Recommend Me an External HDD...

[MatrixClaw]

So, I've decided it's time to finally get an external HDD to take some of the load off my PC, and make it easier on myself, for when I finally upgrade my computer (so I don't have to reinstall/download 200+ GB of samples, etc. to the new computer).

I know computers very well, but I've never bought an external hard drive, let alone one for audio recording. Is 7200 RPM important still, or does that only really apply to the system/application drive? Only reason I ask, is because there seems to be very few 7200 RPM drives, and the ones that are, are very expensive.

I don't think I'll need a TON of storage... the biggest files will come from Komplete 8... but 500-1TB would be nice, so I have the ability to expand, and won't have to upgrade anytime soon.

I can get this WD one for $40 right now, but I've heard bad things about WD external drives in the past, so I'm skeptical. This one is made for consumer use and not really professional use, so I'm afraid it's not going to hold up to constant use.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...kwCjCV1-CjCE&gclid=CPyEu_2097MCFUxxQgod03YAJg

Alternatively, I could buy an enclosure for $50, like these:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...sp?CatId=2777&sel=Detail;212_1007_57648_57648

And then just put a nice 7200 RPM drive in it, like a Seagate Barracuda:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=61389&CatId=2459

I think that might be the best way to go for cost/performance ratio, but I really wanted to see what you guys are using and what you'd suggest

I'd REALLY like to do this for around $100, or less. I know the LaCie and Glyph ones are well revered, but they're also 2-3 times the price of others, which I really don't understand why... For that much, I could buy 3 nice 1TB internal drives...

 

[Trevoire520]

If you're planning to record onto it I would definitely go for 7200RPM, or get a small SSD for recording on and a larger slower drive for long term storage.

 

[BLUElightCory]

Get the fastest drive you find with an Oxford chipset - any 7200RPM OWC Mercury Elite should do the job great. I've used them for a decade and haven't had one fail.

 

[Josh Burgess]

small SSD for working drive, large 7200 drive for storage, just because 5400 drives suck.

 

[nervirasme]

Avoid Western Digital as a brand at all cost!!! I had 5 dead hard drives in the past 4 years and all of them were WDs... I use other brands as well but never had a problem with those...

 

[raisedfist]

Lacie usb3. Had like 90 mb/s transfer rate

 

[006]

Avoid Western Digital as a brand at all cost!!! I had 5 dead hard drives in the past 4 years and all of them were WDs... I use other brands as well but never had a problem with those...

The problem with this statement I have is I can go and find a ton of other people that say the exact opposite thing and will say that Seagate or this or that are what you should avoid. I just read something the other day and it said to avoid Samsung and some others, and that WD was the most reliable in their experience. I think the truth is that all hard drive manufacturers make some shitty drives sometimes and some people just have bad luck getting more than one of them.

 

[nezvers]

I'm using cheap Apacer hard drive and use it as storage and tracking on it too. And it is going almost 3 years already. So I don't think brands got to do much with it.

 

[Sloan]

Why not just install an internal and save a few bucks?

 

[infectdsniper]

im about to go for whatever has the longest warrenty because big hard drives are unreliable from anyone as far as i can tell. i personally have gone through 3 2tb green WD drives and 1 1.5 WD drive in 1.5 years so i will not be buying anymore WDs though.

 

[MatrixClaw]

Avoid Western Digital as a brand at all cost!!! I had 5 dead hard drives in the past 4 years and all of them were WDs... I use other brands as well but never had a problem with those...

Really? The only internal hard drives I've used have been WD, until I put the Seagate in my current computer.

I've never had a HDD crash on me, since I started building my own computers around 2001 (or before that on pre-built computers), nor in laptops.

Why not just install an internal and save a few bucks?

Because I may be either building a Hackintosh when I upgrade, or just buying an iMac, depending on what kind of discount I can get through work. If I go the Hackintosh route (which is most likely what I'll do), I WILL put in an extra hard drive in there, but from Apple, their upgrades like that are far too expensive - Plus, I would kind of like to use it with a laptop when I'm away from my desktop, so I'd like a solution that is somewhat portable.

Not only that, but I need a solution that will work right now and then later when I upgrade, with little to no hiccups. Even if I went the Hackintosh route, pulling a HDD out of the computer I'm using now and sticking it in a new build has always given me issues, if I want to keep the data on it. It can work, but it's not really something I want to have to bother with, especially since I've never done an install of OSX, so I'm not sure how well a Windows formatted HDD is going to transfer over to an OSX build with completely different hardware.



Thanks for the link on the OWC stuff Cory, I'll be sure to check those out. Little over what I wanted to spend, but I'd rather pay a little more for peace of mind, than go with something that may be iffy.