Recommendations For External Usb Hard Drive

[JetsetBkk]

I need more storage for my laptop.

I'm thinking of getting a 1.0 TB or 1.5 TB external USB hard drive. My PC has a FireWire 400 port, but my other 3 drives work OK on USB, so I'm happy to stick with USB.

I will be upgrading the lap top to a desktop in about 6 months, so whatever disk I buy now I want to ultimately install internally in the desktop. This may influence the type of drive I get now as I would want to get the best performance out of it when it's in the desktop and not connected by USB.

I've seen some very nasty reviews of Seagate's 1.5 TB disk that they use in the "FreeAgent" product, but hopefully the problems only relate to revision 11 of the disk and the problems have all been fixed.

However, it does add a level of uncertainty when buying one of these... I'd have to demand to see the drive to check what revision it was before buying it. So if there's something better out there anyway, it would be simpler just to forget about Seagates for now.

I've also looked at "My Passport" & "My Book" (Western Digital), "Buffalo Drive Station" (Buffalo drive), and "WD Elements" (Western Digital).

Any recommendations?

[jerrylee]

I need more storage for my laptop.

I'm thinking of getting a 1.0 TB or 1.5 TB external USB hard drive. My PC has a FireWire 400 port, but my other 3 drives work OK on USB, so I'm happy to stick with USB.

I will be upgrading the lap top to a desktop in about 6 months, so whatever disk I buy now I want to ultimately install internally in the desktop. This may influence the type of drive I get now as I would want to get the best performance out of it when it's in the desktop and not connected by USB.

I've seen some very nasty reviews of Seagate's 1.5 TB disk that they use in the "FreeAgent" product, but hopefully the problems only relate to revision 11 of the disk and the problems have all been fixed.

However, it does add a level of uncertainty when buying one of these... I'd have to demand to see the drive to check what revision it was before buying it. So if there's something better out there anyway, it would be simpler just to forget about Seagates for now.

I've also looked at "My Passport" & "My Book" (Western Digital), "Buffalo Drive Station" (Buffalo drive), and "WD Elements" (Western Digital).

Any recommendations?

Firewire and not Seagate, Western is better.

[paddypower]

I need more storage for my laptop.

I'm thinking of getting a 1.0 TB or 1.5 TB external USB hard drive. My PC has a FireWire 400 port, but my other 3 drives work OK on USB, so I'm happy to stick with USB.

I will be upgrading the lap top to a desktop in about 6 months, so whatever disk I buy now I want to ultimately install internally in the desktop. This may influence the type of drive I get now as I would want to get the best performance out of it when it's in the desktop and not connected by USB.

I've seen some very nasty reviews of Seagate's 1.5 TB disk that they use in the "FreeAgent" product, but hopefully the problems only relate to revision 11 of the disk and the problems have all been fixed.

However, it does add a level of uncertainty when buying one of these... I'd have to demand to see the drive to check what revision it was before buying it. So if there's something better out there anyway, it would be simpler just to forget about Seagates for now.

I've also looked at "My Passport" & "My Book" (Western Digital), "Buffalo Drive Station" (Buffalo drive), and "WD Elements" (Western Digital).

Any recommendations?

Firewire and not Seagate, Western is better.

Can you reference me to the bad Seagate reviews? I have 2 external 500gig Seagates, for double back up. I'd like to assess my risks, in continuing to use them. tia, Paddy.

[webfact]

MAXTOR I never got into any trouble.

Buffalo is my other favorite.

[Guest Reimar]

I need more storage for my laptop.

I'm thinking of getting a 1.0 TB or 1.5 TB external USB hard drive. My PC has a FireWire 400 port, but my other 3 drives work OK on USB, so I'm happy to stick with USB.

I will be upgrading the lap top to a desktop in about 6 months, so whatever disk I buy now I want to ultimately install internally in the desktop. This may influence the type of drive I get now as I would want to get the best performance out of it when it's in the desktop and not connected by USB.

