External HDDs

[NYCHitman1]

I'm having a tough time choosing between which External HDDs I want to purchase to store my movies on. I've been looking at the Seagate FreeAgent or the Western Digital My Passport/Elements.

Anyone have any thoughts on the matter?

 

[NYCHitman1]

bump

 

[krouget]

I'm having a tough time choosing between which External HDDs I want to purchase to store my movies on. I've been looking at the Seagate FreeAgent or the Western Digital My Passport/Elements.

Anyone have any thoughts on the matter?

I, personally, use the Mybook external HDDs from Western Digital. I currently have two, and they've worked perfectly for storing media and backups.

If it matters any, they're also practical on space, and look pretty neat, too. The warm blue glow, when active, is nice.

Desktop Overview

 

[Mayhem]

I use the D-Link DNS-321 Network Storage Enclosure.

It connects to your router rather than USB and has two SATA drive bays.

I didn't specifically set it up to be a media server, but my PS3 sees it as one.

 

[SoulTerror]

I have a SeaGate external, no problems with it, and I've had it for about a year or so.

 

[nyydynasty]

i doesnt matter, really. all the brand names are good. As long as it has enough storage and speed is sufficient, then you'll be happy

 

[Rota]

I've got a Seagate 1TB external and a Western Digital 650GB External. Both work perfectly and spend their time hooked up to my torrent box and are on and being used 24/7. So far the Western Digital is 2 years old, and the Seagate is 1 year old (both were Black Friday deals), and they still work great.

Basically what you're going to want to decide is whether you want a portable drive, which is usually a laptop drive in an external enclosure powered by USB, or an external drive, which requires a power supply. If you want to take it places and aren't as worried about speed, go for the portable. If you just need a lot of cheap, fast, external storage for your movies on one computer, get the standard external.

 

[NYCHitman1]

I've got a Seagate 1TB external and a Western Digital 650GB External. Both work perfectly and spend their time hooked up to my torrent box and are on and being used 24/7. So far the Western Digital is 2 years old, and the Seagate is 1 year old (both were Black Friday deals), and they still work great.

Basically what you're going to want to decide is whether you want a portable drive, which is usually a laptop drive in an external enclosure powered by USB, or an external drive, which requires a power supply. If you want to take it places and aren't as worried about speed, go for the portable. If you just need a lot of cheap, fast, external storage for your movies on one computer, get the standard external.

Yeah, I'm def buying it on Black Friday. Best Buy has a deal for the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 2TB for $89.99 which is a STEAL. I won't be using it on the go. It'll just be a media storage HDD for when I DL movies/music/etc..

PS: BestBuy Black Friday Ad and Best Buy Black Friday Deals for 2010

 

[Rota]

$10 cheaper than Staples...NICE! I might end up at Best Buy this year.

 

[NYCHitman1]

$10 cheaper than Staples...NICE! I might end up at Best Buy this year.

Best Buy has some sick deals this year. Definitely the best of the batch imo.

 

[saps]

Nice deal there. I got a 500GB last year for around that same price I think. And its just about full so this2 GB should just be right

 

[wildtouch83]

I use the D-Link DNS-321 Network Storage Enclosure.

It connects to your router rather than USB and has two SATA drive bays.

I'm using the Linksys NAS200. 2 x 1TB sata disks setup with RAID 1 and they are hot swappable in the event one fails. Perfect for storage and streaming media to any of my PCs or my TV. It also has 2 USB ports on it to share USB devices (printers, external drives, etc)

 

[Mayhem]

I'm using the Linksys NAS200. 2 x 1TB sata disks setup with RAID 1 and they are hot swappable in the event one fails. Perfect for storage and streaming media to any of my PCs or my TV. It also has 2 USB ports on it to share USB devices (printers, external drives, etc)

Sounds good. Dlink has another version of this box (DNS-323) that I believe also has a USB port (ports?) for connecting a printer.

I've got a Dell v313w wireless printer, so not having a jack in the enclosure doesn't bother me.

I don't know if it supports hot swap or not. It's not really a must-have for me.

How long have you had yours?

I had a terrible experience with some of LinkSys's hardware in the past and avoid them like the plague. I understand that it's not the norm, but was enough to convince me to avoid them.

I do suggest their home wireless routers if they're the easiest to set up tho. I end up having to configure them, but it's not rocket science.

 

[wildtouch83]

I have been running it since 12/2008.

I know one thing mine does lack is gigabit Ethernet.

 

[saps]

Western Digtital WD Elements 2TB External Hard Drive - Black (WDBAAU0020) : Target
$69 WD 2TB @ target

 

[gcobb]

I bought a WD Sharespace, 4 1TB drives in Raid 5 for work. But for home, I prefer WD. I have 3 internal Sata drives and 3 external. I back up twice to two drives and my songs to the other. (100GB)

 

[Noxious]

A while back I picked up an external enclosure and an internal HDD to put in it. For me it has been well worth the bit of extra money because I have been able to use it to troubleshoot and fix other computers that I never intended to use it with (by putting its HDD in the enclosure). Also allowed for some file recovery when my dad borked his Windows install. Overall very useful.

 

[A5J4DX]

seagate all the way!