External hard drive recommendations?

[kareem]

I've used dual internal HD's for as long as I can remember and have been content. I have a friend who wishes to get an external HD as a backup on his PC at work. I know a lot about the internal HD's but very little in terms of reliability and efficiency for external HD's.

Can someone recommend the better External HD?

[Sterling_Aug]

Go to newegg.com and pick ne of the external USB/firewire cases ten install your own hard drive.

Just remember, you get what you pay for. A cheap external case is a cheap external case and you risk problems.

[jamesd3rd]

I've used dual internal HD's for as long as I can remember and have been content. I have a friend who wishes to get an external HD as a backup on his PC at work. I know a lot about the internal HD's but very little in terms of reliability and efficiency for external HD's.

Can someone recommend the better External HD?

I would suggest the Bytecc line but just recently a customer of mine who purchased 4 Bytecc USB 2.0 aluminum cases is experiencing problems with them. He's had them for about a year or so. A few months after he started using them, the server was not able to see the drive even though it could detect the presence of a USB device. I discovered that the problem was with the power supply. When I used another power supply, the drive began to spin and backup functionality was restored. I should mention that the power supplies are the external variety.

This lasted until that power supply started acting up. Now none of the drives can be detected by the server. I've checked voltages from the power supplies and the molex connectors on the circuit board inside the enclosure and everything seems ok. The proper pins check out at 5 & 12 volts. But when the drive is turned on, it doesn't spin up. I'm baffled as to what the problem could be. I'm guessing it's the circuit board because I know the drives are fine.

So all that to say be careful what enclosure you pick. They may not last as long as you think.

[BipolarBill]

I'm having very good luck with a Seagate external drive (USB and Firewire).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148077

That said, if it goes, I have to toss the whole thing. If I put the drive together myself and it bombs, I can replace the drive inside or the enclosure and get up and running again.

I like the Vantec enclosures:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145133

They are very well made.