Reliability Of External USB Drives?

[DrMabuse]

I'm doing endless research about external USB drives. Every brand and every model has the anecdotal internet user reviews of early failure, failure after a few months, etc. It's hard to get a definitive pick.

I'm looking at the Iomega Egos, which are pretty highly reviewed and praised all over. The Ego 320 gigs specifically. And the Seagate external 500 gig.

How big an issue is thermal with these guys? Have any of you used these for a few years?

Is there a brand that you guys tend to prefer and why? I think Seagate has a better warranty on their externals. Which matters. The 1 year warranty on the Fujitsu drive in the Iomega drive seems short.

I've seen several people who appear to know what they are talking about say it's the 'cheap' chips used to convert form serial to USB that are actually the problem, and not the drives themselves? Any info on this?

Any info or advice from you guys? Know of a site that has done long term testing of these drives?

Thanks.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: DrMabuse
How big an issue is thermal with these guys? Have any of you used these for a few years?

My system had a bunch of external drives hooked up but I had to stop that when every single one of them failed. The drives themselves work fine once taken out of the external case and put into the computer, but the USB-SATA connection just doesn't work anymore. The only one in my house that still works is using a laptop hard drive. I'm guessing this is because they require less power and generally do not get as hot. Full size desktop hard drives in the external case get so hot that it's uncomfortable to hold one in my hand.

 

[Soundmanred]

Seagate 320GB External - 4 years
Seagate 750GB External - 2 years
Western Digital 1TB MyBook - 2 years
All still work flawlessly, and are on 24/7 unless rebooting.