external HDD with power supply

neilwoods

Have had a 500gb buffalo for the last 4 years, used almost every day and is silent.

cnm core make drives, seem to becoming more popular. They use a WD drive for the drive though.

Seagate is one of those drives, it will either work or it won't. Seen a lot with dry joints where where the psu plugs into the drive.

topherknowles

Get a WD Passport drive, small, good performance and is powered by your USB ports, far less annoying than plugging it in every time and acts like a memory card if you want to plug it into your PS3 or whatever.

I can't post a link but just google passport HDD

Stompa

The trouble with asking on a forum like this is that you just get a small number reponses with people's personal preferences which is not terribly useful. For example, I'd recommend WD but wouldn't touch Samsung with a bargepole (unlike andy2004!).

There used to be a website that collated reliability data from large numbers of users, but unfortunately I don't recall what it was called, or know whether it still exists. Perhaps somebody else knows?

Avoriaz

silvercar wrote: »

The desktop itself is old and I've been advised I'm better off with a psu.

Who advised you that and why?

The age of your desktop is irrelevant provided it has a USB socket. (or eSATA or Firewire etc)

Your desktop will not care what external disk you attach provided it supports the capacity and interface.

I use 2.5 inch USB powered external disks. They cost slightly more than 3.5 inch disks but not significantly more if you shop around.

They are tiny compared to a 3.5 inch disk and don't need a cumbersome power supply that needs a mains socket.


PS: They are easily portable and run quieter and cooler too.

silvercar

Who advised you that and why?

Not enough power to run the HDD???

I have a USB hub run off its own power supply because one without a PSU wouldn't work properly.

I think the machine is 8 years old.

Avoriaz

silvercar wrote: »

Not enough power to run the HDD???

I have a USB hub run off its own power supply because one without a PSU wouldn't work properly.

I think the machine is 8 years old.

If you already have a powered USB hub then you should be able to use a USB powered 2.5 inch external disk via that hub.

You would need to check what impact, if any, that might have on data rates.

andy2004

Stompa wrote: »

The trouble with asking on a forum like this is that you just get a small number reponses with people's personal preferences which is not terribly useful. For example, I'd recommend WD but wouldn't touch Samsung with a bargepole (unlike andy2004!).

There used to be a website that collated reliability data from large numbers of users, but unfortunately I don't recall what it was called, or know whether it still exists. Perhaps somebody else knows?

You mean something like this Stompa.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/hdd-reliability-storelab,review-31968.html

Oh i dont care which hdd the OP buys, but due to the fact i've only ever bought 1 WD which as previously stated lasted 8months, got replaced, and then the replacement failed 14months later and got replaced in the past week. maybe its just that particular series WD15EADS, you may have a different series, but of the same size like the WD20EARX or
WD10EARS, or WD10EALX note: 20 = 2tb and 10 = 1tb, used as as example. WD15EADS is a caviar green, 3.5in sata drive.

Stompa

andy2004 wrote: »

You mean something like this Stompa.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/hdd-reliability-storelab,review-31968.html

No, it wasn't quite like that. It both collected and displayed the data. So you or I could go to the site and answer a few simple questions (reliability, speed, etc.) about a particular drive which would then get added to their database. That way you could get feedback from a fairly large number of users.

This was a few years ago, but it seemed like a good idea.

silvercar

It also needs to come with software that completely copies my desktop hard disk. Backing up data is fine, but I need everything backed up so I don't lose software if the desktop goes.

Stompa

silvercar wrote: »

It also needs to come with software that completely copies my desktop hard disk. Backing up data is fine, but I need everything backed up so I don't lose software if the desktop goes.

There's plenty of freeware that will do that, for example I use:

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx