[phixgrrrl]

So to make your own, you just buy a normal internal drive and a HD case, seperately? Would that be able to use USB and able to turn off? How does that work?
Is that setup any different from the regular external drives?

I've also had two W.D. drives fail, fortuneately within the warranty, but barely.

Originally Posted by dan_mccartney

I would say make your own. They are generally cheaper that way. Most cases will support 500GB - 1TB HDD. I would go with a Western Digital or Seagate HDD with a simple 3.5 inch external case that fits the HDD obviously.

If you don't want to take that route, you should look for the best speed for the price with the needed capacity. And I then would stick with Western Digital, Seagate, or Maxtor. I personally think they are the best.

[dan_mccartney]

Yea, get a drive that is compatable with the case of your choice. They can hook up a variety of ways. USB, Firewire, I think there is one other hook up too. IT hooks up just like a regular External Hard Drive. You can't turn all of them off, the one I have you just unplug it. They are generally cheaper than buying a prebuilt external. Its pretty simple. Let me know if I can help.

Dan

[phixgrrrl]

I was looking at Micro Center and the externals cost about the same as an internal plus an enclosure. Also, the Externals have a longer warranty....
Hmmm

[phixgrrrl]

Ok, I got the Maxtor One Touch, 500 gb. Is that one decent?

[Rich-M]

Might be but I hate to say Maxtor are amongst the most unstable and poorest quality hard drives these days.

[dan_mccartney]

My guess would be yes. My wife has a Maxtor 320gb hard drive. It has worked great and we use it a lot. All of our movies and music are on that plus all of her pictures she takes. We are haven't had any troubles, but someone made a good point the other day on Newegg. Hard Drive, no matter the brand, are the most unstable peice of hardware a computer can have. Atleast untill solid state HDD are the norm.

[Rich-M]

Originally Posted by dan_mccartney

My guess would be yes. My wife has a Maxtor 320gb hard drive. It has worked great and we use it a lot. All of our movies and music are on that plus all of her pictures she takes. We are haven't had any troubles, but someone made a good point the other day on Newegg. Hard Drive, no matter the brand, are the most unstable peice of hardware a computer can have. Atleast untill solid state HDD are the norm.

Ok well I don't know if you are talking about sata drives or not. But I have been through about 20 in the last year and the longest lasting one lasted a year.

[phixgrrrl]

Well all the WD drives (internal) I've had have failed, granted, after a couple years...
What about Iomega or Seagate? I mean, should take it back?
What really constitutes a bad hard drive? Don't they all eventually fail or do some just keep going?

[dan_mccartney]

I would give it a try. I have been doing some research on that particular drive, the one touch 500gb that you bought. A lot of the people that bought said it lasted a few months before something went wrong. There are a number of things that could go wrong, but then you may not have a problem with it at all. I would try it out. I wouldn't delete the stuff that you are backing up though until a few months in or so. You can always turn it into an internal hard drive if you need to depending on what goes wrong with it if anything. But ultimately it is up to you. Do you want to risk it or go with something else that is almost guaranteed to last?

[phixgrrrl]

Guaranteed to last? Like what?

[Shadow Hunter]

Get one that has esata dude!!!! esata is the fastest out of all the usb and firewire connections. That is the connection type i use with my system.

[dan_mccartney]

I don't mean any particular drive. I am just saying, one that has a great reputation. Before I buy anything I always go to newegg.com and find it on there and read the reviews. I have been saved a few times by doing that. That is all I am saying.

[phixgrrrl]

Oh I see. Well I always research beforehand and all the WD and Maxtors had both kind of reviews. Or I'd find some that were rated very well but there were some horror stories from users. So that's why I just bought whatever.

What about Acomdata? It seemed to get good reviews for the most part. I was going to get Seagate but lots of people had trouble w/a sensitive on/off switch...