Penny Arcade Forums› Help / Advice Forum
The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.

Good external HD

MKRMKR Registered User regular
edited January 2010 in Help / Advice Forum
My mom is becoming less enamored with the idea of using DVDs as a secondary backup, and has tasked me with finding a good, reliable external HD to supplement her other external drive and RAID. I call upon the collective knowledge of the internets to offer candidate drives.

Speed is not a big deal, and something 200GB+ should do.

one of those newsed letters - a blue sky
MKR on

Posts

  • MushroomStickMushroomStick Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    I've had good luck with Western Digitals and horrible luck with Seagates.

    MushroomStick on
  • saltinesssaltiness Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    I've always heard to stay away from LaCie.

    saltiness on
    XBL: heavenkils
  • MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Also, if you have a particular drive in mind, speed is good. Her current one backs 50 GB up in 10 minutes. Something close to that is preferred.

    I'm poking through WD Drives and have found a few good possibilities.

    MKR on
    one of those newsed letters - a blue sky
  • MushroomStickMushroomStick Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    If you need that kind of speed, I guess look for a drive with esata instead of just usb.

    MushroomStick on
  • MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    MushroomStick wrote: »
    If you need that kind of speed, I guess look for a drive with esata instead of just usb.

    The current one manages to do it by using two USB ports. Is that standard, or is it an oddity?

    And can you get an eSATA card? Her desktop is ancient, so won't have an SATA thing on the board.

    edit: She has informed me that speed isn't a big deal, but I still want to explore all options.

    MKR on
    one of those newsed letters - a blue sky
  • matt has a problemmatt has a problem Points to 'off' Points to 'on'Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    saltiness wrote: »
    I've always heard to stay away from LaCie.
    I've heard the exact opposite. In fact after balking at buying an external for a year and a half due to failure rates, researching them lead me to buy this 1tb drive. I've had it for a year now, and it's been entrusted with 100 gigs of my music and 2 gigs of pictures, among other things.

    It also exists as a USB 2.0 only interface for $109, and as a 500 gig version for $72.95.

    matt has a problem on
    nibXTE7.png
  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu PIGEON Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    I have a Maxtor external that has not broken yet.

    TychoCelchuuu on
  • MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    TychoCelchuuu wrote: »
    I have a Maxtor external that has not broken yet.

    Her current drive happens to be a Maxtor. I knew a guy who used to work there and said they make good drives.

    MKR on
    one of those newsed letters - a blue sky
  • Sir Headless VIISir Headless VII Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    MKR wrote: »

    And can you get an eSATA card? Her desktop is ancient, so won't have an SATA thing on the board.

    If you have SATA you should be able to get an esata breakout panel (my motherboard came with one and it is 3 years old). As far as i know its not different from regular sata except for the connector. Otherwise I don't know.

    Sir Headless VII on
    Steam - Backpack - Bnet: SirHeadless #1154
    7KEFduI.jpg
  • MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Sir Headless VII wrote: »
    MKR wrote: »

    And can you get an eSATA card? Her desktop is ancient, so won't have an SATA thing on the board.

    If you have SATA you should be able to get an esata breakout panel (my motherboard came with one and it is 3 years old). As far as i know its not different from regular sata except for the connector. Otherwise I don't know.

    It doesn't have an SATA connector.

    MKR on
    one of those newsed letters - a blue sky
  • rtsrts Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    saltiness wrote: »
    I've always heard to stay away from LaCie.

    This is definitely true.
    MushroomStick wrote: »
    I've had good luck with Western Digitals and horrible luck with Seagates.

    I have had the opposite experience.

    rts on
    skype: rtschutter
Sign In or Register to comment.
Penny Arcade Forums› Help / Advice Forum