External Hard Drive advice

Grimspoon

Grimspoon

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Looking to buy a 2TB external.

Wondering which would be the best bet, a Verbatim 3'5 2TB from Kalahari.net - R855 ( what drive does Verbatim use?)

or

Samsung G3 2TB from Game - R899

or

2TB external from PCinternational (dunno the make) but this one is USB 3.0 - R1100


Am I right in assuming a USB 3.0 drive is pointless on a machine that only has USB 2.0?

Also what drive is hot at the moment? Samsung, WD, Seagate?

Any other good deals floating around on 2TB drives?

Thanks :)
 
Please don't get a verbatim! I bought the 1TB a year or two back, and this is my fifth one! Naturally, the guy who I purchased it from kept swapping them out for me cause of the warranty but I lost so much info each and every time !
A friend of mine got the Samsung and its works well and got no issues. I say stick with the G3.

Hope that helps mate
 
Get one where you can swap the hdd inside easily. I'd make sure it has USB3 and/or eSata too. That way when the 5TB drives rock up you don't start from scratch.
 
I have samsung and toshiba 3.5 externals, would recommend either brand but prefer the toshiba stor.e models, use these the most and have never had any failures or issues, stay far away from Seagate and WD, verbatim even more so! its dirt.
 
mpower111 said:
Please don't get a verbatim! I bought the 1TB a year or two back, and this is my fifth one! Naturally, the guy who I purchased it from kept swapping them out for me cause of the warranty but I lost so much info each and every time !
A friend of mine got the Samsung and its works well and got no issues. I say stick with the G3.

Hope that helps mate
Click to expand...

Thanks man, appreciate the honesty. I must say I was leaning more toward the G3. Don't really like the look of the Verbatim.

MickeyD said:
Out of those?

Sammy G3
Click to expand...

agentrfr said:
http://www.take2.co.za/electronics-...3-5-inch-sata-external-enclosure-8905634.html
+
http://www.take2.co.za/electronics-seagate-barracuda-2tb-sata-6gb-s-64-mb-cache-8952012.html
=
Problem solved, and you wont have to break an arm and a leg to pay for new 6TB drives when they come out. Already a USB3.0 enclosure, compatible with USB2.0.

A no-brainer really :p
Click to expand...

You reckon that is a good combo?

Is that a decent drive? I see some comments about having to upgrade the firmware.
 
To be honest the concerns over the brands of the actual HDDs themselves are not worth worrying about. Someone said to stay away from the Verbatims and go with the Samsung external, yet the Verbatim external has a Samsung HDD in it anyway. Someone else said to stay far away from Seagate and WD. Seagate and WD are the 2 leading HDD manufacturers in the world. Any and all drives can, and will eventually, fail. In the last 2 weeks I've had the following brands of HDDs in for recovery: Seagate, Samsung, Toshiba, Hitachi. And that's in 2 weeks. A week previously I got a 1 month old WD 1TB that had failed. It's all down to (a) how you treat your drive and (b) luck of the draw.

If I were you I would take the advice that someone gave here about buying a USB 3.0 enclosure separately, and then pick whichever drive you want to put in it. Make sure your data is backed up and you should be a happy camper.
 
If you are on a budget you could look at this 1.5TB Freecom drive that Esquire has on promotion until the 6th of August.
http://www.esquire.co.za/specials/2011_08_02Main.html

If you would prefer a 2TB drive the Samsung HD204UI seems to be one of the best choices currently. Esquire also has this on promotion at a new low price of R529 (excl). This drive has won four Customer Choice awards at Newegg over the last year and has the highest overall ratings of any 2TB drive at the moment. Most of the store bought prebuilt drives usually contain the older HD203WI 4 platter drive rather than the newer 3 platter HD204UI. Fewer platters usually results in better long term reliability.
http://www.esquire.co.za/specials/2011_08_02HDD.html
Click previous months internal hard drive winners ...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustVoteProductWinner.aspx
Click on reviews ...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152245&Tpk=Samsung HD204UI

Here is a cheap USB 3.0 enclosure which you could either order online (Rebeltech, Prophecy, Sybaritic etc. - might need to be specially ordered) or directly from Pinnacle Africa. It uses the Asmedia ASM1051 chipset and comes with a 12V 2A power supply. Many of the other enclosures only provide a 1.5A supply. It is preferable to purchase an aluminium enclosure rather than a plastic one such as the Samsung G3 since it conducts heat better. Many of the prebuilt drive enclosures are very difficult to open if you ever experience problems as you can see in the video below.
http://www.pinnacleafrica.co.za/Product/item.aspx?ID=33693
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS0yfEIsPzc

There are predominantly 2 chips in use in USB 3.0 enclosures - The Asmedia ASM1051 and the JMicron JMS539/JMS551. The general advice seems to be to rather choose an enclosure that contains the Asmedia ASM1051 as the JMicron chips do not work well with certain motherboard controllers such as the Etron EJ168A (seems to work with the NEC μPD720200 with the correct firmware). The Sedna SE-EH-38-U contains the Asmedia ASM1051 (confirmed by Support).

