Im looking for some recommendations for a good external hard drive. My wife's father has a mountain of photos, documents etc on his computer that he wants to take off and free up some space. So I've been given the job of doing that over the christmas. :(
Anyway, normally for something like this I'd buy online, where there'd be a load of different options, but because I'm now stuck for time I'll have to make do with buying from the local PC world. So I checked there last night and the options are:
1. Western Digital Elements 500GB. €69.99
2. Seagate Freeagent 500GB. €89.99
3. Iomega Prestige 500GB. €64.99
Does anyone have any experience of the above units? Once I've saved all his files onto the drive, it'll probably be stored away and rarely used again. But the important thing is that the unit must be reliable - if I end up getting him a hard drive that loses all his files, I'd be better off leaving the country..
anyway, any help would be appreciated.
What size of stuff has be got. 500GB is a serious amount, I know companies wouldn't use a tenth of that space. I'm asking as you can not get simple USB keys at 16GB and probably for €30. Fits on your keyring and needs no power supply. 16GB can take some amount of photos and documents.
Myles, yea 500GB is definitely loads more than he needs. I was hoping for something around 160GB, but the only ones of that size in PC world were the portable options and they cost more that the ones listed above.
A 16GB memory stick costs approx. €45 in pc world, so it's actually not too far off the price for the hard drives I looked at. I dont know exactly how much storage he needs, but it wouldnt surprise me if he needs more than 16GB.
that said, maybe I am better off getting one of those 16GB memory sticks first, and see if all his stuff can fit on it before getting extra storage.
Have a look on ebay - you should get them cheaper than that.
Probably, but doubt I'd get it delivered before christmas.
In general use, they say usb sticks are five to ten times more durable than hard disk drives (as well as dead handy).
I say, they are infinitely easier to lose :)
Iomega 1Tb Select Desktop External Hard Drive - £58.49 + 3% Quidco @ Comet
http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/557334/iomega-1tb-select-desktop-external- (http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/557334/iomega-1tb-select-desktop-external-)
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Quote from: mylestheslasher on December 22, 2009, 09:26:59 AM
What size of stuff has be got. 500GB is a serious amount, I know companies wouldn't use a tenth of that space. I'm asking as you can not get simple USB keys at 16GB and probably for €30. Fits on your keyring and needs no power supply. 16GB can take some amount of photos and documents.
500GB is nothing today. What happens if he stores his photos in RAW format, 16GB won't go too far? In my case, I easily have close to 300GB of music and 500GB of movies too; plus I lose loads of USB keys due to their size.
Does he run any sort of software to back up his computer? I run time machine on my mac (there are windows tools to do this as well) which backs up a complete image of my hard drive (300GB) to an external (in my case a network drive). So he may need space to do this or want to do this in the future.
I would say go for a USB powered 2.5inch external rather than a powered one for handyness and go for around 300GB for the time being.
I had an external Hard Drive/Media Player for Christmas last year and had 40g of music. At least 5 Full Series of US Dramas and maybe 30 odd films and had just touched 100gb.
It was an amazing piece of kit and I would highly recomment getting the media player that you can plug into the TV rather than just the Hard Drive.
Quote from: screenexile on December 22, 2009, 11:03:12 AM
I had an external Hard Drive/Media Player for Christmas last year and had 40g of music. At least 5 Full Series of US Dramas and maybe 30 odd films and had just touched 100gb.
It was an amazing piece of kit and I would highly recomment getting the media player that you can plug into the TV rather than just the Hard Drive.
I bought a wee small media player for £23- very discreet. It's got a USB on the front, so you can use pen drives etc. I filled it up with 8-10 children's Christmas films this week, and that's them happy. Will revert back to Cars, Toy Story etc next week.
Do those media players play HD movies?
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=735
Plays MKV's (Blu-Ray format) and supports DTS audio (Generation 2 only) or
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=735
As above but also allows you stream from your local computer network without connecting hard drives etc.
Makes for a serious setup.
Quote from: stevo-08 on December 22, 2009, 09:40:12 AM
Myles, yea 500GB is definitely loads more than he needs. I was hoping for something around 160GB, but the only ones of that size in PC world were the portable options and they cost more that the ones listed above.
A 16GB memory stick costs approx. €45 in pc world, so it's actually not too far off the price for the hard drives I looked at. I dont know exactly how much storage he needs, but it wouldnt surprise me if he needs more than 16GB.
that said, maybe I am better off getting one of those 16GB memory sticks first, and see if all his stuff can fit on it before getting extra storage.
You should take into account that a portable 160GB can be a lot handier than a huge 500GB HD, as most of them do not require their own power input.
guys,
thanks for all the replies - some great info there. I have a 500GB media player myself, which plugs directly into the tv. It's bursting with movies & tv shows, so I'll need to get myself some extra capacity in the new year - and I'll refer back to this thread for the advice.
Regarding my initial question about the storage/archiving of his stuff on the PC, I think I'll definitely rule out the memory stick cos he'll definitely lose that (had forgotten about that little problem). I might go for Homer's advice and get a portable hard drive - it's very handy that they dont need a power input. Are they generally fairly reliable/robust though??
thanks again for the advice.
Unless you need one with a 500 GB size, portable Hard Drives around the 160 GB mark are the way forward. Very handy and will hold a lot of your everyday files comfortably
Quote from: thebigfella on December 22, 2009, 10:19:20 AM
Quote from: mylestheslasher on December 22, 2009, 09:26:59 AM
What size of stuff has be got. 500GB is a serious amount, I know companies wouldn't use a tenth of that space. I'm asking as you can not get simple USB keys at 16GB and probably for €30. Fits on your keyring and needs no power supply. 16GB can take some amount of photos and documents.
