to just buy an existing external drive.
 

FishAk

Senior member
Jun 13, 2010
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I'd rather not try to put together a regular drive in an external case. I have no experience in this area, and I don't know how complicated it is.

I'd prefer to just buy an existing external drive.

It's not complicated in the slightest. Normally, you remove a couple screws, push the drive inside the enclosure, and put the screws back in. That's it. Nothing more. Instructions- along with pictures sometimes- are included.

The conventional wisdom is that, the drives companies put inside external cases, are inferior to the ones sold for internal use- even though it's the same model.

If you buy an enclosure with a fan, your drive will live much happier than it will inside a stock enclosure.

If down the road, you wish to remove the drive from the enclosure for testing, or to put it inside a case, the warranty is voided by removing a drive from the stock external enclosure, but you retain the warranty if it's an aftermarket enclosure.
 
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RebateMonger

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Dec 24, 2005
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If you think you'll need several backup drives, also consider the new USB/eSATA "docks". These hold bare disks that you slide in and out. You can change disks in seconds.

Example:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-071-_-Product

The good news is these save money because you don't need an external case for every disk. You can buy inexpensive bare disks and can save money. Also, most docks keep the disk exposed to the air and the disk will stay cool even in long backups.

The bad news is that the docks offer little protection to the disk circuitry and when you remove a disk you need a safe place to store it.
 
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Mallomar

Member
Oct 12, 2007
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It's not complicated in the slightest. Normally, you remove a couple screws, push the drive inside the enclosure, and put the screws back in. That's it. Nothing more. Instructions- along with pictures sometimes- are included.

Hmmmm. If I were to do this, which enclosure (I googled and found many different models) would you recommend? I do like the idea of one with a fan.

And which drive? A Caviar? Barracuda? I believe the Barracudas have 5-year warranties, and it looks like the Caviar Black does to, but the Caviar Green has a 3-year.
 

Mallomar

Member
Oct 12, 2007
55
1
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If you think you'll need several backup drives, also consider the new USB/eSATA "docks". These hold bare disks that you slide in and out. You can change disks in seconds.

Very intriguing -- I'd never heard of these. Can the drives be hot swapped?

But I think the exposed disk would be a problem for me -- I have a very dusty environment, which can't be good for the circuitry.

And I'd need to figure out how and where to store the drive(s) when removed from the dock.
 

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
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There's several types like this, but A VCR tape case works fine, and they're cheap.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that the black plastic cases
http://www.amazon.com/WiebeTech-Dri...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1284077845&sr=1-1
are made from modified VCR case molds. But the plastic cases I use are advertised as anti-ESD (anti-static). I don't know if standard VCR cases tend to accumulate static charges or not. Static electricity isn't good for the circuitry on the disks.

Yes, you can hotswap the disks as long as your eSATA disk controller is set up for hotswap. I do this all the time. And, of course, if you use the USB cable rather than the eSATA cable, that's hotswappable, too.

These docks aren't for everybody. You have to be careful with the exposed disks. But I love them because I have lots of backup disks and they save me $40 in enclosure costs with every disk I buy.
 
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bad_monkey

Member
Aug 31, 2010
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Just got the Thermaltake Blacx Duet and I really like it thus far. It is a dual drive dock with eSATA and USB 2.0 connectivity. The disks are definitely exposed but I have two internal hard drives plugged into one eSATA cable (saves a lot of headaches since I only have 3 USB ports). If you go with the Caviar Blacks I would definitely recommend an eSATA enclosure/dock. USB 2.0 is WAY too slow especially for how fast those are supposed to be. Just chiming in to agree with pretty much everything RebateMonger has said.

p.s. I had both of the "internal" drives in external enclosures beforehand. It literally took me 30 seconds to disassemble one of them and maybe 2 minutes for the other because of all the screws.