# Portable Hard Drive Advice.



## xsunnysuex (Jan 20, 2011)

I'm thinking of treating myself to one of these.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/160-GB-Extern...K_Computing_HardDrives_RL&hash=item20b67ab845

Are they as good as they look?  I know naff all about computers etc.   Would it work on my laptop?  It almost looks too good to be true.   Any opinions appreciated.  Thanks.


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## Crispy (Jan 20, 2011)

It's a totally normal external HD, but you don't want to buy that sort of thing on ebay, cos you'll not get a warranty. No way of guaranteeing what price you'll pay either.

Look to spend £40 at a bare minimum on a portable external HD (that's the smaller, 2.5" size). If you get a larger 3.5" drive, you lose the easy portability and they need plugging into the mains, but you get more storage for your money.


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## Badgers (Jan 20, 2011)

With postage that is £23.64 for a 160GB external hard drive from a 'mystery' manufacturer on eBay. 

I would not buy it myself. 

Something like is £40.49 (using promo code 10CEA) for 1,000GB and will come with warranties etc.


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## Crispy (Jan 20, 2011)

That's a very good deal Badgers  - this is a large 3.5" drive though.

The smaller 2.5" drives just need a USB cable so are more convenient to put away or take somewhere else.


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## Badgers (Jan 20, 2011)

This is quite sexy - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004445JI6/ref=nosim/?tag=hotukdeals-21

2.5" - 500GB (USB 3.0/2.0) for £44.97 delivered


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## kained&able (Jan 20, 2011)

i got a wd passport 120gig thingy about 6 years ago. It is very very handy. depending on what format it happens to be in at the time i can play stuff straight to my x-box or tele! and because no plug is needed its brilliant for laptops.

dave


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## Throbbing Angel (Jan 20, 2011)

yeah, that's why I bought a 2.5in drive
Just shy of £50 for 500gb - just a USB cable though which is a big thing for me
WD from PCW - mentioned it on another thread* here*


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## keithy (Jan 20, 2011)

I'm going to be buying a new external hard drive soon cos I destroyed mine; does the brand matter at all? Any brands better/worse?


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## Crispy (Jan 20, 2011)

keithy said:


> I'm going to be buying a new external hard drive soon cos I destroyed mine; does the brand matter at all? Any brands better/worse?


 
The actual disk drives are made by a handful of companies and they're all good for it. The only difference between 'brands' is the quality of the enclosure and the bundled software (if any). If you're getting the drive for backup, then getting on with included backup software is a good idea. Keep an eye out for extended warranties too.


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## Throbbing Angel (Jan 20, 2011)

Badgers said:


> This is quite sexy - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004445JI6/ref=nosim/?tag=hotukdeals-21
> 
> 2.5" - 500GB (USB 3.0/2.0) for £44.97 delivered


 
ah that's the same as mine

I got a blue one!


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## Badgers (Jan 20, 2011)

Been told Samsung is a good brand to get.


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## kained&able (Jan 20, 2011)

Crispy said:


> The actual disk drives are made by a handful of companies and they're all good for it. The only difference between 'brands' is the quality of the enclosure and the bundled software (if any). If you're getting the drive for backup, then getting on with included backup software is a good idea. Keep an eye out for extended warranties too.



surely the speed of  them varies a bit as well.


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## Crispy (Jan 20, 2011)

Know what, this question comes up so often, I'm going to sticky it.


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## Badgers (Jan 20, 2011)

Crispy said:


> Know what, this question comes up so often, I'm going to sticky it.


 
Busy day at the office yeah?


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## keithy (Jan 20, 2011)

Crispy said:


> The actual disk drives are made by a handful of companies and they're all good for it. The only difference between 'brands' is the quality of the enclosure and the bundled software (if any). If you're getting the drive for backup, then getting on with included backup software is a good idea. Keep an eye out for extended warranties too.


 
What if I'm being sensible and getting 2 drives - one for backup? Get one with software and one normal?


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## Crispy (Jan 20, 2011)

That would be a good way of going about it. I have no idea what's what in the world of Windows backup software though. There's bound to be some good stuff and some rubbish


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## xsunnysuex (Jan 20, 2011)

Thanks everyone.  x


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## Throbbing Angel (Jan 20, 2011)

Crispy said:


> That would be a good way of going about it. I have no idea what's what in the world of Windows backup software though. There's bound to be some good stuff and some rubbish


 
yeah, I might get another of these drives next month to backup the backup just in case worst case scenario etc blah

The WD drive above has its own backup software on the drive - piece of piss to use - that said - I am also doing a Windows back up and a back up using the Lenovo OneKey recovery thingy on my laptop.

I've also done a straight drag & drop copy of My Docs, My Music, My Videos etc so I can access stuff directly on the drive rather than restoring - I'm doing a factory reset of the laptop to wipe* all *the shite off it


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## keithy (Jan 20, 2011)

Throbbing Angel, I#ve heard that you shouldn't get two of the same drive- summet to do with being likely to crash at the same time or summet :s


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## Throbbing Angel (Jan 20, 2011)




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## stupid dogbot (Jan 20, 2011)

keithy said:


> Throbbing Angel, I#ve heard that you shouldn't get two of the same drive- summet to do with being likely to crash at the same time or summet :s


 
That might be right in (quite vague) terms of the drives coming from the same batch and suffering a similar hardware failure, but the odds of that are pretty large and tbh, anyone worrying that much probably wants way more than a 2.5" USB drive for backups anyway...


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## bmd (Jan 20, 2011)

Crispy said:


> That would be a good way of going about it. I have no idea what's what in the world of Windows backup software though. There's bound to be some good stuff and some rubbish


 
Windows 7 has it's own back up utility accessible through Control Panel. Link.


