External Hard Drives

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Damn, this thread is exactly what I was hoping for, but didn't really know to seek out.

Thanks for all these great recommendations, and I'll be in the market for at least two external drives soon.

[zaphodz]

Actually the best thing to do is get one of these docking stations:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... ng+station

and just buy bare sata drives as cheaply as you can.

You just slot the bare drive into one of these stations, copy / transfer your files then put the drive in storage somewhere. Some have esata, USB, Firewire. This is what I'll be getting sometime soonish.

[jdog]

Actually the best thing to do is get one of these docking stations:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... ng+station

and just buy bare sata drives as cheaply as you can.

You just slot the bare drive into one of these stations, copy / transfer your files then put the drive in storage somewhere. Some have esata, USB, Firewire. This is what I'll be getting sometime soonish.

That's actually a good idea. I was going to propose a NAS but if you are careful with your drives then a eSATA dock is fine. You'll need an eSATA port on your motherboard to use it though.

This Acer NAS is built on the Intel Atom and has 2GB memory as well. Includes a 1TB drive and has room for 3 more, also has a 120mm fan for cooling!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6859321013

[zaphodz]

The thing about NAS boxes is they can be a bit noisy and leaving it on 24/7 adds to your power bill a bit.

It is also good to check the specs and see how data is stored on the disks. For example, some of them use a proprietary method of writing files to the disks. Say the controller board/computer in the NAS dies, can you take the hard disk out and plug it into your computer to get your files back? With some of them the answer is no, you'd have to get a new device (same make and model) to read the disks. (It often has to do with the proprietary RAID controllers they use).

Depends on your file serving needs though I suppose.

[jdog]

The thing about NAS boxes is they can be a bit noisy and leaving it on 24/7 adds to your power bill a bit.

It is also good to check the specs and see how data is stored on the disks. For example, some of them use a proprietary method of writing files to the disks. Say the controller board/computer in the NAS dies, can you take the hard disk out and plug it into your computer to get your files back? With some of them the answer is no, you'd have to get a new device (same make and model) to read the disks. (It often has to do with the proprietary RAID controllers they use).

Depends on your file serving needs though I suppose.

That's true if you use RAID 5 or similar. RAID 1 or no RAID at all will never have a problem being read outside of the NAS system. The advantage of a NAS over an eSATA dock is that you don't need to worry about ESD or dropping a drive. My thought process is to avoid as much contact with the physical drive as possible. ;)