500GB is nothing today. What happens if he stores his photos in RAW format, 16GB won't go too far? In my case, I easily have close to 300GB of music and 500GB of movies too; plus I lose loads of USB keys due to their size.
Does he run any sort of software to back up his computer? I run time machine on my mac (there are windows tools to do this as well) which backs up a complete image of my hard drive (300GB) to an external (in my case a network drive). So he may need space to do this or want to do this in the future.
I would say go for a USB powered 2.5inch external rather than a powered one for handyness and go for around 300GB for the time being.
i agree, 500gb is not that big, you should be able to get 1tb for about the same price. I got a 500gb last year, and it's nearly full, what they don't tell you about HD and multi-million pixel cameras is that they require a lot more storage space. I just throw all the pictures on to it (back up on cd/dvd), i've a fair few movies too (not in div-x format, which takes up no space) and they're hogs - as for all my work, it fits neatly into about 15gb on my laptop hard drive ;D
Western Digital has a good reputation too.
Quote from: Homer on December 22, 2009, 11:29:39 AM
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=735
Plays MKV's (Blu-Ray format) and supports DTS audio (Generation 2 only) or
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=735
As above but also allows you stream from your local computer network without connecting hard drives etc.
Makes for a serious setup.
Would an xbox 360 not do the same job and with the benefit of having an inbuilt harddrive whilst also allowing you to play games?
Quote from: delboy on December 22, 2009, 02:49:12 PM
Quote from: Homer on December 22, 2009, 11:29:39 AM
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=735
Plays MKV's (Blu-Ray format) and supports DTS audio (Generation 2 only) or
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=735
As above but also allows you stream from your local computer network without connecting hard drives etc.
Makes for a serious setup.
Would an xbox 360 not do the same job and with the benefit of having an inbuilt harddrive whilst also allowing you to play games?
XBox can't play MKVs out of the box. There is a work-around but it involves converting individual files to MP4 and results in quality loss
It also doesn't allow for DTS audio, used by a lot of HD movies.
Quote from: Homer on December 22, 2009, 04:32:33 PM
Quote from: delboy on December 22, 2009, 02:49:12 PM
Quote from: Homer on December 22, 2009, 11:29:39 AM
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=735
Plays MKV's (Blu-Ray format) and supports DTS audio (Generation 2 only) or
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=735
As above but also allows you stream from your local computer network without connecting hard drives etc.
Makes for a serious setup.
Would an xbox 360 not do the same job and with the benefit of having an inbuilt harddrive whilst also allowing you to play games?
XBox can't play MKVs out of the box. There is a work-around but it involves converting individual files to MP4 and results in quality loss
It also doesn't allow for DTS audio, used by a lot of HD movies.
You sure about that?
Quote from: thebigfella on December 22, 2009, 04:51:30 PM
Quote from: Homer on December 22, 2009, 04:32:33 PM
Quote from: delboy on December 22, 2009, 02:49:12 PM
Quote from: Homer on December 22, 2009, 11:29:39 AM
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=735
Plays MKV's (Blu-Ray format) and supports DTS audio (Generation 2 only) or
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=735
As above but also allows you stream from your local computer network without connecting hard drives etc.
Makes for a serious setup.
Would an xbox 360 not do the same job and with the benefit of having an inbuilt harddrive whilst also allowing you to play games?
XBox can't play MKVs out of the box. There is a work-around but it involves converting individual files to MP4 and results in quality loss
It also doesn't allow for DTS audio, used by a lot of HD movies.
You sure about that?
No not sure, I know it didn't a while back. A quick Google seems to support that but couldn't tell if Microsoft have added DTS support since.
drobo.com
that is all
Quote from: Main Street on December 22, 2009, 10:09:34 AM
In general use, they say usb sticks are five to ten times more durable than hard disk drives (as well as dead handy).
I say, they are infinitely easier to lose :)
My 16GB stick just died, not recognised by any computer. Had been going well for a year.
The exception that proves the rule.
Quote from: Main Street on December 22, 2009, 09:25:45 PM
The exception that proves the rule.
surely that is the exception that disproves the rule seeing as the main recommendation for the 16 gb stick was durability.
as for the Question ,if the photos ect are smaller than 16 gb them store them in as many paces as possible. including on line try photobox or flicker and others
The Seagate Ext HD, is an excellent product
http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/rf/1tb-hard-drive/__?t=3_1
check out this link 1 TB external hard drive for £54
Quote from: rosnarun on December 23, 2009, 01:05:16 AM
Quote from: Main Street on December 22, 2009, 09:25:45 PM
The exception that proves the rule.
surely that is the exception that disproves the rule seeing as the main recommendation for the 16 gb stick was durability.
The exception does not disprove the rule, as the rule does not claim perfection.
The usb stick is designed for practical mobile storage.
Generally the usb stick / flash memory can take a lot of physical shock without any damage whereas you should treat the conventional HD carefully, avoiding vibrations/shocks/falls/ slam dunking the laptop case.
I have got this yoke -
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/7977460/Western-Digital-WD-TV-HD-Media-Player/Product.html (http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/7977460/Western-Digital-WD-TV-HD-Media-Player/Product.html)
Its great. Has 2 USB ports so you can connect anything to it, and it plays video, music and look at pictures in all formats. It is great for the HD films and tv shows I download. Also have the PS3, but it wont play all formats.