Recommendations for a hard drive

[ReF]

well, it's related to photography in the way that i need one to store my photos in. i'm looking for a 300 gig or more external hard drive as i've already completely filled up my 250 gig internal and 60 external hard drives to the point where i'm storing 30+ gigs of photos on DVD. i don't have any extensive knowledge of the subject, so does anybody have any recommendations, or are there brands/models i should avoid?

oh BTW, i prefer external for certain purposes but if anybody has any reasons to definately go with an internal hard drive i'd like to hear it.
thanks

[cdifoto]

I've got this (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=WishList.jsp&A=details&Q=&sku=399064&is=REG) on my B&H wishlist. It's a LaCie 600GB External with Firewire and USB 2.0 and RAID 0. Not that I have a damn clue what RAID even is. The price seems decent for an external though.

[ReF]

I've got this (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=WishList.jsp&A=details&Q=&sku=399064&is=REG) on my B&H wishlist. It's a LaCie 600GB External with Firewire and USB 2.0 and RAID 0. Not that I have a damn clue what RAID even is. The price seems decent for an external though.

you running out of space too?

[cdifoto]

you running out of space too?

Actually I have plenty for now (only using 55 of 143 available GB). I don't keep many of my shots and I don't even really shoot that much in the first place. I would, however, like to get everything out of this computer (or at least backed up externally) in addition to having the DVD-R archives. It was prompted by a bit of a scare I had with this computer going down recently. Fortunately it was just a power supply...but it could have been much worse.

[te1221]

RAID 0 is probably not the best option for any of you guys, especially if you want reliability...

I'm just getting started with digital SLR's but i'm very experienced with computers.

RAID 0 consists of 2 identical drives "striped" as 1 drive, so in this case 2 300 gb hd's. All the data getting saved to the drive gets broken in half and written to the drives simultaneously. This increases throughput and overall sustained read/write speeds so it's a very large performance gain. However, because you have 2 drives you are twice as likely to have a drive fail on you. If one drive in a RAID 0 array fails, all of your data is lost.

Definitely not the way to go for archiving pictures.

Just my .02

[T06]

RAID 0 is probably not the best option for any of you guys, especially if you want reliability...

I'm just getting started with digital SLR's but i'm very experienced with computers.

RAID 0 consists of 2 identical drives "striped" as 1 drive, so in this case 2 300 gb hd's. All the data getting saved to the drive gets broken in half and written to the drives simultaneously. This increases throughput and overall sustained read/write speeds so it's a very large performance gain. However, because you have 2 drives you are twice as likely to have a drive fail on you. If one drive in a RAID 0 array fails, all of your data is lost.

Definitely not the way to go for archiving pictures.

Just my .02
Raid 5 immediately sprang to my mind when reading this.As in you have 4x200Gb hard drives & 3 are being utilised as the memory (600Gb) & the 4th is the go between. You loose a drive & the beauty of the raid technology is plug another in & let it rebuild.How or why I know not & I've probably got this very wrong but if I bring this up someone will correct me & the RAID techno is good.

[Storm27m]

I have a Maxtor One Touch II and it has been great for me. They have a 300gb model that sells for about $200 online. You can also put your own hard drive together. It's pretty simple and there are "how to's" on the internet. Just do a search. Building your own is usually cheaper than buying a manufactured model. Check newegg.com and tigerdirect.com for great prices. I've used both with no complaints. I like newegg better because their prices are usually just as low as tigerdirect, but without mail in rebates.

The only external drive I've had issues with was a friend's Lacie HD. It was slower than all get out. Check the user reviews on sites like newegg before buying.

Hard drives in general:

Stick to 7200rpm drives with 8mb+ cache. Make sure it is a USB 2.0, not USB 1.0. If you don't need a firewire connection, buy the model without it. It usually costs an extra $20-30 for models with both USB 2.0 and Firewire rather than a model with just USB 2.0.

[EdBoy]

Storm's right. Stick to 7200rpm drives with USB 2.0. This is industry entry level standard these days.

You only really need to bother with Raid if you're linking 2 or more drives in combination, for example adding a "slave" drive to your PC or to a network. If you buy an external HD drive then Raid is irrelevent. RAID disk drives are used frequently on servers but aren't generally necessary for personal computers.

I have a Toshiba 320gb and a Maxtor 120gb external drive and have had no problems with either, but i must say that the Toshiba copies and retrieves much quicker.

[penz]

I have a Maxtor like this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822140166) in my PC and I'm looking to get another. Right now it seem the 300Gig drives a the best price. You can pick you own case and save money if you know a little bit about PC Harware. Here are some cases from Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=ENE&N=2010090092+1053807123+1054107130+1054207132&Subcategory=92&description=&srchInDesc=&minPrice=&maxPrice=&ATTR1=&ATTR2=&ATTR3=&ATTR4=&ATTR5=2010090092+1053807123+1054107130&ATTR6=2010090092+1053807123+1054207132). If you want super simple PnP look here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822151027) at the Maxtor OneTouch II. You should always back everything up twice as a minimum. I back everything up on two hard drives and Burn DVD on high quality disks. The good thing about burning back ups is you only have to burn it once the store it in a dark location. I also keep my folders on my PC split into DVD groups to make it easier to find later.

