Buying an External HDD

Hyde01

Hyde01

Member
Hey! As the title mentions I'm going to be buying an external hard drive and want to ask if there is anything I have to know when using external hdd or is it really just plug-and-play? I know some people have to reformat their hdd depending on what OS they're using. Also, any suggestions on hdd's I should look into?

I did some research here on the forum and people say Seagate and Western Digital are the manufacturers to go with in terms of hard drives. But after reading reviews on some of Seagate's 1.5TB external hard drives off of Newegg, it seems it has a high failure rate and a lot of people are unhappy with it. Maybe that's just a problem with their higher storage hard drives, because some reviews say their 320/500GB ones last forever. What are your guy's input? I'm probably going to try and stick with WD though :rolleyes:

Specs I'm looking for:
  • I want to keep it under $150
  • As much storage as I can get within the aforementioned budget (I don't want to buy another hdd for a loooong time :D)
    • 1.5TB is what I'm looking at right now

The hard drive is going to be used for loads of music, anime, movies, misc. shows, photos, ect. Now will I have any problems playing movies on my computer through an External HDD using USB? I don't really have a choice on the matter because I'm using a laptop, but just curious :)

Thanks! :cool:

Considering:

WD Elements 1.5TB - $130
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136450

SAMSUNG STORY Station 1.5TB - $130 (not WD, but has a lot of good reviews)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152179
 
I have currently used the following external hard drive enclosure for several months. It works great. You can convert a Serial ATA hard drive into an external hard drive. In the future, if you decide, you can simply take the external hard drive out of the enclosure and put it inside a desktop computer.

You may have to find a Serial ATA port on a motherboard to connect the hard drive to first in order to format it before putting it into the external enclosure.

Rosewill RX35-AT-SU SLV Aluminum 3.5" Silver USB 2.0 External Enclosure - $20
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182156

Western Digital Caviar Green Model WD10EADS 1 Terabyte Hard Drive - $85
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10009901&prodlist=celebros
 
1. "I don't really have a choice on the matter because I'm using a laptop" - USB is slowwww - only up to 480mb/s. If your laptop has an EXPRESSCARD slot (34mm or 54mm), you may add an eSATA expresscard like this one.

2. "You may have to find a Serial ATA port on a motherboard to connect the hard drive to first in order to format it before putting it into the external enclosure." -> Not really. The new drive can be formatted after being installed in the enclosure.

3. Better get an enclosure with eSATA+USB, or even with Firewire800 too.
 
Alright then :cool:
Let me know what you guys think about this:


AZiO Aluminum 3.5" eSATA + USB 2.0 External Enclosure ----- $30
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817106097

Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive ----- $120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136351
----OR----
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives ----- 94.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

54mm 2x e-SATA II ports Laptop ExpressCard ----- 25.99 (now id like to buy EVERYTHING off of newegg, but saving $24 is nice. Is there a reason why I should buy the $50 Expresscard off of Newegg? or are they all pretty much the same?)
http://cgi.ebay.com/size-54mm-2x-e-...in_0?hash=item3ca5a6ea76&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

So the total roughly comes to $190 after tax with the 1.5TB or $165 with the 1TB. Not toooo bad for a 1TB/1.5TB EHD with eSATA and USB 2.

I've never built anything computer-wise. So let me run this by you guys real quick just to make sure I got :rolleyes:
  1. Hook-up & Install eSATA Expresscard Driver (do this first just to get it out of the way)
  2. Install hard drive into External Enclosure
  3. Hook up the EHD to the computer
  4. Format EHD to NTFS (all I really know is that this is done primarily to make the HD faster and more secure)
  5. Good to go :)

-------OR-------

I can forget about getting eSATA, save $35/$60, and get the:

SAMSUNG STORY Station 1.5TB - $130
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152179

This is a hard decision haha ;p

note:
again, this HD will be used for loads of music and shows. I'll be playing large video files off of it frequently, so I'm not if that's where the eSATA will come in handy :confused:
 
I know nothing about the external enclosure you have chosen. The terabyte hard drive you have chosen seems to be good quality. The 1.5 terabyte hard drive seems to have a lot of complaints about failure. I would avoid it.

I would also avoid E-bay when buying computer parts. I have had a few bad experiences buying computer parts from E-bay. I have had nothing but good experiences buying from NewEgg.

Western Digital Caviar Black 1 terabyte 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive ----- 94.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

I really advise you to get the external enclosure I have recommended to you. It is easy to assemble and decent quality.

Rosewill RX35-AT-SU SLV Aluminum 3.5" Silver USB 2.0 External Enclosure - $20
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182156
 
"Hook-up & Install eSATA Expresscard Driver (do this first just to get it out of the way)" --> After driver installation, check DEVICE MANAGER, under "SCSI AND RAID CONTROLLERS", the card should appear there.

A 54mm expresscard can only work in a 54mm slot. A 34mm card can work in both a 54mm or a 34mm slot. So you should consider a 34mm. Much smaller, easy to carry.

The $50 card supports PORT MULTIPLIER and can handle up to 10 drives.

Newegg is surely the best place to shop for computer parts. But don't be afraid of buying on ebay. Look for reputable sellers, and items eligible for ebay's 'buyer protection'. Even big retailers like Buy.com, Tigerdirect started selling on ebay long time ago. And I'm one of those small ebay sellers.
 
Thanks for the helpful tips guys :cool:

After a lot of looking around and reading tons of reviews/articles, this looks like the setup ill be going with:

Rosewill RX35-AT-SC BLK 3.5" Black USB2.0 & eSATA External Enclosure (thanks 2048Megabytes :good:) ----- $25
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182180

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives ----- 94.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

StarTech ECESATA254 2 Port ExpressCard 54mm eSATA Controller Adapter Card ----- $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16839158025

After s/h+tax the total comes to $190(eSATA better be worth it!!:P) . Over my budget, but everything I'm getting is of pretty good quality and should be reliable. I get a sleek looking enclosure, good amount of storage capacity, and two eSATA ports for my computer...not toooo bad for the price :rolleyes: Again, let me know what your thoughts are. As far as I can tell though, the setup seems pretty sturdy.

Ill update this thread with a review of the setup once I've been using it for a good while. Knowing me, Ill probably forget to do it. BUT, when I finally DO remember to do it the review will be THAT much better/accurate :cool::P
 
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