Team-BHP - 1TB USB drive for a song

Quote:

Originally Posted by quickdraw (Post 1459788)

....The price difference is quite large between firewire and usb 2.0 based devices. Anyone here recommend is it worth going in for it or does it still depend on the 5200 rpm vs 7600 rpm (whatever) thingy?

Basically, there is a speed difference between USB vs Firewire (as well as 5400 vs 7200rpm). As you mentioned, the price difference can also be large (3-5k difference).

Now, if you're buying this drive to use as a backup, or just fill it up once with music, pics and movies -- and then view them occasionally, with only 1by1 additions, the "slower" drive will work fine.

If you're going to use the drive actively (constant reading/writing large amounts of data) during your work-process, (for example - if you're doing video editing and need to have the extra space for the files you are working on) then the firewire might be worth considering for the extra $$.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chetans (Post 1459822)

...if i am looking for 500gb or more capacity, then i have to go with external HDDs.

It doesn't have to be external. You could get a 2nd Harddrive in your desktop computer (1TB+ drives are available).

Quote:

Originally Posted by chetans (Post 1459822)

...all i know is that some are usb powered and some require external power source.

There are basically 2 types :

3.5" HDDs :
- Bigger (the "disk platter" is 3.5" in dia)
- Used in desktop computers and the larger external enclosures
- Need more power (a separate power supply is required)
- Larger capacities
- Cheaper

2.5" HDDs :
- Smaller and slimer
- Used in laptop computers and in the slim "passport" type external enclosures
- Can run off just USB power
- The largest drives available wont be as large as the 3.5" ones
- More expensive
- More rugged (can handle being moved around etc better - since they were designed for laptop computers)

Quote:

Originally Posted by chetans (Post 1459822)

maybe the rpm is one of important factors to consider. but do note that my lappy is an inspiron 6000 one and i consider it to be very old

As i mentioned to quickdraw -- if you're just going to back up/write data occasionally then dont worry too much about 7200 vs 5400rpm.

(My laptop runs a 7200rpm but yet i bought a 5400rpm external)

Quote:

Originally Posted by chetans (Post 1459822)

have been reading about WB here. but i donno the options.
can anyone give me the final word to choose a particular external HDD with minimum of 500gbs?

You mean WD?
I trust two HDD brands (purely from personal experience)
- Western Digital
- Seagate
(& I stay the hell away from Lacie...have heard to many horror stories)

cya
R

Go for Firewire if your need is to boot from Firewire in case of your mac osx does not boot or when you need to repair/fix your boot drive of mac osx.if your idea is to video edit , data transfer of Firewire would be optimized & "data seek" would be almost consistent which are essential for video edit -mainly for uncompressed video footage .
If your purpose is to just data transfer, USB2 would do the job. By the way Firewire ipod can also be made as external boot drive, for fixing things with mac osx boot drive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by quickdraw (Post 1459788)

Surprisingly I find myself looking for a 1TB storage drive today. Checked out some options, I was actually looking for one with FireWire since my Mac supports it. The price difference is quite large between firewire and usb 2.0 based devices. Anyone here recommend is it worth going in for it or does it still depend on the 5200 rpm vs 7600 rpm (whatever) thingy?

Quote:

Originally Posted by kb100 (Post 1460216)

:Shockked: I am no expert either - but that was what I was being advised to do! This is scary! Is this true?

HD's unused will also suffer from corrosion related issues, would it not - esp the mechanicals? So does that mean there is no permanent solution available ? (Tape drives?)

You need to keep backing up and moving to new drives/devices. That is what I have been doing. But I have been moving from hard drives to hard drives, just bigger ones. I burn DVD/CD only when someone else needs it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rehaan (Post 1459972)

It doesn't have to be external. You could get a 2nd Harddrive in your desktop computer (1TB+ drives are available).

