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Need help deciding on external storage solution

Q

qwik3r

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Messages
83
I am a student and my school gave me an iomega 40gb drive, its small, cute USB powered but its not fast and i think its dieing, its making lots of noise and i am having a hell of a time with it freezing while trying to transfer files. Long story short i need a new exteranl HD solution to go to and from school.

Also in light of this situation i have come to realize that i need an external back up drive to back up my important data every night. (i am a graphic designer and have something new to be backed up every night)

I want something portable for school with a rather decent capacity, i already used 20 of the 40gb on this iomega, storing such things as websites, tutorials and images, psds etc.

I also really don't want something hugh that has a hugh external power supply, which is why i like the usb connectable drives. I have looked up a few solutions.

First i checked out the awesome deal on the segate 320gb on newegg for 89.99 shipped. This works itself out to roughly 27 cents per gig. This obvs does not include an external enclosure which for a decent one could be another 20-40 bucks. ( Isegate 320 }

My second choice for an external hard drive (well the first wasn't external) was the western digital 400gb mybook link
this works out to roughly .44 cents a gig with external enclosure.

The above 2 would probably be used for just home back up and not to be brought back and forth between school. Western digital does not state what kind of hard drive is inside this mybook thing and the above segate is newer technology.

As for extreme portable w/o an external bulky connection i was looking at the segate 100gb 5200rpm external HD for 144 which roughly works out to be the worst 1.44 per gig. Really only paying for portability and lack of exteranl power adapter, although you can get one for this device. Besides the obvs price turn off per gig i don't like the fact that you will more than likely need the supplied 2 usb plugs to power the device.

Last but not least is the PNY 2gb attache link
Although this little device does not compare to the others i need an ultra portable ultra small USB device that is fast, doing my research it seems that the PNY is both fast and great with storage.

I will most likely get the attache, just to keep something on me at all times.

As for the other storage devices i am really torn here. I am 100% sure i need a backup that will ALWAYS stay home connected to my PC to backup my stuff at night, but that leaves me int he dust for a portable device to frequent back and forth from school.

Looking at prices the segate seems to rein supreme, if i can find a small form factor external enclosure with a non gigantic power supply than i may just buy 2 of those and 2 enclosures and call it a day.

If you have stuck with me so far through this long post i applaud you and i will mail you a cookie later. Lend a helping hand if you can. Thanks
 
qwik3r said:
First i checked out the awesome deal on the segate 320gb on newegg for 89.99 shipped. This works itself out to roughly 27 cents per gig. This obvs does not include an external enclosure which for a decent one could be another 20-40 bucks. ( Isegate 320 }

My second choice for an external hard drive (well the first wasn't external) was the western digital 400gb mybook link
this works out to roughly .44 cents a gig with external enclosure.
Click to expand...

my vote is for the seagate. i have read from people the perpendicular drives run a little hotter, so you will want to spend some money on a good enclosure that will cool the drive. but you should spend the money on a good enclosure anyway.

qwik3r said:
If you have stuck with me so far through this long post i applaud you and i will mail you a cookie later. Lend a helping hand if you can. Thanks
Click to expand...

what kind of cookie are we talking about here? :p
 
hey thanks for the response, as we speak i am checking out enclosures, again i'm torn lol.

I have an venus DS3 enclosure and everyone raves about this thing on newegg, i don't see why, yeah its aluminum yeah it has a fan big deal, the fan probably doesn't do jack, IMO it is alittle big, bigger then it needs to be. I'm looking into the Roswell RX32 link because it seems quite small and it doesn't have a luster finish so i imagine fingerprints shouldn't be that much of a problem, unless of course you have grease/oil on your fingers then you may have a problem. I am also looking into the Vantec Nextstar 3 link which is also getting alot of good reviews, it looks larger though and i cannot tell how big it is compared to my Venus DS3, it is probably smaller because of the fact it doesn't have a fan in it. I don't care how big the desktop backup unit is but i do care about the portability of the one i decide to bring to an from school. As for the seagate i do agree, it has newer technology and seagate rules, its 320gb vs 400gb (mybook + enclosure = .43 cents per gig + unknown western digital hard drive). Seagate + roswell enclosure = .36 cents per gig with a known drive, specs and 5 year warranty.

The choice is becoming clearer and clearer, however if anyone can offer some tips for an enclosure that would be nice too.

