External Harddrive for backup use

[ReaLsoN]

Hey folks,

I´m looking for a reliable external harddrive for doin my backups. I´d rather buy a 300GB HD every few months, instead of burning a gang of DVD´s, cause I had real bad experiences with using DVD´s as a backup.

I have my eyes on a 320GB Lacie external HD right now. The price is very low.

Does anybody have experiences with external HD´s for backup use?? Anything else worth checkin out??

Thanks in advance!

Peace...

[Edge]

I just bought a 250 gb lacie porsche drive for $135.00 comp usa great deal I got a firewire one they only had one left, it seem like firewire hard drives are hard to find now so I'm going to buy a couple of them

[psycho_monkey]

Firewire drives hard to find?! Not sure where you shop...but I'd think that's fairly unlikely!

At the studio I work at we've had a fair few Lacie drives (porsche ones in particular) fail. we use Glyph and G-Tech drives most of the time, but the Avastor ones are the absolute best. Not the cheapest, but they come in a fitted case, have an internal power supply, and i've not heard of one failing yet...

[Spectacle]

If it's straight backup you want, Western Digital has got some great deals in their "MyBook" series. I use a 250 GB WD MyBookPro (triple interface: FW800, FW400, USB 2.0) for my recording & sample streaming, and a 160 GB WD MyBook USB 2.0 to back things up onto.

I paid around $150 for the 250GB and about $90 for the 160GB. Online, check out www.MacMall.com, in stores, check BestBuy. Great deals right now, and these drives are quiet and stable.

As for the LaCie and Porsche drives, I have read a number of posts on here that have complained about them dying quickly. But I have no personal experience with them myself.

Good luck.

[gsilbers]

DONT BUY LACIE

DAMN unreliable pieaces of crap!


OWC, seagate and my new mybook hasnt failed (YET)
i dont trust western digital cause i had problems with the internal drives but this mybook" range of HD have worked fine and it was $198 for a 500gb.

OWC must be the best
then the seagates
rocstor are also really good, a little more expensive but they dont have an external ac adaptor and are low noise.

and last the Lacie!
im sure there will other post nocking the lacie.
their quality control is really bad.

[daillman]

i got a 320 gig maxtor from bestbuy about a buck 50 its usb and i love it i send all my protools projects to it and when i go to get masterd i take my drive insted of burning a cd keeping highest quality as possible untill the engineer gets it.

[ReaLsoN]

Thanks for all the good advice y´all!

Good 2 know y´all had bad experiences with the Lacie´s, cause that def makes me not wanne purchase those.

I will lookup the ones you guys suggested for sure.

Thanks for the heads up!

Peace.

[ReaLsoN]

I´ve googles around about the products you guys suggested. I think I might go for the Western Digital MYBOOK series with 500GB. The prices on those are really fair, and I´ve seen numerous user tests that rate them very good.

Thanks again for the heads up, that really helped. I´m glad I didn´t pick up those Lacie´s.

Peace

[mattssons]

Since i saw a Lacie with it´s USB port ONLY supported by being surface mounted to a circuitboard! I would like suggestions on other brands people had good luck with.

My main use would be backups and for moving data around.

Thanks /Toby

[gianuz]

I also have a WD MyBook Pro 250 connected to my PowerMac via FW800 for samples. It's working fine.

I paid €138 for it.

Overall, looks like it's a good choice.

[psycho_monkey]

Avastor, avastor avastor.

Bit more expensive, but you can't forget the power supply, they come in a padded case and I've not heard of one failing yet - and I know a lot of people using them.

If you're moving drives around, you really need to take care of them. The Mybook ones look ok, but they've still got an external proprietory power supply and the casings don't look anything like as tough as the Avastors.

Personally, I'd use one of these on the road, and then have a load of cheaper less robust ones for backup that don't get moved around a lot.

[ReaLsoN]

^^^I gotta agree on that. The WD´s don´t look as solid as the Avastor´s, but I need the extrenal HD´s for backup use only, they won´t leave the lab at all. If I need to bring some files somewhere else, I either have my iPod and/or my laptop with the files with me.

YOu´re right tho, the Avastor´s look real solid.

[AMBITION]

I have 3 Lacie Porsche hard drives today. I've filled them up, deleted files off them, dropped them, taken them to other computers / Notebook and not once have I had a problem with them. They're easy to hook up and get working. I got a really good price at www.ecost.com. I've had other hard drives that required drivers and other B/S so when I hooked them up to other machines they become a problem. I recommend the Lacie's. The prices on hard drives have been coming down allot. I'm probably going to pick up a 1tb drive soon. I saw it for $349.00 eCOST.com Part #33140077 Good Luck.

[doctah]

I just buy OEM drives and stick them in external cases. I like western digital and segate. Not a fan of maxtor...had 1 too many die (ie. had 1 die).

Does Lacie make their own drives?

[gsilbers]

Originally Posted by AMBITION

I have 3 Lacie Porsche hard drives today. I've filled them up, deleted files off them, dropped them, taken them to other computers / Notebook and not once have I had a problem with them. They're easy to hook up and get working. I got a really good price at www.ecost.com. I've had other hard drives that required drivers and other B/S so when I hooked them up to other machines they become a problem. I recommend the Lacie's. The prices on hard drives have been coming down allot. I'm probably going to pick up a 1tb drive soon. I saw it for $349.00 eCOST.com Part #33140077 Good Luck.

i said before to not to get lacie, but i have the porsche an its fine. i only had trouble with the grey series with the blue botton. the porshe is alittle more expensive though.

that website is awsome, the 500gb mybook for 200!!

[A-List]

ive been using the Lacie Porche 200GB (2 of them) and had no problems with my Protools sessions for 2 years. i hadnt heard so much bad stuff about them till i read this thread.

[Edge]

Originally Posted by psycho_monkey

Firewire drives hard to find?! Not sure where you shop...but I'd think that's fairly unlikely!
.

Yes its true in my case, I shoped for hard drives, after going to three stores that sell them Fry, Best Buy and , Comp USA I was only able to find 1 external firewire drive
I asked one of the salesmen about this and he said alot of the companys are discontinuing firewire hard drives, I also thought it would be unlikely but it is true

I'm stocking up on firewire hard drives I sell them to my studio clients my rig doesnt use USB 2 only Firewire I have a TDM Mixplus system with two tri 8's and two farmcards on a Mac G'3 it runs like a dream I dont want to change a thing on it!

[Spectacle]

Originally Posted by Edge

Yes its true in my case, I shoped for hard drives, after going to three stores that sell them Fry, Best Buy and , Comp USA I was only able to find 1 external firewire drive
I asked one of the salesmen about this and he said alot of the companys are discontinuing firewire hard drives, I also thought it would be unlikely but it is true

This is definitely the case for brick-and-mortar stores. The approach seems to be, if they don't sell Macs, they don't sell firewire drives. So BestBuy, for example, will have all of the different versions of the WD MyBook external drives, except for the ones that have firewire connections.

But every Apple Store sells them. And on-line is the way to go. Try www.macmall.com or www.ecost.com.

And for those of you who want a great deal, check this out. 500GB eSATA and USB 2.0 for only $125:

http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail.asp?dpno=4973650

I've never used this brand but, I mean, holy crap that's cheap!