External hard drives

[muchmaligned]

edit: i hate that my first post on the new board is a "waa my computer!" thread, but i need help, dammit.

got a new computer yesterday from Microcenter. i have a Seagate Freeagent Pro 320g usb external hard drive that i've had for about 6 months with no problems on my previous computer. when i first set up my new computer, i had the hard drive plugged into the rear USB and it worked fine... Vista auto-loaded the drivers and everything seemed hunky-dory. it appeared under "My Computer" and i could access the files. shortly thereafter, i installed my Zune (lolz) and had an issue with the driver installation (surprise!). Vista wasn't detecting the Zune properly and i had to go in and manually tell the device manager to load the drivers.

shortly after doing this, i noticed my hard drive was no longer appearing under "My Computer," and now when i unplug and replug the drive from the USB port, Vista now gives me a "device not recognized" message. i have since tried everything conceivable to get it to work - different USB ports, numerous reboots, everything offered under Seagate's troubleshooting guide. Seagate doesn't make their own drivers for these drives, they rely on Microsoft's generic ones, but Vista refuses to load the correct driver because it isn't detecting the drive as USB mass storage. however, when i try to manually assign the USB mass storage device driver it gives me a "Code 10 - device will not start" error.

it now appears that my drive may be fucked. i just plugged it into my roommate's laptop which is running XP and used to detect it just fine and it's now giving me the same "device not recognized" message. it's hard to believe my drive would simply stop working the same day i happen to buy a new computer, but i don't know what other explanation there could be at this point.

anyone had this problem? can a driver issue ruin a hard drive? or can anyone recommend a good data recovery service that won't cost me more than the fucking drive did in the first place?

[Smelly Mustafa]

Sorry, I can't really help you. All I can say is, I've had so many issues with vista it's not even funny. It's really a piece of shit.

[muchmaligned]

i was really planning on getting something with XP pre-installed but i decided i'd give it another chance. now i'm out nearly 320g worth of hard-earned pirated movies/tv shows/music/games. christsakes.

[chump1039]

i have ontrack easy recovery if you want to try and recover whats on the drive. just let me know

[gtrplyr7]

Question about external drives..

I don't have any...never wanted any.

My dad has 2 500GB external drives full of MP3s. He leaves them on most of the time.

This morning he goes into his computer room and they are both spinning like crazy and are super hot.

They aren't every old and they shouldn't have been doing anything...there were no scans or anything scheduled.

Do these thinks stay busy all the time? Don't they ever just sit idle? Whats the deal?

[Vega]

turning off or unplugging when not in use is probably your easiest, safest and most logical bet

[BeeTs]

prob has something to do with the OS continuously scanning externally connected devices that keeps them spinning/active. I've seen external drives get very hot from just sitting around plugged in, but not being used/accessed.

[Squid]

Definetely disconnect and unplug when not in use. Them shits will get hot.

[imhaunted]

Yeah I have two 500gb drives and one 350gb drive and I always leave them unplugged when not in use. Leaving them on just increases the risk of them overheating and not to mention uses up that much more electricity

[zt001]

Turn off that windows indexing service too, there's a chance it or something was trying to access something on those drives that was in use, so it kept trying and trying, in typical Windozee fashion. My external kind of sleeps when not in use, and when you need it you can hear it come on and start doing its thing. It's a Western Digital.

[chump1039]

windows might have been doing the file indexing for faster searches bullshit. as said above, just unplug when not in use.

[zt001]

windows might have been doing the file indexing for faster searches bullshit. as said above, just unplug when not in use.

Haha, touche'.

[flipp jackson]

i'm happy with my 750 gig mybook, it turns itself off when the device it's connected to isn't on.

[zt001]

i'm happy with my 750 gig mybook, it turns itself off when the device it's connected to isn't on.

OP, are they Western Digital externals?

[God of Rapture]

Heating up and cooling down drives would do more harm than leaving them on all the time.

[MattyCakes]

i just leave mine on all the time

[AFHAERO]

After hearing stories of WD's crapping out, do you guys burn dvds backing up your files, or have designated externals to back up files?

