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External Hard Drive Advice

Sinfonia

Having trouble finding what I want from an external hard drive.
Basically the priorities are capacity, reliability and price; speed/performance isn't a high priority as it's primarily for backup/storage.

The main problem in finding one seems to the reliability part: some seem to give up after a year or two; some aren't working with Mountain Lion.

Any recommendations for a reliable 2TB drive at a reasonable price?

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Sinfonia

Thinking about this one atm http://www.lacie.com/ie/products/product.htm?id=10587

fergusb

Dabs are selling a USB3.0 Seagate 2TB drive for under 100 euro. Great price for a fast large drive:
http://www.dabs.ie/products/seagate-2tb-expansion-usb-3-0-3-5--desktop-drive-84C7.html?src=3

Sinfonia

Doesn't mention anything about being Mac compatible though, is it PC/Windows only?

fergusb

Sinfonia wrote: »

Doesn't mention anything about being Mac compatible though, is it PC/Windows only?

It should work fine with Mac, It is probably formatted for Windows out of the box, but can be formatted for Mac using the "Disk Utility". The shipped applications with the drive may not work on Mac either but for backup you can just use Time Machine.

I definitely wouldn't waste money on a "Mac specific" drive. I've never noticed any difference.

Sinfonia

fergusb wrote: »

It should work fine with Mac, It is probably formatted for Windows out of the box, but can be formatted for Mac using the "Disk Utility". The shipped applications with the drive may not work on Mac either but for backup you can just use Time Machine.

I definitely wouldn't waste money on a "Mac specific" drive. I've never noticed any difference.

Oh really? That's cool; I've always used PC and just bought a Macbook, so I've no idea about all these format issues (apart from knowing they exist!)

Sinfonia

fergusb wrote: »

Dabs are selling a USB3.0 Seagate 2TB drive for under 100 euro. Great price for a fast large drive:
http://www.dabs.ie/products/seagate-2tb-expansion-usb-3-0-3-5--desktop-drive-84C7.html?src=3

Went ahead and ordered that (from Amazon for the same price), thanks for the advice

EDIT: I'm also looking for a hard drive enclosure for another hard drive, Thunderbolt connections seem to be rare (performance will be important with this one), any advice anyone has is again much appreciated..!

fergusb

Sinfonia wrote: »

EDIT: I'm also looking for a hard drive enclosure for another hard drive, Thunderbolt connections seem to be rare (performance will be important with this one), any advice anyone has is again much appreciated..!

I was in a similar boat a few weeks back, Thunderbolt is still very expensive and from what I could read for standard Hard Drives they don't make a huge performance over USB3.0 since the Hard Drive is the speed limit.

If speed is absolutely critical and money no object a Thunderbolt SSD drive is your answer, something like the SSD version of:
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10549

but for most people I think a standard USB3.0 enclosure should be sufficient.

Does you're Mac have USB3.0?

Sinfonia

Yeah, I think I'll be happy with the USB 3.0 option, and my MB has the port so that should be fine.

It's hard to shop for though, because I've never dealt with them before, so I'm finding that there's about a million brands I've never heard of, all making enclosures, which even when generally rated highly all seem to have some flaws, and I've no idea how much I should be expecting to spend either (although it seems like average price for a decent USB 3.0 enclosure for a 3.5 inch drive is around €35-50, while anything much higher than that is a bit of a rip-off).

fergusb

Yeah I'd agree that anything over 50 is a ripoff for only an enclosure. I haven't bought an enclosure for a while but was reading a review from one of the tech sites on 10 different enclosures:
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/09/15/ten_usb_3_hdd_enclosures/

Bear in mind that half of these drives are for 2.5inch disks.

Sinfonia

Think I might go with this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/IB-318StU3-B-Premium-Aluminium-Case-Interface/dp/B00304VVEW/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

No cooling fan, although review said this shouldn't be a problem used upright and with a 1TB drive..
The aluminium casing is a plus and at £33 (~€40) it seems like good value.

Any thoughts?

fergusb

Cooling fans for a single drive just add noise in my opinion. If the drive is not in a very hot location and there is enough space for general air to circulate around it you won't have any issue I'd say.

Sinfonia

fergusb wrote: »

Cooling fans for a single drive just add noise in my opinion. If the drive is not in a very hot location and there is enough space for general air to circulate around it you won't have any issue I'd say.

Great stuff, thanks a million for your help with all this, really looking forward to my new set-up now!