Buying External Hard Drives? (5 Viewers)

[hugh]

Hey,

Anyone know somewhere you can buy those external portable USB/Firewire hard drives at a good price? Over the web is cool .....

 

[error type 11]

Dunno where but unless you have USB 2.0 on your system forget about a USB drive, speed would be the proverbial woeful, I have a usb 2 external cd writer attached to my mac that has only usb 1 on board and 4X burning is as much as it can handle

 

[guy of the tiger]

www.komplett.iehttp://www.komplett.ie

are good and cheap reliable etc

Specifically,

http://www.komplett.ie/k/kl.asp?bn=10098

 

[zebra heart attack]

a usb2 card is only €20 in peats so i wouldnt worry about that. if you want cheap go to komplett.ie and you can get an internal harddrive and then an external casing that will have both usb2 and/or firewire ports. works really well.

http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=124243&cks=PRL
and
http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=121189&cks=PRL

=cheap

 

[hugh]

Most of these things do firewire as well dont they? And dat should be pretty fast ....

 

[guy of the tiger]

usb2 is slightly faster than firewire but either should do the trick.

Most of these things do firewire as well dont they? And dat should be pretty fast ....

 

[zebra heart attack]

Most of these things do firewire as well dont they? And dat should be pretty fast ....

not too much difference between firewire and usb2... technically usb2 is faster but its not really (firewire keeps a more consistent high speed--> better for video transfer).

very nerdy stuff.

edit: im always late with posts

 

[guy of the tiger]

heh heh! your my own personal echo!

edit: im always late with posts

 

[admin]

we've had a lot of Maxtor external drives die on us in work.

 

[Goodbye]

Although on paper usb2 is faster, firewire actually is because its a pure digital signal whereas usb2 shares both an analogue and digital signal...






my nerd post for the week overwith... I'm now off to light my farts...

 

[theoootini]

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=318906

thinkin of getting this...the western digital external harddrive on komplett. they dont have backup software-which is a bad thing apparently. thoughts on this?

 

[dudley]

a drive that's usb/firewire compatible is handier for macs, as most older macs still won't support usb 2, and are terribly slow

also, i think with a firewire drive, you can use it live in something like protools,which i;ve not been able to do with a usb drive

i needed an external in a rush and bought a 320gb western digital external from itdirect in parliament st, €160 or something. good for the shops here. was only USB though, the dual one was a bit pricier.
hansum drive though

komplett.ie, dabs.com or overclockers.co.uk for yer online purchase. though maybe give maplins a ring, i think i heard they have a 250gb on special offer

 

[Beanstalk]

If you just want a bog standard one for filing away all your stuff, then Western Digital, Maxtor, or Lacie would probably be alright.

If you need to run applications off it or write to it quickly, maybe you should go for something more expensive like G-Tech, Iomega, Seagate, or Glyph.

 

[dudley]

thats the wd drive i got. i haven't tried it yet, but it looks like the drive has backup software pre-installed on it

 

[the departed]

Seagate,

no,
no ,
and also
no.


(beware theyre selling cheap in maplin at the minute)

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

I've used my Maxtor one-touch with pro tools, big sessions, live recordings etc.
Used both firewire and usb at different times.
Don't have any real evidence, but sometimes the usb felt a bit more responsive, although there was little difference between the two.
I'd say there's no need to rule out usb.

 

[mr pharmacist!!!!1]

i asked about external hard drives a while back here and a good few people told me to steer clear of seagate.
dont go there girlfriend, etc.

 

[thairock]

The whole "Getting a laptop hd and sticking it in an external enclosure "seems like a good , cheap option.(I've not done it,like, but am thinking about it).

 

[the departed]

all i can say to people about external harddrives is this:

external does not mean portable..
i think people make this mistake too often and its the reason why people lose data. theyre fragile little bastards// if i ever have to bring a hardrive somewhere i have to wrap the arse off it and pad it up and organize a police escort.

 

[broken arm]

If you just want a bog standard one for filing away all your stuff, then Western Digital, Maxtor, or Lacie would probably be alright.

If you need to run applications off it or write to it quickly, maybe you should go for something more expensive like G-Tech, Iomega, Seagate, or Glyph.

what if i'm not too fussed about the speed but I want to be fairly confident I can store my music, my research work and my PhD on it without it blowing up with no warning?