External Hard Drives? Is there a difference?

Is there really a big difference between manufacturers?

Thoughts?

Jack

More like between models than manufacturers, in my opinion. Many complained about Maxtor's 250GB models in the past, but I had no problem with their other models.

Guy

I agree with Guy. Although the manufacturer that I have noticed consistent complaints about is LaCie. Tim Grey has said the same. I own Maxtor's 200GB and have had no problems. If you decide to go with Maxtor, I believe Buy.com is selling the 300GB for around 200 bucks.

I've been looking at the Maxtor 300!. That looks like the one! It's funny how when you have shot slide film for so many years, I know I have the slide, and with digital files I am so worried about looking them! I'm backing up the back ups!

JG

I have the Maxtor 300gb version with both Firewire and USB 2.0. I use the Firewire on the PC and USB 2.0 on my notebook. So far so good and I really love it. It's super fast with the 16mb buffer. Faster than my internal IDE Maxtor drives. I looked at the LaCie and Western Digital externals but there were more negative reports on both brands and many more possitive on the Maxtors. Newegg.com sells them pretty cheap.

There are BIG differences and like most everything, you get what you pay for.
I like the Lacie makes, and don't get anything but a firewire model,
unless you like sitting around waiting on things.
Don't buy anything under 250GB. Even if you don't need that much now, YOU WILL.
My first Mac had a 500MB HD, and now one program takes up more than that just to install it.

I lost 40 gigs of backed up photos when my older external 120 Gig Maxtor failed last year. So...I now steer clear of Maxtor. I'm using 2 Western Digital 250 gig externals and so far, in over a year's use, have had ZERO problems.

Good luck...

Bill

I'm in the market for a external hard drive also. I've heard horror stories about all of them, but that's the nature of the internet. I was just in Best Buy looking at them, and along with Maxtor, WD, and Lacie, they had some Seagate 300gb models for around $250. Anyone have any experience with Seagate

" There are BIG differences and like most everything, you get what you pay for.
I like the Lacie makes"

From what I understand many of the Lacie externals have maxtor drives inside. I have no problem with that myself. I"ve used Maxtors for years with no problems at all...... even a couple of the 250's. I think some of the complaints about Maxtors is simply because there are just so many of them around.

For my first 10 years on a computer all I had were Seagates (internals) and never had a single promlem in all of that time with any of them. Just bought a Fantom drive a couple of month ago and had to send it in for a replacement the first month. If you buy cheap HDs to save money you could end up spending what you saved to ship it back and insure it. These companies sell some real crap and then you have to pay to return their junk, so I no longer get cheat with the money when it comes to HDs.

I think Jims correct in saying that there are so many Maxtors out there there's bound to be some duds. I recenty had to return an internal Maxtor drive that was still under warranty and had a replacement sent back within a week and a half. The One Touch II that I have is built like a tank which I really like!

I just bought a Seagate 300 and so far like it a lot. I especially like the cooling fan and the way they can be stacked. I also have a 250 Maxor and, knock on wood, have had no problems with that either. However, the lack of a cooling fan has made me ensure I turn it off when I do not need it.

I have used LaCie hard drives for years and with no problems at all. I now use two LaCie Big Disk Extreme hard drives of 1 Terabyte each. They are compact and fast as lightning.

Quite often you will find that the big name brands will use different brands of actual drives inside and you really don't know exactly what brand you are buying (and they probably won't tell you). Just like someone noted above that LaCie actually had Maxor drives inside - could be WD now, or Seagate, or some other make, whatever they are installing at the time. The simple fact is that hard drives fail sometimes, and when they do, folks often complain about that on the web and we hear about them. Dupe backups will cure a lot of that, and I always have everything backed up on two different drives in two different locations and have never lost anything (oops, I should not have said that!).

By the way, I have heard that the largest single drive is really just 250gb, and that the 500gb drives have two 250 drives in them, and the 1tb drives have four. (Anyone know if this is really true?) What about the 300 and 300 drives - do they have double drives in them as well?

You can buy an external enclosure and put a hard drive in it yourself. It is less expensive and you get a better warranty. Example: I put a 200 Gig Seagate drive in a Macally firewire enclosure. As a result, I saved some money and get a 5 year warranty on the Seagate drive.

The following enclosure will use any size IDE drive (including 500 MB). You can probably find an enclosure that used SATA if that is the type drive you want.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817146602

Mark H

I agree with Mark H. I did the same thing for the same reasons. It runs like a champ on Firewire with only a negligible difference in performance from an internal drive. And since I only use the external for archiving it doesn't have to be a rocket of a performer.

And going forward whne the drive does fail (they all do eventually) all I have to do is buy a new IDE drive and swap out the bad for the new.