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## stupid dogbot (Jan 20, 2011)

XP also has a backup utility (ntbackup.exe), although you may need to add it from OS CD in some installations.


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## Throbbing Angel (Jan 20, 2011)

yeah, I am doing a back up using that right now (Win 7)

2hours=49% complete   it does do a disk image as well though, just in case


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## bmd (Jan 20, 2011)

Throbbing Angel said:


> yeah, I am doing a back up using that right now (Win 7)
> 
> 2hours=49% complete   it does do a disk image as well though, just in case


 
It takes aaages doesn't it. I have scheduled it for 4am once a month. Just need to remember to leave the pc on now ...


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## keithy (Jan 20, 2011)

What does that do? compress it?


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## Throbbing Angel (Jan 20, 2011)

aye


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## Me76 (Jan 20, 2011)

Are these portable ones quite stable?

I had an external hard drive that had the power cable and everything and it decided not to work when I moved it from one room to another, so I lost everything.  Are the ones that are made to be portable a bit more sturdy and will be able to take being bumped around a bit?


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## Crispy (Jan 20, 2011)

In theory yes - the portable ones use drives designed for laptops. But all HDs are prone to failure - more so than any other component of a computer, so it could quite easily be bad luck in that case.


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## Throbbing Angel (Jan 20, 2011)

I think the general rule is don't throw them about.

All it is is a hard drive in a case as opposed to a laptop - you need to treat it as you would your laptop really.
They do make 'tough' drives but you pay extra for that, as you'd imagine.


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## kyser_soze (Jan 23, 2011)

Any reccs for a 2TB external drive to be used purely for backup purposes? Or would I be better served getting a r/w Bluray drive and dumping everything on optical media?


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## Crispy (Jan 23, 2011)

Optical media A)degrades over time and B)only comes in 25GB chunks
The best thing to do with backups is keep them live, keep them up-to-date and keep two of them. I have a bunch of multiple-disk DVD backups from about 7 years ago. I have no idea whether or not the disks still work. I've been keeping two separate Time Machine backups of my mac for the last 3 years and I know for sure they work cos I update them al the time. Might even get one of those online services, for proper meteor-impact protection...


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## FridgeMagnet (Jan 23, 2011)

I don't bother with optical (or tape etc) backup. It's been drummed into me professionally that backups are only worthwhile if you regularly verify that they work, which few people do even professionally, let alone at home. I've occasionally taken backups onto DVD in the past and frequently after a few years they've degraded to the point where the stuff you want to get off them is inaccessible.

Time Machine plus an online backup system (I use two actually - Dropbox counts as short-term backup for active documents, and I also have Backblaze for the whole disc) should be fine for a home or small business system.


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## keithy (Jan 23, 2011)

^^^^

All that makes me feel a lot less of a dick for losing all my stuff


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## Throbbing Angel (Jan 25, 2011)

are we doing 'deals what we've seen' in here too?

If we are, just seen this on Ryman's website - Verbatim 320gb usb external HD for £39.99 inc free P&P

No experience of the thing myself but they are a known brand innit, as are the retailer

Ooh, I think its next day delivery too

I might get one as my backups backup iykwim


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## zenie (Jan 25, 2011)

Ermm probably a stupid question but can you get a portable HD which plugs straight into an LCD TV? Do you need to get a special add on HD box? I'm not even bothered about the HD bit, just want to plug a HD into a telly 

Failing that I can use my phone with an HDMI I guess. Need to get a new portable HD today.


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## Crispy (Jan 25, 2011)

Yes you can - very simple media players with USB sockets, so they're drives to a computer but a player to a TV.


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## Crispy (Jan 25, 2011)

This for example

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/4228248/art/lacie/lacinema-classic-hd-media.html


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## Chazworth (Jan 27, 2011)

Crispy said:


> It's a totally normal external HD, but you don't want to buy that sort of thing on ebay, cos you'll not get a warranty. No way of guaranteeing what price you'll pay either.
> 
> Look to spend £40 at a bare minimum on a portable external HD (that's the smaller, 2.5" size). If you get a larger 3.5" drive, you lose the easy portability and they need plugging into the mains, but you get more storage for your money.



I'm totally agree with Crispy...
very nice suggestions dude...
Its cool to 2.5" HD, rather then 3.5:..
Because is 2.5" is much better for portable use....
But 3.5" HD is more reliable in my views, however for portability propose it is seems not good....

____________________________________
"It will happen, when you take action."
​


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## Kid_Eternity (Jan 31, 2011)

I use a 250gig WD passport, bought it a couple years back, very useful and it's compact size is handy too.


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## rhod (Jan 31, 2011)

zenie said:


> Ermm probably a stupid question but can you get a portable HD which plugs straight into an LCD TV? Do you need to get a special add on HD box? I'm not even bothered about the HD bit, just want to plug a HD into a telly



Many Samsung TVs for example, include the facility to play movie files directly from a USB Hard drive or pendrive.

The capability is quite impressive, actually. My partner, who is not very tech-savvy feels quite at home with the interface, and the fact that the playback controls are on the same remote as the TV. It doesn't have _quite_ the same range of media detection as a dedicated media player (ISOs, DVD menus for example), but it has played most AVIs and MKVs that I've thrown at it. 

It indexes large quantities of music files very quickly too, and has a nice display (with cover art) when you play them through. Many media players just give you a clunky list of truncated file names, if you're lucky.


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## pinkmonkey (Jan 31, 2011)

I use sync back (it's freeware) for backing up and keep two copies on hard drives each in a different house [/paranoid]

Agree with Crispy, there's only 2 or 3 disc manufacturers, my Verbatim case has a Hitachi Drive inside it.  I only know this because I stepped on it and the case came apart. It's still working though.  On that note I prefer a metal case.  Much stronger and unlikely to crack if you step on it *sigh*.   I favour LaCie, not the cheapest but we've just bought our fourth one. The cases are really well made.  Our oldest LaCie is about 8 years old. The newest is a Phillipe Starck LaCie and the case is 3mm thick metal (very heavy though). We had a WD passport which failed and I had to send back (at least it was under warranty), admittedly it corrupted because El JUgs knocked it with his foot whilst it was copying data.

