Recommended External HD??

On Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:40:46 -0500, LouB <> wrote:

>Andrew wrote:
>>
>>
>> "Sam" <scams@Remove This att.net> wrote in message
>> news:hmc5qq$18m$...
>>> I am in need of an external HD to use with my current Dell 8200 computer
>>> with windows XP Pro (SP3) (my current external HD failed today!!). This
>>> replacement external HD will also be used with the new computer I plan to
>>> purchase in the very near future. I would like to have an external HD
>>> that
>>> has an internal fan and without any backup software installed since I
>>> plan
>>> to use the Windows 7 image backup program. Thanks for any help, Sam.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I like Maxtor, but almost anything will do.
>> I stay away from Western Digital.
>>
>Why please.
>I have an un-opened 1TB drive right now.
>I can return it.

If you check sites where people leave hard drive reviews, such as
Newegg or perhaps Amazon, you can always find people who love one
brand and hate another. Within all of that noise, certain models will
periodically have higher than normal failure rates so the best you can
do is look for reviews on your specific drive and see what people are
saying. Even then, you're likely to see a broad mix of 'love it / hate
it" reviews. Excessive heat is well known to shorten a drive's life,
so avoiding that will help.

"Andrew" <> wrote in message
news:hme940$j73$...
>
>
> "LouB" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Andrew wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> "Sam" <scams@Remove This att.net> wrote in message
>>> news:hmc5qq$18m$...
>>>> I am in need of an external HD to use with my current Dell 8200
>>>> computer
>>>> with windows XP Pro (SP3) (my current external HD failed today!!).
>>>> This
>>>> replacement external HD will also be used with the new computer I plan
>>>> to
>>>> purchase in the very near future. I would like to have an external HD
>>>> that
>>>> has an internal fan and without any backup software installed since I
>>>> plan
>>>> to use the Windows 7 image backup program. Thanks for any help, Sam.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> I like Maxtor, but almost anything will do.
>>> I stay away from Western Digital.
>>>
>> Why please.
>> I have an un-opened 1TB drive right now.
>> I can return it.
>
> Well this is my experience, others have had good experiences with them I
> assume.
> I had 3 fail (all 500gb) in a period of about 2 months.
>
> A couple years ago they had the WD My Book 500GB drives on sale at Costco
> for something like $70.00 each.
> I bought three. 2 were used as backup drives and 1 of them was used as
> media for a media center DVR.
> I noticed they all got hot, I mean really hot, but thought nothing of it.
> Eventually they all failed.
>
> Since then I have bought Maxtor USB drives with internal fans.
> Now granted, the Media Center DVR was probably not the best choice of use
> cases for a cheap HD, but I have had the $99.00 Maxtor doing it for more
> than a year.
> Like I said, it's personal experience, maybe I got a bad lot, or maybe the
> WD My Book was a lousy product. I still don't know, but I don't buy WD
> anymore.
>
> --
> Andrew

Now you have ME worried. I have a My Book 500MB that I use for backup
images. I don't notice it getting real hot, but it does get quite warm.
Maybe I'll mount a small USB fan to pull air through it to help stave off
the death by overheating. I like the one I have since it supports eSATA and
Firewire. Have you ever tried using another brand drive in the My Book case,
or do you think the case is the cause of the heat?
--
SC Tom

"SC Tom" <> wrote in message
news:2Jzin.1994$...
>
>
> "Andrew" <> wrote in message
> news:hme940$j73$...
>>
>>
>> "LouB" <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>> Andrew wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "Sam" <scams@Remove This att.net> wrote in message
>>>> news:hmc5qq$18m$...
>>>>> I am in need of an external HD to use with my current Dell 8200
>>>>> computer
>>>>> with windows XP Pro (SP3) (my current external HD failed today!!).
>>>>> This
>>>>> replacement external HD will also be used with the new computer I plan
>>>>> to
>>>>> purchase in the very near future. I would like to have an external HD
>>>>> that
>>>>> has an internal fan and without any backup software installed since I
>>>>> plan
>>>>> to use the Windows 7 image backup program. Thanks for any help, Sam.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I like Maxtor, but almost anything will do.
>>>> I stay away from Western Digital.
>>>>
>>> Why please.

