What external hard drive do you use & recommend?

MaxReferrals · 07-17-2009, 05:46 PM

Got appx 10 gb (regularly growing) to back up. Using my own
remote server now, but want to get an external hd

What do you use and like?

Know of anything that auto syncs/backs-up whenever
changes are made to folders I specify?

Thanks.

Terry Crim · 07-17-2009, 05:59 PM

Are you talking about an external HD locally hooked to your desktop / laptop computer?
If so BestBuy has a sale on a 2TB external drive also office depot has a deal on 1TB drives. 119.00 = 1TB 230.00 = 2 TB

If you go with 500GB or less you are looking in range of 60.00 to 80.00.

EDIT: There are several one touch backup drives, the 230.00 2TB drive I picked up at BB is a one touch but I do not use that feature. What I do is backup manually and/or use a backup software that I can choose files, folders and even specific drives to backup on a schedule.

- Terry

Mike Shain · 07-17-2009, 06:53 PM

I have a

500GB Maxtor for backup (not affiliate link). It does 1 touch backups and auto backups.

We have 2 laptops and a desktop in a network. I have the Maxtor hooked to the desktop and turned on file sharing. I just created shortcuts on both laptops to the Maxtor which created a backup/storage system on a central network. This makes the Maxtor available 24/7 for any computer without having to unplug it and move it to another machine.

I can't tell you how much time this saves - especially if you have to do a complete reinstall on one of your machines. Just hook the Maxtor up directly with the USB cable and you have lightening fast file transfers.

We are not real big on storing music and videos so we didn't need the larger Maxtors (1TB or more).

Ron Douglas · 07-17-2009, 07:04 PM

I'm using a pathetic little Segate 60GB. It's the only one I've ever used so I can't really compare it, but it works well for me. I'm going to eventually buy a new one with more space.

MaxReferrals · 07-17-2009, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terry Crim

Are you talking about an external HD locally hooked to your desktop / laptop computer?

- Terry

Yes, exactly what I need.

Liz Morgan · 07-17-2009, 08:22 PM

I like the Western Digital 250 GB.

Lloyd Buchinski · 07-17-2009, 08:32 PM

I'm using a Western Digital passport elite that I really like. Usb plug in, no power supply required other than that, and it backs up everything automatically as soon as it is saved. It also has a sync feature that lets you keep the same info updated on as many computers as you want.

I understand (but haven't checked out) that it also doesn't delete stuff when you delete it on the computer so you can recover a bad judgment or accidental delete.

mikeyman120 · 07-17-2009, 08:36 PM

Western Digital 160GB or 250 GB

new2ebiz · 07-17-2009, 08:37 PM

I've used a Seagate and Maxtor hd. I would suggest sticking with a brand name. A friend of mine bought a cheapo brand and after moving all his family photos over to it, it died. The company said they could not help him.

And I also use an online company called Carbonite for when I'm on the road and in case something really strange were to happen in my office, like both my external drives die at the same time, the house burns down, someone steals them, the other half were to 'accidently' delete my files, etc.. It doesn't cost much at all, a yearly fee unless they changed.

dorothydot · 07-17-2009, 08:54 PM

Seagate 500 gig. Works like a dream with my Mac.

Dot

Scott Lundergan · 07-17-2009, 08:56 PM

LaCie - External Hard Drives, Network Hard Drives, RAID, Monitors, DVD, Blu-ray is what you'll see in many prosumer/professional studios if they are not using media arrays.

I currently use a variety of hard drives (have 15 TB a few feet away) and Lacie outperforms them all.

Some have the same internal components and are just branded different. Western Digital, Maxtor and SeaGate have got better over the years as well.

Hope that helps.

Scott

pcpupil · 07-17-2009, 09:02 PM

Seagate here.I dont remember the storage.I bought it at walmart or Circuit City. for like $69.00,
Uses a seperate power supply,and USB connection.Everythings pretty much manual.
Had it for about 2 yrs now with never any problems.Im using vista.

