External Hard Drives -- Most reliable (least likely to fail) brand?

[Mike Anderson]

I'm looking at external hard drives, 300-500 GB in size. Does anyone have an opinion on what brands are least likely to fail?

thanks

[Deaf Cat]

I've still got a Lacie external firewire drive that I'm stuck with, 1 replacement, 2 repairs, 3 psus, all in two years, do I trust it now.... HA!

Oh and rather unresponsive customer services, who still refuse to give a refund! (I was even told when units have been repaired five times still no refunds are given)

Just what you want for a nice safe back up device

So I know a make that I would stear well clear of.

[Hercules]

I've had a Maxtor one (albeit 160GB) for a few years.

Never had any problems with it, and they seem to have a good reputation.

(Maxtor have been taken over by Seagate I think)

[mswlogo]

The WD Passport I had bad luck with, but it just may have been an unlucky drive failure.

But the My Book one, so far I really like. It powers down when USB power is removed. Very quiet and cool when running. The premium models just add more and faster connections. All sizes exist.

http://westerndigital.com/en/products/index.asp?cat=5

I have it hooked to an XP laptop slimserver (which sleeps). Complete silence and low power when asleep. The SqueezeBox issues wake-on-lan and it's up and running in about 5 seconds.

[drewe181]

i have a 160gig Seagate external that i store both flac and mp3 for use on my squeezbox. i'm yet to have a problem with it and it also looks pretty stylish. i'm sure i've seen these drives in 250gig models too. they don't support firewire but usb 2 is compatible.

[Skunk]

Don't put all your eggs in one hard drive and you can just get the cheapest, if you don't care about silence. So one of whatever's on sale at newegg applied externally and internally.

edit: sorry my post makes no sense. i just reread "external hard drive" and thought you meant most reliable in general.

[tyler_durden]

I've still got a Lacie external firewire drive that I'm stuck with, 1 replacement, 2 repairs, 3 psus, all in two years, do I trust it now.... HA!

Yeah, but it was designed by F.A. Porsche!

How does someone get paid to design a rectangular box? How long and hard did he have to work to come up with that design? I want THAT job!

TD

[tyler_durden]

I see all sorts of stuff on different forums running down one brand or another. I think they are all about the same- they have to be or they go out of business in a hurry. Get two of whatever is cheap and use one for backup.

TD

[peter]

Hercules wrote:
> I've had a Maxtor one (albeit 160GB) for a few years.
>
> Never had any problems with it, and they seem to have a good
> reputation.
>
> (Maxtor have been taken over by Seagate I think)
>

I second that. I've had two Maxtor One Touch external 300 GB drives
connected thru firewire to my Linux box/slimserver. They've been on
permanently and they haven't failed me yet.

Regards,
Peter

[stoobie-doo]

Get an internal drive you like and spend $30 on a drive enclosure. You'll probably spend less and get a better drive. You will certainly gain more flexibility.