I have a WD Passport drive which works very well, though it has an annoying
limitation: it will only work with the 6-inch USB cable that they supply,
and this cannot be extended by adding a male-female USB extension cable - if
you do so, the disk chatters and generates "unknown device" errors in
Windows.

I contacted WD and they claimed that it was a problem with the disk not
receiving enough power when an extension cable was used, but I suspect that
it is a timing issue: the drive may be working right at the limit of the USB
spec and adding extra cable may produce reflections in the signal which mess
up the timing.

This is only really a problem if you PC doesn't have front USB sockets and
you need to keep pulling out the PC to plug the drive into rear USB sockets.

LouB wrote:
> Andrew wrote:
>>
>>
>> "Sam" <scams@Remove This att.net> wrote in message
>> news:hmc5qq$18m$...
>>> I am in need of an external HD to use with my current Dell 8200 computer
>>> with windows XP Pro (SP3) (my current external HD failed today!!). This
>>> replacement external HD will also be used with the new computer I
>>> plan to
>>> purchase in the very near future. I would like to have an external HD
>>> that
>>> has an internal fan and without any backup software installed since I
>>> plan
>>> to use the Windows 7 image backup program. Thanks for any help, Sam.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I like Maxtor, but almost anything will do.
>> I stay away from Western Digital.
>>
> Why please.
> I have an un-opened 1TB drive right now.
> I can return it.


If you look at some of the comments at New Egg and other sites
regarding Western Digital, you will find that many people are
having problems with drive failures at the present time. As I
wrote in an earlier post, these things run in cycles. A few years
ago, Maxtor was the drive to stay away from. Right now it seems to
be Western Digital.

-Al-

Char Jackson wrote:
> On Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:40:46 -0500, LouB<> wrote:
>
>> Andrew wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> "Sam"<scams@Remove This att.net> wrote in message
>>> news:hmc5qq$18m$...
>>>> I am in need of an external HD to use with my current Dell 8200 computer
>>>> with windows XP Pro (SP3) (my current external HD failed today!!). This
>>>> replacement external HD will also be used with the new computer I plan to
>>>> purchase in the very near future. I would like to have an external HD
>>>> that
>>>> has an internal fan and without any backup software installed since I
>>>> plan
>>>> to use the Windows 7 image backup program. Thanks for any help, Sam.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> I like Maxtor, but almost anything will do.
>>> I stay away from Western Digital.
>>>
>> Why please.
>> I have an un-opened 1TB drive right now.
>> I can return it.
>
> If you check sites where people leave hard drive reviews, such as
> Newegg or perhaps Amazon, you can always find people who love one
> brand and hate another. Within all of that noise, certain models will
> periodically have higher than normal failure rates so the best you can
> do is look for reviews on your specific drive and see what people are
> saying. Even then, you're likely to see a broad mix of 'love it / hate
> it" reviews. Excessive heat is well known to shorten a drive's life,
> so avoiding that will help.
>


Exactly. Some brands, some models, have a higher failure rate at
any given time. When I see higher failures from a manufacturer, I
try to stay away from that manufacturer, even if I'm buying a
different model of drive. Some years ago I was having failures
with Maxtor drives. I warned everyone to stay away from Maxtor. At
that time, many buyers hadn't realized that there was a problem
with Maxtor, but a year or so later Maxtor almost went out of
business due to their bad reputation. Today, Western Digital seems
to be having the problems.

-Al-

Al Smith wrote:
> Char Jackson wrote:
>> On Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:40:46 -0500, LouB<> wrote:
>>
>>> Andrew wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "Sam"<scams@Remove This att.net> wrote in message
>>>> news:hmc5qq$18m$...
>>>>> I am in need of an external HD to use with my current Dell 8200
>>>>> computer
>>>>> with windows XP Pro (SP3) (my current external HD failed today!!).
>>>>> This
>>>>> replacement external HD will also be used with the new computer I
>>>>> plan to
>>>>> purchase in the very near future. I would like to have an external HD
>>>>> that
>>>>> has an internal fan and without any backup software installed since I
>>>>> plan
>>>>> to use the Windows 7 image backup program. Thanks for any help, Sam.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I like Maxtor, but almost anything will do.
>>>> I stay away from Western Digital.
>>>>
>>> Why please.
>>> I have an un-opened 1TB drive right now.
>>> I can return it.
>>
>> If you check sites where people leave hard drive reviews, such as
>> Newegg or perhaps Amazon, you can always find people who love one
>> brand and hate another. Within all of that noise, certain models will
>> periodically have higher than normal failure rates so the best you can
>> do is look for reviews on your specific drive and see what people are
>> saying. Even then, you're likely to see a broad mix of 'love it / hate
>> it" reviews. Excessive heat is well known to shorten a drive's life,
>> so avoiding that will help.
>>
>
>
> Exactly. Some brands, some models, have a higher failure rate at any
> given time. When I see higher failures from a manufacturer, I try to
> stay away from that manufacturer, even if I'm buying a different model
> of drive. Some years ago I was having failures with Maxtor drives. I
> warned everyone to stay away from Maxtor. At that time, many buyers
> hadn't realized that there was a problem with Maxtor, but a year or so
> later Maxtor almost went out of business due to their bad reputation.
> Today, Western Digital seems to be having the problems.
>
> -Al-
Thanks to all for comments.

