View Full Version : External Hard Drives?
What's the deal? I might be buying one soon but I have heard some bad things about some. What would be a good one for less than 80$? Would it be worth it?
Beefynick
05-24-2008, 7:11 PM
It depends on the space requirements you have to whether it would be worth it or not. If you need a bunch of space that is transferable I would suggest one otherwise an internal may be the way to go. Personally I like the enclosure kits they have which make an internal hard drive and external one. They are a good way to go if you have a hard drive laying around.
Spastic
05-24-2008, 7:11 PM
I don't know what you mean by "What's the deal?" They are hard drives, but external. I have had no problems with any of mine, just don't buy the cheapest one around and you should be fine. They are definitely worth it, just for the convenience of portable storage.
What I meant is I hear a lot of talk of them breaking for one reason or another.
Beefynick
05-24-2008, 7:26 PM
I have an enclosure kit because I had a hard drive laying around, but I assume mine is just like any other external hard drive. I have no problems with mine at all. They are no more fragile than any other electronic device (such as a cell phone).
Maybe the talk you hear about them breaking is from people who do not take good care of the hard drive.
TheHighwaySong
05-24-2008, 7:27 PM
If you drop or bump them alot then yeah, but my hard drive has been just fine. If you're looking for specific brands, I'd say go for Seagate or Western Digital. Very reasonable pricing too. If you catch Best Buy or Circuit City on a sale, you can get a 500gb Seagate hard drive for 99.99, that's how I got mine.
OoooF4LiFe
05-25-2008, 2:18 AM
I picked up a 250gb WD passport (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136228) when I was working retail. Probably the best thing I've ever got computer wise from Best Buy.
Only downside is it's a 5400rpm harddrive. Plug and play (no software), quiet, powered solely from a usb port, and it's sexy when you mount it to your desk.
The biggest thing to remember is they are for storage. Not for running an OS off of or installing applications on. They have a shorter lifespan than an internal due to the increased heat and jarring not to mention the slower transfer speeds. They should not be kept on 24/7
Hunnter
05-25-2008, 5:32 AM
SOAD is correct.
They are best used as backups or transferring files between computers, as a constant backing storage, you'd best get 2 smaller HDDs and an HDD rack and pop them in RAID.
Much more value for your money, and if one drive fails, you have the other one.
I've had 2 externals fail on me, both Seagate, steer clear of them.
My friend has had 4 of them fail on him, other friend had his recently die too.
The first drive, not sure what happened to that, but after ripping the HDD out of the tank-casing (seriously Seagate? What the hell? Screw you), popped it into another PC, drive works perfectly, so it was Seagates crappy external circuitry yet again.
2nd drives on-board circuit seems to be screwed, need to find a replacement if i want my files back.
Last i'm ever buying anything from Seagate! Never had so many problems with hardware failing on me (in fact, never, period! They are the first!)
xkittenxsocksx
05-25-2008, 2:50 PM
I have 249 MB left so I guess I should invest in one.
CharlieH
05-25-2008, 2:58 PM
I install applications on my External HD. Nothing wrong with it at all.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/CharlieH_1989/quicklaunch.png
I run all the programs within the border off my external USB HD.
I install applications on my External HD. Nothing wrong with it at all.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/CharlieH_1989/quicklaunch.png
I run all the programs within the border off my external USB HD.
Just because you can doesn't mean there is nothing wrong with it. Yet again cuntface you speak with authority about shit you have no idea. External Hard drives are not for that. If you want more hard drive space for applications get an internal drive.
Spastic
05-25-2008, 3:20 PM
I just store music and videos on my external HD, and CharlieH you may not see any side effects now, but you will.
CharlieH
05-25-2008, 3:24 PM
Like what?
Like what?
They have a shorter lifespan than an internal due to the increased heat and jarring not to mention the slower transfer speeds. They should not be kept on 24/7
Do you just not read? Or do you assume you know better than me?