There are basically 2 types :

3.5" HDDs :
- Bigger (the "disk platter" is 3.5" in dia)
- Used in desktop computers and the larger external enclosures
- Need more power (a separate power supply is required)
- Larger capacities
- Cheaper

2.5" HDDs :
- Smaller and slimer
- Used in laptop computers and in the slim "passport" type external enclosures
- Can run off just USB power
- The largest drives available wont be as large as the 3.5" ones
- More expensive
- More rugged (can handle being moved around etc better - since they were designed for laptop computers)

You mean WD?
I trust two HDD brands (purely from personal experience)
- Western Digital
- Seagate
(& I stay the hell away from Lacie...have heard to many horror stories)

cya
R

I have a laptop and i dont have plans to buy desktop. so the external hdd will be used with laptop.

Anyone know the current price of WD 1TB? I got quote of 5k (cash) for Seagate 1TB, would like to know how much will it be for WD? And I've used both Seagate and WD and haven't faced any issue(touch-wood;-) ), but usage is mostly for backup of my photographs(raw and processed Tiffs). But this one I need to backup movies and play them from the drive. So in this case I guess the HDD has to be more robust for such use (it'll be constant read cycles while movies are being played) than my normal use of backing up of photographs. So in such case which will be a better option? WD or seagate? How is transcend or maxtor or iomega?
And how is iOmega eGo drives? Have anyone used them. I think I asked this question before also but never got a reply. Would get these(iOmega) for little cheap as part of corporate discount.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kb100 (Post 1460280)

Oh Crap! I have some 300 plus CD's/Dvd's of assorted stuff - some dating back over 9 years! I may be doomed!!

That sounded really funny, I actually imagine myself running towards my old CD folder. I will tell you one thing honestly. I've had discs which were destroyed within a year without even using them and I have some Kodak Gold CD-R's (from my 1x cd yamaha cd writer days) which still work fine. So its still all about quality. The new ones in the market are utter crap!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rehaan (Post 1459972)

Oh no no, its just gonna be a dump for all the crap media files that are taking up unnecessary space on my Laptop. I really wanted to go in for the firewire though it would be so cool. The cost difference is about a grand for the exact same one w/firewire. I guess ill just save up that money for something else then. And I do have my timecapsule for all the backups and I am quite sure it has a *server grade hdd* so it will work fine!

Thank you so much for your help Rehaan!

Think this might help:

Latest prices of External HDDs

Desktop (3.5") : EXTERNAL - HARD DISK DRIVES --------------------------------------- As of 1st September 2009.
Make Model Capacity HDD SIZE Adaptor wrnty Int Price
Seagate Free Agent 500 GB Desktop Yes, Incl. 5 Yr USB 3725
W.D. Essential 640 GB Desktop Yes, Incl. 3 Yr USB 4100
W.D. Essential 1 TB Desktop Yes, Incl. 3 Yr USB 5200
Seagate Free Agent 1 TB Desktop Yes, Incl. 5 Yr USB 4950
W.D. Home 640 GB Desktop Yes, Incl. 3 Yr USB + F/W + eSata 4850
W.D. Home 1 TB Desktop Yes, Incl. 3 Yr USB + F/W + eSata 6450
W.D. Studio 1 TB Desktop Yes, Incl. 3 Yr USB + F/W + eSata 7800
W.D. World 1 TB Desktop Yes, Incl. 3 Yr USB + Lan 10450
Seagate Free Agent Ext. 1 TB Desktop Yes, Incl. 5 Yr USB + F/W + eSata 7875
Seagate Free Agent 1.5 TB Desktop Yes, Incl. 5 Yr USB 10200
Seagate Free Agent Ext. 1.5 TB Desktop Yes, Incl. 5 Yr USB + F/W + eSata 11500
Seagate Free Agent 2 TB Desktop Yes, Incl. 5 Yr USB 14100
Seagate Free Agent Ext. 2 TB Desktop Yes, Incl. 5 Yr USB + F/W + eSata 15650
WD==> Western Digital ::::: F/W==> Fire Wire ::::