Western Digital vs. Seagate vs. ...

[UnWarierMage224]

Hi folks,

I'm looking to buy an external hard drive to serve as backup media for my laptop.
My current EHD is a Maxtor OneTouch III, that's about two years old. And it just died. This morning.

So I'm in the market.

What I've looked at so far is the following:

WD Passport: I'm leaning towards this one because what few reviews I've read say its pretty reliable. The price is also right.

Seagate eSATA: Again, also fairly decent reviews, and also priced right.

Basically, what I want is something that's pretty much just a hard drive. No frills or BS, because I have the backup programs which I need. Purists will say buy a hard drive and an enclosure and DIY, but I don't have that kind of time, as much as I'd love to do that.

Thanks,

-UnWarierMage

 

[Samstoned]

WD Passport
from my clients list this seems to be the best
note: the seagate list is pretty bare so ??
just remember don't over heat don't bump around while unit is reading /writing
short 10gb writes seem to keep over heating down
as always backup important data

 

[UnWarierMage224]

The Seagate model is: Seagate ST3300601XS-R 300GB External Hard Drive
Another one I am considering is: Toshiba HDDR200E02X 200GB Portable External Hard Drive

One thing i am concerned about, however: my laptop is a Dell Inspiron 6400, and I've read a few complaints about some USB ports being unable to power these drives (especially the WD Passport). I don't know the power rating on my USB ports, so could anyone tell me if it would work?

-UnWarierMage

 

[Samstoned]

I would opt then for a ex. with separate power
USB power will be a extra drain on laptop

 

[NameBrandHuman]

i have had better results from seagate HDD western digitals always seem to fail in my customers pc's. All i can say is research the drives before you buy. Word of mouth is the best way to pick and choose hardware!

 

[apaullo]

from my experience seagate is better than western digital...seagate can last up to 3 years whereas western digital cant even survive for a year...atleast from my experience..

 

[Anycolourulike]

I feel your pain UnWarierMage224. I'm also looking for an external hard drive and was about to purchase a Western Digital My Book2 Home/Studio or Office 1TB model when I came across this webpage: I can't forward the link as I'm a new member but please google for: tomrafteryit dot net /western-digital-my-book-pro-edition-ii-sucks/comment-page-10/#comment-334440

Seem like Western Digital are the biggest load of crap according to these guys - and I find that hard to believe. Seagate are apparently as bad. Offer a better warranty - but is that really what we're supposed to be looking for in a hard drive - a warranty?

All my tech mates (who work in the IT field) swear by Iomega because hard drives are the only thing that the company makes. Check this out: again, I can't post the link, but google: iomega-europe dor com/section?SID=1180374f80ff178dde002d84c9e495e098b:4725&secid=39290

And google a few reviews. Let me kow what you think?
Cheers.

 

[captaincranky]

When Every Move Is the Wrong One.......

This is a rough market for a large capacity HDD. Seagate is having major problems with it's "7200.11 Barracuda" offerings at the present time. Personally I do favor the Seagates, because I think they're a little quieter.
Gotta say though, I have a 160GB WD "Caviar SATA150 in my desktop that's noisy, but is still going strong after 4 years.
I understand that Seagate has gone back to a 3 year warranty on many of their drives, so that's no longer a selling point.
Maxtor does have a maginally bad reputation. None of this helps does it? Take the scientific approach, flip a coin. I don't think there's a right answer, although some of our lifers here have gone back to WD.

 

[LinkedKube]

WD Passport
from my clients list this seems to be the best
note: the seagate list is pretty bare so ??
just remember don't over heat don't bump around while unit is reading /writing
short 10gb writes seem to keep over heating down
as always backup important data

my brother has that wd drive, its pretty good from what he tells me.

 

[Kz2]

ive had my WD drive for little over 3 years and its starting to crash so its not that good from my experience

 

[DelJo63]

current reviews are showing poor reliability of the newely manufactured W.D. drives

I just installed (2) Seagate 500gig sata drives for a friend and they are extremely quiet
and fast on a 2-core dell 1.86ghz system