I have heard it is ridiculously exspensive to have the data from a dead MyBook retrieved, not even bringing to light the amount of pirated shit on my computer/external. Just thinking about this again as I read the thread.

[Schmee]

Mine stays on all the time too, its suppose to go off when not in use, but Windows Vista is doodoo.

[zt001]

It's not that bad to recover data. You can pirate a program (I used R-Studio on a friends pc). It may take a few days if you have a ton of data though.

I'd back up SERIOUSLY important things onto DVD's if you can. Or you could just have 2 externals and clone one from the first every week or two.

[drew]

All my music is on a 500gb external with a second 500gb external that is simply a clone of it. You can't be too careful.

[=pete!]

chances are your dad can still get everything off the hd by slaving it into a desktop. i've had to do this before when i dropped mine while it was on. i was surprised every thing was still saved since i was about to ship it out to seagate to get everything restored for over a grand! i'm glad i saved the money

[sheriff watson]

i've had 3 WD's fail on me that have been about a year old. At least they are good on their warranties. Whats a good brand?

[Dillinger]

So yesterday my drive asked me i wanted to reformat, thinking it was a virus i said no and turned it off. Now my external is giving a red light error and every time I tried to open it in my computer or goto properties it says "not responding".

Surely this is some stupid virus no? Can someone show me how to get my shit back?(g)(g)

[sevenwords]

sounds like it died. time to buy a new one.

or you have a virus.

i just got a 2tb western digital mybook world edition for free. only catch is i have to buy a power supply.
http://www.wdc.com/global/images/products/frnt/300/wdfMyBook_World_2N.jpg

[MattyCakes]

there are recovery tools, just search google.

try that

http://www.runtime.org/

[toolbear]

probably the board that plugs into the hdd inside is rooted.. try taking it apart and remove the ide hard drve, theyre exactly the same as whats in your pc.

[Tom]

does it ask you to reformat when you try to get into the drive?

[Mark.]

so I guess this thread would be a good place to ask what brands are good for externals?

[gnutella]

WD

[Dillinger]

does it ask you to reformat when you try to get into the drive?

nope it won't even let me now it just looks like its loading for 2 minutes then it freezes up the my computer window. ill try what taking it out after doing that data recovery program.

[Hephaestus]

probably the board that plugs into the hdd inside is rooted.. try taking it apart and remove the ide hard drve, theyre exactly the same as whats in your pc.

Definitely worth trying if you've completely exhausted all other methods.

[GRANOLEMAN]

WD

[Hephaestus]

WD

But not a raptor.

EDIT: nevermind, they don't put raptors in externals.

[sheriff watson]

I tried getdataback and it seems to be working pretty good so far. I used it on a hdd that i had tried other programs on with no luck. It seems to have found pretty much everything. now for the tedious process of transferring 300 gb of comics and movies.

[Tom]

getdataback is great, someone on here suggested it back when a drive of mine lost the file index, and i was able to recover everything

[Snitchy McSnoop]

So, I'm gonna pick one up, To be honest I've done no research. Anyway, The main purpose will be to store xvids on it as I'm sick of buying dvds and my OCD has been forcing me to delete every rip after I've watched it to keep my hard drive 'clean'. Now the question is, will I be able to play these on VLC with them sat on the external drive or will I have to copy them to the internal every time I want to play them?

Is there any particular model/feature I should be looking into if I want to do this?

[Haliai]

As long as you have a reasonably fast connection, like USB2 or firewire, you should be fine. Unless you're thinking about doing something like RAID, just but whatever's on sale.

[Schismal]

Yeah, streaming movies doesn't take that much bandwidth, so pretty much any connection will work. 750GB is still the best price/storage ratio, and you can find those for a little under $100. Go a little higher (~$115) and you can land yourself 1TB external. Just newegg it or look around locally; storage is cheap.

[Snitchy McSnoop]

safe!

[Squid]

Still waiting to see what a good brand of hard drives is lol

[wolfus]

Still waiting to see what a good brand of hard drives is lol

seagate

[MattyCakes]

what i dont understand is how come people say WD raptors are like the best HD, but they are only inside the computer and not external what makes them different?