*Makes mental note to stop using hard drives as footballs*


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## Kid_Eternity (Jan 31, 2011)

Why was the drive on the floor to be stepped on?


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## gentlegreen (Jan 31, 2011)

My current philosophy is that if you have *one *1TB drive, you're probably thinking you might fill it so will need *two * sooner rather than later - unless you split your data into "vital" and "disposable"...  I had a colleague who proudly boasted of his 1TB drive as an early adopter .. and I kept telling him he needed a second. There were many tears I suspect - but he hid them well ...

We've just bought a double 2TB striped WD unit at work for video projects which realistically will end up living on it for years ...


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## Throbbing Angel (Feb 14, 2011)

Valentine's day offer at Play.com on Western Digital My Passport Essential Portable
500Gb
USB 2.0 
2.5 inch External Hard Drive 

£39.99 until midnight (mine was £49.99 in PCW last month, play normally charge a whopping £69.99)

jus FYI etc - I like mine and it works well


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## Throbbing Angel (Feb 14, 2011)

oops
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/12083070/-/Product.html?source=908


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## monterypop1967 (Feb 16, 2011)

I'd avoid Fujitsu, not had a good experience with them. I use 2 WD's and a couple of Toshiba HD's, varying in ages and capacities.Always booted up OK, never had any problems with them.


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## han (Feb 20, 2011)

I've recently got 2 x MyBook World edition (2tb). http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=300 . I'm really pleased with them - they're both plugged into the switch (ethernet) all the time, and one is used as the central fileserver and automatically backs up onto the other, incrementally. I've also got all my mp3s and itunes library  (shared) on there.

I'm keeping all files off client machines to keep things nice and clean - and using Time Machine to automatically back up the settings/profiles etc. of the client machines onto the main network hard drive.

I'm amazed at how cheap all this stuff is these days! WD seem to be pretty good. Lacie are good, too, I've got an external 250gb Lacie usb drive that's been going strong for about 7 years.


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## pinkmonkey (Feb 21, 2011)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Why was the drive on the floor to be stepped on?



Old style desktop pc case at a friends house - the usb port is at the bottom, so you have to put the drive on the floor


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## trashpony (Mar 29, 2011)

Ok I know this is a totally, totally thick question but I've only got a couple of gigs left of space on my hard drive so I need more space. Does an external hard drive just act as somewhere else to stick your stuff?  Is it as simple as just plugging it in and my computer will just recognise it as somewhere else to put data? And a big  @self


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## gentlegreen (Mar 29, 2011)

trashpony said:


> Ok I know this is a totally, totally thick question but I've only got a couple of gigs left of space on my hard drive so I need more space. Does an external hard drive just act as somewhere else to stick your stuff?  Is it as simple as just plugging it in and my computer will just recognise it as somewhere else to put data? And a big  @self



Yep - it'll show up as another drive. There's a size limit depending on the version of windoze.


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## trashpony (Mar 29, 2011)

Thanks. What's the limit so I don't splash more cash than I need to? (am running Vista). My hard disk is 120gb so something of a similar size would be grand


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Mar 29, 2011)

trashpony said:


> Thanks. What's the limit so I don't splash more cash than I need to? (am running Vista). My hard disk is 120gb so something of a similar size would be grand


 
You won't hit a limit with vista.

It's not worth buying one that small, for a few quid more you can get something much bigger. 500gb is the smallest I'd look at these days for a "portable" drive and 1tb for one you're not going to leave the house with.


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## gentlegreen (Mar 29, 2011)

I'm probably about to put TWO 2TB drives inside my PC - striped. If data's worth hoarding, it's worth looking after.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Mar 29, 2011)

gentlegreen said:


> I'm probably about to put TWO 2TB drives inside my PC - striped. If data's worth hoarding, it's worth looking after.


 
If you after looking after data, wouldn't mirrored be better?


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## gentlegreen (Mar 29, 2011)

Global Stoner said:


> If you after looking after data, wouldn't mirrored be better?


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Mar 29, 2011)

Lol

I'm not convinced about RAID for home uses, I'd rather have the data on an external if it's my sole backup and any speed advantage of stripped mostly negated by SSDs.


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## gentlegreen (Mar 29, 2011)

I'm fairly sure I saw a message somewhere from the BIOS on my new MOBO implying it would handle mirroring for me.

I've put 2 TB drives in our 4 office PCs at work and am experimenting with an informal peer to peer backup.

The machine my colleague uses for Premier-ing also has a 2x2TB mirrored WD external so he can work straight from it ...


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## trashpony (Mar 29, 2011)

I guess I could get a tb then it would last me a long time. What does a tb stand for? 

ETA: on Amazon that size is between £45 and £80. Is more expensive better?


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Mar 29, 2011)

Lots of modern motherboards support RAID 0 & 1 so it's likely you can.

The idea of peer to peer back up is appealing, what software are you using or are you doing it with scripts? I've been playing with crashplan on the ed's recommendation. 

Not sure I'd like the idea of working from an external for large files unless I had esata/usb3.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Mar 29, 2011)

trashpony said:


> I guess I could get a tb then it would last me a long time. What does a tb stand for?


 
terrabyte - 1000gb


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## gentlegreen (Mar 29, 2011)

Global Stoner said:


> Lots of modern motherboards support RAID 0 & 1 so it's likely you can.
> 
> The idea of peer to peer back up is appealing, what software are you using or are you doing it with scripts? I've been playing with crashplan on the ed's recommendation.
> 
> Not sure I'd like the idea of working from an external for large files unless I had esata/usb3.



