Published on January 28, 2009 By CharlesCS In Personal Computing

Need some help in deciding what external drive I should get. I currently have a 500 GB SATA drive in an external USB case and a 250 GB Western Digital passport. I have lots of music, pictures and video files and am looking to put them all in a central storage location where I can access all of them thru my network but still keep it portable.

Here are some of the options I am looking at, I'm just not sure which to chose.

Seagate Freeagent - Enough space, great price but read it has a power issue by many buyers.

Western Digital My Book - Also lot's of space plus extra connections, price is not bad would like more space but will cost a lot more.

Maxtor OneTouch - Lot's of space and a great price, would like more space but cant find anything bigger at the moment. Don't know much about Maxtor external drives so please any personal reviews would be great.

Keep in mind, the links are not necessarily where I will purchase these products. I also wonder if it would be better and cheaper if I simply got an internal drive to match the 500 GB I currently have (maybe a 1TB) and a new external case to accommodate both drives.

Any information will be greatly appreciated.

Comments (Page 2)

Sarissi

on Jan 28, 2009

MAC has to do with networking, while Mac refers to the Macintosh. Every Ethernet Adapter has an MAC, which is the adapter's address aka identifier.

Drive wise, I would build my own, after careful consideration of hdds and cases for them.

RandallFlagg

on Jan 28, 2009

I like Western Digital. Never had a problem with them.

Fuzzy Logic

on Jan 28, 2009

MAC = Machine Address Code

Mac = Apple Macintosh

It's all a question of caps

CharlesCS

on Jan 28, 2009

MAC = Machine Address Code

Mac = Apple Macintosh

It's all a question of caps

Look at that, i ask about drives and learn about MACs and Macs. that why I love this site.

CharlesCS

on Jan 28, 2009

MAC = Machine Address Code

Mac = Apple Macintosh

It's all a question of caps

Look at that, i ask about drives and learn about MACs and Macs. that why I love this site.

Phalnax811

on Jan 28, 2009

I need to get an external hard drive also....wish they were free!!

CharlesCS

on Jan 28, 2009

I need to get an external hard drive also....wish they were free!!

there's always the 5 finger discount, the grandmother discount and the can I borrow this" but never give it back discount.

Xprojectd24

on Jan 29, 2009

CharlesCS

reply 22

I need to get an external hard drive also....wish they were free!!
there's always the 5 finger discount, the grandmother discount and the can I borrow this" but never give it back discount.

lol

JcRabbit

on Jan 29, 2009

I just got two Western Digital 1 TB My Book drives, one the Essential Edition (USB only, write transfer rate about 25.8 GB/s) the other a Home Edition (eSATA, write transfer rate about 48.4 GB/s). I use them both strictly for backups and the drives are always on.

These things run HOT (case is passively cooled, no fans), often going up to 48º C (with 19/20º C ambient) just sitting there idle! With temperatures like these, it's no wonder My Books are getting a bad rep: the drives and interface electronics must simply fry during Summer.

I solved the excessive temperature problem by purchasing a relatively cheap Nox Sirocco notebook cooler with 3 fans: placed the two My Books on top and tapped shut the grill holes around them, forcing the cold air propelled by the fans to exit via the hard drive enclosures. Result: both My Books now run at 28º C, which is even lower than the temperatures of some of my internal hard drives.

Also, if you choose eSATA, be warned that these drives do NOT include an eSATA cable, you will have to purchase one separately. Furthermore, with some cables the metal part of the connector is too short and seems to plug into the drive, but isn't really making full contact. This is a common problem, and if it happens to you and the drive is not recognized by Windows, cut 3-4 mm of the plastic around the cable's connector to expose a bit more metal - that worked for me.

Another common issue, at least in eSATA mode, is that these drives are hard-coded to sleep after being idle for 10 minutes. Unfortunately they then take too long to spin up and end up being hard dismounted by Windows (i.e. they disappear from My Computer). Only way to get them back is by rebooting the system. I solved this issue by making a small applet that copies - then deletes - itself to the drive every 5 minutes, thus reseting the idle timer and preventing the drive from automatically spinning down.

CharlesCS

on Jan 29, 2009

I solved this issue by making a small applet that copies - then deletes - itself to the drive every 5 minutes, thus reseting the idle timer and preventing the drive from automatically spinning down.

Wow, that seems like too much hassle. No eSATA for me.

PuterDudeJim

on Jan 29, 2009

I use Mybooks.. never had a single issue, been using for over a year.

Ditto.

PuterDudeJim

on Jan 29, 2009

Back to the snow shoveling.

Are you sure it's snow you're shoveling?

PuterDudeJim

on Jan 29, 2009

BTW, a question. Is it possible to have a hard drive connected thru both a usb and an ethernet at the same time? Just wondering.

A hard drive connected via ethernet would be a new one on me. Never heard of it.

BigDogBigFeet

on Jan 29, 2009

I've had a Maxtor OneTouch 300GB USB 2.0. Installed easily and runs great.

CharlesCS

on Jan 29, 2009

hard drive connected via ethernet would be a new one on me. Never heard of it.

Western Digital - My Book World Edition II 2TB Remote Access Storage System

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