External storage - any good?

[trackdemon]

Technically I guess I should be asking this in the Computers forum, but as its for image storage and I guess many of you folks have been through similar decision making process's I thought I'd ask here first! This seems to tick all the boxes I need:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BRAND-NEW-USB-E

I dont need speed, just easily portable storage for use with laptop offsite and desktop at home. I'll probably buy 2 and mirror, or 1 + an additional 200GB drive for my desktop to mirror onto as well as backing up to DVD. Comments?

[ehasler]

Never been a big fan of Maxtor drives, but I have got a Lacie external drive which has been fine.

A 250gb drive is similar cost to that one, and it's designed by Porsche too!

http://beta.ebuyer.com/customer/produ

[RossC]

I've got an 80gb portable hard drive for my lap top, cost about the same 6 months ago but I'd make sure its USB driven if you want it to be truely portable. Mentions that it comes with power lead and plug which infers to me that it's not...

Bear in mind I'm a complete computer numpty though !

[trackdemon]

ehasler said:

Never been a big fan of Maxtor drives, but I have got a Lacie external drive which has been fine. A 250gb drive is similar cost to that one, and it's designed by Porsche too! http://beta.ebuyer.com/customer/produ

You know, I hadn't actually picked up that it was a Maxtor drive That also puts me off, I've seen far too many of them fail in corporate use compared to (e.g.) Seagate or Western Digital.....

[johnirving]

ehasler said:

it's designed by Porsche too! http://beta.ebuyer.com/customer/produ

I use a LaCie too and find it very good.

The Porsche connection is not that strong though! The guy left Porsche in the '70s and now does computer equipment!

John.

[ehasler]

johnirving said:

The Porsche connection is not that strong though! The guy left Porsche in the '70s and now does computer equipment! John.

And kettles and toasters too, but hey - at least it's slightly car related

[trackdemon]

RossC said:

I've got an 80gb portable hard drive for my lap top, cost about the same 6 months ago but I'd make sure its USB driven if you want it to be truely portable. Mentions that it comes with power lead and plug which infers to me that it's not... Bear in mind I'm a complete computer numpty though !

Another good point I'd overlooked! I do need it to be USB driven; IMO it defeats the object if you require a secondary power source. I'll keep looking! Any other recommendations appreciated, Ed's L250GB Lacie would be perfect if it was USB driven.....

[ehasler]

I think you'll struggle to find a large HDD that is USB driven - when I looked a while back, the power requirements of a normal size HDD were too high for the USB bus. The largest one I know of is a mini Seagate drive which is 5GB.

[speedychrissie]

i too have a lacie external hard drive. it is great as a back and so that i dont have to tak emy whole computer to other peoples houses to transfer large files.

i would like a USB driven one, but i couldnt find one which was big enough.

[bacchus180]

i had a pair of lacies... one stopped spinning and that was that. data recovery is very expensive.. got a load of maxtors on my desk but only as a buffer.. not happy with the ease of backup.. seems a RAID system is the only way to go to guarentee no lost data...

[ehasler]

bacchus180 said:

seems a RAID system is the only way to go to guarentee no lost data...

Even then it's not 100% - lose 2 disks on a RAID 5 array, and you're up the proverbial creek.

DLT Tape backup is probably a more secure option, but probably not what Steve's looking for

[trackdemon]

May be slightly using a hammer to break an egg! I'll probably persevere with multi disks & CD backup.....

[pmanson]

I brought an 320gig Icy Box from Bigpockets.

Does the job!

[trackdemon]

Yes, but I'll bet its not USB powered?....

[pmanson]

trackdemon said:

Yes, but I'll bet its not USB powered?....

Nope unfortunatly not.

[Bee_Jay]

I have some 80GB 'porsche' Lacie USB2 drives which are USB powered (either with the same cable, or with another cable in another port depending on PC) - they are cool. Have started picking up 80 and 100 GB Western Digital drives recently also USB bus powered.

For USB power you are limited to the smaller 'laptop' drives; for capacities 120GB+ you need physically larger drives and more power. Have been buying 250GB USB2 'porsche' Lacies from dabs.com for £85 recently...

>> Edited by Bee_Jay on Friday 24th March 02:00