[sheriff watson]

i'd assume you would be able to pop it into an external case.

[deftech]

Raptors are no different then any other HD (as far as reliability is concerned). I have to RMA those beasts quite frequently. We recently switched to the Velociraptors at work, the jury is out on them.

[sheriff watson]

all my WD hdds seem to last about a year.

[321Drum!]

I've got a secondary 350gb internal HD that I keep all of my music/movies/etc on and am thinking of backing it up on an external just in case. Any good/cheap recommendations for a 350gb+ external?

[milhouse]

I want to get 1 or 2 external hard drives on Black Friday.

Is there a particular brand that's known for being reliable and not crapping out?

[Schismal]

They're all pretty much the same.

[Jelkster]

DO NOT get one with only a 1-year warranty. What I do these days is buy a regular hard drive so I can get the 3/5 year warranty and then buy an external case for it.

[neverender]

if you have the capabilities go firewire over usb

[Jelkster]

if you have the capabilities go firewire over usb

and if you have even more capabilities go eSata over firewire

[flipp jackson]

why would you need more than one

[gtrplyr7]

why would you need more than one

my dad has 3...all full

[milhouse]

the reason I'd want more than one is in case one dies. I want to put stuff on it that's one of a kind....and I'd be crushed if I lost it. Mostly live concerts I've recorded over the years, and photos.

Isn't it safest to get two, and back stuff up onto both? Or is partitioning one, the same thing as having two?

[flipp jackson]

i have a 750 gig external hard drive. I can't realistically see myself filling it entirely any time in the next 3-5 years

[Schismal]

i have a 750 gig external hard drive. I can't realistically see myself filling it entirely any time in the next 3-5 years
You poor child.

I have a TB in my comp, and it's almost full. I require more.

[Vega]

those DVD9 Rips of gay porn really take up a lot of space dont they Schiz

[Schismal]

Only the good ones. The so-so ones are divx.

[Abraham Lincoln]

Big difference in the externals are if they are USB powered or AC powered. The USB ones can just plug into a computer and be powered, but you sacrifice raw speed. The AC ones are faster but you sacrifice portability.

The USB ones also cost about the same as an AC one with ~1.5X the capacity.

[Whored]

(sorry to bump, but figured I'd just add to an already existing thread)

I've lost my old computer, where I stored all of my music, so I'm in the process of rebuliding my library. I currenly only have a laptop and with the 20 or so albums I have on there I can tell it's taking up a bit of my HD space. What I'd like to do is buy an external HD to store music, videos, etc. Is there anything I should look for in particular? Is the setup pretty simple? I'd only be using this for music and videos and misc. shit that I'd rather not keep on the laptop.

[BeeTs]

your best bet is to buy an external SSD (solid state drive). They're more expensive than standard HDs though and don't hold as much space. The trade-off is that there are no moving parts so you'll never have to worry about losing whatever you put on it due to a hard drive failure.

[mwarkentin]

SSDs are still too small.. you could probably buy 2 large regular hard drives for the same price as a 32GB SSD (enough for about 45-50 movies.

[Whored]

Any certain brands or anything else I should avoid?

[wubble]

got 750 gb Western Digital on sale at target for for 39.99 (was on clearance 99.99, but i but a 39.99 sticker on it) Just look for someone who appears to be dumb to check you out..

[toolbear]

nice.. but i cant beleive you guys need to ask about ext hdds. theyre all about the same.

[flipp jackson]

you're about the same

[wubble]

man targets, gots to get with it. they have a deal going on that if you by 1 of 5 games at normal price (killzone 2, Starwars unleased, etc) you get any game 50% off. Bought the two games and went right over and returned the sixty dollar one. Got Res Evil 5 for thirty bucks...lol

[Lurker II]

get one with a fan if you plan on using it a lot and hope it survives for any amount of time...

