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Disco Dan
24th June 2008, 11:37
The time has come to upgrade my external hard drive. Currently I only have a 250GB drive in my iMac and a 320GB external drive.

Well now, I have filled them both up with music and movies :innocent:

I have done some research on new drives and narrowed it down the listed below. Criteria is that the drive must be able to handle/have at least 1TB drive, or more (2TB). Reliability is most important, as what is on it will be the only copy anywhere. Not too concerned about noise, as I plan to turn it into a file server via Airport Extreme so I can put it in a cupboard or on the other side of the house etc and connect wirelessly via the airport. But.. if it's quiet and looks the bizzo it will take pride of place on my desk. Firewire is preferred however USB will do.


List in order of preference:

1) Apple Time Capsule (500GB or 1TB) (http://www.apple.com/timecapsule/)
2) NexStar MX, Dual Bay External Hard Drive Enclosure (http://www.futurelooks.com/vantec-nexstar-mx-dual-hard-drive-enclosure-review/)
3) Navigator eSATA (http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=161349898)
4) Thermaltake Max4 (http://www.techwarelabs.com/reviews/storage/thermaltake_max4/)
5) Macpower Taurus III (http://www.xpcomputers.co.nz/views.asp?hw_id=2547)


I did find this link on Western Digitals new 1TB drive (http://stupidevilbastard.com/index/seb/comments/western_digitals_new_1tb_external_hard_drive_wont_ share_your_media_files/) which is scary. Thermaltake used to be a very good brand but recent years has gone down hill. Always liked their designs though. The Taurus III has a few bad reviews but not enough to put me off completely.

So has anyone got one of the ones in the above list? How do they compare? Noise levels? Reliability? Compatibility? Price? What is putting me off the Apple TimeCapsule is the price - thats it.
Disco Dan
24th June 2008, 12:03
Oh I did find this one:

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=162142039

But does no support for Macs, and it's aging technology... especially the comment about being able to cook an egg on it!
scracha
24th June 2008, 12:12
PM Sent ......
imdying
24th June 2008, 12:44
I have heaps of the WD 1TB drives... whilst that thing that the article mentions is pretty wanky, I wouldn't hesistate to get another and put it in a generic enclosure :)
Disco Dan
24th June 2008, 12:47
I have heaps of the WD 1TB drives... whilst that thing that the article mentions is pretty wanky, I wouldn't hesistate to get another and put it in a generic enclosure :)

Yes, I have always been a fan of both Seagate and Western Digital.

Just saw that article and although its a tad old now, I would hesitate!
Gremlin
24th June 2008, 13:20
Reliability is most important, as what is on it will be the only copy anywhere.
A single hdd will never be redundant, nor will it be 100% reliable. You can use the best brand hdd, and still have a bad one. We have even had bad enterprise grade drives... the redundancy protects against that (as well as providing performance).

Get yourself a nice windows based server (coz everyone knows you can play with them ,whereas mac plays with you :eek:), with some raid'd storage...

Addonics (http://www.addonics.com/products/raid_system/) makes some real nice gear too :msn-wink: Forget the read/write speeds of USB, get a Disk Array and write at hdd speeds
Disco Dan
24th June 2008, 19:50
Hmm some interesting replies, cheers.

I am toying with the possibility of getting an old'ish tower and (gasp) putting xp on it and filling it with hard drives.

but I cant get my head around the whole "my macs data and precious movies will be at the mercy of a windows machine".
Gremlin
25th June 2008, 01:32
I am toying with the possibility of getting an old'ish tower and (gasp) putting xp on it and filling it with hard drives.
Don't forget normal windows xp, 32 bit, has a limitation of 2tb partitions (32bit = 2tb, or something close). Was interesting when I tried to make a raid 5 out of 4 1tb drives, and got 768GB. :shit:

At least with windows machines, you can play with it, pull it apart etc.
Usarka
25th June 2008, 09:24
Raid only protects from disk failure not not data deletion or corruption.

backups are still the #1 solution for data protection.

what disk? fucked if i know. I have heaps of porn....i mean music.... i means stuff on my new 750gb WD and it's honkin fine.
Disco Dan
25th June 2008, 14:36
Raid only protects from disk failure not not data deletion or corruption.

backups are still the #1 solution for data protection.

what disk? fucked if i know. I have heaps of porn....i mean music.... i means stuff on my new 750gb WD and it's honkin fine.

um porn is only 3GB thank you very much. :shutup:
Disco Dan
25th June 2008, 14:49
So does anyone have an old'ish windows tower pc laying around they dont need??

Either free or cheap?!