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BRUTALiTY
post Jun 15 2010, 06:33 PM
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Am looking to purchase an external hdd soon and have a few things to ponder before I do.

I bought a Maxtor/Seagate 1TB external a while back which bricked on me (it's recognised but can't be accessed...probably salvagable but anyways...). I was curious to know as a result of this, whether I should consider 'better' brands, and what people might reccomend. For instance, should I focus on WD, are they more reliable? What are people's experience (as subjective I guess as they may be...)

Secondly, I'm unsure whether I should opt for a model with e-sata. While sometimes double the price, it would be nice to transfer files at what should theoretically be 10x the speed of usb. It's unlikely I'll be moving it around a lot so the advantage of usb allowing 'hot-swapping' isn't terribly overbearing, but will I ever reach the transfer rates of e-sata that are preached? Is it worth it?

Are there other things I should be considering?

Fairly mundane question I guess, but would appreciate any comments nonetheless smile.gif
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priorax
post Jun 15 2010, 07:07 PM
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In terms of speed, eSATA will out preform all other forms of external media, both in small files and larger ones.

If you want to see an example of speeds, NCIX Tech Tips did a video on it the other day (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqlqCoQMLsQ) where they tested eSATA, USB3, USB2 and Firewire up against each other to see which was best

Spoiler: eSATA won both tests
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phrostyboi
post Jun 16 2010, 09:16 PM
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I've found USB to struggle when it comes to transfers with a lot of files, whereas esata seems to be more robust

I've had seagate, maxtor and WD drives in systems over the years and have settles on WD drives as they're more quiet and i've never had any issues with mine

have always had issues with maxtor, seagate and hitachi
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priorax
post Jun 16 2010, 09:25 PM
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If you can afford to do it. I would recommend getting an enclosure and harddrive separately. This means that should you (for any reason) need to send the harddrive away for warranty purposes, you can buy a cheap drive to temporarily replace it while that disc is away.
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BRUTALiTY
post Jun 16 2010, 10:08 PM
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ah, cheers for the comments guys. this has been informative. review was good, thx priorax.

think i might go with the e-sata, looks like it will pay off.
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BRUTALiTY
post Jun 16 2010, 11:13 PM
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QUOTE (priorax @ Jun 16 2010, 09:25 PM) *
If you can afford to do it. I would recommend getting an enclosure and harddrive separately. This means that should you (for any reason) need to send the harddrive away for warranty purposes, you can buy a cheap drive to temporarily replace it while that disc is away.


are there enclosures that are particularly easy to slot in/out hdd's, is that what you were suggesting? or just generally buying separate enclosures and hdd's rather than those coupled together in somewhat inpenetratable enclosures?

how about this? http://www.citysoftware.com.au/1TB_Western...A__AST0034.aspx
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priorax
post Jun 16 2010, 11:17 PM
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With WD and Seagate harddrives, if you open the enclosure to change drives, you will void your warranty.

What I was saying, was get something like this, http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_p...oducts_id=13889 put a drive in there. Tahdah, you have an external drive ready to be initialized.

Or for 2.5" if you wanted it http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_p...oducts_id=14536

Please note, these were cases I found quickly, feel free to do more research, and I would highly reconmend it smile.gif

And when in doubt for how to install, I don't doubt they will provide manuals
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BRUTALiTY
post Jun 16 2010, 11:37 PM
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ah, yeah yeah, i thought maybe there were some enclosures that were made easy for plugin/out.

sounds good. astone seem fairly consistent in my enclosure searches, plus it comes prepackaged in that CitySoftware enclosure/hdd deal. any known issues?
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Sharks
post Jun 18 2010, 12:15 AM
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Just a note on your bricked harddrive.. what firmware was it? their was a huge issue to do with this happening to drives and maxtor was replacing the drives for people. So you should chase that up.

Link: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1...7200-11-failing look into it! biggrin.gif
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