Best Value in Firewire External Drives

[Frank Petronio]

I'm looking for simple storage, nothing fancy, but at least Firewire 400 if not 800 since USB 2.0 is so slow...

What is the best value at the moment? Buying lots of cheap 500gb drives, 1tb, 2tb?

LaCie, WD, no-name or ?

Does the cache matter for simple back-ups (I'm not running Photoshop off it).

I have 2tb x 2 right now, so I want a third drive for off-site storage.

[Paul H]

How about a hard disk dock? It' be ideal for sending drives off site.

The Vantec Nexstar Hard Drive Docks come in a version with FW400. Then get whatever bare hard drive you like. FW400 is fine for backups. I even used one as a scratch disk on an older laptop.

I have seen a dock with FW800, but it was nearly three times the price.

[Joanna Carter]

Try the WiebeTech drive enclosures; you can put tour own disk inside and they have a choice, including eSata, Firewire 800 & 400 and USB, all in one case.

[Struan Gray]

LaCie don't seem to have recovered from a bad reliability patch yet. I've been using four WD MyBook Studio Editions (3x500MB + 1x1TB) for over two years now. The 1TB sits on the network as a server, but is turned off each night. The smaller disks get carted around and attached to a variety of computers with a mix of USB2.0 and Firewire 400 and 800 connections. All have worked fine, despite the constant off/on and connect-reconnect cycles - they're much better than I expected given the low price.

Server quality disks exist with beefier power supplies, supposedly more reliable chipsets, and heat sinking to cope with high throughput, 24/7. G-tech is a name the music producers and theorectical physicists I know tend to recommend. For me though, the ability to afford multiple backups is worth more than the increased reliability of one. I have had disks stolen from my office or drenched in coffee more often than I have had them die unrecoverably.

[Jim C.]

I roll my own disks using MiniStack enclosures and drives bought from
Newegg, I have 6 of them and 3 are left on almost 24/7. I have had a
fan die on one of them but it was older model so I attibute it to age.
Cache size does matter for faster read/writes as does the rpm.

MiniStack (http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/FWU2MSVS2/)

[Jeremy Moore]

LaCie don't seem to have recovered from a bad reliability patch yet.

Have there been any tests in regards to LaCie and reliability or is this just your own opinion? I hear this a lot, but I also hear it in regards to ANY of the big name makers. We use LaCie in the lab and have had 1 drive die out of nearly 50 over the last 2 years (constant use)--that one drive was knocked off of a table and kicked while still in the air during a write phase. I was still able to pull all of the information except for the file currently being written off of the drive, though, it was damaged.

I'm not saying go for LaCie to Frank, but I am wondering what the basis is for the claim of LaCie's reliability. If there is a documented problem with them then I want to know so I can switch to a different brand in my lab!

[Donald Miller]

I have used Lacie with no problem. Currently using WD My Books. If I had the computer to support eSata (3gbs transfer rate) that is what I would do...the transfer rates are much better than Firewire. According to my information USB 2.0 (480 mbs transfer rate)is better in regard to data transfer rates than Firewire 400 (ieee1394a--400mbs transfer rate). An esata card can be added to most computers if not already so equipped.

The transfer rates are really important when transfering large files. I am doing a lot of video at present and a slow external drive really chokes things down.

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=e+sata+external+hard+drives&rls=p,com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7SUNA_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=16396452756192529133&ei=w2mVSsrpLozSM4HkxPoH&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=6#ps-sellers

[Juergen Sattler]

This is what I will get once I upgrade my PC to 64bit: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/RAID/Desktop/#raidlevels

It is reasonably priced and allows for up to 8TB of storgae in any REID configuration imaginable. You can chose to just buy the enclosure, or get the entire solution, incl. harddrives.

[PenGun]

This is what I will get once I upgrade my PC to 64bit: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/RAID/Desktop/#raidlevels

It is reasonably priced and allows for up to 8TB of storgae in any REID configuration imaginable. You can chose to just buy the enclosure, or get the entire solution, incl. harddrives.

It's just an expensive SATA extender. A motherboard with a bunch of SATA connectors will do all that does.

My 4 year old beast has 8 SATA ports and RAID of all kinds is relatively simple. Most modern motherboards have a bunch of SATA ports.

The X58 boards for Lynfield/i7 will sport 6 G/s SATA and are starting to appear. Probably where I'm going.

[Struan Gray]

Have there been any tests in regards to LaCie and reliability or is this just your own opinion?

