Portable Hard Drive recommendations?

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  1. #1

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    Portable Hard Drive recommendations?

    Hi, do any of you recommend any good portable hard drives? I'm not looking for any particular size... as long as they're the USB-powered ones. I have a 150gb brick that needs a power supply and it's getting full and just a pain in the butt to lug around and having to find outlets for...

    Also in addition to the regular hard drives... do any of you have experience with those hard drives that have memory card readers and LCD screens? I'm looking into some of those to buy for relatives back home and I might also get one as it seems pretty useful for extended outdoor photography without having to take along the laptop everytime.


  2. #2

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    i wouldnt recommend those for important backup. my hd had problems 1 month in. i'm using seagate.


  3. #3

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    hmm well I was hoping to use them as backup too if they were reliable...

    But did you have problems with the Seagate... or do you mean it was a cheap no-name brand one that died and NOW you're using a Seagate?
    Either way, they're cheaper than getting them back in the US right?


  4. #4

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    sometimes it can be cheaper getting it in the US due to rebates and such... (that's if you ever bother to get them).

    I suggest getting HDD enclosures that use at the least Raid 1 and better if it were Raid 5. It's kinda pricey but they're well worth it. If one fail, you can just hot swap the drive and you're up and running again.

    I've had a few hdd's fail on me that had data which wasn't backed up during the failure. I just recently got myself a Raid 5 enclosure and I couldn't be happier.

    Also the rule of thumb in data backup procedures... have your data backed up in 3 (more if you're really paranoid) different areas or mediums...


  5. #5

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    Yeah back in the US I usually get the best deals and rebates on Black Friday... but that's still a while away. I mainly need storage to last till the end of this month when I'll be going back to the US so I can transfer everything back to my desktop drives.

    I mainly need the space for photos and videos... nothing too important, but I need the extra space so I can edit with and then free up more space afterwards.


  6. #6

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    you can juz buy a 2.5" case and a HDD

    a 40GB Fujitsu is about $400, and case about $100 to $130.

    go to Wanchai Computer Zone to hv a look, buy both of them in the same shop, ask them to assemble for you


  7. #7

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    i agree the ac powered drives are troublesome but they seem to be more reliable.

    a good brand name drive that's bus powered and small is lacie (designed by porsche).

    but if you want something cheap pickup a good brand laptop hard disk and drop it into a generic case that features usb port.

    i've seen several people use the case that's embossed "vaio" or a variation of it. i doubt it's really sony.


  8. #8

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    Never use either the Lacie or Vaio enclosures. I've seen failures with both of em! I recommend buying one down at 298/Mongkok/SSP/wherever, but get the best enclosure you can afford. I would take it easy with the USB HDs, and turn them off when you're done (after disconnecting them through your computer's "remove hardware" option).

    I'm going to pick myself up a 160 GB Toshiba or Hitachi ATA/IDE HD tomorrow for my MP3 player. Going to have a spare 40 GB drive kickin' around in a few. I'll put a good quality external together and put it up for sale.

    N.B., talldude knows his stuff. You definitely want at least one copy of your data (for a standard home user). I use DVDs and external hard disks. Whatever's on the externals is backed up onto DVD (and even some old CD-Rs). I see external HDs fail all the time.


  9. #9

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    thanks jay...

    just to add... Lacie HDD enclosures usually use Seagate drives. And it doesn't really matter what HDD brand you use. They've all been known to fail (some more often than others).

    also, make sure that you don't shake or drop HDD's as they will definitely go kaput. and jay's suggestion to unmount the hdd first is the way to go (your hdd could still be transferring files without you realizing and if you pull it out, data corruption could and usually would occur). that's irregardless of OS as well.