Whats a good and reliable external hard drive?

Western Digital seem to be the safest. Simpletech/maxtor are terrible. I’ve had close to 10 of theirs fail on me. WD tend to be better. If it was dead in the box, you probably had a dud and should have gotten a new one. With computer stuff there’s always stories about really good (and really bad) brands shipping things dead. But if you return it for a new one, odds are it’d work. If you get two dead ones, then you start looking for other ones.

Seagate!!!!!

I like my two Western Digital MyBook 1TB drives.

LaCie or Western Digital tend to make the best ones.

One that’s backed up somewhere else.

I’ve been using Seagate Barracuda drives for years in some pretty demanding server applications and, so far, never had one fail (they are also very quiet).

I would keep away from seagate or maxtor!!
Lacie makes the best ones, Western Digital make good ones.

A big tip is to use some extra money on quality. Cheap hard drives will most likely crash if they are moved while in use, causing you to lose everything on it.

I’ve heard people say both excellent and horrible things about LaCie.

My WD MyBook survived a 3-foot fall while turned on (but not actively seeking), but of course, that’s just an anecdote…

I’ve always heard that Maxtor’s run really hot. I’ve had a Seagate for a few years now and it is still working fine. However, I’ve never dropped it or moved it while it was working.

Guys, remember that Maxtor is just a case with a Seagate disk inside ;)

For one, remember that ALL hard drives fail. Hard drives have a rating called MTBF: “mean time between failures”. MTBF is the number of hours a particular model of drive is expected to run—on average!—before it dies. Because it will die.

The only way to keep your data safe is to have it in multiple places. One more time: the only way to keep your data safe is to have it in multiple places.

That said, I prefer to buy a bare (internal) 3.5” drive from somewhere like Newegg, then buy a case for it. One, it’s cheaper, and two, often bare drives will have three- or five-year manufacturer’s warranties, where a drive you buy in a case rarely has anything more than a one-year warranty.

If you don’t want your drive to run hot, buy a case with a fan.

I like my Western Digital MyBook Pro 320GB drive. Always works and does so with not a lot of heat or noise. I also like the fact that its fast. I have heard horror stories about Seagate drives failing.

You might also want to try getting a bare HD and put it in a cheep case. You can save a lot of money.

Blast from the not so long ago: it’s currently 4:40 AM, I saw something linking me here.

“Hm, best external hard drive?” I say. “Let’s see if this guy’s gotten an answer yet.”

I glance through the comments—obviously, people have talked to him. Then I see the letters “MTBF”—hey, that’s what I would have said! This guy knows his stuff.

“Hard drives have a rating called…”—funny, that’s the same line I use when I need to explain this to customers. I wonder if I lifted it from the same place this guy did.

Then I realize, of course, that “this guy” is me, and I’m sitting here admiring my own comments without realizing it. An accidental narcissist.

Carry on.

@aaronbeekay Are you saying we should pay attention to this wondrous little number that will save us on many drive buying occasions?