Best Budget External Hard Drive

[JoeyGee]

I am looking for an external hard drive. I'm not looking for much, "only" 500 gigs. I know, I should shoot for at least a TB, but I am going cheap. I know the spiel about getting more than I need, but I will be happy with the 500.

I see Staples has a Simple Tech for $100, and a Maxtor for ~$120. I have used both brands (internal hdd's) and have nothing bad to say about either. I don't care about backup software, I can use the built-in Windows (I know, I know...) version, or freeware if I need to.

This is only for backing up one desktop PC, and maybe occasionally dumping some files to from my crash and burn laptop. Wih USB, swapping back and forth is easy.

Any thoughts on these brands, or knowledge of better deals?

[jussi]

Staples has the Western Digital for $99.98. They're my personal favorite brand. I believe they have free shipping over $100 add a cheap item like stationary supplies.

http://www.staples.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StaplesProductDisplay?zipCode=90744&PID=1225267&jspStoreDir=Staples&catalogId=10051&productId=193957&errorUrl=zipcode&cmArea=SC57%3ACG876%3ADP3933%3ACL142595%3ASS1036610&noredir=true&langId=-1&SID=sduidp0t0&AID=10427430&storeId=10001&ddkey=StaplesZipCodeAdd

[jonmulzer]

I will second Western Digital and add in Seagate. Seagate is my personal favorite with WD a close second. I am not a fan of Maxtor. The majority of failed hard drives I have replaced over the years have been Maxtor, especially in the IT jobs I have had. Two companies switched from Maxtor to WD while I worked for them. To each their own though.

[LCHIEN]

Today only 500 GB $79.99 after rebate with free shipping:

http://www.buy.com/prod/fantom-titan...203400931.html


They'll be back to $100 tomorrow with free shipping.

I have two Fantom Titanium USB drives (2 x 250GB at the office and one 350 GB) at home, no problems. I don't know what brand drive they use but there's really only a few manufacturers.

[gerti]

Third on WD. 90% of all drives that died on me were Maxtor.

[iceman61]

I personally have had good luck with Western Digital. My sister on the other hand had a WD external crash on her last month & she lost years of pics & work. She is livid with WD, while I still love them.

[dbhost]

I am looking for an external hard drive. I'm not looking for much, "only" 500 gigs. I know, I should shoot for at least a TB, but I am going cheap. I know the spiel about getting more than I need, but I will be happy with the 500.

I see Staples has a Simple Tech for $100, and a Maxtor for ~$120. I have used both brands (internal hdd's) and have nothing bad to say about either. I don't care about backup software, I can use the built-in Windows (I know, I know...) version, or freeware if I need to.

This is only for backing up one desktop PC, and maybe occasionally dumping some files to from my crash and burn laptop. Wih USB, swapping back and forth is easy.

Any thoughts on these brands, or knowledge of better deals?

I can speak from professional experience. Simple Tech devices don't always fully conform to USB standards. Meaning on some computers they simply won't be recognized. We had a group of engineers working with one of the TB drives. The drive would be seen fine by a Dell Optiplex GX-240 WinXP Pro SP2 blah blah blah. The SAME drive, going onto an IDENTICALLY loaded Prescision 650 would NOT be recognized by either the hardware or the operating system...

I have never had a problem with Maxtor drives meeting standards. But quality can sometimes be shoddy.

If you can come up with the scratch. Just buy a Western Digital and be done with it. Those work with every bit of x86 hardware, as well as Mac, and even Sun Sparc. (Running WinXP, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris 10 etc...)

As far as Vista is concerned, I can't help you there. AFAIK Vista = Microsoft Windows Me version 2.0... Pure junk...

As far as failed HDDs and data loss are concerned. If you are REALLY concerned with Data preservation, you aren't keeping your critical data ONLY on magnetic media.... (Or if you do it is a SAN with snapshots and a secondary backup system...) MOST files simply don't change. BACK YOUR IMPORTANT STUFF UP TO DVDs!!!! Dual layer burners are pure and simple CHEAP these days... Heck, I have seen Blue Ray burners for semi acceptable prices lately...

[jussi]

Or you can always go with an online solution. Have heard good things about this. Automatically saves new info when you're not using the comp and shuts off when you are. $50/year

http://www.carbonite.com/

[dkerfoot]

Western Digital 500GB My Book Essential II USB 2.0 External Hard Drive
SAVE $40.00
FREE BUDGET SHIPPING
Buy.com price: $109.99
List price: $149.99

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=206409667&adid=17653&dcaid=17653

[DaveS]

Personally, I'd hold out for a Seagate for this reason:

WD -> 1 year warranty (yes, some WD drives have 5 year, but not this one)
Seagate -> 5 year warranty

The Seagate USB drives are perpetually on sale, so if you wait a week, one should pop up.

Another thing to keep in mind - the Maxtor drives also have a 5 year warranty, and well, they have Seagate drives in them now too.

[DaveS]

BACK YOUR IMPORTANT STUFF UP TO DVDs!!!! Dual layer burners are pure and simple CHEAP these days... Heck, I have seen Blue Ray burners for semi acceptable prices lately...

Just a note on this - there are numerous studies that show that the longevity of recordable media such as this is not well suited for long term archiving.

One study showed degradation in as little as 12 months, especially in the "budget" media.

Even the special "archive" disks showed problems in a relatively short amount of time.

[I work in the storage industry, so, for once, I actually am an expert - weird.]

[DaveS]

I am not a fan of Maxtor. The majority of failed hard drives I have replaced over the years have been Maxtor, especially in the IT jobs I have had. Two companies switched from Maxtor to WD while I worked for them. To each their own though.

Another note, there aren't any Maxtor drives left on the shelves, they are all Seagate drives now. All Maxtor branded products contain Seagate drives.

[leehljp]

BACK UP HDs

I know you fellows are not talking Macs, but I have to say that I think that Time Machine is the best backup for a consumer around. Seamless, in the background, regular. LOML and mine too. I can't believe how easy and seamless it is without stopping regular ongoing computer work at the same time - all wirelessly.

LOML got a new lap top in March and gave hers to one of our daughters. It crashed two weeks later - the HD died. LOML came close to losing all data and she would have killed me if it had. I normally hook a backup about every 3 to 4 months. In this case, most of the photos of our latest grandson were on her computer. They would have been on the one that died and I am the responsible "techie". After getting her a new laptop and the old computer's HD died, I bought the "Time Machine" and it works flawless.

I bought the 500 gig TM, but had another 250 external HD on hand. I hooked the external HD up to TM, and mine is backed up on the 250, LOML's is backed up on the internal 500.

[LinuxRandal]

I prefer Seagate myself as well, due to the warranty. But I used to have a local computer junk store, where I could buy dead drives that were under warranty and get them replaced. About 1/3rd the cost of a new drive (and how I built up my home pc's).


Now I would personally buy my own external exclosure and place the drive in it, or set up a backup server (I am going to have to do this again soon, the old motherboard in the old pc is going). I would use an old pc, or if new, use something like the gOS motherboard, with the via processor. Depending on budget, a blue ray burner is the future, currently, but at $1000 for the drive, and hard to get media, not a ready to use option.

[Kristofor]

Depending on budget, a blue ray burner is the future, currently, but at $1000 for the drive, and hard to get media, not a ready to use option.

Nah, they're way cheaper than that now... $350 or less for several models including the LG combo HD-DVD (read) /Blu-Ray (read/burn) drive.

That said, single layer media isn't that hard to find, but it is still more expensive per GB than regular or DL DVD discs.

Kristofor.