P
Pedro
Guest
If you are in the computer field, which brand of hard drive do you consider superior in terms of reliability. SATA internal or external. Suggestions?
- Location
- Howell, NJ
hey pedro the 2 internals that i have used are maxtor and western digital... i have not had a problem with any maxtor that i used....
on the external i dont trust em... unless u got a 2nd backup of whatever is on ur external drive
...
on the external i dont trust em... unless u got a 2nd backup of whatever is on ur external drive
...
I am by no means an expert on these things, but if you buy a quality hardrive, I don't think you would see a difference between an external and an internal drive. Quality being the operative word.
I just bought a new computer with SATA drives in it. My old drives (western digital) where IDE, in order to get the info off of them, I purchased a hard drive enclosure which turned the old IDE drive into a USB drive.
I just bought a new computer with SATA drives in it. My old drives (western digital) where IDE, in order to get the info off of them, I purchased a hard drive enclosure which turned the old IDE drive into a USB drive.
I already use an external T, i think they are safer because i keep mine off. Well it was an internal in a case, so technically it was internal, lol. It's WD and it works good.
I hear that the maxtors are not too good, take no offense, just what i heard on the net.
I just need to expand cuz i am running out of room.
I heard about lacie, seagate and WD. Those seem to be the top contenders right now. FWIW, seagate owns maxtor now.
I hear that the maxtors are not too good, take no offense, just what i heard on the net.
I just need to expand cuz i am running out of room.
I heard about lacie, seagate and WD. Those seem to be the top contenders right now. FWIW, seagate owns maxtor now.
As indicated, I am by no means an expert on these things, but I probably no a whole lot more than most people working in basic tech support.
I have had a number of Western Digital Drives over the last five or six years, probably about 10 of them, and I have only had one of them go bad on me.
IF you want expandable storage, and don't mind an investment, how about a NAS System.
I have had a number of Western Digital Drives over the last five or six years, probably about 10 of them, and I have only had one of them go bad on me.
IF you want expandable storage, and don't mind an investment, how about a NAS System.
- Location
- Union Square, NY
It shouldn't make a difference, but if it is external, it should be attached by a cable coming right off the motherboard and not a PCI card. The PCI card can slow things down a bit depending on manufacturer, drivers, etc. You want something that goes directly into the BUS.
- Location
- Union Square, NY
Internal SATA drives have a connector that comes directly off the motherboard, bypassing the PCI interface. If you run it through a USB or 1394 cable you are limited to 400-800Mb. Good internal SATA drives run at 2.4Gb.
There is an eSATA cable now that carries the full SATA protocol to the external drives. I don't think the external drives are available commercially yet, so if you buy an external SATA drive with a USB or firewire connector, it is just a USB or firewire drive with some marketing terms.
There is an eSATA cable now that carries the full SATA protocol to the external drives. I don't think the external drives are available commercially yet, so if you buy an external SATA drive with a USB or firewire connector, it is just a USB or firewire drive with some marketing terms.
- Location
- Clifton, NJ
Right now the fastest hard drive seems to be the seagate cheetah hard drive. Nice price tag on them thought.
- Location
- Great Neck
Go with a seagate internal SATA drive. Unless your external enclosure has a fan it will heat up and potentially shorten the life of the drive if you constantly leave it on.
Stay away from Maxtor's, i've never had any luck with them lasting longer and a year or two.
Stay away from Maxtor's, i've never had any luck with them lasting longer and a year or two.
- Location
- Franklin Lakes, NJ
Drives are mechanical devices with moving parts, they will all fail eventually. As a tech with over 8 years in the field, I have seen every type of drive fail. Any of the major brands (Maxtor, WD, and Seagate) all make quality internal drives and have fairly even success rates in my experience. An external drive is simply a bridge that converts an internal drive to an external bus (i.e. firewire or USB). The best consumer bridge on the market is by far the LaCie D2 style enclosure. I've seen one of these dropped from 10 ft and still work (though I don't advise this) and have yet to see one fail under normal usage.
- Location
- Tobyhanna, PA
I've tried them all! WEstern Digital is the best
- Location
- Forest Hills
any drive can go down on u. n i mean that as a computer term.
backup religiously. sata n internal has to do more with speed, not so much reliability. external has 2 advantage:u can take it to go n remove it off the system for safe keeping from hackers.but speed is limited to your type of interface.
backup religiously. sata n internal has to do more with speed, not so much reliability. external has 2 advantage:u can take it to go n remove it off the system for safe keeping from hackers.but speed is limited to your type of interface.
That is why i am going external. I don't want it to be constantly on. As for the eSATA i looked into that Josh but my pc is only SATA and i don't want to get so involved. Besides i don't think i have an available slot.
I am not sure if the WD has a fan, can someone confirm this? I know lacie does, so i think that one is starting to look more favorable.
I am not sure if the WD has a fan, can someone confirm this? I know lacie does, so i think that one is starting to look more favorable.
bad coffee
Inept at life.
- Location
- Location: Location:
Pedro, you might want to look into a RAID 0 setup. full redundency. I haven't looked lately but there were some nice external cases that you can put 4 or 8 drives into. They go in pairs. so when you run out of room you just add a couple of new drives.
Lemme see if I can find one for you.
B
Lemme see if I can find one for you.
B
bad coffee
Inept at life.
- Location
- Location: Location:
fluidimagery
There's more to life...
- Location
- Riverhead, NY
I use Western Digitals time and time again in my customer's computers. If you want data reliability, I've never had a WD Raptor fail me. They're $$ and run a bit hot but I have peace of mind using them.
Bad Coffee: Raid 0 is not redundant and is actually more risky than running a single drive. If the controller or drive goes... they both go. Raid1 is what you're thinking off... and Raid5 will give you even better redundancy but will be slower. Check out Buffalo external drives if you're looking for external data reliability http://www.buffalotech.com Lacie also makes some great enclosers / setups.
Like DigitalReefer said... they're mechanical devices so anything has a chance of failing.
While you're at it... check out Mozy.com they have very economical and reliable online data backup
Bad Coffee: Raid 0 is not redundant and is actually more risky than running a single drive. If the controller or drive goes... they both go. Raid1 is what you're thinking off... and Raid5 will give you even better redundancy but will be slower. Check out Buffalo external drives if you're looking for external data reliability http://www.buffalotech.com Lacie also makes some great enclosers / setups.
Like DigitalReefer said... they're mechanical devices so anything has a chance of failing.
While you're at it... check out Mozy.com they have very economical and reliable online data backup
Don't know if data transfer speed is the #1 priority for you,this unit is a bit slow but you get RAID 1 redundancy for pretty cheap.
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Netg...psm/oid/127433/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do#tabs
I plan on getting one as a backup and storage for my photos and MP3.
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Netg...psm/oid/127433/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do#tabs
I plan on getting one as a backup and storage for my photos and MP3.
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