Goatboy · 07-17-2009, 09:03 PM

I bought a NexStar 3 enclosure and a separate hard drive and built my own. If I decide the drive is too small, I can always replace it with a larger one. If you are working with a desktop and only need to store and extra 10 gb or so, you might consider a usb flash drive, I'm regularly seeing them advertised in the 30 gb range. These little drives are slower than a conventional drive, but so portable you can carry them on a lanyard around your neck.

NickCook · 07-17-2009, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lloyd Buchinski

I'm using a Western Digital passport elite that I really like. Usb plug in, no power supply required other than that, and it backs up everything automatically as soon as it is saved. It also has a sync feature that lets you keep the same info updated on as many computers as you want

Same here...WD Passport. I love the fact that I can carry it around in my shirt pocket...Upgrading to the 500GB version soon...

TheNightOwl · 07-17-2009, 10:51 PM

I agree with new2ebiz wholeheartedly.

I only use Seagate. They've built a solid reputation for reliable external drives from what I could tell when I went a-researching for my first one.

You get what you pay for in most cases.

TheNightOwl

Soflyy · 07-17-2009, 10:55 PM

Seagate 500gb

Eric Graudins · 07-18-2009, 12:49 AM

320gb Western Digital Passport with Acronis backup software.
Beautiful.

Daredevil Marketing · 07-18-2009, 01:07 AM

Western Digitals have always helped up well for me *knocks on wood*.

Currently I use three 320g Western Digital "My Passport" drives - they're super tiny (only a little longer than my wallet) and very sturdy.

Newegg.com - Western Digital My Passport Essential WDME3200TN 320GB USB 2.0 Black External Hard Drive - External Hard Drives

-DareDevil

bobsalong · 07-18-2009, 01:16 AM

WD Passport seems to be the way to go for portability.

Jason Johns · 07-18-2009, 01:45 AM

I have an external enclosure with a pair of mirrored 500Gb drives in. This gives me a degree of security of my data. I store all of my data on here and nothing on my local computer.

Later in the year I'm planning on upgrading to a Network Attached Storage device using RAID 5 and probably 2 to 4 TB. I do a lot of video work and each project is between 1GB and 2GB so I'm rapidly filling up drives

I wouldn't go for anything less than a RAID enclosure for security of data.

I'm planning on buying a 64GB USB pen for transporting data at some stage. Then I should have everything I need.

Cheers

Jason

rhj12345 · 07-18-2009, 01:49 AM

FreeAgent Desk - Hard drive - 1.5 TB

I have been doing tech support a long time, these work.

JoelMatthews · 07-18-2009, 01:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liz Morgan

I like the Western Digital 250 GB.

If by 250gb you mean 1TB I use the same thing :P

They are good.

Goodluck with your choice though.

dave147 · 07-19-2009, 02:51 AM

I use the Western Digital 600GB

reynic · 08-12-2009, 01:26 AM

Any name brand will do. More important is the software features like imaging your hard drive for quick restore on another new drive or quick restore after formatting your failed drive. The sync feature is also nice.

Good luck,
Nick

Steadyon · 08-12-2009, 03:38 AM

We use products by Maxtor. Never had a problem.

John M Kane · 08-12-2009, 09:18 AM

I like Seagate and Maxtor second
A FreeAgent unit has worked flawless for some time.
I bought an empty enclosure and can fill it with the drive I find on sale at NewEgg

I also have a slick 'Hot Swap Rack' from Kingwin that lets you swap a HDD into your main PC case in seconds. Cost something like $15-20.
I've way too many low cap HDDs I need to transfer to bigger units.

John

krusher · 08-12-2009, 09:25 AM

I use a Seagate 1.5 TB FreeAgent external drive. Works very well and have had no problems. Hooks up via USB2.0, Firewire 400 or eSATA. Comes with back-up, synchronization and encryption software.