I have one more question, i have noticed that on 2.5'' drives you really only need a usb cord to power it (maybe that is why my iomega is so slow now) but on the 3.5'' it comes with an adapter, is the adapter 100% necessary for the larger drives?

As for the cookie, i'm thinking good 'ol chocolate chip baby.
 
qwik3r said:
hey thanks for the response, as we speak i am checking out enclosures, again i'm torn lol.

I have an venus DS3 enclosure and everyone raves about this thing on newegg, i don't see why, yeah its aluminum yeah it has a fan big deal, the fan probably doesn't do jack, IMO it is alittle big, bigger then it needs to be. I'm looking into the Roswell RX32 link because it seems quite small and it doesn't have a luster finish so i imagine fingerprints shouldn't be that much of a problem, unless of course you have grease/oil on your fingers then you may have a problem. I am also looking into the Vantec Nextstar 3 link which is also getting alot of good reviews, it looks larger though and i cannot tell how big it is compared to my Venus DS3, it is probably smaller because of the fact it doesn't have a fan in it. I don't care how big the desktop backup unit is but i do care about the portability of the one i decide to bring to an from school. As for the seagate i do agree, it has newer technology and seagate rules, its 320gb vs 400gb (mybook + enclosure = .43 cents per gig + unknown western digital hard drive). Seagate + roswell enclosure = .36 cents per gig with a known drive, specs and 5 year warranty.

The choice is becoming clearer and clearer, however if anyone can offer some tips for an enclosure that would be nice too.

I have one more question, i have noticed that on 2.5'' drives you really only need a usb cord to power it (maybe that is why my iomega is so slow now) but on the 3.5'' it comes with an adapter, is the adapter 100% necessary for the larger drives?

As for the cookie, i'm thinking good 'ol chocolate chip baby.
Click to expand...
I have an Apricorn EZ-BUS-DT-KIT, no complaints.
It was highly recommended over at fatwallet's The official external ENCLOSURE thread.
 
did I understand your initial post correctly: You want two external HDDs. One will be staying 'at home' and used to back up data onto, while the other comes with you to school. the one going to school has to be able to run without external power supply, i.e. draws its current through the USB.

Am I correct?
 
drizzt81 said:
did I understand your initial post correctly: You want two external HDDs. One will be staying 'at home' and used to back up data onto, while the other comes with you to school. the one going to school has to be able to run without external power supply, i.e. draws its current through the USB.

Am I correct?
Click to expand...


More or less yes, the home one i don't care how big it is etc, which is why i am probably going with the nexstar and the seagate 320gb drive from newegg. The one that goes with me to school can be powered by AC, i just prefer it not to be, as i said my 2.5'' iomega = capute, i was lucky to get what i did off of it taking 137 minutes to transfer less then 100mb, ticking and screaming the entire way. I do love its small form factor but i imagine my dropping it a few times did it in. I am more of a price vs functionality type of guy, i would rather get a good deal and sacrafice size then pay too much per gig and get a smaller drive. From what i've seen all of the external HD's are over priced compared to buying a 300+gb drive and buying an enclosure. As for the 2.5'' drives they seem pretty expensive too.
 
qwik3r said:
Thanks, checked it out, the one you linked to says storage only up to 250gb? The thread on enclosures is quite long and would probably take me a while to read through so i'll check it out later.
Click to expand...
don't know why it says that
I've got a 500GB Seagate in mine, no problems
drives are all the same physical size and file system limitations end after 127Gb as far as I know
 
i was reading on that fat wallet site and yeah it's capacity is rated up to 500gb supposedly.

I didn't quite like how that one looked, i mean it doesn't really matter so much, i like the roswell because it looks really small compared to the others but people complain about it, especially the rubber feet. The vantec nexstar gets really good reviews though.
 
qwik3r said:
I do love its small form factor but i imagine my dropping it a few times did it in. I am more of a price vs functionality type of guy, i would rather get a good deal and sacrafice size then pay too much per gig and get a smaller drive. .
Click to expand...

at that point, maybe a solid-state (flash) drive would be a smart choice?
 
I was thinking that, because of the lack of moving parts would definitly protect against what probably happened to this this drive (dropping it a few times), but my only dilemma is i would need a flash drive of about 20+gigs, the highest flash drive to my knowledge is 8gb and is about 170 bucks, where as i can get 320 gigs + enclosure for about 120. I am thinking about picking up a 2gb pny attache i think its like 30+ on sale at new egg though.
 
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