External Hard Drives

aardvaak

I am looking to buy an external hard drive to back up my files

I am looking at the 1TB size.

I am looking at:-

Seagate FreeAgent 1TB External Hard Drive at £75

or

Western Digital Elements 1TB External Hard at about £59

Which one is the better or is there another to look at?

Where would you look to purchase from?

bengalknights

Usually i just buy the cheapest external hardrive i can and run backups of it,that way if it breaks then all i have to do is take the case apart and replace it with a internal hardrive of same size which is cheaper on that basis i would say go with the Western Digital Drive.

Usual places to look would be ebuyer,play,pixmania,tesco (when they have deals on) and various others.

vickssinex

Another option to consider if you've got a hard drive spare from an old PC is to buy a USB hard drive enclosure for £10 or so and plug the old drive into that. It's a great way of reusing old hardware.

A._Badger

aardvaak wrote: »

I am looking to buy an external hard drive to back up my files

I am looking at the 1TB size.

I am looking at:-

Seagate FreeAgent 1TB External Hard Drive at £75

or

Western Digital Elements 1TB External Hard at about £59

Which one is the better or is there another to look at?

Where would you look to purchase from?

I have the 500GB Western Elements and it's fine. Basic, but fine. I find the cheapest source for such things is usually eBuyer.

totalsolutions

> Where would you look to purchase from?
Scan or Overclockers

Plarkster

I would also recommend eBuyer - great prices and service, and also have customer reviews which are really useful.

I usually stick to the major brands, i.e. Seagate, Maxtor, Western Digital and get the cheapest I can from those.

Have a look at:

http:// ebuyer. com/product/149455
http:// ebuyer. com/product/174844

Read the reviews and see if you think it's worth paying the extra for the Seagate or not, there isn't many for the WD but I personally wouldn't have any worries about getting it.

Strider590

I just wouldn't buy these cheap ready to go external drives..... I want to know that my hardware is of the best quality and won't fail! if that mean's I pay 1TB prices for a 750GB then so be it, you simply cannot place a price on reliability when it come to storing valuable data.

Plarkster

Strider590 wrote: »

I just wouldn't buy these cheap ready to go external drives..... I want to know that my hardware is of the best quality and won't fail! if that mean's I pay 1TB prices for a 750GB then so be it, you simply cannot place a price on reliability when it come to storing valuable data.

I agree, but both drives are from reliable manufacturers so either would be a good buy. I wouldn't buy one of the cheap no name ones from a supermarket tho!

googler

Strider590 wrote: »

I just wouldn't buy these cheap ready to go external drives..... I want to know that my hardware is of the best quality and won't fail! if that mean's I pay 1TB prices for a 750GB then so be it, you simply cannot place a price on reliability when it come to storing valuable data.

Seagate and WD are both reputable brands.

What would you buy in preference to these named by the OP?

Strider590

Both the Seagate and the WD have been known to fail prematurely. They use the cheapest drives/components they possibly can and they also don't account for proper heat dissipation in the enclosure when used for a extented period.

For an external HD, i'd go for a hi-rel 5400 RPM drive with low operating temperatures..... (anything faster is pointless because USB is limited to 300Mpbs)

I happen to favour the Samsung spinpoint F2's 5400RPM with liquid bearings because they were designed for constant silent use, I think the one on my laptop has been on non-stop for just short of 18months inside an Antec MX1 actively cooled enclosure. But any such drive is fine, just avoid the cheapest of the cheap.

I pay more when it really matters, for everything else I Ebay

hethmar

Could I jump in please?

(Techi dumbo here). What external (simple) hard drive is there which would save info automatically please?