USB 3.0 enclosure problems thread on Whirlpool
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1558885
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/storage/39461-fastest-backup-drive.html

Typical ASM1051 performance ...
http://www.overclockers.com/vantec-nexstar3-superspeed-usb-30-enclosure-review/
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Rosewill/RX358/1.html

Typical JMS539 performance ...
http://pro-clockers.com/enclosures/1829-mukii-transimp-usb3-combo-pack.html?start=7
 
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I have a 5 year warranty on my seagate. That counts for something in my books.
 
I use Iomega external hardrives and never had problems with them I use the one for playing movies on my tv and other for backups. Iomega uses seagate drives.

The one is 250gb (probably had this for 3 - 4 years) and the other is 2 terabytes (got in June and 3 year warranty)
 
Hey Hey Mr Pp

What would you recommend as a reliable enclosure... ? How to choose ?

I recently discovered that a Nextar dual dock was in fact a drive killer... 2 drives poked with a third giving me some concern.
I thought that it would be a safe purchase at the time... cost quite a bit more than the cheapo brands too.

I have had nothing but trouble with external hard drives lately.
I have also just had my Verbatim 1TB replaced under warranty... it just went "plink" one day... without even so much as a hint of anything being amiss. The replacement drive makes an unnerving "shuddering" sound at power-on, but I am told it is no problem. Eeeerm... worry... fret.

Yet, my laptop drives, and 2.5" externals, are still beavering away... for close on 4 years... used daily. Go figure... !

So... what advice for external type thingies to shop for ?
Help me, an end-user, and others, with some words of wisdom please.


PostmanPot said:
As said, always buy separate internal HDD + external enclosure where possible.
Click to expand...
 
kilobitsperyear said:
Hey Hey Mr Pp

What would you recommend as a reliable enclosure... ? How to choose ?

I recently discovered that a Nextar dual dock was in fact a drive killer... 2 drives poked with a third giving me some concern.
I thought that it would be a safe purchase at the time... cost quite a bit more than the cheapo brands too.

I have had nothing but trouble with external hard drives lately.
I have also just had my Verbatim 1TB replaced under warranty... it just went "plink" one day... without even so much as a hint of anything being amiss. The replacement drive makes an unnerving "shuddering" sound at power-on, but I am told it is no problem. Eeeerm... worry... fret.

Yet, my laptop drives, and 2.5" externals, are still beavering away... for close on 4 years... used daily. Go figure... !

So... what advice for external type thingies to shop for ?
Help me, an end-user, and others, with some words of wisdom please.
Click to expand...

Sold tons of these, never a single return:

±R250 Vantec nexstar-cx , nst-300SU , 3.5" Sata to e-Sata + Usb2.0 external enclosure , blacK , aluminum http://www.vantecusa.com/en/product/view_detail/374

And these:

±R200 Coolermaster RX-35E-SUS1 , xport 351 , 3.5" Sata to Usb , Silver : aluminum sand-coated , vertical fan-less air fow design , with blue led , usb 2.0 ; 184.9x118x33mm http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?category_id=34&product_id=6604

Usually with Samsung or Seagate drives, again, not a single return.

Appears my luck is better than yours. :p
 
Ta... will go see...

I have this ... http://www.vantecusa.com/en/product/view_detail/372 ... grrr. poooh.

Any experience with these.... http://www.wootware.co.za/lian-li-ex-20-2-bay-support-raid-0-1-jbod-external-enclosure.html .. ?



PostmanPot said:
Sold tons of these, never a single return:

±R250 Vantec nexstar-cx , nst-300SU , 3.5" Sata to e-Sata + Usb2.0 external enclosure , blacK , aluminum http://www.vantecusa.com/en/product/view_detail/374

And these:

±R200 Coolermaster RX-35E-SUS1 , xport 351 , 3.5" Sata to Usb , Silver : aluminum sand-coated , vertical fan-less air fow design , with blue led , usb 2.0 ; 184.9x118x33mm http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?category_id=34&product_id=6604

Usually with Samsung or Seagate drives, again, not a single return.

Appears my luck is better than yours. :p
Click to expand...
 
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