External Storage Help

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magma

magma

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Hello all

I would truly appreciate help in the following matter

I am looking for an option for external data storage ( dvd rip movies and music ) since i find my current laptop storage

insufficient

I thought of looking at an external HDD with usb 2.0 connectivity

I am quite a novice in PC peripherals so please do excuse my limited knowledge
After a bit of googling i find there are mainly two kinds of storage i can consider
One is External Hdd's called External Desktop Storage
these include disc drives in a case that require an external power source

Following are some results i found
FreeAgent Desk: External USB 2.0 Hard Drive (500GB-640GB-1TB-1.5TB) | Seagate
My Book Essential Edition 500 GB Hard Drives ( WDBAAF5000EBK )
WD Elements Desktop 500 GB Hard Drives ( WDBAAU5000EBK )
LaCie - LaCie Grand Hard Disk
LaCie - Hard Disk, Design by Neil Poulton - Hi-Speed USB 2.0
SimpleDrive 500GB Turbo USB 2.0 External Hard Drive | SimpleTech :: by Fabrik
G-Technology - G-DRIVE - Professional External Hard Drive


The other option are POrtable USB drives
these i see do not require an external power source and are usb powered

here are some results i found
Seagate External Portable Drives | Seagate
WD Elements Portable 500 GB USB 2.0 Hard Drives ( WDBAAR5000ABK )
WD Elements SE Portable 1 TB USB 2.0 Hard Drives ( WDBABV0010ABK )
LaCie - LaCie Petit Hard Disk
LaCie - LaCie Rikiki
SimpleDRIVE Mini USB 2.0 2.5 inch Portable Storage - External Hard Disk Drives





My requirement is as below

My budget is limited to about Rs 4k-4.5k

I require storage solution to store my movies/music which i can carry from one room to another room r from office ( 1 pc To

another) to either connect with an HTPC (usb) or WDTV (usb) and stream movies and music from there
Hence though the solution may or may not have external power
( it doesnt matter to me - OR should it ?)

i am satisfied with even 500GB

My main concern is not storage capacity but ease of use and most importantly RELIABILITY
i dont want the HDD failing in a couple years
(i know thats almost impossible to gaurantee these days but i dont understand why since my 10yr old 80gb internal HDD in one

of my desktops is still going strong- wish i could get something as reliable!)

i have another question
its quite noobish but what the heck

For my application as stated above what would be the difference for me be between an External Desktop Storage ( powered) and a

POrtable usb powered drive
(well except for the obvious - powered and unpowered and higher portability- both of which im not very concerned with- OR SHOULD I BE ? )

i mean i one more reliable than the other ?

is the technology / parts in either different/superior/inferior ?

i.e what should i opt for?
as you can see there are so many options and that confuses an old chap

please advice
 
my suggestion WD My Book for external powered and WD Portable.......and no it does not matter what kind of HDD you have for your HTPC or WD Live as long as its USB, the only difference is what you pointed your self....one is powered and other is not and hence not exactly portable.

Also make sure that you formatt you HDD with NTFS, else you would not be able to copy files/movies....greater than 4GB.
 
For your use I think any Portable 500GB would be a good choice. You've yourself said your requirement is more of convenience than capacity. So a WD passport 500GB should suffice.
 
Magma, if you are opting for the External hdd for your budget you would get more storage. Some friends of mine are of the opinion that if your use includes keeping the hdd on and connected full time, an external hdd is better.
But I myself use WD passport 250gb portable, as I find the external too much of a hassle. Esp when there is no power outlet free/nearby or during load shedding!
I would also recommend WD, but of late my portable hdd has been acting up!
 
Magma,


IT is always good to go with external storage with power supply option. I think you can buy a 1TB disk with in your budget . These things we dont change everyday specially these are for making collections ... so go for a 1TB WD ..

And formatting it to NTFS is always a good idea... as most rips today are BR/RIPs above 4GB..

here is an ebay link..

eBay India: Western Digital My Book 1TB USB Hard Disk Drive 1 TB WD (item 190396575725 end time 18-May-2010 16:00:00 IST)


Use some cuopon code you may get some more discount too..

