Question on external HDD


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drewdam

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Jun 18, 2005
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Hi,

am look for a HDD to abckup/store photo just incase those HDD thingy will happen....crash

saw a ad ...a maxtor 1 touchIII (3.5") 160g going for $149 is this a good buy..

a normal maxtor basic series of external HDD 200gb at $149 too..any major diff between the 2 beside the capacity ;) ?

kindly advise and get me your input or alternative ...have lost track on com stuff many years lio...
 

Hi,

am look for a HDD to abckup/store photo just incase those HDD thingy will happen....crash

saw a ad ...a maxtor 1 touchIII (3.5") 160g going for $149 is this a good buy..

a normal maxtor basic series of external HDD 200gb at $149 too..any major diff between the 2 beside the capacity ;) ?

kindly advise and get me your input or alternative ...have lost track on com stuff many years lio...

Maxtor :sweat: ... QC standards have gone no where - so far.

That aside, HDDs will still crash. I'd rather burn them to DVDR for archiving purposes. (make sure they're of good grade dye)

Between both, the premium is that the former comes with an external housing to allow you to "plug-n-pray" .. i mean PLAY ... :bsmilie: ... and with a touch of a button for you to do your backups, for which i'd rather just simply run a backup software and backup everything to another drive or simply - COPY THEM OVER.
 

I'd rather buy Seagate. Check out their range of Ovation external HDDs. I have Hitachi, Seagate and Western Digital HDDs on my system, never a Maxtor :sweat:
 

DVD do not last forever also.... especially in Singapore.

Agree with dEthANGeL about the backup part. Just organise your stuff properly to begin with. Then all you need to do is copy the entire directory over.

You might want to look at the RAID 1 external HDD cases. It fits two drivers, and it duplicates the data on each drive. So you are effectivly backing up your data to two drives at the same time. Just get two drives of the same capacity and performance.
 

For me, I just bought the HDD then shopped around for a nice external casing. Ended up with a Seagate 320GB SATA HDD and a NexStar3 aluminium casing... very nice! :thumbsup:
 

Best way of archiving photos is using a DVD Burner. True, DVD don't last forever, but they last longer than HDDs.

External HDDs are more prone to failure, especially if you keep then running forever or you have an electrical surge or you spill water over it. I have 2 External HDDs. The Iomega one died on me and i lost 3 years of data :( It will cost $200-$300 to retrieve all that data, which isn't very worth it.

The only draw back of DVD is that you have to load the DVD and the reading speed is quite slow. But I can live with the slowness as long as the data's intact.
 

Best way of archiving photos is using a DVD Burner. True, DVD don't last forever, but they last longer than HDDs.

External HDDs are more prone to failure, especially if you keep then running forever or you have an electrical surge or you spill water over it. I have 2 External HDDs. The Iomega one died on me and i lost 3 years of data :( It will cost $200-$300 to retrieve all that data, which isn't very worth it.

The only draw back of DVD is that you have to load the DVD and the reading speed is quite slow. But I can live with the slowness as long as the data's intact.

Actually, quite a few people on HWZ have reported that their DVD's were unreadable after 6 months to a year, so they may not last longer than HDDs. CD-R technology is more stable, but the dyes for DVDs are not as 'matured' yet in terms of development. Humidity and temperature plays a big role in its deterioration.
 

hey so wat u guys suggest? i need a HDD to transfer all the pic that i took mostly RAW to this back up HDD...from C drive. cos my main back up dr is very very small in today std...12GB only :embrass:

and my mobo is kind of old...6yrs ols lio with an AMD alhlon1.4G, dun think mobo can support >120gb of new HDD today...that's y am look for external soluation.

btw am working 4 connector compy that supply connector, switches n harness cable to all the major OEM, ODM n Drive Compy...so maxtor n seagate both uses our connector...
 

What's your budget?
 

actual i just keep for photo purpose so possible <150 ... that y am asking 160G 1 touch at 149 reasonable?
 

actual i just keep for photo purpose so possible <150 ... that y am asking 160G 1 touch at 149 reasonable?

Thereabouts. I would go with the Seagate Ovation 160GB at $159 instead of the Maxtor.

Or for about $200, can get the Seagate 250GB (SATA2) with 16MB cache and buy a NexStar3 aluminium casing which has both eSATA and USB2.0. Its more future-proof cause it has the eSATA connector which most new motherboards will support and eSATA is way faster than USB2.0
 

Thereabouts. I would go with the Seagate Ovation 160GB at $159 instead of the Maxtor.

Or for about $200, can get the Seagate 250GB (SATA2) with 16MB cache and buy a NexStar3 aluminium casing which has both eSATA and USB2.0. Its more future-proof cause it has the eSATA connector which most new motherboards will support and eSATA is way faster than USB2.0

ok, i will keep look up for wat u suggested...sitex is coming..tks
 

Personally I've got 100GB Maxtor for if I remember correctly $138 at Challenger Funan.

It was the best offer at that time, now it's 25GB full. :confused:

I hardly buy from Challenger cause their prices are a bit on the higher side. I walk around Challenger to view the items, then pop over to Fuwell to buy :bsmilie:

I've got 800+GB of HDD space and got perhaps 200GB remaining... time to shop for another HDD soon :sweat:
 

ok, i will keep look up for wat u suggested...sitex is coming..tks

Before you go, know what you're looking for. Usually prices at SITEX or PCSHOW are not that great, I can probably get the same price or cheaper at Sim Lim -minus the crowd. Download a few Sim Lim shop's price lists and compare to see the average price before going down to SITEX
 

Before you go, know what you're looking for. Usually prices at SITEX or PCSHOW are not that great, I can probably get the same price or cheaper at Sim Lim -minus the crowd. Download a few Sim Lim shop's price lists and compare to see the average price before going down to SITEX

i agree... BUT, i still like going there to squeezeeeeee...

:bsmilie:
 

Hello there,

let me try to be as objective and unbiased as possible.

The differences between the MAXTOR 1 touch III 160gb and the 250gb basic is that one is marketed as a premium model, giving you combo connection options FW400 and USB 2.0 plus perhaps a faster HDD and a "cooler' looking casing.

The basic model only gives you one connection type USB 2.0 and of course a simple dull casing.

If you are just going to use the EXT HDD purely for archiving, then SPEED is not a priority, PRICE and SIZE is.

Other options you have are:

1. Shop around SLQ or FUNAN for a external HDD ( without casing) and buy a casing of your choice. This way you can pick the most ideal HDD.


In order to keep your HDD working well you should practice habits like :

1. Making sure you disengage the EXT HDD before turning off the power, of course give a few seconds to let the HDD spin down.

2. Do not bump or move the EXT HDD while backing up.



HAving said all that, yes the other alternative means of backing up such as DVD, CD are also good and i use them as well. But nothing beats the convenience and speed of archiving into a HDD. I recommend keeping 2 ext hdd, one to back up the other. You can do this when budget allows.This way you have 3 hdd(incl built-in), surely all 3 cant fail at the same time? ;p

cheers :cool:



1.
Hi,

am look for a HDD to abckup/store photo just incase those HDD thingy will happen....crash

saw a ad ...a maxtor 1 touchIII (3.5") 160g going for $149 is this a good buy..

a normal maxtor basic series of external HDD 200gb at $149 too..any major diff between the 2 beside the capacity ;) ?

kindly advise and get me your input or alternative ...have lost track on com stuff many years lio...
 

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