Maxtor and Western Digital are OK, but for the high demands of business apps, I prefer Seagate.

flaminjo · 11-19-2009, 04:24 AM

i have beee using WD External Hard Drives. Seagate and Max are also good for me WD is the best

rcjcal09 · 11-20-2009, 07:19 PM

My favorite is the Western Digital Passport series. They go up to 320GB and are USB powered. Very compact, high capacity, safe, reliable and fairly cheap. I think you can get a 320GB now for like $110 max.

reapr · 11-20-2009, 09:35 PM

WD book here it slows my system down considerably. Recently it appeared to die. I looked into other options and started thinking what if my computer got stolen along with the backup drive or a fire took both!
Right now I am trying the carbonite backup trial and I have seen no significant slowdowns on my system. I like the idea it is backed up off iste but not so sure I ma comfortable storing my data out of physical reach. Thoughts anyone!
I run vista with 3GB mem.

The Artful Surfer · 11-22-2009, 02:44 PM

WD MyBook 1TB from BestBuy. I think it was like $109? Very fast, no nonsense. I have two.

07-17-2009, 05:46 PM	#1
MaxReferrals Kahuna Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Blairsville, GA, USA Posts: 1,205 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 300 Thanked 199 Times in 86 Posts	What external hard drive do you use & recommend? Got appx 10 gb (regularly growing) to back up. Using my own remote server now, but want to get an external hd What do you use and like? Know of anything that auto syncs/backs-up whenever changes are made to folders I specify? Thanks.

07-17-2009, 05:59 PM	#2
Terry Crim Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Iowa City, Iowa Posts: 2,540 Thanks: 14 Thanked 56 Times in 43 Posts Social Networking	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? Are you talking about an external HD locally hooked to your desktop / laptop computer? If so BestBuy has a sale on a 2TB external drive also office depot has a deal on 1TB drives. 119.00 = 1TB 230.00 = 2 TB If you go with 500GB or less you are looking in range of 60.00 to 80.00. EDIT: There are several one touch backup drives, the 230.00 2TB drive I picked up at BB is a one touch but I do not use that feature. What I do is backup manually and/or use a backup software that I can choose files, folders and even specific drives to backup on a schedule. - Terry

07-17-2009, 06:53 PM	#3
Mike Shain HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Illinois Posts: 354 Thanks: 103 Thanked 56 Times in 43 Posts	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? I have a 500GB Maxtor for backup (not affiliate link). It does 1 touch backups and auto backups. We have 2 laptops and a desktop in a network. I have the Maxtor hooked to the desktop and turned on file sharing. I just created shortcuts on both laptops to the Maxtor which created a backup/storage system on a central network. This makes the Maxtor available 24/7 for any computer without having to unplug it and move it to another machine. I can't tell you how much time this saves - especially if you have to do a complete reinstall on one of your machines. Just hook the Maxtor up directly with the USB cable and you have lightening fast file transfers. We are not real big on storing music and videos so we didn't need the larger Maxtors (1TB or more).
	Last edited by Mike Shain; 07-17-2009 at 06:56 PM. Reason: clarification

07-17-2009, 07:04 PM	#4
Ron Douglas Self Made War Room Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Long Island, New York Posts: 2,746 Blog Entries: 4 Thanks: 780 Thanked 1,628 Times in 403 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? I'm using a pathetic little Segate 60GB. It's the only one I've ever used so I can't really compare it, but it works well for me. I'm going to eventually buy a new one with more space.

07-17-2009, 08:22 PM	#6
Liz Morgan Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 51 Thanks: 1 Thanked 5 Times in 5 Posts	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? I like the Western Digital 250 GB.

07-17-2009, 08:32 PM	#7
Lloyd Buchinski copy and paste geek War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Calgary Posts: 1,390 Thanks: 68 Thanked 168 Times in 140 Posts	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? I'm using a Western Digital passport elite that I really like. Usb plug in, no power supply required other than that, and it backs up everything automatically as soon as it is saved. It also has a sync feature that lets you keep the same info updated on as many computers as you want. I understand (but haven't checked out) that it also doesn't delete stuff when you delete it on the computer so you can recover a bad judgment or accidental delete.