Kittu..:rolleyes:
 
Also consider the Iomega Prestige 1TB external HDD which will cost you around 4.8k. It has got the best reviews in the price range (check out Amazon, Newegg).
 
So are you all suggesting that the external powered option is better than the plug and play (USB) powered for say 500-600GB storage?
 
i would like to know the difference between the first two options considering my usage
(except for the size and weight ofcourse)

and for that matter the diff between the last two as well except for size and looks
 
Hi magma,

You can even get Samsung 1.5TB 3.5mm ext HDD for 5.2k.
For 500 GB WD is better choice.
 
Hi magma,

In your list, I would recommend second option..MyPassport Essential..

I am using one 250GB one since last 3 years (actually brought 3 from US and gave the other 2 to my friends).. No issue so far with all three..

another one is 320 GB bought from ebay india.. working fine since last 1.5 years..No issues with this one as well..
 
harryanthony said:
So are you all suggesting that the external powered option is better than the plug and play (USB) powered for say 500-600GB storage?
Click to expand...

Well I dont find any reason to believe that...........for me portable is always better than powered, except its pretty expensive for the same capacity.....
 
Digging a relatively old thread.

I am in a similar situation now and require additional storage. It has to be
external and need not be USB powered.

Options are 1 TB, 1.5 TB and 2 TB.

I would like to know if I can buy
- a internal 3.5' HD such as this

eBay India: Seagate 1.5TB 1500GB SATA 7200 HardDrive HDD New EMI (item 180576877723 end time 27-Oct-2010 15:04:56 IST)

and use it with
- 3.5 external casing such as this

eBay India: 3.5 USB 2.0 External Casing For SATA Hard Drives (item 390255311822 end time 29-Oct-2010 14:50:00 IST)

I would like to know if they are reliable in the long run.

Also I see that for internal HDs they normally include the rotational speed
(5900, 7200 RPM) and the memory cache (32 MB, 64 MB etc) and for the
externally powered ones they are normally not mentioned.

Any idea about the rotational speed and memory cache of the 1 TB WD MyBook
that is recommended?.

I would be using it for storing/streaming movies and using it as a NAS solution
in-conjunction with my ASUS RT-N16 router.

Thank you.
 
I had bought 1 TB WD (My book) external HDD two months back and have already used 700 GB of space. The 2 TB is now freely avaliable and i was thinking about upgrading to the same.

I would appreciate if any members currently owning / using a 2 TB external drive share some experiences on relaibility as such a size of data loss is like wiping out my 2/3 years of movie & music collection.
 
@siva.

bad choices all round.

Either get a 2TB seagate LP for around 4.8k using a 10% off coupon and get a Transcend HDD case for 1.5~2k. I have bought for 8 or 7 local external cases to realise how unreliable they are.

or Get a Seagate 2 TB external and be done with it.
 
If data reliability is important, get a dedicated NAS with raid.

I use an iomega ix-200 which has some other benefits like remote access (useful for those jams where you need a document but arent carrying it).

I used it in raid setup for a bit, but realized that most of my collection:
1. isnt that unique, is freely available online and the few hundred gb would need at max a month to download off the internet
2. doesnt get accessed too often and therefore probably doesnt really merit backup in a raid setup.

Noting the above, i moved to a non raid setup and quickly filled the full 2tb i had :ohyeah:

I picked it up from the US and it worked out to be abt 14k for me.

Also, dont worry too much about throughput and access rates because, if you plug it to your wifi network, the wifi will always be the bottle neck. So just pick up the cheapest system you can get, put it in raid and relax. the chances of two hard discs (even cheap ones) going kaput at the same time is almost 0.
 
Hi

You can buy Seagate Portable HDD "FreeAgent Go" of 500GB at a price of 4-4.5K.It comes with 5 years warranty

Recently i bought a 1TB Seagate Poratble disk and it works just fine and the build quality is better than WD.I also have a WD 320GB.The disk management software is also very good.U can just go for it.

Its VFM product and Reliable with 5 Yrs Seagate Warranty
 
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