Geek Corner

Due to a shortage of space, I've been window shopping for external harddrives for over a year now. (Due to a lack of money, I still haven't purchased one yet even though I've been stashing away for one.)

Can anyone give me a serious and knowledgable answer on what the main differences, besides the extremely obvious, are between these two?

Western Digital My Book Premium 500GB 3.5" External Hard Drive
Maxtor OneTouch II 500GB 3.5" External Hard Drive

I've got a PC and am using Windows ME but would like the option to be able to hook one of these babies up to a Mac if the opportunity ever presents itself. I'd prefer to have a 500GB harddrive and would rather have it as 2 250 discs just in case one has a problem than half of the thing might be salvagable.

Have ruled out the LaCie because of too many reports of them crashing.

Would prefer either Western Digital first but not a must. Then Maxtor but have read they have a lot of problems with Windows XP. I don't even have XP yet but am thinking about the future. Supposedly, both are rather noisy but that's not the biggest problem on Earth. Performance and dependibility are my top concerns.

Any help is welcomed.

I just picked up a Maxtor 300 gb external hard drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822151027) a few weeks ago because my laptop's hard drive (running Windows XP) was essentially full. Dumped all music files onto the external hard drive, connected by USB to the laptop, and haven't had a single problem yet. I also stream music to an Airport Express or Xbox 360 that are located in other rooms, so noise is not an issue. So far it is working rather well.

A few years ago I lost a lot of music on a Western Digital hard drive which crashed….so I'm not a fan…..I now have all my music backed up on a Maxtor external which has worked out so far…

Would prefer either Western Digital first but not a must. Then Maxtor but have read they have a lot of problems with Windows XP. I don't even have XP yet but am thinking about the future. Supposedly, both are rather noisy but that's not the biggest problem on Earth. Performance and dependibility are my top concerns.

Originally posted by Jaguar:
I'd prefer to have a 500GB harddrive and would rather have it as 2 250 discs just in case one has a problem than half of the thing might be salvagable.

Even if you break the 500GB drive into two 250GB partitions (and I'm not even sure you'll be able to do that without some 3rd party software) this won't really work. If the disk eats it, it eats it. Both partitions would be screwed.

Originally posted by Chaz, Lover of all Beings:

Originally posted by Jaguar:
I'd prefer to have a 500GB harddrive and would rather have it as 2 250 discs just in case one has a problem than half of the thing might be salvagable.

Even if you break the 500GB drive into two 250GB partitions (and I'm not even sure you'll be able to do that without some 3rd party software) this won't really work. If the disk eats it, it eats it. Both partitions would be screwed.

Excuss my lack of geekiness but I think what I'm thinking of is 2 250 disc drives in one unit, or something like that. Not partioning them. With that said, from what I can tell, neither of the above options offer that so that too may go by the wayside. It might be the LaCie that has it broken into 2 (or maybe they are only factory partioned) but they have way too many crash reports for my consideration.

Anyone have any experiences with Seagate?

Seagate is traditionally one of the better, more reliable hard drive manufactuers, but all hard drive manufacturers have gone through rough patches at one point or another, so you'll hear raves for and rants against every manufacturer. Western Digital had a bad name due to poor reliability a few years ago, but they've cleaned up their act a lot, I think. These days they're all right, but I still avoid them out of habit. Maxtor is fine. I prefer Seagate personally, but Seagate and Maxtor are both owned by the same company, though their engineering divisions are separated, I believe.

If you're interested in insuring data integrity, then you want a RAID, specifically either RAID Level 1 or 5:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks

I've heard really good things about the following product:
http://www.infrant.com/products_ReadyNAS_NV.htm

Thanks Ed.

I found this and it looks great except that it's about $500+ over my budget. :(

Infrant ReadyNAS RN600-1000 Network Storage

Actually, I'd love to have my own server but, again, too many budgetary issues. (Not to mention that I don't think I'd know how to use one once I got the thing. That link of your's already crossed my geek line. For one, I have no idea what level 1 and 5 mean. I did figure out and understand the RAID part which sounds like what I'm looking for.)