I'm doing it on the 100Mip ethernet - I may get the systems chap pissed and ask him for fixed IP and help with some sort of local arrangement with the switch ...

I'm getting approx 1 GB per minute on a simple domain share.

On the other hand , as you say, I could always wire up an alternative connection of my own.

What's the max sustained data rate of a WD caviar drive ? - presumably it's slower than ethernet or USB2 ?

The "script" is me remembering to click on the shortcut every once in a while and copying it across....


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## gentlegreen (Mar 29, 2011)

Global Stoner said:


> terrabyte - 1000gb



I accidentally formatted a new 2TB drive last week - it took the whole working day !


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Mar 29, 2011)

gentlegreen said:


> What's the max sustained data rate of a WD caviar drive ? - presumably it's slower than ethernet or USB2 ?


 
You'd have to benchmark it to be sure, but it's a whole lot faster then USB2 and ethernet.


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## gentlegreen (Mar 29, 2011)

In practice though it isn't really an issue. I get the video off the cameras at USB2 ...


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Mar 29, 2011)

Hmmm....I notice a massive difference between copying between my internal drives compared to internal to external.

Did a build for a friend a while back for using premier and all the research I did pointed to having fast drives, preferably in RAID 0.


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## Badgers (Apr 28, 2011)

A few okay deals:

Samsung 1.5TB Story Station USB External Hard Drive - £55.00

Samsung 2TB Story Station USB External Hard Drive - £69.98

Western Digital 2TB Elements External Hard Drive - £69.99


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## Throbbing Angel (Apr 28, 2011)

got the ebuyer weekly email today which features a 1tb external HDD for  under £38! 

linky

no idea who CNM are or if they are any good - have seen the name crop up a few times on ebay weekly/daily deals recently - probably ebuyer's ebay store I imagine

The reviews all give it


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## Quartz (May 6, 2011)

A week or two ago, I got myself a Verbatim 1 TB 2.5" USB 3 external drive and a USB 3 card for less than £100 from Amazon.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (May 9, 2011)

Quartz said:


> A week or two ago, I got myself a Verbatim 1 TB 2.5" USB 3 external drive and a USB 3 card for less than £100 from Amazon.


 
USB 3 is starting to sound tempting and the controller cards are quite cheap. 

Daft question, but does the caddy you get for you drive effect the speed?


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## Throbbing Angel (May 9, 2011)

Global Stoner said:


> USB 3 is starting to sound tempting and the controller cards are quite cheap.
> 
> Daft question, but does the caddy you get for you drive effect the speed?


 

won't the caddy have usb 2 *or* usb 3 and therefore 'yes'

then again, I know n'owt about this, so fuck knows


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## UnderAnOpenSky (May 9, 2011)

Throbbing Angel said:


> won't the caddy have usb 2 *or* usb 3 and therefore 'yes'
> 
> then again, I know n'owt about this, so fuck knows



I should have been more specific and said USB 3 caddies.


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## Quartz (May 10, 2011)

Global Stoner said:


> Daft question, but does the caddy you get for you drive effect the speed?



Not daft. USB 3 uses a connector compatible with USB 2 at the computer end, but unique at the device end. You need to get a USB 3 caddy.


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## Bob_the_lost (May 10, 2011)

Global Stoner said:


> I should have been more specific and said USB 3 caddies.


 
Yes but good luck finding out which controller is the fastest.


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## Throbbing Angel (May 16, 2011)

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/261535

"Toshiba 250GB StorE Alu2 Portable Hard Drive - Silver - USB 2.0" £29.99 at eBuyer  - arrived in my email this morning - only £3 off but still...

BUT I think eBuyer still charge delivery for orders under £50, so, beware and check things out before going all click happy


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## Badgers (Jul 7, 2011)

Not bad but not sure of manufacturer? 
CNM CORE 2TB USB 3.0 - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/255452
£64.79inc. vat
Includes Free Security Software Worth £45


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## Crispy (Jul 7, 2011)

It'll be fine. The actual drive will be from one of the big 4 manufacturers. The case and circuitry are very basic and hard to get wrong. That's a good price, and it's USB3 which will help in the future (your current computer won't care)


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## Quartz (Jul 7, 2011)

A small note: I continue to be very happy with the USB 3 Verbatim 1 TB drive I got from Amazon. It's a 2.5" device.


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## Badgers (Jul 8, 2011)

Crispy said:


> It'll be fine. The actual drive will be from one of the big 4 manufacturers. The case and circuitry are very basic and hard to get wrong. That's a good price, and it's USB3 which will help in the future (your current computer won't care)


 
Looks good. I had been thinking the Samsung Story Station 2.0TB USB 2.0 for £64.98, partly because I trust the Samsung drives. Seeing as the CNM CORE 2TB USB 3.0 posted above is about 20p cheaper it sounds like the better deal.


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## Badgers (Jul 22, 2011)

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 750 GB USB 2.0 Ultra-portable External Hard Drive £49.98 

Not the most GB you can get for your cash but good price for a portable drive of that size. 
Can be upgraded to USB 3.0 but you need to buy a cable kit if you want that

Product Dimensions: 13.4 x 8.9 x 2.2 cm - 150 g


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## sumimasen (Aug 8, 2011)

Does anyone know why when I plug in my WD Elements Desktop HDD, it doesn't show up as any of the drives in My Computer. It's odd because it does show up in my Device Manager.