on the subject of Solid State--from wiki
Limited write (erase) cycles: Flash-memory cells will often wear out after 1,000 to 10,000 write cycles for MLC, and up to 100,000 write cycles for SLC[13], while high endurance cells may have an endurance of 1–5 million write cycles (many log files, file allocation tables, and other commonly used parts of the file system exceed this over the lifetime of a computer).[28][29][30] Special file systems or firmware designs can mitigate this problem by spreading writes over the entire device (so-called wear leveling), rather than rewriting files in place.[31] In 2008 wear leveling was just beginning to be incorporated into consumer level devices.[13] However, effective write cycles can be much less, because when a write request is made to a particular memory block, all data in the block is overwritten even when only part of the memory is altered. The write amplification, as referred by Intel, can be reduced using write memory buffer.[32] In combination with wear leveling, over-provisioning SSD flash drives with spared memory capacity also delays the loss of user-accessible memory capacity. NAND memory can be negatively impacted by read and program (write) disturbs arising from over accessing a particular NAND location. This overuse of NAND locations causes bits within the NAND block to erroneously change values. Wear leveling, by redirecting SSD writes to lesser-used NAND locations, thus reduces the potential for program or write disturbs.[33] An example for the lifetime of SSD is explained in detail in this wiki.[dubious – discuss] SSDs based on DRAM, however, do not suffer from this problem.

[Tom]

opinions on WD elements?

amazon reviews seem to be mostly positive, as opposed to the mybook which ive always heard bad things about, and is certainly out of the question now that they apparently have irremovable software installed on them.

also curious about the seagate expansion

[Optimus Fag]

opinions on WD elements?

amazon reviews seem to be mostly positive, as opposed to the mybook which ive always heard bad things about, and is certainly out of the question now that they apparently have irremovable software installed on them.

also curious about the seagate expansion

fuck i bought a mybook a few months ago

where were you then tom

[jar]

i know WD is supposed to be shit, but my 2TB is working out alright. about 52% full of video so far. and very little of that is porn.

[Sam From Salem]

using 2 1.5tb wd mybooks myself.
2 friends use 1.5tb mybooks, too.

too bad the software bugs you

[Tom]

are those the new models? i dont know how this shit couldnt bug anyone, its fucking retarded
Western Digital is now installing a "virtual drive" software that CANNOT be disabled, ejected (unmounted) or deleted. You will have an extra drive entry for each one of these you install. If you use up to 8 drives, as I have, that would mean 16 separate drive entries. WD has flat out said you cannot remove this functionality. Even reformating won't do it, because the included software is in firmware. If you do use the backup and security functions, they are part of this software, and your drive capacity will ONLY be about 770GB, not the full 930GB that is normal (you can still access the drive directly via another drive letter for full capacity). The software that comes on these drives is not professional level backup software. Neither is the security software. If you are serious about protecting your data, you will buy pro-level software anyway. But you are apparently forever stuck with this software on these drives.

[Sam From Salem]

that must be new. i've never come across that problem. mine and friends' have come with preinstalled backup software like WDtools or some bs but i was able to delete it. they were just stored files on the drives.

[chud]

without reading all four pages......why not just get a bulk 3.5inch drive and buy a separate enclosure?

[Tom]

cause im lazy? i dont know, i havent really explored that option, though judging by hard drive prices i cant imagine ill save much (if any?) going that route. im open to suggestions though if you know of a good inexspensive enclosure.

on a similar note, i was thinking of just going with an internal drive and just using a dock. ill take good dock suggestions too.

[kirk]

on a similar note, i was thinking of just going with an internal drive and just using a dock. ill take good dock suggestions too.

if i didn't already have a setup that works for me, that's what i would do.

i haven't ever tried docks, but this one seems to have some good reviews: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153071

also, if you're near a fry's they have a 2TB external for $139 - http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com/ads/2010/03/26/47320/Hitachi-2TB-Simple-Drive-II-Turbo-USB-2-0

[chud]

cause im lazy? i dont know, i havent really explored that option, though judging by hard drive prices i cant imagine ill save much (if any?) going that route. im open to suggestions though if you know of a good inexspensive enclosure.

on a similar note, i was thinking of just going with an internal drive and just using a dock. ill take good dock suggestions too.the dock that Kirk posted is good.

i personally prefer using an internal with an external enclosure or dock because you dont really know what kind of guts youre getting with the ready made externals.

the prices coming down on the ready mades further supports my own suspicions that youre not always getting top end quality parts.

id rather have a WD Black with SATA capabilities for the money.

right now im running this enclosure http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817347017 mostly because it has a firewire port which frees up USB space, and it looks nice too.

