external HD question

[kenshin-dono]

heya guys. Ive almost filled my 500gig external HD (a maxtor) with anime now and am going to need to pick up another one.

couple of quick questions

1. are the 1tb and 2tb sizes stable these days? i remember years ago the higher sized HD's were more prone to failures, im wondering if thats still the case these days

2. what are good brands/stuff to stay away from? Ive personally had a couple hardrives fail me in the past. One was a seagate, the other i cant remember.. i *THINK* it was a western digital but not sure. I remember hearing seagates ass these days. What other brands suck, what are good ones?

3. I saw an HP simplesave 1tb on sale for 100 bucks at target. Is that a decent brand/price?

4. I noticed a lot of these HDs have auto backup features, and all these bells and whistles. Thats just BS i dont need that takes up HD space. All i want is a regular external HD, 1-2tb (if those are stable) to store my anime on. Im not backing anything up, i just need to keep it on the hd. Im asuming these are all usb 2.0 btw for fast transfer speeds?

tnx guys. I just wanna get something thats not gonna die on me and cause me to lose tons of info, and that has a good transfer speed since i usually torrent from these things

[Kusa-San]

Personnaly, I highly recommand a NAS external HD. I have this one : http://www.dclstore.co.uk/desc-buffa...-pid-3114.aspx

And it's really good

You can download your anime directly on it and don't need to use your computer for that

By the way a 1Tb HD is now very common so there is no failures anymore.

[SirJeannot]

what's the need? storage or backup?
buffalos good choice. synology does it as well, but costs way more.
I'd go for a simple usb drive with robocopy, that's what i currently use

[chikorita157]

Western Digital drives from my experience haven't had any problems (and I have a 500 GB 2.5 WD HD on my Macbook Pro.)

Often putting your own HD in a enclosure is often cheaper and more reliable than just buying one that is put in already. Most enclosures the prebuilt ones come with don't have very good USB controllers and often have poor cooling. Also, if you have a router that have a USB port on it, you can attach a HD and have any of your computers on your network to use it as a backup. My Airport Extreme have this feature and others with some of the Wireless N routers have them too. Don't bother backing up from a network if you are using Wireless G since it will take forever.

[kenshin-dono]

why the hell was this moved over to tech support? im not asking for a techinical problem i was asking for sugestions about an external HD to store anime.. weird

like i said in the original post, this is for storing anime. Not for backing anything up, i want it just as a regular old HD but external so i can plug it into my laptop and watch anime on my HD like i do right now with the 500 gig external. All my questions are in the post and numbered

looks like the question about the size is answerd, i guess 1tbs are safe. Are 2tbs pretty stable too?

Kusa, that thing you linked.. is that what chikorita is talking about, plugging it into your router and using it on a network like that?

If so that probably wont work, i have a slightly older G gaming router and it has no usb cable on it from what i can see. How do those things work anyway? Do you plug them into your router then set it up ont he network and just use it wirelessly from your computers? ( i mostly use my wireless laptop)

-so brands.. got 2 recomendations for buffalo there. Any others? How is that HP smart drive i asked about? Also any brands i really should stay away from? Is seagate as ass as i hear?

I really dont want stuff with stuipd backup progames, i just want to STORE stuff on it. I think the HP simplesave has one of those dumb autobackup programs doesnt it?

[chikorita157]

NAS or network attached storage attaches through ethernet and you can access it by creating a network share. Note that transfer rates are a lot slower (from my experience) with Wireless G with transferring files computer to computer since in the real world, 54 mbps work alot slower than 130 mbps with Wireless N (and Wireless N standard have finalized recently). If you are not planning to use the storage on different computers, attaching your HD via USB/Firewire/eSATA is your best bet for faster transfer rates and backup.

Note that if your computer doesn't have a Wireless N card, you won't benefit from those speeds and getting a new router would be a waste.

[Vexx]

Purely emotional, but I'd be wary of the 2TB ones for another year or so.

Also... yeah, I highly recommend the "put your own drive in" enclosures over the pre-fab "Walmart/BestBuy" cheapies. If you buy a business grade NAS that mileage may vary... they're configured via web interface and use an Ethernet connection. However, it sounds like you want a "for one computer" solution that simply mounts as another drive.

If you can find an enclosure that has a Firewire connection or an eSATA connection and your computer supports those - go for that. USB connections (even 2.0) are just damned slow for bulk transfers. With the average single episode running 200-400MB anymore, that becomes important.

[synaesthetic]

I'd just buy a desktop HD enclosure off newegg and toss a 3.5" 1TB 7200RPM SATA-II hard drive in it.