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## Teepee (Aug 26, 2011)

is it worth getting a drive and enclosure separately? I'm looking at this drive http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004C0WVP6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

EDIT, the SMART data of my external WD drive shows 1.6 years of (cumulative) use and 1967 power cycles - I don't want to push my luck with my data much longer


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## mitochondria (Aug 30, 2011)

for me it was worth getting enclosure and drive separately. I would pay £20 more if it was branded external but I wanted esata and these are quite pricey branded.

also you have a choice of drive - I think standard is 5400, I have put 7200 in. it is unbelievably fast.

omg I love this drive.


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## Badgers (Sep 2, 2011)

This is a pretty good deal for a 1TB - 2.5" - USB3 supporting drive


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## Badgers (Dec 21, 2011)

Seems that the prices are dropping a bit.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Dec 21, 2011)

That will be the factories in Thailand coming back online again.


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## Mrs Magpie (Dec 21, 2011)

Throbbing Angel said:


> I think the general rule is don't throw them about.


Or drop them or knock them. That's what did for my husband's eternal hard drive.


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## Badgers (Jan 21, 2012)

Anyone seen any good 1TB deals of late? Samsung ideally. Not fussed if internal or external.


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## bmd (Jan 28, 2012)

Mrs Magpie said:


> Or drop them or knock them. That's what did for my husband's *eternal hard drive*.



The lie is in the name Mrs M


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## Mrs Magpie (Jan 28, 2012)




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## sim667 (Feb 13, 2012)

Anyone got any suggestions for a reliable hard drive? Both of my friends have gone kaput. And she wants me to sort her computer...... I was thinking if i can get a 1tb I can partition it and have one half as a time machine backup of her mac (she has no backups of anything whatsoever.. and the other for storage....


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## Quartz (Feb 13, 2012)

Don't do this. Have a separate external disk. This guards against one drive failing. If you simply partition the drive, both partitions will perforce fail when the drive does.


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## mister_shine (Mar 7, 2012)

I use RAID 1 for maximum safety on an external backup (you can buy these at any computer shop, also called "mirroring RAID", "RAID mirror"), it's just two hard drives in one box that store an identical copy of the data meaning that if one fails, you've still got one copy. Of course, if someone nicks the box then you're screwed but its pretty reliable otherwise.

The only problem is it's twice as expensive as a normal drive and totally unnecessary if the external is just a straight backup of the internal (I tend to use the external for full storage rather than just backup). At any rate Quartz is right, don't do that if your "storage" partition is not backed up elsewhere - use a RAID 1 box - that way no matter what you do, you will have two copies of the data on two drives.


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## wemakeyousoundb (Mar 7, 2012)

And if your data is really that important then your back up should be in a separate physical location too...


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## gentlegreen (Mar 7, 2012)

I suspect I'm going to be ordering *another* two 2TB drives this year to put in a network box and actually mirror them.

The two I bought last year are still inside my PC and are more or less full already because of my video footage hoarding.


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## Boris Sprinkler (Mar 7, 2012)

Badgers said:


> This is quite sexy - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004445JI6/ref=nosim/?tag=hotukdeals-21
> 
> 2.5" - 500GB (USB 3.0/2.0) for £44.97 delivered


Now £71.39


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Mar 7, 2012)

When the fuck are they going to go back down in price again!


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## gentlegreen (Mar 8, 2012)

The drives I bought last year have gone from £65 each to £110.


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## sim667 (Mar 19, 2012)

sim667 said:


> Anyone got any suggestions for a reliable hard drive? Both of my friends have gone kaput. And she wants me to sort her computer...... I was thinking if i can get a 1tb I can partition it and have one half as a time machine backup of her mac (she has no backups of anything whatsoever.. and the other for storage....


 
This doesnt matter now, she completely ignored what I said and bought another shit one.


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## flutterbye (Apr 7, 2012)

I bought one of those 2tb seagate hard drives for £120 recently. My honest advice would be to not move them that often, since they do have moving components, treat them with extra care and they should last for ages, all the best will in the world wont stop things going wrong.


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## TopCat (Apr 8, 2012)

Currys are doing a seagate portable 1tb drive for 85 quid.


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## peterkro (Apr 16, 2012)

LaCie are flogging off refurb drives (90 day guarantee) one mobile 1Tb £100 plus a USB desktop and one network drive:

http://www.lacie.com/uk/products/clearance/products/?id=10007

(the rugged 1TB mobile drive is Firewire 800/400 and USB by the way)


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## TopCat (Apr 26, 2012)

TopCat said:


> Currys are doing a seagate portable 1tb drive USB 3.0 for 85 quid.


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## audiotech (Apr 28, 2012)

sumimasen said:


> Does anyone know why when I plug in my WD Elements Desktop HDD, it doesn't show up as any of the drives in My Computer. It's odd because it does show up in my Device Manager.


 
Is it formatted with a partition? Have you checked if it's recognised in BIOS? Usually press F12 on boot-up to enter BIOS.

I put two partitions on an internal hard drive. One exclusively for the operating system and any associated software, the other partition for everything else.

I use Acronis back-up software. Hasn't let me down yet for a full back-up, incremental back-ups and cloning the hard drive, or individual partitions.

Avoid moving any external drive when it's being read, with the disks spinning. Pretty obvious that this is when damage to the drive is likely to occur.

I have purchased four hard drives on ebay and not had a problem with any of them. Bought two OEM hard drives from an exclusive computer retailer, based in premises to buy over the counter and both failed in the same week. That was a bit of a nightmare all in all.

My personal recommendation for branded hard drives for lap-tops and external drives is Toshiba. I have two external and two for lap-tops and none of them have let me down as yet. I have just upgraded the Toshiba one in this laptop, with another of the same make, as I needed a bigger drive, but the old one still works, so I bought a pretty decent caddy off ebay for £5 and now use it as a back-up drive. I've had it for over five years and it still works fine.


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## stuff_it (Jul 25, 2012)

TopCat said:


> Currys are doing a seagate portable 1tb drive for 85 quid.