Oh, and I'm fully with you on everyone having some kind of problems. It's the percentages that matter. Sometimes I'm leary of customer evaluations even though some are extremely helpful. You get the people who lost the product lottery going out of their way to complain and then sometimes company reps lacing very positive reviews too. I know Canon was doing that for awhile at CNet.com for their cameras. It all gets rather tricky. That's one reason I decided to ask here since there are so many knowledgable people and any biases are usually well founded, unless we're talking PC/Mac, music or general media.

Back to square one.

RAID 1 is two drives mirrored
RAID 5 is three or more drives. RAID 5 spreads the information across the drives so in case one of the drives fails it can be rebuilt from the information store on the other drives.

Dell now has raid 0 (data striping - ipmroves performance but no fault tolerance) and raid 1 available on their dimension desktops. Maybe look into that. They also come with norton ghost writing backups to a partition on the disk to provide further fault tolerance.

I bought one last month…two 250 GB disks that are mirrored (raid one). It's broken into two partitions…one 170GB for data and one 60GB for the restore points created by norton ghost. the other 20 gb contains all the restore points if you want to rebuild the system from scratch. Not too crazy expensive either. You can also get it with two 500GB disks for some extra $$.

I don't know too much about external hard drives, as I don't own one.

But, when I usually need to buy something like this I check out slickdeals.net. Once in awhile they have real good deals on exactly what product you want.

Check this out:

http://forums.slickdeals.net/forumdisplay.php?sduid=0&f=9&daysprune=14&icon=0&sort=lastpost&order=&icon=41

I have my iTunes and iPhoto on an external LaCie hard drive. But that's where they reside – I should back them up, shouldn't I? How do you do this?? I'm so clueless (which is why I own a Mac!)

Directing me to good advice would be awesome…..thanks.

Why get an external? Internal ones are a lot cheaper. And even if you don't want to install it one of your friends can do it in 15-30 min max.

One thing I'm thinking of doing is setting up a whole computer that will serve no other purpose other than acting as a server for my MP3s. You can get a cheap older-generation used PC for next to nothing, install Linux on it, and stick in a monstrous hard drive.

Internal hard drives from companies like Seagate, Maxtor etc not only cost less than the external drive in the same size they also carry a longer warranty (1 for external and 3 - 5 for internal)

I recommend that folks buy an internal drive and get an enclosure (20 - 40 dollars). You generally save a few dollars AND the warranty is many times longer.

Also for the folks mentioning RAID, RAID is great for preparing for drive failure and keeping a system online in the event of failure but it is no replacement for backups! If the partition or filesystem becomes corrupt then the mirror of it does to (on a RAID1). With RAID5 you are striping data across multiple drives (with parity for fault tolerance) but again a corrupt partition, accidental format etc and the data is gone.

I recommend a pair of drives in separate enclosures, mabye one internal and one external (made from an internal and enclosere, see above). Use one to back up the other (nothing fancy, just a simple drag and drop). Then lock the backup drive in a safe or fireproof box when not in use.

Originally posted by Bags:
I have my iTunes and iPhoto on an external LaCie hard drive. But that's where they reside – I should back them up, shouldn't I? How do you do this?? I'm so clueless (which is why I own a Mac!)

Hey Bags, just buy another hard drive of the same size or larger, and then copy your iTunes and iPhoto directories onto it. There are programs which can automate updating your backups for you on a regular basis. It's the easiest way of backing up.

Originally posted by Doomter Doc:
Why get an external? Internal ones are a lot cheaper. And even if you don't want to install it one of your friends can do it in 15-30 min max.

One thing I'm thinking of doing is setting up a whole computer that will serve no other purpose other than acting as a server for my MP3s. You can get a cheap older-generation used PC for next to nothing, install Linux on it, and stick in a monstrous hard drive.

I've already had this debate with myself about a year ago and finally decided that I definitely want the external. It's the portability that I want. Eventually, I'm going to have to replace my computer and this will make it so much easier for me to keep full and easy access to the files and maybe some software that I want to keep on there. An internal would require finding a geek to help me change it and most of the ones I know live too far away. Plus, if and when I do get a new computer, I can keep both going and just very easily move my external from room to room. So, an external it is.

