External Hard Drvie of Choice...

[SkoalWintergreen]

I've had a few external hard drives fail on me in my time. In fact I just had a Maxtor Maxline III 300GB in a Zdisc external storage go crazy on me. From my research I've found many external hard drives have those little fans that don't hold up or cool well enough and I've also heard Maxtor drives have a tendency to suck.

Anyways, I don't want to get another drive and have it fail in a year, I am well taught in the lessons of knowing hard drives are not 100% so my data is well backed up on other sources now a days, but in general I like to have and use these drives on a daily bases.

So any thoughts on best external drives for high everyday use?

Thanks.

[CWR03]

Just curious, why are you using USB drives? Adding one to a PC case is a better way to go because they'll get more airflow around them. A USB drive or a standard drive in a USB enclosure won't be cooled well because the usual plastic cases don't conduct heat well, and it relies on that tiny fan to cool it. A case fan flows better, and the metal case itself will act as a heat sink.

Maxtor drives have been very reliable for me. I have three in my current system that have been spinning non-stop for more than two years. One had gotten too hot when an extra fan failed and it actually siezed, but when it cooled down it still worked (and I'm still using it). One in my media PC has been running for seven years almost non-stop and is finally beginning to fail slowly.

One option for you, if you use a laptop, would be to buy a cheap PC case and mount your hard drive(s) in it, and you could use USB adaptors on those drives to cable it to your laptop.

[mod]

I have a 160 GB LACIE since Dec 2005, often it has been switched on for days and I've never had any problem. Here (http://www.lacie.com/it/products/product.htm?pid=10387)

[foxyshadis]

Are there any sites that run stress tests on external drives? TomsHardware is one I might expect, but I don't think they've done any. Even though external drive makers can change the manufacturers on a whim, at least it can test the case's cooling.

Hard drives are so freaking loud outside a PC case that I hate keeping them on for any length of time, so it's never been an issue to me.

[SkoalWintergreen]

Yeah I use a laptop so it has to be USB. I am thinking about getting one of those Harddrive cases. The ones that hold about 4 drives. I can probably put a better fan in there and then just throw in a 300 gig harddrive and as time goes on, I can upgrade pretty easily. But $120 for the case is a little steep, seems to be all I can find on pricewatch.

[foxyshadis]

Depending on how hackish you want to be, CWR's might be a really good suggestion for 4 drives. A small empty computer case with some minor noise dampening, a big 120mm fan blowing across them, and a IDE->USB or SATA->USB board for each (they're tiny, you can even rip them out of external cases easily), plug each into a hub and the hub into your system. A little cleaner that way.

As a power supply, you can repurpose an existing ATX one, or go exotic with something like this (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article601-page1.html), some Y-adaptors and/or sata power adaptors, and the 12V power cord of your choice.

Otherwise, yeah, you're looking into the $$$ range for well-ventilated 4 drive enclosures.

[CWR03]

Found something really neat, and it should also be faster:
http://www.cooldrives.com/seatatousb20.html

[Pookie]

Something like this, but an actual enclosure?

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/11-999-141-04.jpg

[CWR03]

I would assume what you've pictured has something that surrounds it. The reason I suggested a cheap PC case is because it would be cheaper (I've gotten several cases free after rebate at Fry's Electronics) and because it would include a power supply for the drives. It's difficult to tell from your image, but it doesn't look like it includes power for the drives.

[Blue_MiSfit]

I've never been a big fan of externals because the interfaces are rather slow for doing production work on.

They're great for data storage!

One brand I always reccomend (as far as enclosures go) is the AMS Venus lineup. They are really well built enclosures. You can just tell when you put them together that they are made well. They actually fit well together unlike the cheapies, and they have excellent cooling, an 80mm fan on the bottom deck that sucks air from the bottom front and shoots it out the bottom back. They have models that take IDE or SATA internally, and output USB, 1394 (for those mac people), and SATA if you have external/eSATA ports. Plus they're quiet!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145657

They're a little pricey (around 50 bucks on newegg), but they really do the job right.

I also recently got an external eSATA 4 drive box, looked like a shuttle SFF computer, complete with a handle and clear side panels lol.. Great setup though, they have an optional internal RAID module so it abstracts nicely, in other words the computer sees one drive, that's either raid 0, raid 1, or raid 5. The cooling wasn't incredible 2 60mm fans, but it seemed allright..

~MiSfit

[Shinigami-Sama]

I have a little POS Future shop Special Comstar 250gb USB drive
its got a metal enclosure, and it does get damned hot, but thats why they're not ment to be used for extended periods of time; or are you talking about enclosures to make an interal drive external?
then ignore what I just said