"Andrew" <> wrote in message
news:hme940$j73$...
snip
>
> Well this is my experience, others have had good experiences with them I
> assume.
> I had 3 fail (all 500gb) in a period of about 2 months.
>
> A couple years ago they had the WD My Book 500GB drives on sale at Costco
> for something like $70.00 each.
> I bought three. 2 were used as backup drives and 1 of them was used as
> media for a media center DVR.
> I noticed they all got hot, I mean really hot, but thought nothing of it.
> Eventually they all failed.
>
> Since then I have bought Maxtor USB drives with internal fans.
> Now granted, the Media Center DVR was probably not the best choice of use
> cases for a cheap HD, but I have had the $99.00 Maxtor doing it for more
> than a year.
> Like I said, it's personal experience, maybe I got a bad lot, or maybe the
> WD My Book was a lousy product. I still don't know, but I don't buy WD
> anymore.
>
> --
> Andrew

I've got one of those also, paid appx $80, used it for a complete backup
when I first got it using Memeo software that came with it. After doing a
couple incremental backups and I got a laptop, I tried to do a backup on
each but the software was a "Demo" version and wouldn't work anymore.
Communications with Memeo got me a pitch to sell me a software for $40 and
WD they gave me canned responses. I looked around and there are several
other choices of drives with fully functional software at a cost of a lot
less than the $120 total I would have invested in the WD.
Dave

"Dave" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
>
> "Andrew" <> wrote in message
> news:hme940$j73$...
> snip
>>
>> Well this is my experience, others have had good experiences with them I
>> assume.
>> I had 3 fail (all 500gb) in a period of about 2 months.
>>
>> A couple years ago they had the WD My Book 500GB drives on sale at Costco
>> for something like $70.00 each.
>> I bought three. 2 were used as backup drives and 1 of them was used as
>> media for a media center DVR.
>> I noticed they all got hot, I mean really hot, but thought nothing of it.
>> Eventually they all failed.
>>
>> Since then I have bought Maxtor USB drives with internal fans.
>> Now granted, the Media Center DVR was probably not the best choice of use
>> cases for a cheap HD, but I have had the $99.00 Maxtor doing it for more
>> than a year.
>> Like I said, it's personal experience, maybe I got a bad lot, or maybe
>> the WD My Book was a lousy product. I still don't know, but I don't buy
>> WD anymore.
>>
>> --
>> Andrew
>
> I've got one of those also, paid appx $80, used it for a complete backup
> when I first got it using Memeo software that came with it. After doing a
> couple incremental backups and I got a laptop, I tried to do a backup on
> each but the software was a "Demo" version and wouldn't work anymore.
> Communications with Memeo got me a pitch to sell me a software for $40 and
> WD they gave me canned responses. I looked around and there are several
> other choices of drives with fully functional software at a cost of a lot
> less than the $120 total I would have invested in the WD.
> Dave

There's a WD version of Acronis True Image available for free. You can
download it from WD here:
http://support.wdc.com/product/downl...19&wdc_lang=en

It only works with WD drives, whether internal or external. I use it with my
WD My Book to make images of my XP desktop with a Seagate and a Maxtor
drive, and my Win7 laptop with its Hitachi drive. Works very well, it's fast
(from the boot CD), and it's free. I've used the images to restore both
machines at one time or another, so I can testify that it works well with
XP, Win7, and before that, Vista.
--
SC Tom