I just got a Western Digital Passport one the same size for a similar price off Amazon, 2.5" so USB powered as well.


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## stuff_it (Jul 26, 2012)

stuff_it said:


> I just got a Western Digital Passport one the same size for a similar price off Amazon, 2.5" so USB powered as well.


Fuck me it's tiny! 

And it matches my laptop (pauper red - why do they even make funny colours when they always have to charge less for them cos no one wants them?)


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## sim667 (Feb 12, 2013)

Anyone got any suggestions for a 1TB or 2TB hard drive for my macbook pro?

Im getting into ableton (for my own interest) and some VJ software for our nights, so could do with an external hard drive to keep video clips and samples on. I also want to put a 500gb partition on there for a time machine backup for mac os x.

I dont want one that runs off mains power, and I'd like quite a tough one from a decent manufacturer, every Lacie I've ever had just breaks straight away, and it seems buffalo support is rubbish according to another thread on here.


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## Boris Sprinkler (Feb 12, 2013)

I have a WD 1TB drive. USB 3.0 that i use with rainbow tables and password lists (so it needs to be fast), it works great with my Mac. Doesnt require extra power and it's quite small. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elements-1T...PO/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1360672215&sr=8-14


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## sim667 (Feb 12, 2013)

Boris Sprinkler said:


> I have a WD 1TB drive. USB 3.0 that i use with rainbow tables and password lists (so it needs to be fast), it works great with my Mac. Doesnt require extra power and it's quite small. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elements-1T...PO/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1360672215&sr=8-14


 Nice. Little bit on the small side though.

Is it quite robust?


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## Boris Sprinkler (Feb 12, 2013)

Funnily enough, I just dropped it onto a wooden floor. It's fine.  it's a bit bigger than a pack of fags. I did think it was 2TB but I was wrong. It's one I picked up at work.


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## sim667 (Feb 12, 2013)

Boris Sprinkler said:


> Funnily enough, I just dropped it onto a wooden floor. It's fine. it's a bit bigger than a pack of fags. I did think it was 2TB but I was wrong. It's one I picked up at work.


 
By the time I've got a 500gb backup on it though, and god knows how many samples and vid clips, I think 1tb will be a bit small...... so im gonna try and find 2tb.....


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Feb 12, 2013)

sim667 said:


> By the time I've got a 500gb backup on it though, and god knows how many samples and vid clips, I think 1tb will be a bit small...... so im gonna try and find 2tb.....


 
I'm not sure they do laptop drives that size. Happy to be proved wrong though.


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## sim667 (Feb 12, 2013)

Global Stoner said:


> I'm not sure they do laptop drives that size. Happy to be proved wrong though.


 
Considering this

http://www.ebuyer.com/413990-wd-2tb-my-passport-portable-for-mac-silver-wdbkkf0020bsl-eesn


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Feb 12, 2013)

Nice work Sim you proved me wrong. 

That's really odd, I was looking on there at internal laptop drives just at the weekend and they didn't have any, but now they do have one.


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## sim667 (Feb 12, 2013)

Global Stoner said:


> Nice work Sim you proved me wrong.
> 
> That's really odd, I was looking on there at internal laptop drives just at the weekend and they didn't have any, but now they do have one.


 
Not the easiest of things to find tbh..... the reviews dont seem to list any.....

I think im going to order that one when I get home, and partition my raid drive so both my mac pro and macbook pro backup to that.


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## Boris Sprinkler (Feb 12, 2013)

I was looking at the same but on the US amazon site, http://www.amazon.com/Passport-Portable-External-Drive-Storage/dp/B005HMKKH4

its a bit cheaper.


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## sim667 (Feb 12, 2013)

Boris Sprinkler said:


> I was looking at the same but on the US amazon site, http://www.amazon.com/Passport-Portable-External-Drive-Storage/dp/B005HMKKH4
> 
> its a bit cheaper.


 
Been reading a lot of reviews saying WD passports fail a lot...... which is putting me off...... Thinking back my mates failed and she wanted me to try and get the data off it, but I couldn't get it to even spin up, she'd owned it just over a year.

So im now re-thinking my options..... Toshiba have just released a 2tb canvio, but its impossible to get hold of, so considering a 1.5tb one instead.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008JZV3EK/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers

Seems to get reviewed quite highly as far as I can tell.


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## Boris Sprinkler (Feb 12, 2013)

That looks nice. i mean don't let my WD recommendation cloud your judgement. I got mine for nothing and I am not storing any critical data on it. My time machine backups go to my time capsule


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## sim667 (Feb 12, 2013)

Boris Sprinkler said:


> That looks nice. i mean don't let my WD recommendation cloud your judgement. I got mine for nothing and I am not storing any critical data on it. My time machine backups go to my time capsule


 
I think what i will do is partition my raid connected to my mac pro and use that as time machine for both and get a 1.5tb toshiba for the samples and clips.

A lot of my students have those wd passports and they seems to throw wobbles a lot.


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## Ranbay (Feb 12, 2013)

sim667 said:


> Considering this
> 
> http://www.ebuyer.com/413990-wd-2tb-my-passport-portable-for-mac-silver-wdbkkf0020bsl-eesn


 
these fly up and down in price on amazon, picked 2 up for £105 each end of last year.


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## sim667 (Feb 12, 2013)

B0B2oo9 said:


> these fly up and down in price on amazon, picked 2 up for £105 each end of last year.


 What size?


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## Ranbay (Feb 12, 2013)

the 2TB portable ones


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## sim667 (Feb 12, 2013)

B0B2oo9 said:


> the 2TB portable ones


 
Ah. nice 

They're high at the moment prices for HD's generally though


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## Ranbay (Feb 12, 2013)

sim667 said:


> Ah. nice
> 
> They're high at the moment prices for HD's generally though


 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Passport-2T...3S22/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360694182&sr=8-1


http://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/Passport-2TB-Portable-Hard-Drive/product/B007IA3S22


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## sim667 (Feb 12, 2013)

Have yours been ok?