Originally posted by jb1677:
I recommend that folks buy an internal drive and get an enclosure (20 - 40 dollars). You generally save a few dollars AND the warranty is many times longer.

[dummy alert]I have no idea what an enclosure is. Someone please expain.[/dummy alert]

Originally posted by jb1677:
Also for the folks mentioning RAID, RAID is great for preparing for drive failure and keeping a system online in the event of failure but it is no replacement for backups! If the partition or filesystem becomes corrupt then the mirror of it does to (on a RAID1). With RAID5 you are striping data across multiple drives (with parity for fault tolerance) but again a corrupt partition, accidental format etc and the data is gone.

I was wondering about that. Hmmm, now I'm not so sorry about not being able to get the last one I put a link to.

Originally posted by jb1677:
I recommend a pair of drives in separate enclosures, mabye one internal and one external (made from an internal and enclosere, see above). Use one to back up the other (nothing fancy, just a simple drag and drop). Then lock the backup drive in a safe or fireproof box when not in use.

I'm not storing vital documents or anything like that so Fort Knox stashing isn't required. Only loads of MP3s, photos, etc.. Valuable to me and in some cases, unique or extremely hard to get elsewhere. For that kind of material, I make sure I put things like that on discs and in some cases, I put a few of them on several discs just to have something to fall back on if one of the discs go bad.

Sometimes I get bands or friends who own record labels sending me unreleased and unmastered works which I'd hate to lose. But it's impractical for me to burn everything to disc especially something like music I already have on CDs but have already taken the time to convert so that I have them much more easily accessible for me without having to go through all that conversion again. (I've already deleted tons just to make space only to turn around and have to reconvert something for other use.) In some cases, they are MP3s someone sent me from CDs with videos that don't allow you to access the music files in a computer, which pisses me off to no end. Having these files already converted saves me tons of time for when I'm creating one of my radio shows or just burning compilations. I know you iPod owners can fully relate.

But I still don't know what you are talking about concerning the enclosures. Are you talking about making your own external with an internal harddrive? If so, I would have absolutely no clue how to do that. I'm only a nerdette wannabe.

An enclosure is just a way to turn an internal hard drive into an external hard drive. Its generally a lot cheaper, and I don't think its difficult.

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=238389

Clyde has got it, you can buy an enclosure (an empty external hard drive) for 20 - 40 bucks for simple ones from best buy, comp usa etc.

Putting the drive in is easy, a few screws and 2 connections that are keyed and only go in one way, pretty easy. If you have any remotely techy friends they can so this in a matter of minutes, heck anyone with a screwdriver that can read can do it in a few minutes.

Hard drives fail, its a fact of life, the multi year warranty carried by the internal wont get your data back but it will get you a new drive. Also the price savings can be great, especially if you get a deal on the drive via the weekly sale price plus rebate from Best Buy or Compusa or Staples.

The fire box is my own obsessive compulsive mentality coming out, the thought of losing one MP3 or precious picture scares me to death :-) Either way drives fail, so a backup of the drive is key, a few hundred GB's of data lost no matter what it is would be a hugh pain in the ass.

However you decide to do it I cant stress having some backup, my favorite is to buy in pairs(pre made externals, make your own externals or one internal and one external)

The only other backup options are to burn CD/s (146 CDs per 100GB), DVD's (22 per 100GB) or a tape device which will cost in upwards of 2000 for something that can backup a few hundred GB on one 50+$ tape.

Therea are 250GB drives on sale at Comp USa this week for 59$, a pair of these and a pair of enclosures would set you back about 180$ for 500GB of external storage (250 data and 250 for backup) of backup storage. This particular drive only has a 1 year warranty but the cost savings is HUGE

These may be small for your needs, they just
happen to be on sale this week, the sale drives from CompUSA, bestbuy, staples etc are sweet bargains (assuming the rebate shows up) and are a great way to get a lot of storage for cheap.

http://www.salescircular.com/ is a great site for comparing the weekly specials for computer stuff for the local retail stores.