CharlieH
05-25-2008, 3:34 PM
You haven't even made mention of the fact that you have one.
Even if you did, you said you don't run applications off of one. So i don't think you are in any position at all to tell me about something that i do all the fucking time, and you apparently do do at all. :mad:
Besides, just for the record, I have a laptop, making the concept of a new internal HD damn near impossible.
You haven't even made mention of the fact that you have one.
Even if you did, you said you don't run application off of one. So i don't think you are in any position at all to tell me about something that i do all the fucking time, and you apparently do do at all. :mad:
Besides, just for the record, I have a laptop, making the concept of a new inner HD damn near impossible.
I have a 500gb external sitting right next to my PC. I don't run applications off it because I am not a moron. Does your external have a fan on it? Liquid cooling? Do you have it connected via SATA cables?
I have friends who do data recovery for a living, the first thing they told me was not to use it for apps and why.
CharlieH
05-25-2008, 3:44 PM
O.K, I accept what you're saying, i honestly do, but you're saying it will brick my HD, and i'm saying it won't. No i don't have any of that stuff you just mentioned, but thats beside the point.
I've had this thing for a year and a half.
O.K, I accept what you're saying, i honestly do, but you're saying it will brick my HD, and i'm saying it won't. No i don't have any of that stuff you just mentioned, but thats beside the point.
I've had this thing for a year and a half.
I never said brick I said shorten the lifespan, enjoy it while it lasts, which probably will be another 6 months.
Antisaint
05-25-2008, 3:53 PM
Besides, just for the record, I have a laptop, making the concept of a new internal HD damn near impossible.
Just for the record, HDs aren't hard to change in laptops. You just unscrew the right panel on the bottom, and there it is.
How hard is it to put an enclosure on a normal HD? I'm thinking about using my old one as an external.
Just for the record, HDs aren't hard to change in laptops. You just unscrew the right panel on the bottom, and there it is.
How hard is it to put an enclosure on a normal HD? I'm thinking about using my old one as an external.
Not difficult at all.
Beefynick
05-25-2008, 5:09 PM
Just for the record, HDs aren't hard to change in laptops. You just unscrew the right panel on the bottom, and there it is.
How hard is it to put an enclosure on a normal HD? I'm thinking about using my old one as an external.
I have an enclosure around a hard drive I had laying around. It took a total of 5 minutes to get it working (that includes removing it from the package and such). I have had no problems with mine.
TheHighwaySong
05-25-2008, 7:10 PM
So, I use my external hard drive for storage. Mostly music, movies, and a couple of games I have on there. It's only on when my laptop is on, which in the summer will be more often than it is now that I am in school. If I'm reading correctly, that's a bad thing? :frown:
Beefynick
05-25-2008, 7:16 PM
Using it for storage is ok, having applications installed on it is not such a good idea. External hard drives are meant to be used and can be used often, but they are not meant to be accessed (read and written to) on a continual basis which an application would do. I would not worry about your external drive being used more during the summer, but I would remove the games from it.
Axidos
05-28-2008, 2:07 AM
I install applications on my External HD. Nothing wrong with it at all.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/CharlieH_1989/quicklaunch.png
I run all the programs within the border off my external USB HD.
Pretty much all applications need to constantly read from the hard disk they're on (sometimes write) because all of their data cannot and will not be kept in your RAM. USB cables have a very limited transfer rate, compared to SATA or IDE cables that are used with internal hard-drives, so the data reading and writing will take a long time.
In short, you'll get massive loading times.
Oh yeah, and as SOAD's saying, your external hard-drive has a very short lifespan. Once it dies, you'll lose all save files and keep-worthy data, as well as leaving your registry (and possibly other parts of your computer) clogged up with useless data which you could have removed with the uninstaller, but that's on your external hard drive. Then it'll just take up space.