[sexy penguin meat]

i've bought a few hdd's from fantom drives thru newegg, only one wound up having bad sectors after a year (though i'm still not sure if that's from my doing or not). they typically have 1tb drives for under $100, regarding the hardware:

Q. What make/model of disk mechanisms do you use in MicroNet/Fantom Drives products?
A. MicroNet / Fantom Drives uses only the highest quality disk drives from top-tier hard disk manufacturers such as: Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi, and Samsung. We carefully vet each model of hard disk we carry to ensure that it meets our rigorous demands for quality and performance. In addition, any disk mechanism we use will meet or exceed the stated specifications for any particular MicroNet or Fantom Drives product.

[steaming79]

nowadays i ONLY buy western digital HDDs. this thread just reminded me i need to get a 1TB green drive.

[chud]

nowadays i ONLY buy western digital HDDs. this thread just reminded me i need to get a 1TB green drive.hippy.

[onefellswoop]

very little of that is porn.

suuuure it is

too bad the software bugs you

this can be shut off completely

i cant imagine ill save much (if any?) going that route.

i've done the homework, you really don't save shit

nowadays i ONLY buy western digital HDDs.

yeah I've had one bad experience, but it was a drive a got second-hand, my 320gb MyBook has been running strong for 2 1/2 years now -- wouldn't buy any other brand


I kicked around the idea of trying the Cavalry (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822101189&cm_re=cavalry_2tb-_-22-101-189-_-Product), but due to trust issues I'll probably just get another MyBook, of the 2 tb variety...plus it will match my whole blue LED scheme I've got going on, haha

[Tom]

this can be shut off completely
once again, are you sure you are talking about the new version

who am i gonna believe, you or 50 amazon reviews that say you cant

[chud]

once again, are you sure you are talking about the new version

who am i gonna believe, you or 50 amazon reviews that say you cant

i found this..... http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/updates/?family=wdsmartwareutilities

[Tom]

well then i guess that takes care of that. still leaves it with countless horrible reviews of it failing though.

[chud]

well then i guess that takes care of that. still leaves it with countless horrible reviews of it failing though.
another reason i go with internals but to each their own.

everything can fail.

[Tom]

yeah and ive actually never had a hard drive full out fail on me either, but i dunno, what im intending to do once i get a huge drive just makes me really paranoid

[chud]

yeah and ive actually never had a hard drive full out fail on me either, but i dunno, what im intending to do once i get a huge drive just makes me really paranoid
RAID NAS for redundancy?

[Tom]

hopefully gonna be able to do a raid setup in a month or two, right now im just looking to do a temporary consolidation of a bunch of old drives, as well as rip a bunch of dvds, so i can get rid of them all and make some progress in uncluttering my shit life. really i shouldnt have to worry about failing too much since i intend to move all the files and pretty much shelve the drive, but still, i dont want to go and just blow $100 on whatever drive without doing a little research first.

[chud]

hopefully gonna be able to do a raid setup in a month or two, right now im just looking to do a temporary consolidation of a bunch of old drives, as well as rip a bunch of dvds, so i can get rid of them all and make some progress in uncluttering my shit life. really i shouldnt have to worry about failing too much since i intend to move all the files and pretty much shelve the drive, but still, i dont want to go and just blow $100 on whatever drive without doing a little research first.
Gotcha.

I really don't think you can go wrong with WD. the Green's seem to go on sale/special the most, and those would be fine for store it and forget it applications.

i think i saw a 2TB for $140 and another $10 off that recently.

[onefellswoop]

once again, are you sure you are talking about the new version

who am i gonna believe, you or 50 amazon reviews that say you cant


well then i guess that takes care of that. still leaves it with countless horrible reviews of it failing though.


