Looking into external hard drives. Have you heard of these ones?

Markw · May 31, 2010

Hi all. I am getting a little tired of buying 8GB flash drives and decided that I will start looking for an external hard drive. I would love to have one that is at least 1TB. That should last me a long while. I have been looking some up, and everytime I see one I think I like, I look at the reviews and there are 1-star reviews. I know everything is bound to have at least some low ratings, but I figured I would post some here just to get some others' opinions. I would like to keep it under $120 if possible. Here are some I was considering. Let me know your suggestions. Thanks.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Iomega-Prestige-Desktop-External-34275/dp/B001D7REJ4/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1275347198&sr=1-8"]First[/ame]

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0035J7XG2/sr=1-1/qid=1275347581/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1275347581&sr=1-1"]Second[/ame]

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Elements-External-WDBAAU0010HBK-NESN/dp/B002QEBMB4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1275347581&sr=1-3"]Third[/ame]

Mark

katy625 · May 31, 2010

Markw said:
Hi all. I am getting a little tired of buying 8GB flash drives and decided that I will start looking for an external hard drive. I would love to have one that is at least 1TB. That should last me a long while. I have been looking some up, and everytime I see one I think I like, I look at the reviews and there are 1-star reviews. I know everything is bound to have at least some low ratings, but I figured I would post some here just to get some others' opinions. I would like to keep it under $120 if possible. Here are some I was considering. Let me know your suggestions. Thanks.

First

Second

Third

Mark

i have a Seagate Portable External Drive w 250GB and it was 89.00 if im remembering correctly...but u can get 500GB for around $65-$70 now since they are getting cheaper

Markw · May 31, 2010

I was looking for something about 1TB or better..

Mark

pbelarge · May 31, 2010

I have used external harddrives for years.

The ones you have posted are well known names. Like any electronic devices there could be problems. I currently am using both Western Digital and Seagate units. The 1 terabyte Seagate has slowed considerably as I have reached approximately 775 gigabyte stored. I have been toying with adding a 2nd internal hard drive, using the Seagate as a spare and getting a new 1 terabyte for my everyday backup.
Plug and play is important to me...sometimes my patience is pretty bad.

Vinny · May 31, 2010

Iomega used to be a name associated with zip drives (little portable removable drives) and Western Digital is a name associated with hard drives, both internal and external. I would imagine they both would be OK although the one Omega drive is an older model being phased out. Do you have a Staples or Best Buy around you? They usually have Western Digital and Seagate external drives on sale for around $100.

Markw · May 31, 2010

I live down the street from both of those stores. Ill have to check them out. So, chances are, that Id be okay and pretty satisfied with the WD?

I also have another question. Do they function the same as a flash drive in the sense that you can create different folders and organize your files the way you want? I figured they have to as 1tb is alot of memory to not be able to organize..

Mark

pbelarge · May 31, 2010

Amazon beats the pricing of Staples and Beast Buy any day.

If you are looking for currently produced models, hit the manufacturer's site and you will get a better idea of date of manufacture. Newer models are always more money.

Markw · May 31, 2010

Amazon kills prices of other places in general usually, but Bestbuy's website has it for the same price (the 1.5tb WD is $5 more than amazon, but free shipping.) So thats nice too. It says available online only, though.

Mark

JasonLambert · May 31, 2010

Sorry if this was said but I didn't have time to read... Got to get a walk in before it starts raining again. I got mine at Wall-Mart about 3 months ago. 1tb for $89... Works great and is fast (enough). It's a Seagate Free Agent. You can get one direct from seagate for $129 here FreeAgent Desk: External USB 2.0 Hard Drive (500GB-640GB-1TB-1.5TB-2TB) | Seagate

Vinny · May 31, 2010

I suggested local store as it is easier to return if there is a problem. Saving $10 is a good idea but not if you have to return something and it cost something besides your time to return it. BTW, I have used Amazon's customer service and it's great as well.

I believe an external drive acts like an internal drive and whatever you can do to an internal drive you can do to it except I think it accesses data slower unless you have a fire-wire connection. I have a 40 GB drive on my computer and I have been toying with getting a 1 TB external drive to get more space.

Something you may want to consider is to partition the drive into 2 or 3 smaller drives to keep an area to backup other data on your internal hard drive separate from your photos.

As far as Amazon vs Staples or Best Buy - You can get great prices at both every so often. Staples doesn't have a 1 TB on sale this week but I have seen them as low as $89, Best Buy has a Seagate 1 TB for $90 and a WD 2 TB for $120. I bought my son a laptop for college last year at Staples for $450 - It's a HP, it is fast enough for college, has everything he needed and saved a bundle by not buying the greatest machine out there, it's actually specked out higher than the college bought laptops. It's only downfall was that it doesn't have the newest processor (still a dual core processor) and I bought it too early to get the Windows 7 upgrade (a timing issue as I bought it too early).

Markw · May 31, 2010

I dont really use the computer much besides for my photos. I dont save any files besides photos, I mean. Ill do just fine with one solely for photos, I believe. I think Im going to go with the WD. Thanks everyone! Id love to still hear more if youd like to share more insight.

Mark

usayit · May 31, 2010

I didn't think IOMega even existed anymore. Back in the mid 90s, I had a jazz drive with a failed head, royal pita to get them to take ownership of the problem. I also had a zip drive fail on me.

I see they are now owned by EMC... a good company.

Still.. I'd pass on IOMega simply because of bad experiences of the past.

JasonLambert · May 31, 2010

I remember my first computer was a commodore vic20 and storage was as easy as buying another cassette tape! Now were talking terabytes... Gesh! I remember it had something like 4or 5kb of memory... lol... It takes more than that to record a fart these days. Sorry to get off subject.

MartinCrabtree · May 31, 2010

I have a Maxtor external for backing up my computer. It's going on 3 years old and no problems although I'm considering about replacing it with a newer one just for peace of mind.

table1349 · May 31, 2010

Few dollars more, but I have never had a WD my book fail.
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Essential-External-WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN/dp/B002JMYCTC/ref=sr_1_40?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1275355492&sr=8-40]Amazon.com: Western Digital My Book Essential 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop[/ame]