External Hard Drive Advice

[amjedm]

Need some advice please - I'm after a largish external hard drive for work.

Reliability is extremely important. Max budget is £70

I was thinking of going for a 320GB Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 8MB with 5 years warranty - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=575226 - £67.34

I'm hoping the 5 year warranty and the fact it's a Seagate mean it's going to be reliable.

Any other ones to consider?

Thank you.

[staffsMike]

I'd be tempted by the Western Digital MyBooks for reliability. They also do premium versions around your budget which have eSata or firewire connections as well as USB so when the opportunity is available you can have quicker access and transerfer speeds.

[d032sh]

Another thumbs up for the WD MyBooks, mine was a great investment. It's quick, big, well priced and almost completely silent.

[amjedm]

The WD come with 2 years warranty - main reason I didn't consider it but thank you for the advice.

Need a few more opinions

Edit: the WD is 3 quid cheaper for same size

[alsenior]

what about buying a normal hard drive and a external enclosure

[amjedm]

what about buying a normal hard drive and a external enclosure

Good point, only problem is I think there are alot more combinations and I could forever be choosing? I need to order one asap, should have ordered a month ago to backup up some critical data.

[rox0r]

I went down the enclosure and seperate drive route. I got one of the Akasa Quad enclosures that takes an IDE or SATA drive and can connect via eSATA or USB so it gives you plenty of options and portability, the eSATA is brilliant because you keep the native speed of the drive whilst utilising the flexibility of hot-swap and such.

I chose to put a Samsung Spinpoint in it, mainly for the extremely low noise output from them.

[ThePimPsTeR]

Roxor - from descriptions online the Akasa unit does'nt have a fan - is that right ?? so sound is reduced but are temps OK ?? and does it have a power buttone on it.

Sounds like the ideal product for what I want.

cheers

[rox0r]

No it doesn't have a fan and that's one of the reasons I chose it, I didn't want more noise. Temps are absolutely fine, for the record I use a pair of RaptorX 150s in some German made SilentMaxx enclosures and they're far more restrictive to the drive than the Akasa and both of their temps are well within limits.

And yes it has a power button.

Scan sell them http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=465786

[amjedm]

Maplin have a special offer at the moment - the 320 Seagate Free Agent (link to Scan in the first post) - £59.99 (down from £99) so I've just popped in and picked one up.

IMO not a bad price from Maplin.

But thank you all for the advice.