[escimo]

There's no significant difference between 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB drives nowadays in terms of failure rate. They generally use same platters, heads, (just a different number of them) motors and electronics. Control electronics and bearings are the most prone to failure and these are generally components that all the drives in any given product family share.

[chikorita157]

I forgot to mention that people should stay away from Seagate HDs, especially the Barracuda 7200.11 HDs which had a firmware problem that was fixed a while ago, but you shouldn't trust them because their quality have gone down a lot in the recent years.

Your computer may have Firewire or eSATA inputs which allow faster transfer rates. The only problem is that at most, HDs top out around 30 mb/s in contrast with SSDs, but SSDs hold alot less and is more expensive. You will not notice much difference in drop of transfer rates if you use Firewire compared to eSATA since you won't reach those transfer rates with a HD, but it's highly noticeable with USB since USB is highly dependent on the CPU compared to Firewire and eSATA which don't depend on the CPU.

Also note that if you get a enclosure with a Firewire port, you need to get a 6 pin to 8 pin Firewire adapter since most machines come with the 6 pin port for Firewire.

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by kenshin-dono

why the hell was this moved over to tech support? im not asking for a techinical problem i was asking for sugestions about an external HD to store anime.. weird

You're asking a technology-related question, that's why

Since you're largely using the drive for backup, the platter speed (5400 RPM, 7200 RPM, etc.) doesn't matter. If anything, the 5400 RPM drives are cheaper, use less electricity, generate less heat, and are less noisy. I use one - a Western Digital "Green Edition" 640 GB drive. Unless you plan to run your operating system off of it or play games from it, you don't need 7200 RPM. You can listen to music from it and watch anime from it without any noticeable sluggishness.

Brands to avoid or stick with will be subjective as heck. I currently have a Hitachi, two Western Digitals (one of which is six or seven years old by now... I wouldn't mind it failing, as I'd like to put a much higher-capacity drive into the enclosure it's occupying), and a Seagate. Seagate has the longest warranty of all of them. As far as I'm concerned, Hitachi, Seagate, Western Digital, and Samsung are all fine - go with whoever has the best deal at the time.

I had a Western Digital MyBook, as well - that's one of those pre-built external drives. The thing failed on me a few weeks before the warranty was about to expire. The drive itself was fine, the issue was the enclosure. I managed to get the data off, but if the enclosure had failed 100% then the only way to get the data out would have been to break the enclosure open and pry the drive out - which, of course, would have voided my warranty I'll never buy another pre-built external drive again (only reason I bought it was because I was desperate at the time and there was a smashing deal on it). Got it replaced and gave it to my sister; she liked the way it looked.

1 TB for $100 is a ripoff. I can find 1 TB drives for around $80 and they aren't even on any promotional sale. For around $100 we're talking 1.5 TB drives.

[Sazelyt]

Originally Posted by kenshin-dono

1. are the 1tb and 2tb sizes stable these days? i remember years ago the higher sized HD's were more prone to failures, im wondering if thats still the case these days

1tb and 1.5tb are pretty much stable. 2tb's are rather new so it would be better to wait for some more.

2. what are good brands/stuff to stay away from? Ive personally had a couple hardrives fail me in the past. One was a seagate, the other i cant remember.. i *THINK* it was a western digital but not sure. I remember hearing seagates ass these days. What other brands suck, what are good ones?

They usually say, hard drives usually fail at the beginning or at the end of warranty. The failure at the beginning can be detected fast and corrected easily by getting a quick replacement, and the failure at the end can be delayed by using the drive carefully. And, in general, except for the bad batches that every trusted company experiences every now and then, the failure rates are pretty much similar. So, as long as you stick to well known brands, you can reduce the probability of failure.

Since you are looking for an external drive, it would be usually cheaper to buy the components separately yourselves (though the line that separates both is getting thinner every day). And you can ensure the quality yourselves buying well-known brands for both the drive and enclosure separately.

3. I saw an HP simplesave 1tb on sale for 100 bucks at target. Is that a decent brand/price?

I think that drive is a rather new one. It says the drive is WD, so it may be okay. But to make sure it works without any problems in the long-run, it would be better to wait more.

4. I noticed a lot of these HDs have auto backup features, and all these bells and whistles. Thats just BS i dont need that takes up HD space. All i want is a regular external HD, 1-2tb (if those are stable) to store my anime on. Im not backing anything up, i just need to keep it on the hd. Im asuming these are all usb 2.0 btw for fast transfer speeds?

If your computer supports e-sata, then go with that and buy an external enclosure/drive that supports this feature. You will get much better file transfer speeds.