07-17-2009, 08:36 PM	#8
mikeyman120 Mike-Nagle.com War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: NY, USA Posts: 986 Thanks: 180 Thanked 173 Times in 103 Posts Social Networking	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? Western Digital 160GB or 250 GB

07-17-2009, 08:37 PM	#9
new2ebiz HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 199 Thanks: 11 Thanked 17 Times in 17 Posts	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? I've used a Seagate and Maxtor hd. I would suggest sticking with a brand name. A friend of mine bought a cheapo brand and after moving all his family photos over to it, it died. The company said they could not help him. And I also use an online company called Carbonite for when I'm on the road and in case something really strange were to happen in my office, like both my external drives die at the same time, the house burns down, someone steals them, the other half were to 'accidently' delete my files, etc.. It doesn't cost much at all, a yearly fee unless they changed.

07-17-2009, 08:54 PM	#10
dorothydot Selling with Stories War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Southern Maryland Posts: 497 Thanks: 289 Thanked 120 Times in 102 Posts	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? Seagate 500 gig. Works like a dream with my Mac. Dot

07-17-2009, 08:56 PM	#11
Scott Lundergan Mad Video Scientist War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: San Diego, California Posts: 1,430 Thanks: 35 Thanked 43 Times in 34 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? LaCie - External Hard Drives, Network Hard Drives, RAID, Monitors, DVD, Blu-ray is what you'll see in many prosumer/professional studios if they are not using media arrays. I currently use a variety of hard drives (have 15 TB a few feet away) and Lacie outperforms them all. Some have the same internal components and are just branded different. Western Digital, Maxtor and SeaGate have got better over the years as well. Hope that helps. Scott

07-17-2009, 09:02 PM	#12
pcpupil HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Superstition Mountains Posts: 480 Thanks: 52 Thanked 40 Times in 36 Posts Social Networking	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? Seagate here.I dont remember the storage.I bought it at walmart or Circuit City. for like $69.00, Uses a seperate power supply,and USB connection.Everythings pretty much manual. Had it for about 2 yrs now with never any problems.Im using vista.

07-17-2009, 09:03 PM	#13
Goatboy Steve War Room Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Posts: 420 Thanks: 496 Thanked 62 Times in 54 Posts	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? I bought a NexStar 3 enclosure and a separate hard drive and built my own. If I decide the drive is too small, I can always replace it with a larger one. If you are working with a desktop and only need to store and extra 10 gb or so, you might consider a usb flash drive, I'm regularly seeing them advertised in the 30 gb range. These little drives are slower than a conventional drive, but so portable you can carry them on a lanyard around your neck.

07-17-2009, 10:51 PM	#15
TheNightOwl Gatchaman fan War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 516 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 211 Thanked 88 Times in 53 Posts	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? I agree with new2ebiz wholeheartedly. I only use Seagate. They've built a solid reputation for reliable external drives from what I could tell when I went a-researching for my first one. You get what you pay for in most cases. TheNightOwl

07-17-2009, 10:55 PM	#16
Soflyy King of WordPress plugins War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 385 Thanks: 0 Thanked 42 Times in 30 Posts	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? Seagate 500gb

07-18-2009, 12:49 AM	#17
Eric Graudins The Internet Bloke War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Tasmania Posts: 366 Thanks: 114 Thanked 45 Times in 32 Posts Social Networking	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? 320gb Western Digital Passport with Acronis backup software. Beautiful.

07-18-2009, 01:07 AM	#18
Daredevil Marketing DareDevilMarketing.com War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 404 Thanks: 40 Thanked 118 Times in 68 Posts Social Networking	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? Western Digitals have always helped up well for me knocks on wood. Currently I use three 320g Western Digital "My Passport" drives - they're super tiny (only a little longer than my wallet) and very sturdy. Newegg.com - Western Digital My Passport Essential WDME3200TN 320GB USB 2.0 Black External Hard Drive - External Hard Drives -DareDevil

07-18-2009, 01:16 AM	#19
bobsalong Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Puget Sound, USA Posts: 48 Thanks: 19 Thanked 6 Times in 6 Posts Social Networking	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? WD Passport seems to be the way to go for portability.