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## Ranbay (Feb 12, 2013)

yeah, i buy loads of HDD's and the WD are always the best, lest fails of any i have ever used.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Feb 12, 2013)

Don't most disks have similar failour rates? I'm always wary of a few peoples experiences as they are the people who will complain about them and aren't' that statistical useful.


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## Ranbay (Feb 12, 2013)

Global Stoner said:


> Don't most disks have similar failour rates? I'm always wary of a few peoples experiences as they are the people who will complain about them and aren't' that statistical useful.


 
At my peak i was buying and selling on 10-15 drives a week, i also have about 30 in use here, i have RMA'd 1 or 2 WD and over 20 segate drives and a few Hitachi, so it's not the case of someone who has just lost some stuff on one HDD. 

now i only buy WD drives after the ball ache that segate have been for me.


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## sim667 (Feb 12, 2013)

Fuck it. Ill go with the WD then.....


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## oldnick (Feb 28, 2013)

Afternoon all, my first time here so please treat me gently...

First question, is there an idiot's guide to portable HD's? If so tell me and save yourself reading the rest of this 

My elderly laptop (5 year old Compaq running XP, was a pile 'em high sell 'em cheap at PC World) is slowing down again, and is running out of memory.

Am I right in thinking that an external HD will help, the plan is to move all the existing files over, then use the new drive to store all new files. All the laptop is used for is browsing the web, and storing photos, music and a few music videos. 

Once the files are moved, my local computer guy will clean out the laptop and replace only the minimum functions that I use, and I'll  continue to store new files on the new drive. 

Whilst the obvious answer is a new machine a) I'm skint and b) the laptop normally does everything I want it to and c) I'm a sentimental old thing.

Thanks in advance, 
Nick


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## TopCat (Feb 28, 2013)

oldnick said:


> Afternoon all, my first time here so please treat me gently...
> 
> Nick


 

There there, (strokes Old Nick nicely) have a hob knob.


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## TopCat (Feb 28, 2013)

I bought one of these and it's great. 

http://www.maplin.co.uk/1tb-seagate-expansion-portable-hard-drive-508706

£80 or thereabouts. make sure it has USB 3 though as maplin may try and palm you off with an old USB 2 model.


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## oldnick (Feb 28, 2013)

I've got a hob already, and don't call me 'knob' yer cheeky whipper-snapper.

Will USB work with my elderly laptop? The lead adapts it I presume?


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## TopCat (Feb 28, 2013)

oldnick said:


> I've got a hob already, and don't call me 'knob' yer cheeky whipper-snapper.
> 
> Will USB work with my elderly laptop? The lead adapts it I presume?


Your laptop will have USB.


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## oldnick (Feb 28, 2013)

I meant USB3 - sorry


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## TopCat (Feb 28, 2013)

oldnick said:


> I meant USB3 - sorry


Nah you won't have USB 3 but it's backwards compatible with USB 2.


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## Elvis Parsley (Mar 3, 2013)

TopCat said:


> I bought one of these and it's great.
> 
> http://www.maplin.co.uk/1tb-seagate-expansion-portable-hard-drive-508706
> 
> £80 or thereabouts. make sure it has USB 3 though as maplin may try and palm you off with an old USB 2 model.


there are better deals on external hard drives that require power supplies, they're a little less portable, but you can get double the capacity for the same money.

i've just got myself a WD My Book 2TB for £80, now i just need to sort through 6 years of badly organised files


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Mar 3, 2013)

Elvis Parsley said:


> there are better deals on external hard drives that require power supplies, they're a little less portable, but you can get double the capacity for the same money.
> 
> i've just got myself a WD My Book 2TB for £80, now i just need to sort through 6 years of badly organised files


 
They're a faf though, next time I buy one I'm going to pay the extra for a small usb powered job.

Sorting files is a mission, but I got in recently and found I saved a fair few gigs and backups are so much easier!


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## threeminus (Apr 16, 2013)

Go with WD, the largest size you can get, and look for USB 3.


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## RedDragon (Apr 16, 2013)

A couple of years ago the general advice was the higher the TB the higher the chance of failure, is this still the case or have things improved?


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## editor (Apr 16, 2013)

I've got a Toshiba 1TB USB 3.0 drive on review and it's pretty damn good for less than £60.
http://www.wirefresh.com/review-tos...ard-drive-offers-1tb-of-storage-for-under-60/

RedDragon I'm not sure the size of a back up drive has much to do with failure rates these days.


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## sim667 (Jun 7, 2013)

I still never bought one, but I am actually going too now

I need one at the moment to transfer about 80 gigs of stuff from my mates PC to my Mac, Only problem is that you by the WD ones preformatted for one or t'other. If i just reformatted the disk to fat32 it would let me use it on both wouldnt it?

each file i need to get off him is about 80 meg in size, there's just about 100 of them, so I could and drop that as a folder to a fat32 disk without succumbing to the 4gb limit couldn't i?


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## creation portal (Jun 7, 2013)

thanks great theory i will definately try iit the costlier and hevier it is the more resistable it is , well it's kind of a basic concept when it comes to purchase


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## Quartz (Jun 7, 2013)

sim667 said:


> I need one at the moment to transfer about 80 gigs of stuff from my mates PC to my Mac, Only problem is that you by the WD ones preformatted for one or t'other. If i just reformatted the disk to fat32 it would let me use it on both wouldnt it?


 

I don't know about Macs, but on Windows, MS stupidly put a size limit of 32 GB on creating FAT32 partitions.


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## sim667 (Jun 7, 2013)

Quartz said:


> I don't know about Macs, but on Windows, MS stupidly put a size limit of 32 GB on creating FAT32 partitions.


