What To Buy In An External Hard Drive? Suggestions Requested

  • Thread starter Thread starter Patient Guy
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Patient Guy

I would like the names of makes and models of external hard drives that
meet the following criteria:

* power source

I prefer the drive powering itself off the notebook (I have an
HP Pavilion dv9500t), but am not sure

* quality

Some of these drives I am told are made just well enough to get past
the 1- or 2-year warranty, and the very cheap price reflects that.
In other words you get what you pay for (or didn't pay for). I prefer
a drive that I can rely on for at least 3 or more years. It's unlikely
to see heavy duty.

* application

--- backup: I intend to use the freeware SyncBack (because it lets me
include/exclude directories/files as Windows XP used to do and Vista
doesn't) to back up personal documents/data

--- DVD-to-drive: I use DVD FAB Platinum to copy films I subscribe to
from Netflix to a drive which I can view later then delete, which the DVD
is back in the return mail to Netflix

--- partition for other OS: It would be nice to put Linux (like Ubuntu)
also on the drive, but I don't believe my laptop will boot off a USB
connection, probably something that Microsoft insisted that HP and other
OEMs do to stop the interest in playing with alternative OSes.


Based on this, I estimate a drive with at least > 200 GB. A half-dozen
DVD films at highest quality would be about 50 GB. Data
(document/photos/music) would probably be triple that.


* size and weight

in a form factor that is truly portable, and maybe even fits into a
large shirt pocket...this is not a critical requirement however

* other considerations

I understand there are debates about enclosures (metal vs. plastic)
and whether they are good for cooling high-rpm (>7200) spinning
drives. Don't know much about that other than that I hope the maker
has tested his models for at least the warranted period (!).

I have read the PCWorld and PCMag reviews and seen the "editor's
choices." I can see they don't often agree, which may mean they are
beholden to advertising revenue in their selections.

That's why I seek you out: you are the independent reviewer, I trust.
 
Patient said:
I would like the names of makes and models of external hard drives that
meet the following criteria:

* power source

I prefer the drive powering itself off the notebook (I have an
HP Pavilion dv9500t), but am not sure

* quality

Some of these drives I am told are made just well enough to get past
the 1- or 2-year warranty, and the very cheap price reflects that.
In other words you get what you pay for (or didn't pay for). I prefer
a drive that I can rely on for at least 3 or more years. It's unlikely
to see heavy duty.

* application

--- backup: I intend to use the freeware SyncBack (because it lets me
include/exclude directories/files as Windows XP used to do and Vista
doesn't) to back up personal documents/data

--- DVD-to-drive: I use DVD FAB Platinum to copy films I subscribe to
from Netflix to a drive which I can view later then delete, which the DVD
is back in the return mail to Netflix

--- partition for other OS: It would be nice to put Linux (like Ubuntu)
also on the drive, but I don't believe my laptop will boot off a USB
connection, probably something that Microsoft insisted that HP and other
OEMs do to stop the interest in playing with alternative OSes.


Based on this, I estimate a drive with at least > 200 GB. A half-dozen
DVD films at highest quality would be about 50 GB. Data
(document/photos/music) would probably be triple that.


* size and weight

in a form factor that is truly portable, and maybe even fits into a
large shirt pocket...this is not a critical requirement however

* other considerations

I understand there are debates about enclosures (metal vs. plastic)
and whether they are good for cooling high-rpm (>7200) spinning
drives. Don't know much about that other than that I hope the maker
has tested his models for at least the warranted period (!).

I have read the PCWorld and PCMag reviews and seen the "editor's
choices." I can see they don't often agree, which may mean they are
beholden to advertising revenue in their selections.

That's why I seek you out: you are the independent reviewer, I trust.
Click to expand...

Your first requirement pretty well tells you that you will have an
external which has either a 2.5" or 1.8" hard drive in it. 3.5" drives
require a 12V line and their total power consumption is more than a USB
port (or 2) can provide. Of course having a tiny hard drive means that
the material/cooling problem and the "fit in a shirt pocket" questions
are already taken care of since the enclosure won't really get warm no
matter what the material and will invariably be small. I have not seen
any 2.5" externals that meet your 200gB requirement (160gB is the
largest I've seen) although they probably are out there given that the
bare drives are increasing in capacity rapidly.
 
Patient said:
I would like the names of makes and models of external hard drives that
meet the following criteria:

* power source

I prefer the drive powering itself off the notebook (I have an
HP Pavilion dv9500t), but am not sure

* quality

Some of these drives I am told are made just well enough to get past
the 1- or 2-year warranty, and the very cheap price reflects that.
In other words you get what you pay for (or didn't pay for). I prefer
a drive that I can rely on for at least 3 or more years. It's unlikely
to see heavy duty.

* application

--- backup: I intend to use the freeware SyncBack (because it lets me
include/exclude directories/files as Windows XP used to do and Vista
doesn't) to back up personal documents/data

--- DVD-to-drive: I use DVD FAB Platinum to copy films I subscribe to
from Netflix to a drive which I can view later then delete, which the DVD
is back in the return mail to Netflix

--- partition for other OS: It would be nice to put Linux (like Ubuntu)
also on the drive, but I don't believe my laptop will boot off a USB
connection, probably something that Microsoft insisted that HP and other
OEMs do to stop the interest in playing with alternative OSes.


Based on this, I estimate a drive with at least > 200 GB. A half-dozen
DVD films at highest quality would be about 50 GB. Data
(document/photos/music) would probably be triple that.


* size and weight

in a form factor that is truly portable, and maybe even fits into a
large shirt pocket...this is not a critical requirement however

* other considerations

I understand there are debates about enclosures (metal vs. plastic)
and whether they are good for cooling high-rpm (>7200) spinning
drives. Don't know much about that other than that I hope the maker
has tested his models for at least the warranted period (!).

I have read the PCWorld and PCMag reviews and seen the "editor's
choices." I can see they don't often agree, which may mean they are
beholden to advertising revenue in their selections.

That's why I seek you out: you are the independent reviewer, I trust.
Click to expand...

Check the reviews on this one. Being a 2.5", it only draws 2.5 watts or
less. So it can be bus powered via the USB bus. There are fewer reports
of problems with this, than with some of the 3.5" externals.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16822136139

If you have really valuable information, you may want it in more than
one place at a time. I wouldn't trust this device for my only archive copy
of important financial info etc. You should have two copies, just in
case the drive fails.

Paul
 
not being rude have you googled for 2.5" external hard disk drive 200gB
i am sure you will find what you want!
 
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