[hobbes_fan]

Originally Posted by Kusa-San

Personnaly, I highly recommand a NAS external HD. I have this one : http://www.dclstore.co.uk/desc-buffa...-pid-3114.aspx

The problem I have with things like this is unless you are going to network the storage it's a a useless expense. There's a difference of about $50 between a standard enclosure and a network enclosure which is the difference between 2tb HDD and a 1tb. If you are going to network the NAS enclosure it's best to get at least a 2 bay or 3 bay system. As it offers RAID 1 capabilities you at least have some redundancy. This is important particularly if you are using this as a storage solution and not a backup solution


Also there's only like 5 manufacturers in the world
Samsung
Hitachi
Seagate
Western Digital
And I think Fujitsu

Buffalo, HP etc etc just put a sticker on it.

If you don't want to use the backup software - don't install it. The drive will still work and it's not like its hard coded into the drive

[npcomplete]

I just wanna get something thats not gonna die on me and cause me to lose tons of info, and that has a good transfer speed since i usually torrent from these things

It's definitely going to die at some point, guaranteed sometimes sooner, sometimes later
"bad" hard drives tend to die within the first year. Otherwise they last 3-5 years, sometimes a bit longer for enterprise grade drives. I'd just treat the external HD as temporary quick access storage. Burn anything you want to archive to DVDs. It's a hassle but the only way to guarantee long term storage.

The more expensive way using hard drives is RAID. You can build your own box, but for convenience I recommend the Intel SS4200-E 4xHD nas box which comes with a web based interface (as all of them do) to manage it. It lacks some features compared to others but it's simple and the fastest performing, as well as the cheapest surprisingly. Put 4 x 2TB drives in RAID5 and you'll have 6TB of pretty safe storage.. though not still as safe as a burned DVD

[kenshin-dono]

so think im gonna go for a WD probably. Gonna gofor the mybook essentials

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=728

one thing when shopping around though. the model number on the site is:
WDBAAF0010HBK

but most places i see it at the numbers a bit different
i.e. walmart and bestbuy
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...#ProductDetail
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Western+...gital%20mybook

have it listed as
WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN

whats that NESN? im wondering if its some cheaper model or older one or what, anyone know

oh, and this has some stupid smartware transfer stuff i dont want. How do i delete that so i dont have to use it? just manually delete all the files in there or just reformat the whole thing?

*edit* now im confused theres 2 models out there
WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN the mybook essentials
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136395
and
WDH1U10000N a mybook essentials 2.0 or something?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136186

wtf is the difference?? i dont even see the 2nd one on WD website

[chikorita157]

I think you can format the HD to get rid of it, but I don't like the enclosure the MyBook comes in since plastic does not dissipate heat well and Aluminum enclosures dissipates heat better. I own two of them, but I ended up taking my 720 GB out of the plastic enclosure and put it in a Aluminum enclosure with USB 2.0/Firewire 400/eSATA. They don't cost more than $30 for one nowadays and easy to install.

[kenshin-dono]

it seems the NESF is just the american designation or something.. but im still very confused about the regular mybook essentials or the essentials 2.0

WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN the mybook essentials
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136395
and
WDH1U10000N a mybook essentials 2.0 or something?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136186

i dont get the difference. is one older or newer?

i did see one review here
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Western+...&skuId=9467178

saying you COULD NOT get rid of the backup software.. is that true? that totally sucks if so, and im not sure how that works if its 'locked in the firmware' as the guy says.

i have no intention of taking anything apart or building anything myself i just want to buy something that will work

[npcomplete]

(those links don't work btw)

I have no idea about the differences in those models but I have a WD mybook 2TB. I just reformatted to get rid of everything. Maybe what the reviewer was thinking of the NAS version ("World Edition") or dual HD raid version ("Studio Edition")?

I was worried about heat too, but it actually keeps pretty cool. The drive itself is a 5400rpm GreenPower drive so it runs cooler than others already. Internally it's encased in metal which should act like a heatsink and it's also well ventilated with lots of holes all along the top, back and bottom narrow side. I definitely feel warm air from the vents under heavy use while the solid plastic remains cool. When it's not in use, no warm air.
See pics here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Digital_My_Book

btw I didn't know those holes are actually morse code!

[kenshin-dono]

ah,they musta changed the pages

ive decided either a samsung 1.5 gig or the WD elements line 1 or 1.5gig, gotta think about it a bit

[Nickyrash]

I will not recommend the external HD i will tell to my friends also to buy the internal HD so i will also tell you to buy the internal HD not the external HD.