Mass Storage Device

[longball53098 524]

Hey all, I have an Iomega 250GB external usb drive that is having some serious issues and it's 5 years old so I figure it's time for something new and improved. I am looking at products from both the Synology company ie the DS 110j and also a Buffalo 2 TB LinkStation. The Buffalo seems Ok to me and the price is about 6500 baht. The DS 110j is about 5300 baht but then I must buy the HD to install into it.

Anyone care to comment? Good, bad or otherwise?

[halljimbo 1]

I can only comment on the buffalo.

I have had excellent service over the years and they are very hardy.

If it uses an external power supply, don't forget to turn it off when not in use as the disc continues to spin and will reach an operational limit in a year or so (28M revs). I fell for that earlier.

[Crushdepth 2274]

The D-link NAS boxes are quite nice if you just want storage/file server capacity and maybe a RAID. If you want a box that does all kinds of additional things, the QNAP NAS boxes are marvellous - but not the cheapest (have a look at the smaller units).

[PNGinBKK 1]

personally I would never buy a unit with a built in HDD. They offer no upgrade options in the future and are pain in the a$$ if something goes wrong.

Buy the best case / NAS unit you can find, or can afford, and then buy the HDD to go with it.

[damian7000 6]

personally I would never buy a unit with a built in HDD. They offer no upgrade options in the future and are pain in the a$ if something goes wrong.

Buy the best case / NAS unit you can find, or can afford, and then buy the HDD to go with it.

Agree... if you want portable, just buy a 2.5" SATA USB case and then a SATA 2.5" WD or Seagate drive and plug 'er in. Though may have trouble finding 2tb in 2.5". 1tb should be doable.

Edited September 15, 2010 by damian7000

[lopburi3 13053]

Makes a difference if you want laptop external storage for travel but for fixed use I have four Acer 1TB 3 1/2" externals which have worked fine (although did format NTFS and not using ACER software). Most cost me about 3,500 but even Lotus now selling at 2,995. They use external power supply but drives stop when USB plug removed so works well for me.

[nikster 711]

personally I would never buy a unit with a built in HDD. They offer no upgrade options in the future and are pain in the a$$ if something goes wrong.

Buy the best case / NAS unit you can find, or can afford, and then buy the HDD to go with it.

Why would I want to upgrade in the future? In the future there'll be USB 3 or God knows what. I buy the box and HD together in order to avoid issues with badly made boxes, of which I've had many in the past. I have a whole graveyard of el-cheapo external boxes that don't work anymore. None of the brand name boxes I have had any issues so far - several Buffalo and WD mobile and 3.5" drives.

I got a WD Elements 1.5TB for backup. Was very cheap, and just works. It has an external power adapter but spins down when not in use.

As for NAS, I found it's too slow for backup. Even though TimeMachine creates incremental backups that are very small (every hour) it still was a pain over WiFi even at 54Mbps. It's much easier and quicker to just connect the USB every evening. I guess it might be OK on ethernet?! I could make my USB drive into a NAS by connecting to my Airport Extreme, but USB is the better option IMO. At least for backup purposes.

[robblok 51071]

If you want NAS and you have the cash go Q-Nap much better as the competition.. also much more expensive.

Edited September 15, 2010 by robblok

[HDRIDER 1]

Hi

Any know what price a 2.5" 1TB is now?? i have a few buffalo so kind of like them, i am working in France right now so maybe buy one here and take home or?? (dont even know what they cost here)

Thanks

[Peterbigeyes 11]

Check this WD one out. USB 3.0

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=781

[Sophon 1316]

Makes a difference if you want laptop external storage for travel but for fixed use I have four Acer 1TB 3 1/2" externals which have worked fine (although did format NTFS and not using ACER software). Most cost me about 3,500 but even Lotus now selling at 2,995. They use external power supply but drives stop when USB plug removed so works well for me.

I also have a couple of the Acer 1TB external hard drives, and have been happy with them. What is the advantages of reformatting them in NTFS?

