Recommend an external drive

[Gunn]

I will be backing up and archiving on an external eSata drive ( they seem to be very cheap). Having had drives to crash over the years, I am paranoid! Can anyone recommend a good brand?

JoJo Gunn

[Aristotelis]

Using an external drive for archiving will always be risky...To reduce the risk you can buy an external RAID1 enclosure...

[Deane Johnson]

I will be backing up and archiving on an external eSata drive ( they seem to be very cheap). Having had drives to crash over the years, I am paranoid! Can anyone recommend a good brand?

JoJo Gunn

JoJo, I primarily do family stuff that I want to be safe for years to come. As a result, I put everything in duplicate on two external drives, sort of a manual Raid approach. This works out OK for me since I don't want to spend the money for a nice external Raid system, and time is not an issue.

I first used Lacie 500 Gig drives, but have had virtually every one of them go bad. I noticed that every drive I have ever had that has gone bad has been something other than a Western Digital, and that my Western Digitals all continue to work. As a result, I'm now using the external Western Digital Notebook drives that are pretty inexpensive. I happen to be using USB connections, but I believe they also have eSata.

I haven't heard how these are holding up, but you can put together some nice combinations with them.

http://store.sansdigital-shop.com/ms2ut.html

[Blast1]

The easiest way is to buy SATA desktop drives and eSATA external enclosures, that way you know what drive is going into the system.

[vienna1944er]

archiving will always be risky

Other (additional) step to to reduce the risk:

a) Do not buy a completing final-combination from case+drive ..... the drives\controller most scrap fom the past...

b) buy a external eSATA+USB 2.0 case with fan, and additional removable disk-Carrier
and from a good quality "brand-name" .... i.e. "raidsonic" or similar companys >> example

c) the savest disk will you (imho) find :

c1) on the Seagate-half from the drives-world >> named >Server & Enterprise Storage > Barracuda® ES >> example
MTBF = 1,200,000 hours ....7200-RPM hard drive for 24 x 7, ....5-year warranty
Transfer Rate: Maximum Sustained 105 (MB/s)

c2) on the Western-Digital-half from the drives-world > named Enterprise Class < RE2 -Serie >> example
5-year limited warranty ....1.2 million hours MTBF ....24x7 Reliability
Transfer Rate (Buffer To Disk) 98 MB/s (Sustained )

all other as WD or Seagate is for consumer-toy's..... or people the love risk....

just my personally opinion, excuse my "giberish" english .... old vienna-Hans

[Ingwe]

I have been doing fair amount of work for satilite broadcasters at the station and my place we use 500gig Seagate with NCQ sata2 harddrives and coolermaster exturnal cases/ with esata/usb2 , I have tried other brands, but they just dont work you get overheating .just my 2cents.

[Gunn]

Thanks so much for the info. Now I must decide on feeding the HHD/enclosure with a Sata cable or Firewire or USB2! USB/Firewire would be easier but would they be fast enough even for archiving?

What are you folks using?

JoJo

[Blast1]

Since my desktops have six SATA connections with two seperate controllers I just bought a Dual port eSATA II extension bracket($7us) that mounts in one of the slots on the back which connects to a pair of MoBo SATAs and has a eSATA II connection on the outside to connect to the enclosures, The enclosures also have USB 2 connections which I never use.

[Jeff Chandler]

Thanks so much for the info. Now I must decide on feeding the HHD/enclosure with a Sata cable or Firewire or USB2! USB/Firewire would be easier but would they be fast enough even for archiving?

What are you folks using?

JoJo

Yep, fast enough.

[rokclimr]

Nothing but Western Digital for me. I've lost lots of drives but never from WD. Their external raid drives work great and they're available in 2TB now.

Brad

[vienna1944er]

most MB tests in the late time on real PC's (P35 up to X48 intel chipsets) tells:
bandwidth (different according to the "MB-type) : from 20 up to 40 Mbyte/sec

equal for USB2.0 or FW 1394 ..... but USB ist the better\saver part from the both.

1394 have problem (from beginning) with static electricity charge,
1394 entry ohmic-resistor is many,many higher than USB ... but the 1394 lobby hold this detail under the table.....
1394 need potential equalization before connecting ...
read the manauals from Cams with 1394 out\input about this part, it is most "small print" and a bit hidden......
periodic to read the stories from fired Cam-FW input\ FW-controller in the forums, multiplied in the wintertime with low relative humidity

would they be fast enough even for archiving?

Imho .... yes .... look at the table ......the rest is your selection......it is your time.....and it is your money.....



excuse my "gibberish" english ...... happy editing .... old Hans

[Gunn]

I have really been researching the drives you all recommended. It seems that I can install a Sata card in one of the three PCI X slots and simply run a cable to the external drive. This is offered by Seagate. I think this would get me past worrying about the MOBO raid configuration. I THINK!

JoJo...the wrinkled radical

[vienna1944er]

It seems that I can install a Sata card in one

SATA and eSATA are not absolutely the same thing >> SATA and eSATA have not the same specifications.
Source: SATA-wikipedia = in a better englis, than mine...*g*

Imho, you need not a pure "SATA card" for internal drives, you need a "eSATA card" for external drives (or a combination from both SATA + eSATA )

the eSATA specifications included a different bus-voltage as on (normal)SATA
this allows cable length max: 2m .............(normal)SATA cable length max: 1m

excuse my confused english ..... greetings from europe\austria\vienna ... old Hans

[GrassValley_BH]

Hans brings up a good point. There are eSATA interfaces and just "SATA breakout panels" - the SATA breakout panel just brings the same internal SATA connector to the outside for connecting a SATA drive directly, as if it was inside the case. This means you need to supply external power to the drive.

eSATA interfaces, on the other hand, are designed to connect to an eSATA enclosure or case. eSATA has sturdier connector so it's better for day-to-day use.

[Gunn]

Hans brings up a good point. There are eSATA interfaces and just "SATA breakout panels" - the SATA breakout panel just brings the same internal SATA connector to the outside for connecting a SATA drive directly, as if it was inside the case. This means you need to supply external power to the drive.

eSATA interfaces, on the other hand, are designed to connect to an eSATA enclosure or case. eSATA has sturdier connector so it's better for day-to-day use.

I am concerned that I might have a problem connecting to one of the six Sata connections which are controlled by the MoBo. I really do not know anything about raids but I understand that HP's on board raid controller is not very flexible.

JoJo