WD / A very popular trusted manufacturer with (lots of customers X a few potential problems) = seems like a lot of problems

if you get me, and yeah -- you can definitely shut that shit off...you have to remember half the people complaining on there probably don't know their asses from their elbows

[chud]

WD / A very popular trusted manufacturer with (lots of customers X a few potential problems) = seems like a lot of problems

if you get me, and yeah -- you can definitely shut that shit off...you have to remember half the people complaining on there probably don't know their asses from their elbowsi dont really trust Amazon reviews for ANY product.

especially since theyre always offering me perks for writing a review.

on another note....DO WANT http://www.drobostore.com/store/drobo/en_US/pd/CategoryID.14395000/productID.169198600

[Ampathy]

Can anyone link me to any wireless HDs

[chud]

Can anyone link me to any wireless HDslike you want to store a bunch of stuff on a hard drive and keep that hard drive tucked away somewhere such as in a closet?

[FunYun]

A friend got me a 1TB Mybook for christmas. I dont know shit about externals but I haven't had any problems yet. I think it started out at 930gb, definitely not 770gb.

[Ampathy]

Aye Chud.

[dalb3]

Wireless router w/ USB + external hard drive

Dont' know why someone would prefer this to networking, but whatever.

[Pretzelcoatl]

your best bet is to buy an external SSD (solid state drive). They're more expensive than standard HDs though and don't hold as much space. The trade-off is that there are no moving parts so you'll never have to worry about losing whatever you put on it due to a hard drive failure.

As somebody who works on MLC flash memory daily, I wouldn't count on your data being there forever...especially as manufacturers push towards 3 bits/cell and die shrinks.

[chud]

Western Digital 1.5 TB Caviar Green SATA Hard Drive $84.99

http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/ref=pe_36550_14712330_pe_01_mainimage

[Tom]

oooh and i have $35 GC to amazon

that dock kirk posted, description says it supports up to 2TB, but the box says 1TB, whats the deal?

[Tom]

WD elements 2TB for $149.99 too
http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox

[chud]

oooh and i have $35 GC to amazon

that dock kirk posted, description says it supports up to 2TB, but the box says 1TB, whats the deal?
theyve been out for a little bit and that was probably the highest capacity drive available at the time.

the Thermaltake website lists that model, and all their models, as supporting up to 2TB's.

http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1346&ID=1731

[steaming79]

ha! i've got that dock! but i haven't had an opportunity to use it yet. its sitting underneath my desk collecting dust. my friend has the same one and it works. he's only used a 1TB drive though.

[jar]

WD elements 2TB for $149.99 too
http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox

motherfucker. i could've saved $30

[milhouse]

I think I'm going with this:
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Book-Mirror-WDH2U20000N/dp/B001B8RSAK/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1269914178&sr=8-17

I want RAID to mirror everything so I can feel more secure about not losing my irreplaceable shit. You can remove the drives in case something goes wrong with one. Anyone have a better idea before I purchase it?

[chud]

I think I'm going with this:
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Book-Mirror-WDH2U20000N/dp/B001B8RSAK/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1269914178&sr=8-17

I want RAID to mirror everything so I can feel more secure about not losing my irreplaceable shit. You can remove the drives in case something goes wrong with one. Anyone have a better idea before I purchase it?for a prepackaged device at that price point? no.

[milhouse]

for a prepackaged device at that price point? no.

Is it better for any reason to just buy two internals and a dock?

[chud]

Is it better for any reason to just buy two internals and a dock?
youre getting Green's with the unit youre looking at and those are fine for straight storage.

the only area it looks like you could benefit from another enclosure is SATA/Firewire/Gigabit ports instead of just USB and the ability to network instead of it just being a box hooked up to your computer.

[milhouse]

the only area it looks like you could benefit from another enclosure is SATA/Firewire/Gigabit ports instead of just USB and the ability to network instead of it just being a box hooked up to your computer.

Cool. I'm fine with usb since It's mainly just music and photos I'll be using it for.