[JPW2020]

I have a Lacie external HD 160Gb,7200rpm, small by todays standards but it wasn't when I got it.It has been reliable and quick enough.I use it for some Video storage and subsequent editing as well as picture storage and it works fine.Mine has a firewire connection which I wanted because I didnt have enough free USB2 ports .However I understand that firewire in practice is quicker than USB2 though i cant vouch for that.In the UK Lacie drives are very competively priced.I agree that you should look for 7200 rpm drives whether internal or external.

[George Riehm]

well, it's related to photography in the way that i need one to store my photos in. i'm looking for a 300 gig or more external hard drive as i've already completely filled up my 250 gig internal and 60 external hard drives to the point where i'm storing 30+ gigs of photos on DVD. i don't have any extensive knowledge of the subject, so does anybody have any recommendations, or are there brands/models i should avoid?

oh BTW, i prefer external for certain purposes but if anybody has any reasons to definately go with an internal hard drive i'd like to hear it.
thanks

I connect to external "archive" drives via a $15 USB to IDE adapter. My archive drives include a 120GB drive and 250GB drive for photos. Both drives spend most of the time disconnected on the shelf (I also back up photos on DVD). When needed I just connect them to the USB adapter cable (and to the computer) and there ready to go. USB2.0HS is easily fast enough to load 200-300 RAW files quickly.

I typically buy what Fry's Electronics has on sale (Western Digital or Seagate) and just picked up a new 300GB Segate for $79 (no rebate required this time!). I also have a couple of Maxtors as well. I've not had a drive fail in the last 6 years.

Here is the link for the (very handy) USB to IDE adapter:

http://www.surpluscomputers.com/store/main.aspx?p=ItemDetail&item=CRD10181

[cdifoto]

I connect to external "archive" drives via a $15 USB to IDE adapter. My archive drives include a 120GB drive and 250GB drive for photos. Both drives spend most of the time disconnected on the shelf (I also back up photos on DVD). When needed I just connect them to the USB adapter cable (and to the computer) and there ready to go. USB2.0HS is easily fast enough to load 200-300 RAW files quickly.

I typically buy what Fry's Electronics has on sale (Western Digital or Seagate) and just picked up a new 300GB Segate for $79 (no rebate required this time!). I also have a couple of Maxtors as well. I've not had a drive fail in the last 6 years.

Here is the link for the (very handy) USB to IDE adapter:

http://www.surpluscomputers.com/store/main.aspx?p=ItemDetail&item=CRD10181

To add to what George said.... you can also get IDE to USB adapters with enclosures to make it look like something you'd pay retail for. Tons of them on eBay.

[penz]

The USB2.0 vs Firewire thing is a little crazy. Both are over 400MB/s. You won't even get close to this with any hard drive on the market today. Four of the new WD Raptor in a RAID 0 will not even hit 400MB/s for more than a few seconds and this is the fastest non-SCSI hard drive made.

[ReF]

hey thanks everyone. really appreciate all the responses:)

[sambrown8022]

I've got this (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=WishList.jsp&A=details&Q=&sku=399064&is=REG) on my B&H wishlist. It's a LaCie 600GB External with Firewire and USB 2.0 and RAID 0. Not that I have a damn clue what RAID even is. The price seems decent for an external though.


i would advise you not to get a hard drive with a level 0 RAID rating. RAID is an acronym for Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks... a level of 0 is Striped Disk Array without Fault Tolerance meaning it spreads out you data over the seperate disks in the hard drive, which is good because it actually can save space...the problem is tha it does not utilize fault tolerance. so if one of the disks within the hard drive fails, then all of them fail, causing you to lose all of your data, and with 600 gigs of data, that could be devestating

I reccomend getting a RAID level of 4. Level 4 provides everything that you get with level 0, but with a parity disk. If a data disk fails, the parity data is used to create a replacement disk. so you will not loose all of your data. the only disadvantage is that it may take longer to write to your hard drive, but it seems well worth the wait to me...i hope this helped you a little with your wish list.

[bascom]

Using an external hard drive sounds like a good idea. I may buy one.

[Screenclutter]

If there is a reason why you would want an internal drive, it is because they tend to be slightly larger, and ultimately faster if you get a SCSI drive.

In the 2nd quarter of 2007, Hitachi and Seagate are releasing 1 TB drives with the likely 7200 RPM with 32 MB buffers on Serial ATA drives.

Most enthusiast computer owners tend to have a Western Digital Raptor hard drive that has the operating system files, and additional large storage drives for files if they need the space.

SCSI is still very expensive for most people these days.

[bascom]

The external drives I'm considering are LaCie 80GB by Porsche and Western Digital 80GB at Best Buy. Both are about $90 and USB powered which I like instead of using a power cord. However, both are only 5400 RPM. Do you think that is too slow? I will only be using it to store photos and videos so I think transfer speed is my only concern. I don't think I will run any software from it.

Also, are these SCSI? I don't know the diff between SCSI and SATA or whatever the kinds are.

[ReF]

man, this is an old thread!