 
Fucksake.

Its stuff like this that has ended in me not using any microsoft operating systems by choice for the past 11 years.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Jun 8, 2013)

sim667 said:


> Fucksake.
> 
> Its stuff like this that has ended in me not using any microsoft operating systems by choice for the past 11 years.


 

TBF it came in with Windows 95.

If it was Apple they would have just stopped supporting it, rather then giving you a choice.


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## Quartz (Jun 8, 2013)

Global Stoner said:


> TBF it came in with Windows 95.


 
Windows XP, IIRC

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Jun 8, 2013)

Wiki seems to think earlier, but I had to google to check. Either way it's bloody old and I'm amazed that we still get stuff formated this way.


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## Quartz (Jun 8, 2013)

Indeed. I pretty much dropped Windows 98 / FAT32 and OS/2 / HPFS shortly after the first beta for Windows 2000 came out. That's nearly 15 years ago!


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## Ranbay (Jun 8, 2013)

You can format 2TB drives to FAT32? Done it my self just need a porgy to do it


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## TopCat (Nov 24, 2013)

My son got a Seagate 1TB portable from Maplin for thirty quid.


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## sim667 (Jan 21, 2014)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Passport-Ul...F8&qid=1390306431&sr=1-3&keywords=WD+passport
Will this be backward compatible with a machine that only has USB2?

I dont think my macbook is USB 3


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## peterkro (Jan 21, 2014)

Yes USB3 and 2 are compatible.( there are USB3 cards for Mac with a bit of jiggery pokery will work)


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## sim667 (Jan 21, 2014)

peterkro said:


> Yes USB3 and 2 are compatible.( there are USB3 cards for Mac with a bit of jiggery pokery will work)


 
Awesome.

I think my macbook is meant to be USB 3 anyway


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## editor (Jan 26, 2014)

This is a handy little graph. 







http://lifehacker.com/the-most-and-least-reliable-hard-drive-brands-1505797966


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Jan 28, 2014)

I'm not sure that how well they perform in servers is that useful to most people buying an external drive.


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## BandWagon (Oct 31, 2014)

Does anyone have an up to date recommendation for a low capacity unit for Win7? Nothing fancy, just back-ups really.


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## Quartz (Oct 31, 2014)

I love my Samsung M3 portable 2.5" units.


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## BandWagon (Oct 31, 2014)

Thanks. That's one of the units I was looking at.


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## BandWagon (Nov 2, 2014)

Do any of these units include a facility to automatically save a file to the external drive when saving it to the local drive?

(I take laziness to new heights)


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## leftistangel (Dec 19, 2014)

Been using 1 and 2tb variants of Samsungs M3 and happy with speed and reliability. Very much hope the 3TB barrier is cracked for 2.5 usb powered devices in 2015 though.


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## Sunray (Jan 30, 2015)

editor said:


> This is a handy little graph.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I think for portable hard disk, unless you want massive disks of 500Gb+,  a 2.5" SSD in an enclosure is a far safer way to carry data about.  I've never thought mechanical disks were a good way to carry data about and now you don't have to use them unless you have a pressing need for very large data sets.


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## farmerbarleymow (Mar 6, 2015)

BandWagon said:


> Do any of these units include a facility to automatically save a file to the external drive when saving it to the local drive?
> 
> (I take laziness to new heights)



I've recently bought two Western Digital Passport Ultra backup drives, and the software will let you run a continuous backup on the fly so any changes in folders/files/file types you select will be backed up pretty much immediately.  I've got a 1TB and a 2TB version, and they are easy to shove in my bag to carry round so that if I ever get burgled, I'll still have my data if my laptop gets nicked.  

This is the 2tb one, the other is slightly thinner - both about 11 x 8cm ish.





I've still got an older Seagate 1TB drive which is huge compared to these two - definitely not portable...


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## editor (Jun 28, 2021)

If you've got a WD drive, read this 









						PSA: If you use a Western Digital My Book Live HDD, disconnect it now
					

Some Western Digital My Book Live users are reporting complete data loss. Western Digital is advising users of the network-connected external hard drive to disconnect it from the internet immediately.




					www.dpreview.com


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## farmerbarleymow (Jun 28, 2021)

I recently bought two 5TB drives, along with a 1TB microSD card and a 512GB USB drive.  For some reason having lots of storage is reassuring.

Shoved the microSD card into the newer laptop and copied my data onto it, but not done anything with the new drives yet - planning to back up everything on each and keep them as offline copies, updating them now and again.  Don't know what I'll use the USB for yet.

In total I think I have something daft like ~20TB of storage.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Jun 28, 2021)

farmerbarleymow said:


> I recently bought two 5TB drives, along with a 1TB microSD card and a 512GB USB drive.  For some reason having lots of storage is reassuring.
> 
> Shoved the microSD card into the newer laptop and copied my data onto it, but not done anything with the new drives yet - planning to back up everything on each and keep them as offline copies, updating them now and again.  Don't know what I'll use the USB for yet.
> 
> In total I think I have something daft like ~20TB of storage.



That's a lot of porn


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## farmerbarleymow (Jun 28, 2021)

UnderAnOpenSky said:


> That's a lot of porn


Nah, I've just got a lot of photos of seagulls and spiders.  Actually, that sounds worse.


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## cyberpink (Jun 29, 2021)

SSD or nothing.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Jun 29, 2021)

cyberpink said:


> SSD or nothing.



Yes for internal, but if you just need to back up loads of data, why bother, at least until the price is more even.


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## farmerbarleymow (Jun 29, 2021)

UnderAnOpenSky said:


> Yes for internal, but if you just need to back up loads of data, why bother, at least until the price is more even.


I agree - external HDDs are good enough to back up data.


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