External Hard Drives

I'm looking at upgrading my photo backup system, which has now outgrown the old CDs system (the downside of upgrading to a 6MP camera). I'm looking at a combination of an external hard drive (can't go internal because I just use a laptop) at home that I'll store in a fireproof box, with backup DVDs in a safe deposit box downtown. Yes, I know I'm a bit OCD.

Last time I tried this, I got a Maxtor drive that was crap. It never worked, but I was never able to return it. I'm looking around at the current offering, and can't figure out what IS good.

Maxtor has a bad taste to me now, but the other options where I'm looking seem to be Seagate and Western Digital. Don't really know their reps.

Looking to spend in the ~$150-170 region for something around 500GB. I'd also probably use it to backup my iTunes library and British TV shows.

Anyone got any recommendations? Bad apples? Industry connections?

Greg, I know nothing about your prices. But...

I actually had a similar problem for the same reason.
And I ended up using a Seagate Barracuda internal Hard Drive for which I bought an external housing. This made the hard drive external and portable. It comes with USB connection, so you can hook it up to nearly anything.
Works for me! Just a suggestion....

I'm using Western Digital 500gb. I got them from buy.com.
I'm very happy with them.
Bob

Greg,

I also purchased a Maxtor drive which failed miserably. Like you, I was unable to return it. So you know my advice, but it's a tad late.

Thus far I'm still wondering in which direction to progress -- so I'm very interested in this topic.

bobo

How about storage on a large flash drive? Art

For short term, the large flash drive would be OK, but generally they max at 4 gigs. With 1 and 2 gig cards the norm today, they would only be a short term help.

My daughter recently spent 3+ months in Australia. During that period, she shot about 10,000 digital images. To help make sure she did not lose any images she did a transfer and double backup. At least every few days she transferred all her images to her notebook. When transferred she then also copied them to her portable hard drive. Even while traveling, she kept the portable hard drive separate from the notebook so that if one managed to find a new home that she still had the other. Then she periodically also copied images over to DVDs and mailed them home (good backup, but I also wanted to see images along the way rather than wait until she was home....)

We have 3 external drives. The first is a WD 160 gig model that I would call a desktop one because of its size. It has done well so far, and I have had it a couple years. (It was a Black Friday bargain 2 years ago).

The other two drives are a pair of Maxtor One Touch Mini III models, 60 gigs I believe. They have done well, including making the trip to Australia and back. Only issue has been their software that wants to load into memory every time you start the computer and is a memory hog. That problem was simple to fix and is now loaded only when needed. These drives are really pretty nice and are very compact. I picked up travel cases that they fit into along with their cords. They power from the USB port so the computer should be working on AC instead of battery when you use them. These were also Black Friday bargains from Staples - ended up costing $30 each.

Wherever you buy, make sure it is a reputable company and they should replace the drive if it goes bad. At many stores, the drives are inexpensive enough that an extended warranty shouldn't be too expensive. BTW, I really like the size of the One Touch Mini's, and there are a number of models from different manufacturers in that size range. Makes it very convenient to take it with you for backups and to have the extra storage space.

buy.com

I have done the same. I had an old PC but the hard drive was still good. I went to my local PC store where I purchased an external case. Like above it connects via USB and it works great. My only concern is it's a used hard drive so at some point I need to upgrade.

I have 4 external hard drives. Haven't had issues with any of them: Iomega, SimpleTech and two Seagates. I'm planning to buy a 2nd Seagate Freeagent 500 GB hard drive this month. Once a quarter I back up all of my photos and take the hard drive to work. In between backups, I use my 100 GB portable Seagate to backup just my most recent photos.

I have a 3 year old 160gb external that I have backed up to a 6 month old Western Digital Black Box 500gb. I also have a Western Digital 160gb pocket size, and an additional WD Black Box which I plan to put my video on.
The lastest is the Raid controllers in the terrabytes whose price has come down drastically.
Best bet is a 500gb WD Black Box for $123 at buy.com (a good reliable company).
Bob

I have a 250 Gb Western Digital hard drive that's been going strong for about 2 years now. Also, I just got a 120 Gb portable one for when I have to do work up at campus on my laptop (and I already know that my 1 Gb thumb drive just isn't going to cut it). I know they make one that is 250 Gb and the same size. Super portable, with just a small USB cord and no need for an external power source.

Well, to follow up here...

After the many good reviews of Western Digital products, I bought a 500 GB MyBook Essential last week. It came the other day, and I've already got my 25 GB of 2007 photos on it, with a 90GB partition for my iTunes library.

I'm VERY happy with this drive. First off, it's sharp looking - it really does look like a book, and the black case/green lights matches my ThinkPad exactly. It's smart, too - it goes to sleep after a period of time (it seems maybe ~15m of idling?), and when I shut the laptop down or put it to sleep, the drive goes with it. Great for longevity.

I just plugged it in and...it worked. I could have put files on it there and then if I didn't want to change it to NTFS from FAT32. It just showed up in Windows.

I got mine for $119 on Amazon, with free Prime shipping. For that price, I can afford to buy one every year or two to fill or back up. And they stack very nicely.

Overall, this is another satisfied WD customer, and another still VERY dissatisfied Maxtor customer.