External Hardrives

[HaaGeN]

So which one to get?

I've been looking around, googling, and didn't find very many answers

It has to be portable or semi-portable

Speed? well most are generally the same speed, so I'm not so worried about it

From the research, most people just said make one, but I don't think they were talking about portable ones

Size? well, on my ancient computer, I've used 124 gb with 15 gb remaining
So I would need over 100gb, and under 500gb, because I don't think i'll ever need 500gb of space

I edit graphics and videos, i have 25 gb of music, and 10 gb of movies

The main thing I'm worried about, is reliability.
I want it to always work because this is my files I'm talking about, I don't want to move all my movies and music there and in a month or so, it's not there anymore.

I basically narrowed it down to 2 choices, you can suggest others if u please

1) Iomega ego portable
WxDxH
3.5in x 5.2in x 0.7 in
Weight: 7.7 oz
Capacity: 160 GB
USB 2.0
Cache: 8MB
5,400 RPM
1 year warranty
"
The Iomega eGo was one of the fastest portable hard drives we've tested over USB. It wrote a 10GB folder of mixed file types in 9 minutes, 54 seconds. The Seagate FreeAgent Go wrote the same folder in 10 minutes, 33 seconds. The Iomega eGo read back that same folder to the testbed drive in 8 minutes, 11 seconds; the FreeAgent Go took just a few more seconds to do the job."
-CNET

oh and price:
around $100

2) Seagate FreeAgent Pro
WxDxH
1.4in x 3.3in x 7.5 in
Capacity: 320 GB
USB 2.0
7200 RPM
5 year warranty
price: $140ish

the ego is portable, the seagate is semi-portable

Now remember, my main goal is reliability, so which one should i get?

[Tobososlow]

I would say get the Seagate one, seems like it would be faster without the little review, more storage and the longer warranty.

[Gregory]

I would recommend a Western Digital Passport.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136247

[jackluo923]

I would not recommend any of them because they seem like usb bus powered. laptop 2.5" hdd might disconnect if its being stressed. eg. large amount of mutimedia stuff.

I would recommend you buy a 500GB 3.5" hdd and a SATA 3.5" external HDD enclosure with a powersupply. This setup would guarentee the hdd will receive enough power. Also, this setup use 3.5" hdd thus the speed can go up to 150-200MB/s burst speed. Of course the final speed will be limited 40MB/s due to USB interface limitations. Overall, this setup will be a lot faster than the more portable 2.5" external hdds. It's also semi portable because you can carry it with you.

Total cost for the above:
500GB hdd - $80-90
HDD enclosure - $15-30

[HaaGeN]

from the research i got, wd have some bad reviews =X

oh and the ego can be dropped which i will most likely do
so i dont want to drop it then it wont work anymore, say for the seagate

[Darren]

The best brand you can get here is SeaGate, their products are very good, and tougher than WD

[jackluo923]

Most of the times, the "toughness" depends on your luck, not brand.

Also.. the ego drive that claimed to copy 10GB in 9 minutes 54 seconds, that's pretty slow, barley 19.8MB/s transfer speed.

Even my WDpassport 320GB gets about 30MB/s transfer speed, times faster than the ego one. I did a copied a 1 gb file in about 30-35 seconds.

[HaaGeN]

transfer speed wont matter, its reliability

i just want to have the files i want when i want it, all the time on it

if it goes 1mb/s, and i can rely on it 100%, i would get it

[jackluo923]

3.5" hdd is generally more reliable than 2.5" hdd. 2.5" hdd is only more reliable than 3.5" hdd when you drop it on the ground often. Since 2.5" hdd has smaller platter, it's less likely to damage the platter containing the data.

Also 3.5" hdd is all powered by power adapter instead of being bus powered, thus generally more reliable.

If the 3.5" enclosure ever fails, then you can either replace the enclosure or put the drive in your desktop computer.

Where as in 2.5" external hdd, it's a lot harder to connect to another computer if the enclosure is broken.

[HaaGeN]

so is an ego 2.5" or 3.5"

[plump_mexican]

I use a western digital 500 gb. I've had it for 2 months and had zero problems. My friend has the same for about 2 years and had no problems at all, i got mine at amazon for 100$

[runtohell121]

$89 for Maxtor - OneTouch 4 mini 250gb External hard drive is a good deal.. if your looking for 2.5" hard drives that is.

[SilentWalrus]

I just got a Seagate hard drive.
It's really nice.
It's going to copy 71g in 40 minutes.
:O