Just my own opinion, but I like to think it's informed.

I used to buy LaCie external drives as a matter of course. I still have one 120 MB drive from seven years ago which is going strong. About three to four years ago I started to hear anecdotes about power supply unreliability and odd bouts of flakey performance. So I checked with our computer support, who do not sell or repair equipment, but who do run a well-used helpdesk, and who tend to be the first port of call for all the non-techie users across the campus. They too had noticed a rise in LaCie failures, above the usual drive failure trickle, and in stark contrast to LaCie's previous good reputation for affordable reliability.

When I set up the backup system for my little group here a couple of years ago that reputation for unreliable drives had not faded, so I went with WD. The same caveats still apply. Perhaps the reputation is now ill-deserved, but LaCie have to prove it - the goodwill is gone.

I'm no expert, and I've not run 'real' tests, and I have successfully gone against our helpdesk's recommendations before now; but their advice is certainly good enough for practical purposes. If Frank wants failsafe, there are milspec drives and hotswappable raid enclosures, albeit at a price.

[jim kitchen]

Dear Frank,

I mentioned this supplier in another thread...

http://www.macgurus.com/productpages/firewire/BurlyMultiDriveFWFixed.php

They happen to sell the Burly drive enclosures, just like a few other suppliers. They are well made, almost military grade, where you can supply your own HDs as required. I have used these hard drive enclosures for the past five years without issue.

Just a thought. :)

jim k

[Ed Richards]

Does it need to be Firewire - ESATA is fast and cheaper. If you have ports on the motherboard, for $15 you can get an adapter that will bring two ports to outside of the box, then you can use a Thermaltake BlacX eSATA USB Docking Station (http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-BlacX-eSATA-Docking-Station/dp/B001A4HAFS). Plug in a naked drive and away you go.

[Kirk Gittings]

Does it need to be Firewire - ESATA is fast and cheaper. If you have ports on the motherboard, for $15 you can get an adapter that will bring two ports to outside of the box,

This is what I do too.

[Rick Moore]

I have had very good luck with Seagate FreeAgent external Firewire 800 drives. Cheap and reliable.

[Jay W]

Does it need to be Firewire - ESATA is fast and cheaper. If you have ports on the motherboard, for $15 you can get an adapter that will bring two ports to outside of the box, then you can use a Thermaltake BlacX eSATA USB Docking Station (http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-BlacX-eSATA-Docking-Station/dp/B001A4HAFS). Plug in a naked drive and away you go.

This is cool! My computer didn't have an open drive, but the case had screws so I could mount a drive right to the case. The drive made the case hum (from spinning), so I used some fabric as washers and it's quiet now. It's not a raid setup, but I manually "RAID" with the new 2 TB sata (internal) and 1 TB external firewire.

Jay

[Rider]

This is what I do too.

Did you run into limitations on cable length or anything else because you're extending SATA to eSATA?

[Rider]

It sounded like Frank was looking for something simple, reliable and cheap.

Not having too much time to research or build, it seems to me that the WD external FW drives are a safe bet (possibly get the 4-port version that includes eSATA). Anyone have a different suggestion than that?

[Robert Oliver]

you can usually find deals on dealmac... some expire before I get to them, but I have saved some cash on these.

http://dealmac.com/categories/Computer/Storage/Hard-Drives/56.html

[Stephen Lewis]

Hi Frank

One word; Drobo. http://www.drobo.com/

[JohnnyV]

Best bang for the buck:

Macally G-S350SUA Hi-Speed eSATA/FireWire/USB2.0 Storage Enclosure for 3.5-Inch SATA HDD (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000P1NAMO/ref=ord_cart_shr?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance)

HITACHI 0A38016 1TB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145233)

I have three of the above HITACHI drives been running 24/7 for 6 months... still going strong.

[hassiman]

The CalDigit VR and VR Mini are about the best external drives out there. USB 2.0/FW400/800/eSATA as well as Harware RAID 0/1/JBOD and hot swapable HDs with auto rebuild. The throughput is massive as these babies are made for high volume video editing. The VR Mini is even bus powered!

I have one of each and have been running their stuff for years at work. Their customer service is second to none... if you ever need it.

www.caldigit.com

I don't work for them....

[Armin Seeholzer]

My oldest La Cie is 10 years and my youngest is 3 years an between is one with 6 years and not any troubles at all!
Nock on wood!
But never nock on them during work, it kills even the best;--)))

Cheers Armin