[Tom]

i haven't ever tried docks, but this one seems to have some good reviews: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153071
fyi i just bought this a second ago along with a 1TB WD caviar green

IF IT SUCKS YOURE BANNED

[jar]

so ya, the 2TB WD was a piece of shit. tellin me certain folders need reformatting but others are alright. never heard of that before.
after much loss i bought a Seagate 2TB and i'm transferring over everything that's still intact.

then i return the WD for a replacement, and then i'm stuck with a brand new 2TB drive i don't need.

[Tom]

which did you get, elements or mybook?

[jar]

mybook essential. :(

[mwarkentin]

This is what I'm running after having 2 external drives crap out on me: http://www.readynas.com/?cat=4

[jar]

alright, so i bought a Seagate. transferred everything from the WD.
i've convinced the manager of the store to swap the WD past the initial 30 day return window, but now 'm stuck with a brand new WD 2TB i have no use for.

i'll sell it for $180 (CAN) if anyone actually wants it. otherwise i'm off to craigslist.

[kirk]

fyi i just bought this a second ago along with a 1TB WD caviar green

IF IT SUCKS YOURE BANNED

fingers are crossed.

[Tom]

This is what I'm running after having 2 external drives crap out on me: http://www.readynas.com/?cat=4
i have been intending to build a new second computer mostly for storage, but im thinking maybe i should just go with a NAS. someone sell me on it.

[chud]

i have been intending to build a new second computer mostly for storage, but im thinking maybe i should just go with a NAS. someone sell me on it.
less parts to break.
can be hidden away in like a closet or where ever, saving desk space, with wireless or even gigabit ethernet options.
leave on 24/7.
less power consumption.
most everything is already configured, like RAID, so you dont have to fart around with settings.

its just more of an all in one setup and go type of thing. not that there's anything wrong with a dedicated PC server. if you just want to store a ton of files and access them without much hassle, id just go with a NAS box.

[Tom]

thats what i figured the upsides were. its nice to have a second computer to convert movies to dvd, but aside from that, i really dont do anything with my current one aside from storage and bit torrent, which i think some NAS devices do too right?

is netgear a good brand to go with for NAS?

[chud]

thats what i figured the upsides were. its nice to have a second computer to convert movies to dvd, but aside from that, i really dont do anything with my current one aside from storage and bit torrent, which i think some NAS devices do too right?

is netgear a good brand to go with for NAS?yes some have built bit torrent support and sure, Netgear is a fine brand, as is D-Link, WD, Data Robotics, etc. All depends on features and how much you want to spend, of course, and what happens to be on sale at the time.

sucks shopping for these because in the $200 and less category, reviews are all over the place. there doesnt seem to be one really standout device.

[jar]

over the phone the manager told me that even replacing the drive with another would be pushing it at this point, but he'd allow it.
so i walked in and told the clerk that said manager confirmed a full refund. he bought it and i walked out a happy motherfucker.

problem solved.

[onefellswoop]

wit mah revolvah problem solvah

[Tom]

god, just read/watched a bunch on the readynas duo I FUCKING NEED ONE NOW

[Namaste]

Does newegg.com sell any decent external hard drives?

[Sam From Salem]

uh yeah

[chud]

Does newegg.com sell any decent external hard drives?absolutely not.

try QVC.com

[jar]

the great external hard drive ordeal of 2010 has ended.
i'm left with a new Lacie 2tb, and 1.5tb of files destroyed. including over 500gb of HD movies.
a bittersweet ending, considering i almost wasn't able to return the bunk drive.
so i got my money back, lost my movies, learned some lessons.
it's an ending.

[neverender]

looking for recommendations on a good firewire external

[Tom]

might as well mention while this is bumped, that once i recieve my readynas and dump all my hard drives onto it, i probably will be looking to sell my 320gb WD passport, which is almost a year old

[chud]

looking for recommendations on a good firewire external

just an enclosure or what?

i got this one. has USB, firewire and esata, metal case....no complaints at all.

http://www.amazon.com/Macally-G-S350SUA-Hi-Speed-FireWire-Enclosure/dp/B000P1NAMO/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1275426225&sr=1-16

[neverender]

i was thinking the whole drive, but just an enclosure isn't a bad idea at all as i can swap out drives as they fill up

THANKS BRO