External HD recommendations?

[Tephnos]

Hey guys,

This may seem like an annoyign question to some of you, but believe me I just don't want to take any chances. I had a 1TB external hard drive that worked fine until I heard this irritating screeching or scratching sound coming from it. Worried, I made sure all the data on the drive was back on the PC.

Now I'm looking for a new one, since I know the old one is on it's last legs. It was one of those cheap ones I picked up without consideration of brand quality and I guess I paid for that.

So I'm looking for recommendations on good external HD's. Am I to presume that at least most of them today have auto back up software too? I heard that WD MyBook and Seagate GoFlex's are supposed to be good, any opinions on this?

Thanks

 

[Lateralus]

The general recommendation is to roll your own, meaning buy a quality drive and put it into a good enclosure. Takes less than 5 minutes to do and you get the benefit of choosing the drive YOU want (not to mention you can get an enclosure with a fan to keep the drive cooler).

Downside is you won't get any free backup software, but there are plenty of free and paid apps to choose from for that.

 

[Shaggy8675]

True, but if you find a good deal on a sale ore something, it might be worth having a look.

I recently got Iomega 1TB external hdd's for €59 each, which is pretty cheap in my book

 

[Chimel]

What do you use your drive for? If it's backup only, or for backups and extra media storage like movies, you don't need a case with a fan, the drive will be idle most of its life, you can get a ready-to-use solution, but the choice is then very limited. So like @imyourzero, I'd recommend an empty case and the best reliable drive for your buck.

Choose a slim case or open-air dock, so heat flows freely outside, and even better, get a cheap SATA 3 Gb/s (HDDs can't use that speed, not even mentioning 6 Gb/s) controller with eSATA connector, and a case with USB/eSATA support, so read & write happen on the external drive as fast as if it were internal.

USB external enclosures are in the $15-30 price range on newegg, while eSATA is more $30-40. Update us on your choice later.