[buchanan]

hello guys,

i am looking to buy an external hard drive for storage.
i would like at least 500gb (would happily get bigger if the value for money was better) and would maybe like firewire/esata but usb only would suffice if there is a big difference in price (and it having usb is essential as one of my pc's only has usb, not fw/esata)

i would like good quality but also good bang for my buck.

i was thinking maybe western digital mybook or seagate, but would consider better alternatives. what would you recommend?

also, i am not sure because i have never had one, is it possible to get one which gets power from the pc or will it need to be plugged in separately for power?

many thanks for any insight.

buchanan

[buchanan]

has anyone ever purchased or used over a period of time, an external hard drive of 500gb+ capacity which they thought was really good and would recommend, or they were disappointed with and would not?

anyone have a preferred brand or model which has performed better for them than other hard drives?

anything to definately avoid?

anyone know what i mean about power (from pc or needs own plug)?

WD mybook better than other WD hard drives or seagate?

quality and durability? price?

what shouldn't i buy?

cheers

[philthomas]

I've used a 400gb Seagate for around 6-9 months without any major problems.
I purchased the Enclosure (USB2 & Firewire) seperately and added my own drive. That way you get to choose the latest spec drive, with best speed/cache .

Personally I would avoid any external drive, that pulls power from the USB port, as this will put a drain on your PSU and if it's already stretched, may cause major problems.

As to brand, many folk swear by WD and others Seagate, but at the end of the day it's a personal choice. I would be happy with either.

HTH

[philthomas]

I should have added that you can buy USB2 Enclosures to house SATA drives as well and if you have an ESATA socket on your box, this is another alternative.

[buchanan]

thanks phil, i really wanted on which took it's power from the pc but i see why that wouldn't be advantageous, cheers

[philthomas]

You're welcome .... glad it helped

[buchanan]

one of the reasons i need this drive is because my ipod which i use for storage is formatted in fat32 (or something), and i can't put big files on it so i need the drive to be in ntfs.

how do they normally come formatted, and if i buy one and its fat, can i format it to ntfs?

thanks

[philthomas]

Many ready made units will come formatted in FAT32, but this is easily remedied.
Just reformat it, using Control Panel/Computer Management/Disk Management or convert it by typing :
CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS
from a command prompt. Obviously you will need to substitute C with the drive letter assigned to your USB drive.

[buchanan]

sweet thanks phil, i never knew how to do that

[Carbon]

Great for a USB stick, very bad for an iPod unless you like bricking it, phil. I wouldn't convert any music player's hard disk to any format other than the factory's specification.

[thingie2]

does the conversion work for any size drive? for example, would it would with a USB memory stick?

EDIT: post above just answed my question, must have been added whilst i was typing

[philthomas]

Originally Posted by Carbon Great for a USB stick, very bad for an iPod unless you like bricking it, phil. I wouldn't convert any music player's hard disk to any format other than the factory's specification.

I'm not suggesting reformatting an iPod m8y .... I think you got the wrong end of the stick .... we are talking about an External USB HDD. I think buchanan was just making the distinction between a FAT32 and an NTFS drive, when mentioning his iPod.

I agree though, it's not a good idea to start reformatting other USB devices.

[Carbon]

Gotcha.

thingie: yeah, you can reformat anything that doesn't directly access the drive as primary storage, so like an iPod will freak out if you NTFS it but if it's just flash storage go ahead

[buchanan]

phil i am interested in doing the enclosure and making my own, could you recommend a good enclosure?

if i made my own would it have it's own power or would it run off the power supply?

thanks a lot

[philthomas]

Most Enclosures come in kit form, which includes an external power supply, fixing screws, stand etc..

I have used a couple of these and they seem as good as any that I've seen.
SATA version also here.
Complete range here.

Also if you do a search on ebay, you will probably find them a bit cheaper.

HTH