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DPChallenge Forums >> Hardware and Software >> Would you go for this external hard drive?
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 05/26/2006 05:11:06 AM · #1
No, still haven't bought one.....LOL

Does anyone with some external hard drive knowledge see any reason not to go for this deal?

Seagate 250mb External Hard Drive

Thanks :)
 05/26/2006 06:35:01 AM · #2
I was about to tell you that any cd will hold more than 250mb, but then I looked and say it was actually gb. It's been awhile since I priced harddrives, but that looks like a decent price. Go for it.
 05/26/2006 07:51:44 AM · #3
I wish I knew more about external hard drives, because I need a couple. Ebay also has some for low proces, but I am not sure what's good and what's junk.
 05/26/2006 08:11:02 AM · #4
For about $25 cheaper you can get a Lacie 250gb external hard drive at Buy.com. It looks pretty nice too.

I got the Lacie Brick that looks like a giant lego for $130.
 05/26/2006 08:14:58 AM · #5
This has two of the three things I would look for: 7200 rpm drive made by a reputable manufacturer (Seagate). The problem is that the interface is stated as USB and not as USB 2.0.

Check out this drive--250Gb 7200rpm USB 2.0 Seagate--also at TigerDirect aand $10 cheaper! //www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2206375&CatId=136

I have bought from TigerDirect for years with no problems.

Message edited by author 2006-05-26 08:27:30.
 05/26/2006 08:35:57 AM · #6
I personally try to avoid deals that rely on rebates to arrive at a final price - just because I hate having to do the paperwork and then wait for my money - but this looks like a great price and I'm sure the drive would be great. Go for it!
 05/26/2006 09:15:16 AM · #7
Originally posted by riolobo:
This has two of the three things I would look for: 7200 rpm drive made by a reputable manufacturer (Seagate). The problem is that the interface is stated as USB and not as USB 2.0.

Check out this drive--250Gb 7200rpm USB 2.0 Seagate--also at TigerDirect aand $10 cheaper! //www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2206375&CatId=136

I have bought from TigerDirect for years with no problems.


It is USB 2.0 & firewire :)
 05/26/2006 09:16:35 AM · #8
Originally posted by Telehubbie:
For about $25 cheaper you can get a Lacie 250gb external hard drive at Buy.com. It looks pretty nice too.

I got the Lacie Brick that looks like a giant lego for $130.


That Lacie is also one I have looked at. However, the one I posted is actually $24 cheaper w/ the rebate. I personally don't mind rebates to much :)
 05/26/2006 09:20:14 AM · #9
If the rebate doesn't bother you it should be a great choice, especially if you have FIrewire on your system. You will get much better real-world performance from Firewire, and there's less CPU overhead than with USB.
 05/26/2006 09:27:36 AM · #10
Thanks everyone. I just decided to go for it. All my pics are backed up to DVD/CD's anyways and the hard drive is my 2nd backup. (Although I am tempted to have everything backed up to two external hard drives, but I think that is overkill...LOL

Thanks for the help :)
 05/26/2006 11:03:03 AM · #11
If you don't mind the work, you might look into buying the harddrive and external case separately. I bought two 250gb drives and cases for under $300 at tigerdirect. And I got one of the most expensive cases they had, with usb 2.0, firewire, and eSATA interfaces. If you buy a simpler case, you could get the price down further.
 05/26/2006 11:27:22 AM · #12
Originally posted by riolobo:
This has two of the three things I would look for: 7200 rpm drive made by a reputable manufacturer (Seagate). The problem is that the interface is stated as USB and not as USB 2.0.

Check out this drive--250Gb 7200rpm USB 2.0 Seagate--also at TigerDirect aand $10 cheaper! //www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2206375&CatId=136

I have bought from TigerDirect for years with no problems.


I hate marketing people.....
"Massive 250GB HDD Holds 112,500 Digital Photos!"