Sophon

[KunMatt 3070]

For home storage I am about to buy a Western Digital Elements 2GB HDD - if I can find one in BKK that is. I already have the 1TB version in the UK and it is great.

I've also used the Buffalo Linkstations and they are great too. QNAP NAS drives are also very decent if you are looking for a network drive.

For traveling I only use WD Passports. I've had every size up to 500GB so far and they are fantastic. The 1TB version that came out changed the specs and i/f cable and got a lot of bad reviews on Amazon so I stayed away from it, but I ended up using one that belongs to someone else and it is fine.

If anyone knows how much the 2TB Elements drive is in BKK (I guess MBK or Pantip) then please let me know.

Cheers.

[lopburi3 13053]

Makes a difference if you want laptop external storage for travel but for fixed use I have four Acer 1TB 3 1/2" externals which have worked fine (although did format NTFS and not using ACER software). Most cost me about 3,500 but even Lotus now selling at 2,995. They use external power supply but drives stop when USB plug removed so works well for me.

I also have a couple of the Acer 1TB external hard drives, and have been happy with them. What is the advantages of reformatting them in NTFS?

Sophon

NTFS seems to be much, much more reliable and never have any need to check disk for errors since changing years ago. Also believe FAT limits the file size from what I have read. The only advantage of FAT is use on older systems and first generation TV direct input vis USB I believe required the disc to be FAT for TV to read.

[Digitalbanana 4893]

Check this WD one out. USB 3.0

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=781

Anyone know if USB 3.0 cases and/or combined case/HDD are available in portable 2.5inch version yet in Thailand? I have a PC with a USB 3 port and nothing to plug into yet.

[JetsetBkk 9201]

personally I would never buy a unit with a built in HDD. They offer no upgrade options in the future and are pain in the a$$ if something goes wrong.

Buy the best case / NAS unit you can find, or can afford, and then buy the HDD to go with it.

Why would I want to upgrade in the future? In the future there'll be USB 3 or God knows what. I buy the box and HD together in order to avoid issues with badly made boxes, of which I've had many in the past. I have a whole graveyard of el-cheapo external boxes that don't work anymore. None of the brand name boxes I have had any issues so far - several Buffalo and WD mobile and 3.5" drives.

I got a WD Elements 1.5TB for backup. Was very cheap, and just works. It has an external power adapter but spins down when not in use.

As for NAS, I found it's too slow for backup. Even though TimeMachine creates incremental backups that are very small (every hour) it still was a pain over WiFi even at 54Mbps. It's much easier and quicker to just connect the USB every evening. I guess it might be OK on ethernet?! I could make my USB drive into a NAS by connecting to my Airport Extreme, but USB is the better option IMO. At least for backup purposes.

I have a 1.0 TB Buffalo, a 1.5 TB Buffalo and a 2.0 TB Buffalo.

The first two have worked perfectly for a long time. The 2.0 TB is a replacement (changed it within 7 days) for another one that was giving me "delayed write failed" errors.

This one is also giving me the same errors, so now I'm wondering if it's my 5 year old laptop that has a problem with its USB ports.

However, I have had no problems with my new WD Green 2 TB that's in a cheap Oker box. I copied about 1 TB of data to it over a couple of days with no errors.

I couldn't do that with either of the 2 TB Buffaloes I've been using. So I couldn't recommend them now. I've had about 4 or 5 "delayed write failed" messages today while continuing to copy data to this drive.

I may even rip the box apart and put the HD in another external box. Which is a pity because I like the design and the others - 1.0 TB & 1.5 TB - are still working fine.

Prices:

WD Green 2.0 TB - 3,850 Baht, J.I.B. Phangnga Road, Phuket

Buffalo 2.0 TB - 5,545 Baht, J.I.B. Phangnga Road, Phuket

Oker external box - 899 Baht, Cyber Earth, Big C, Phuket.

Edited September 16, 2010 by JetsetBkk

[longball53098 524]

Thanks for the info and some new ideas. I'm still waiting to find out the resolution to my drive that's not working and that will help mke the decision on which direction I end up going.