Techi question - external hard drives
Discussion
Was thinking of getting this for storing all my digi photos. I'd be very grateful for comments from those 'in the know'. ($210 plus shipping)
www.dealtime.com/xPF-Maxtor_One_Touch_II_250GB_7200RPM_16MB_Cache_USB2_0_HDD
Martin.
www.dealtime.com/xPF-Maxtor_One_Touch_II_250GB_7200RPM_16MB_Cache_USB2_0_HDD
Martin.
Hmm - not sure I'd trust DVD or CD as my only backup medium - I use both. Everything is stored on an external HDD, and a selection of more important files are burned onto DVD too. Apart from the possibility of scratching or breaking a DVD, it's much quicker and more convenient to save large amounts of data on a 120+GB drive instead of multiple 4.7GB DVDs, and storage space requirements are much less too.
Maxtor have never had (in my opinion, and I am happy to stand corrected) a particularly great reputation for quality, and I've always gone for Western Digital in my PCs and have never had a problem.
My external drive is an Iomega, which is OK, however what I'd go for next time is either a Lacie or Western Digital drive. 7200rpm and 8MB cache is a good spec though, so well worth looking out for in the other makes. Lacie in particular seem to be highly regarded in the digital photography world (possibly due in part to their design), so well worth having a look at them.
Maxtor have never had (in my opinion, and I am happy to stand corrected) a particularly great reputation for quality, and I've always gone for Western Digital in my PCs and have never had a problem.
My external drive is an Iomega, which is OK, however what I'd go for next time is either a Lacie or Western Digital drive. 7200rpm and 8MB cache is a good spec though, so well worth looking out for in the other makes. Lacie in particular seem to be highly regarded in the digital photography world (possibly due in part to their design), so well worth having a look at them.
I use two LaCie 500GB drives for my photos, hich seems to work pretty well at the moment. It means I can take one off site with me too if needed. I wouldn't back up just on DVD, they are very easily scratched (more so than CDs, as the data density is higher) so you would be running a real risk doing that
After some deliberation I chose Fuji Photo CDs - I think the lower data density cf. DVDs makes them less prone to problems from scratches and they have a dark layer underneath to block UV light from the data part. Quite cheap from www.aprmedia.com
>> Edited by simpo two on Wednesday 2nd February 12:29
>> Edited by simpo two on Wednesday 2nd February 12:29
I have installed a couple of additional Maxstor disks over the years and never had a problem.
Started with external drives some years ago and have an Evergreen 20Gb and a 30Gb, mainly for backup. However both have at times been extensively carried around as part of my Notebook kit for some years with no problems. These are both Firewire in large cases so not really intended to be as portable as I have used them. I can't recall which manufacturers supplied the drives. Nothing exotic as far as I can tell.
Evergreen no longer market in the UK but in effect they are just standard sized drives in a case with a controller card and power input so any other devices would be the same concept. The disk is usable with PC (Win98 on) or Mac (OS X or later releases of 9 with a driver.)
Most of the disk based MP3 players can be used as data disks as well. Small enough and designed to be used when in motion so should be more than rugged enough if used mainly for backup and storage rather than plying on the move. That said there are equivalent sized disk only devices which should be equally rugged.
LaCie seems to have prety much sewn up the market for large external disks. The kit loks nice enough - I have an extrnal CD writer - but is a little bulky in its standard form. (Or was when I bought mine!)
Started with external drives some years ago and have an Evergreen 20Gb and a 30Gb, mainly for backup. However both have at times been extensively carried around as part of my Notebook kit for some years with no problems. These are both Firewire in large cases so not really intended to be as portable as I have used them. I can't recall which manufacturers supplied the drives. Nothing exotic as far as I can tell.
Evergreen no longer market in the UK but in effect they are just standard sized drives in a case with a controller card and power input so any other devices would be the same concept. The disk is usable with PC (Win98 on) or Mac (OS X or later releases of 9 with a driver.)
Most of the disk based MP3 players can be used as data disks as well. Small enough and designed to be used when in motion so should be more than rugged enough if used mainly for backup and storage rather than plying on the move. That said there are equivalent sized disk only devices which should be equally rugged.
LaCie seems to have prety much sewn up the market for large external disks. The kit loks nice enough - I have an extrnal CD writer - but is a little bulky in its standard form. (Or was when I bought mine!)
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