I never said brick I said shorten the lifespan, enjoy it while it lasts, which probably will be another 6 months.
Hey, leave Charles alone, no need to be such pricks about it. I think he used, "brick" as a figure of speech. Because I got what he meant by it. Also, not everyone knows everything about computers and whatnot. Like Antisaint saying its not hard to change the harddrive for a laptop, well, I know quite a bit about comptuers, but I didn't have any idea how you could do that (I don't have a laptop either so, that could be why.)
Not everyone is super computer literate (not saying you aren't CharlieH) you guys, sheesh.
Hey, leave Charles alone, no need to be such pricks about it. I think he used, "brick" as a figure of speech. Because I got what he meant by it. Also, not everyone knows everything about computers and whatnot. Like Antisaint saying its not hard to change the harddrive for a laptop, well, I know quite a bit about comptuers, but I didn't have any idea how you could do that (I don't have a laptop either so, that could be why.)
Not everyone is super computer literate (not saying you aren't CharlieH) you guys, sheesh.
No one would rag on him if he didn't claim to be something that he obviously isn't. People are merely calling him out on his bullshit that's all.
Motchoman
05-29-2008, 6:28 AM
The smallers the disc space the more reliable they will be. we have 2 500gb hard drives, and they work pretty well. Just can't really go more than that for the time being. And we leave them on 24/7 for months at a time, as its on the network hub. We have no problems with it. Just dont surround it, with your junk.
Motchoman
05-29-2008, 6:32 AM
Axidos, If a hard drive dies you can still retrive data from it. Use progrmas such as ''get data back for ntfs'' my hard drives, and parents hard drives die all the time. you retrive 90% of the data most of the time.
Could someone tell me, or link me to a good drive for less than 100$? I don't have that much spending cash.
WD is the way to go.
I have a 500GB that has never had any problems. (at Walmart for $80)
I run programs off it but not any that run 24/7 only things like tools and games.
Clerlic
06-01-2008, 12:53 AM
I have a 500GB Buffalo, it's really great to store child/animal/necro/etc. pornography on, you can just toss it out the window when the cops come.
By the way, why do they have a shorter life span? I don't think they heat up too much, since mine has heatsinks cooling it down, and it doesn't even feel warm. Of course the vibrations from carrying it around might do something, but what if you just keep it under your table?
bizzle
06-01-2008, 1:13 AM
Its best to stick to multiple smaller drives because the technology is much more stable. Companies are rushing to put out bigger and bigger EHDs as fast as possible because its what the consumers want and what they'll buy but the technology isn't quite there yet. Plus its better to have one smaller hard drive go down with only a fraction of your stuff then one big one with everything.
NitRoDrivEn
06-04-2008, 8:32 AM
I keep back ups of CD's (mostly games), music, projects, etc. on my external HDD that's in the closet. I run striping on my internal hard drives, so I'm all performance. The less clutter I have on them, the better. It's not only for speed either, it's security. They're much more prone to failure in RAID (if one HDD goes out, kiss your data goodbye), and I just can't afford to lose some stuff I have on there.
But yeah, take their advice. They're not designed to be on 24/7. That's just asking for trouble. Plus it's ugly as heck, having it out all the time. Plug it in, back up your data, put it somewhere safe. It's that simple.
Clerlic
06-04-2008, 2:02 PM
They're just the same hard drives you have in your PC's, and those are clearly on when your PC is. I don't understand why do you guys think they're so unreliable, do you have any personal experiences or did someone just tell you that?
Inconceivable
06-10-2008, 3:07 PM
I use LaCie Porsche, 500gb. Got it at future shop for about $220 CD.It's very small and lightweight.
Here's an example. (http://www.dealsdirect.com.au/p/lacie-500gb-porsche-usb2-external-hdd/)
docmartens
06-13-2008, 2:38 PM
The one that saved my ass was an Iomega. I managed to get all of my files off of the laptop before the whole thing failed on me.
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