Really? My 250Gb drive seems to be defective because it holds somewhat less than 112,500 files :-/ I guess I need to buy one of theirs :-)
 05/26/2006 11:47:03 AM · #13
Originally posted by robs:
Originally posted by riolobo:
This has two of the three things I would look for: 7200 rpm drive made by a reputable manufacturer (Seagate). The problem is that the interface is stated as USB and not as USB 2.0.

Check out this drive--250Gb 7200rpm USB 2.0 Seagate--also at TigerDirect aand $10 cheaper! //www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2206375&CatId=136

I have bought from TigerDirect for years with no problems.


I hate marketing people.....
"Massive 250GB HDD Holds 112,500 Digital Photos!"

Really? My 250Gb drive seems to be defective because it holds somewhat less than 112,500 files :-/ I guess I need to buy one of theirs :-)


bear in mind that there always going to be estimates, and you also have to acknowledge the pix. on your camera since it differs in memory. What i do hate though is that they never seem to state what kind of camera they use to make these numbers so large; i wouldn't dout if they use a camera-phone to get such a large number.

Message edited by author 2006-05-26 11:47:52.
 05/26/2006 12:09:51 PM · #14
Originally posted by noodleboy:
bear in mind that there always going to be estimates, and you also have to acknowledge the pix. on your camera since it differs in memory. What i do hate though is that they never seem to state what kind of camera they use to make these numbers so large; i wouldn't dout if they use a camera-phone to get such a large number.


I know but it's just lying legally - I know it was a 2MP-ish camera to get that ratio but IMO it's misleading the way it is. Hold on - Maybe I can sue since I don't get that many files on that drive :-))
 05/26/2006 12:26:46 PM · #15
I have also been checking into the same thing this week.

I found that most of the techies around here that are really up on their Hard drives don't actually favor the Seagate drives... I'm not quite sure why this has happened, but they usually recommend the Western Digital, Fujitsu or Hitachi drives...

One guy said that the Hitachi is essentially an IBM drive... I'm not sure if that means anything to me. IBM isn't exactly a gold standard for quality IMHO...

They all seemed to agree that even with a longer (5 year) warranty over the other drives (which seemed to average at 3 years), the Seagates tend to run hotter.

A 250GB 5400 RPM IDE drive by Western Digital is around 80 dollars US here. Add 35 dollars US for a USB2.0/Firewire capable enclosure and I could be cooking for around 120 US.

Personally, I wouldn't touch any HD that didn't have firewire. USB is a shared data transfer protocol. That means that there are multiple types of data connection that can occur over the USB ports... If you are running more than one type of USB device on your computer, it can slow down the rest of them by allocating bandwidth for those devices. The allocated bandwidth can really eat into transfer speeds.

I don't use a lot of USB toys, but I still find that my USB 2.0 connections pretty much never go as fast as they claim they can...

Firewire on the other hand is pretty much a dedicated information transfer. There are no firewire mice... It's less versatile, but that also makes it much more streamlined and focused in its application.

Like Kirbic says, this translates into much better real time data transfer speeds.

This will likely have FAR more impact on your performance than even the spinup speed of your drive...
 05/26/2006 02:14:16 PM · #16
Originally posted by eschelar:
I found that most of the techies around here that are really up on their Hard drives don't actually favor the Seagate drives... I'm not quite sure why this has happened, but they usually recommend the Western Digital, Fujitsu or Hitachi drives...

One guy said that the Hitachi is essentially an IBM drive... I'm not sure if that means anything to me. IBM isn't exactly a gold standard for quality IMHO...


I don't know who those techies are, but I have worked with Seagate, WD, and Maxtor as customers of mine in the recent past (last job). I know how their organizations are driven, and what technology paths they've selected in certain areas. I buy Seagate.
FWIW, yes, Hitachi's disk drive business unit was purchased from IBM. The IBM drives had decent reputations, in fact were some of the faster drives on the market for a while. When sold to Hitachi, the business was in need of a kick start to regain competitiveness, and IMO that has not really happened.
 05/26/2006 02:19:19 PM · #17
Anybody know whose drive mechanisms LaCie uses? We use several at work and have had no problems -- they came highly recommended from our local independent Mac dealer. I also have a Maxstor and a Seagate drive at home, and haven't really had problems with either up until now.
 05/26/2006 02:22:42 PM · #18
I have 4 external harddrives, all LaCie, they are up and running 24/7 and I have never had any problem with LaCie products, but I've gone through several "budget" external drives all with different names, and they all broke down within 1 year, the LaCie just keep going, the oldest 4 years old...