I've seen some very nasty reviews of Seagate's 1.5 TB disk that they use in the "FreeAgent" product, but hopefully the problems only relate to revision 11 of the disk and the problems have all been fixed.

However, it does add a level of uncertainty when buying one of these... I'd have to demand to see the drive to check what revision it was before buying it. So if there's something better out there anyway, it would be simpler just to forget about Seagates for now.

I've also looked at "My Passport" & "My Book" (Western Digital), "Buffalo Drive Station" (Buffalo drive), and "WD Elements" (Western Digital).

Any recommendations?

Firewire and not Seagate, Western is better.

Firewire (IEEE1394) is limited to max. 400 mbps while USB is limited to 480 mbps, so a bit faster and if use an SATA drive, you get the full speed.

My Passports are ok and better as Seagate and faster as well. WD Elements as well. they are good. Hitachi NOT as external but internal is ok. Maxtor is Seagate and the later even having Seagate technology.

[JetsetBkk]

Can you reference me to the bad Seagate reviews? I have 2 external 500gig Seagates, for double back up. I'd like to assess my risks, in continuing to use them. tia, Paddy.

I also have two Seagate 500 GB drives in external boxes connected by USB and have not had any problems in nearly two years use. But when I started looking to upgrade, I found many bad reports about the latest Seagate drives:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/se...mp;body=REVIEWS

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&cli...amp;btnG=Search

[nikster]

Firewire 400 is faster than USB, despite the theoretical speeds. The USB protocol has much more overhead, so net throughput as seen on my system is max. 30MB/s for USB and 35 - 40 MB/s for Firewire. Most USB devices that I have don't exceed 20MB/s but I recently got a Toshiba external HD and it goes up to 30.

Nevertheless, I'd still recommend USB over Firewire because it's just much more wide-spread and by extension more convenient. FW is comparatively rare and expensive.

Edit: Buffalo has a good reputation.

Edited June 3, 2009 by nikster

[stumonster]

my main backup external drive is esata and USB

esata is a nice speed boost

[JetsetBkk]

Firewire 400 is faster than USB, despite the theoretical speeds. The USB protocol has much more overhead, so net throughput as seen on my system is max. 30MB/s for USB and 35 - 40 MB/s for Firewire. Most USB devices that I have don't exceed 20MB/s but I recently got a Toshiba external HD and it goes up to 30.

Nevertheless, I'd still recommend USB over Firewire because it's just much more wide-spread and by extension more convenient. FW is comparatively rare and expensive.

Edit: Buffalo has a good reputation.

Thanks for this. I also read that USB needs more of your CPU for the low-level communications than FireWire as FW has dedicated h/w to do that job.

I also have a better "feel" for USB, although my laptop does have an unused "mini" FireWire port that I'm tempted to use as it means I could simply add another drive and not swap a smaller drive for a bigger one.

Regarding Buffalo, I've seen a 1.0 TB USB box in Phuket, Central Festival, Abix Computers for 4,600 baht and Big C, Digital Channel for 4,990 baht.

[JetsetBkk]

my main backup external drive is esata and USB

esata is a nice speed boost

Can you give more details please? Disk manufacturer, product name?

[JetsetBkk]

Firewire (IEEE1394) is limited to max. 400 mbps while USB is limited to 480 mbps, so a bit faster and if use an SATA drive, you get the full speed.

My Passports are ok and better as Seagate and faster as well. WD Elements as well. they are good. Hitachi NOT as external but internal is ok. Maxtor is Seagate and the later even having Seagate technology.

Yes, I read up on FireWire and learned that the FireWire interface will give better performance than USB on slower CPUs because USB needs more of your CPU to process the low level communications. My laptop is about 3 years old, 1.8 GHz, 533 MHz FSB, and may limit the maximum throughput on USB.

Any good utilities I could try for testing my USB drives?

If I can get near the maximum specified transfer rate using USB, it will definitely rule out FireWire.