07-18-2009, 01:45 AM	#20
Jason Johns The Video Man War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Stafford, United Kingdom. Posts: 1,063 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 21 Thanked 48 Times in 41 Posts Contact Info	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? I have an external enclosure with a pair of mirrored 500Gb drives in. This gives me a degree of security of my data. I store all of my data on here and nothing on my local computer. Later in the year I'm planning on upgrading to a Network Attached Storage device using RAID 5 and probably 2 to 4 TB. I do a lot of video work and each project is between 1GB and 2GB so I'm rapidly filling up drives I wouldn't go for anything less than a RAID enclosure for security of data. I'm planning on buying a 64GB USB pen for transporting data at some stage. Then I should have everything I need. Cheers Jason

07-18-2009, 01:49 AM	#21
rhj12345 The Other Rob Jones War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Arvada, CO Posts: 244 Blog Entries: 3 Thanks: 133 Thanked 54 Times in 39 Posts	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? FreeAgent Desk - Hard drive - 1.5 TB I have been doing tech support a long time, these work.

07-19-2009, 02:51 AM	#23
dave147 Platinum Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: AU Posts: 2,729 Thanks: 475 Thanked 332 Times in 270 Posts	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? I use the Western Digital 600GB

08-12-2009, 01:26 AM	#24
reynic Nick Reyes War Room Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Las Vegas, Okc Posts: 53 Thanks: 119 Thanked 10 Times in 10 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? Any name brand will do. More important is the software features like imaging your hard drive for quick restore on another new drive or quick restore after formatting your failed drive. The sync feature is also nice. Good luck, Nick

08-12-2009, 03:38 AM	#25
Steadyon Gone fishing War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Florida, USA and Sussex, United Kingdom Posts: 650 Thanks: 103 Thanked 88 Times in 68 Posts	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? We use products by Maxtor. Never had a problem.

08-12-2009, 09:18 AM	#26
John M Kane HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: In a Van Down by the River Posts: 456 Thanks: 44 Thanked 69 Times in 55 Posts Social Networking	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? I like Seagate and Maxtor second A FreeAgent unit has worked flawless for some time. I bought an empty enclosure and can fill it with the drive I find on sale at NewEgg I also have a slick 'Hot Swap Rack' from Kingwin that lets you swap a HDD into your main PC case in seconds. Cost something like $15-20. I've way too many low cap HDDs I need to transfer to bigger units. John

08-12-2009, 09:25 AM	#27
krusher Quiet Longtime Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: NJ, USA. Posts: 10 Thanks: 1 Thanked 3 Times in 2 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? I use a Seagate 1.5 TB FreeAgent external drive. Works very well and have had no problems. Hooks up via USB2.0, Firewire 400 or eSATA. Comes with back-up, synchronization and encryption software. Maxtor and Western Digital are OK, but for the high demands of business apps, I prefer Seagate.

11-19-2009, 04:24 AM	#28
flaminjo HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 101 Thanks: 21 Thanked 4 Times in 4 Posts Contact Info	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? i have beee using WD External Hard Drives. Seagate and Max are also good for me WD is the best

11-20-2009, 07:19 PM	#29
rcjcal09 Your Friendly Affiliate Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: I'm a nomad, but my hometown is Indianapolis, IN. Posts: 19 Thanks: 0 Thanked 3 Times in 2 Posts Contact Info	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? My favorite is the Western Digital Passport series. They go up to 320GB and are USB powered. Very compact, high capacity, safe, reliable and fairly cheap. I think you can get a 320GB now for like $110 max.

11-20-2009, 09:35 PM	#30
reapr Redneck Warrior War Room Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Pacific North West, WA, USA Posts: 1,001 Thanks: 52 Thanked 68 Times in 61 Posts	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? WD book here it slows my system down considerably. Recently it appeared to die. I looked into other options and started thinking what if my computer got stolen along with the backup drive or a fire took both! Right now I am trying the carbonite backup trial and I have seen no significant slowdowns on my system. I like the idea it is backed up off iste but not so sure I ma comfortable storing my data out of physical reach. Thoughts anyone! I run vista with 3GB mem.

11-22-2009, 02:44 PM	#31
The Artful Surfer HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: SoCal / New York Posts: 208 Thanks: 7 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Re: What external hard drive do you use & recommend? WD MyBook 1TB from BestBuy. I think it was like $109? Very fast, no nonsense. I have two.