I wouldn't reccoment ANY drive other than LaCie to those that wants to keep their data safe, if it's just for savegames, downloaded movies and stuff that really doesn't matter if you loose it, then buy just any drive that's cheap.
 05/26/2006 02:24:49 PM · #19
Originally posted by GeneralE:
Anybody know whose drive mechanisms LaCie uses? We use several at work and have had no problems -- they came highly recommended from our local independent Mac dealer. I also have a Maxstor and a Seagate drive at home, and haven't really had problems with either up until now.


Don't know... I wonder if I could sneak a peek at my LaCie and see? I think part of the reliability equation for the LaCie externals is that they pay attention to heat transfer from the drive to the outside envoronment; many don't, and there's usually no venting in an external case. If there's inadequate path for heat to exit the enclusure, that drive can run *hot*!
 05/26/2006 02:27:14 PM · #20
I know his is a bit off-tpoic, but has anyone here had any experience with network drives or network drive enclosures?

I'm thinking about setting up one on my Wireless-G network and am wondering which drives or enclosures are good.
 05/26/2006 02:29:22 PM · #21
Originally posted by fotomann_forever:
I know his is a bit off-tpoic, but has anyone here had any experience with network drives or network drive enclosures?

I'm thinking about setting up one on my Wireless-G network and am wondering which drives or enclosures are good.


LaCie has a great one.. LaCie ethernet disks
 05/26/2006 02:31:50 PM · #22
Originally posted by fotomann_forever:
I know his is a bit off-tpoic, but has anyone here had any experience with network drives or network drive enclosures?

I'm thinking about setting up one on my Wireless-G network and am wondering which drives or enclosures are good.

TeraStation Pro is on my shopping list.
 05/26/2006 03:05:45 PM · #23
I have two Ximeta NetDisks, but I'm not sure I'd recommend them. Don't really care for their proprietary software...

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:
I know his is a bit off-tpoic, but has anyone here had any experience with network drives or network drive enclosures?

I'm thinking about setting up one on my Wireless-G network and am wondering which drives or enclosures are good.

05/26/2006 03:15:51 PM · #24
Originally posted by kirbic:
I think part of the reliability equation for the LaCie externals is that they pay attention to heat transfer from the drive to the outside envoronment; many don't, and there's usually no venting in an external case. If there's inadequate path for heat to exit the enclusure, that drive can run *hot*!

The ones we use have a heavy square box, which gets quite warm. I wonder if they're using the whole case like a heat-sink instead of using a fan.

Both the Maxstor and Seagate drives have fan at the back of the box.

Message edited by author 2006-05-26 15:16:58.
 05/26/2006 03:36:39 PM · #25
Originally posted by GeneralE:
Originally posted by kirbic:
I think part of the reliability equation for the LaCie externals is that they pay attention to heat transfer from the drive to the outside envoronment; many don't, and there's usually no venting in an external case. If there's inadequate path for heat to exit the enclusure, that drive can run *hot*!

The ones we use have a heavy square box, which gets quite warm. I wonder if they're using the whole case like a heat-sink instead of using a fan.

Both the Maxstor and Seagate drives have fan at the back of the box.


the beauty in the LaCie design is that there is no fan, and the box runs silent, for heat transfer they make the box out of aluminum and the disks are connected directly to the box, that way the box is a gigantic heatsink.

most other brands use a fan so the box can get really noisy.

I have a 200GB, 250GB, 400GB and 500GB LaCie boxes all in my office, and I have a Mac Mini and a G5 all running at the same time, the room is almost silent, I can hear a very minor wind sound from the G5 but no fan noise.

brilliant design from Apple and LaCie :)
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