Anybody need a fast, cheap 1TB external drive?

[ThirdOfSix]

Fry's has a special going until Thursday on an iomega 1TB external USB3 drive for $59.

It is listed as an iomega Prestige Desktop Hard Drive.

I got one Saturday and of course immediately opened the case when I got home to see what actual drive was used.

It is a Hitachi 3.5 inch SATA 3.0 Gb/s 7200 RPM Deskstar drive. Model HDS721010CLA332.

When I got my ASUS mother board a year or two ago, I got the version with USB3 ports knowing that sooner or later, inexpensive fast external drives would be available.

Had I known how fast this was going to be, I probably would have got one sooner.

I have not run any benchmarks on it but while transferring data from my mostly dead internal drive, it seems to be as fast or faster than my internal drives which were all 5400 RPM IDE drives.

I am quite impressed. In fact, I just got back from buying a second one since the drive when removed will install in my existing slide out drive tray.

Note to anyone else using fan cooled removable drive trays. When you keep hearing noises that you can not locate, check the fan on the drive tray assembly. When it quits your drive will self destruct from overheating. When the fan quits, there is no cooling for the drive at all.

This is just one more problem due to not being able to tell where sounds are coming from since I got these hearing aids. I knew something was failing but could not find what it was until I was trying to recover data from my brothers failed drive and realized that the warning to shut down immediately due to the drive being overheated above the danger level was referring to my main drive and not his bad drive.

Unfortunately this discovery came too late and I lost most of my main PCLOS install.

The symptoms were frequent unexplained hangs in operation of the computer coupled with the lack of noise that I had been hearing for the last month or so.

  

[µT6]

excellent purchase!!!

sad i can't get one here in my country 

[YouCanToo]

Since the closest Frys is over 50 miles from me and there is a limit of one on them, I am going to take a couple of friends with me and get them. I see the sale end on the 3rd.

[ThirdOfSix]

Since the closest Frys is over 50 miles from me and there is a limit of one on them, I am going to take a couple of friends with me and get them. I see the sale end on the 3rd.

That would be a bit of a trip for just one.

It is 9 miles for me and I have to want something pretty bad before I go.

If you check their web site, you will see that they supposedly sell a Bytecc USB 3.0 2-port PCIE card for $17.99.

I looked all over for them and finally asked one of the sales kids. He checked their computer and said that they were supposed to have two in stock which he thought was weird as he has worked their a while and has never seen them.

He checked all the stock areas and we both checked everywhere that a less than knowledgeable person was likely to put them in the store and could not find any.

Of course they have lots of the $25 an up versions on display.

This was more than a little upsetting as only one of my computers has USB3 ports but several of them have PCIE slots.

I really wanted to get one of those cards to try it out and see if linux has the driver for them.

If you remember and are inclined to stir the pot, you might want to make a bit of a fuss over them not having any. I already told them that I needed to try the card out before I bought any more of those drives.

Given that there are no hooks or tags for them in the area where that type of card is displayed, I think that they have a bit of a problem at that store. It does not appear that they have ever been displayed yet their computer thinks they have stock.

I asked them how I was supposed to know if and when they got any in since the person answering the phone would just look on the computer and swear that they had them.

They did not have a good answer for that.

Oh, I am assuming that we are both talking about the Wilsonville store.

I live on the hill above Willamette Falls.

[YouCanToo]

Yes, we are talking about the Wilsonville store.

It is not the first time I have gone to the store that they said there was stock and then couldn't produce the product in question.  It would give me great pleasure to stir, about not having it in stock..........

[Tony]

It's a bit far for me to travel, around 10,000 miles, but reminded that I was checking out External HDD's before Christmas at the Big cheap (Best Quality), "We sell everything Tech" store. With the Aussie dollar about the same as the U.S. I can compare prices, with most drives, 1 to 3 TB over $100, and up to $140. Now's the time to going looking for a bargain, after Christmas, New Year. They will drop to $80, I'm guessing.

We had a very hot night, 42 Celcius, and I stupidly let my Maxtor Basics 500 GB External Drive transfer to a Computer (Win XP + PCLOS LXDE) I've just setup, with 500 GB HDD, as the External Drive was almost full.
I ran it about eight hours, as it's NTFS it needed Defragmenting I thought so that took the latter half of the 8 Hrs, attached to Fully updated XP SP3, with a Defrag Prog I used to think was fantastic, however she (Maxtor Basics 500 GB External Drive) seems to have become corrupt.

Very sad. I've put her away safely. ( I think it'll come to life, maybe one day. ) Would not have any idea if case comes of, feels like it might, just a plastic shell.

Tried a newer AC Adaptor with same specs, stopped flashing and gave a solid light. (Solid Power Input)
Have done a lot of research on this and other Maxtor/Seagate Ext Drives. It has a dodgy 'Multi Country' slide on Plug, for AC Adaptor plus normal USB cable. I can hear it whirring, but ... PCLOS machine I've had it connected to for about two years gives a "No response, Timeout" error from Drive.
 
Have a feeling the machine I had External Maxtor Drive attached to, which I've refurbished, plus installed with XP, LXDE that I rescued from my Mother after it was Hacked, has some Harware/Driver probs, that's another story. However the heat that day seems major factor.

Kinda raises a few questions, if anyone interested.
1.) What do you think of External HDD's that have a Power Source ? Yay, or Nay ?
2.) When using a Portable drive which one day you may be running off of PCLinux, another Win XP, firstly is that a NO, No.
As the Ext Drive I'm talking of was initially used with WinXP, it seemed fine with Linux, but...
3.) How should I format a Drive that may be connecting between Linux, and Win; Partition half as ext4, and other to Fat 32, or NTFS ? Or Don't use between different OS's.

Sorry 'bout all the question, and Blah; , saw the thread, it raised a few questions for me.
I will most likely get a 1-3 TB Ext Drive if can find one about $80, which is very likely at moment. For Storage.
4.) May be best to have two 1 TB Drives, formatted differently ? Brand preference ?  I'm a bit tired of Maxtor/Seagate Drives, however they import them here mainly.

Have a 250 GB External Seagate 'Expansion Portable' Drive which I use for backups/Storage on main Comp, only; PCLOS KDE 'MiniMe'. For storage.

My Comps at Home are P4 types, with lousy 40 GB Internal HDD's.

The Windows Comp, Dual Boot is a new thing, I'm basically trying to get a DVD writer happening. (Other Story, lol)  
Sorry bout all the questions.

[The_Dadu]

Tony,
Greetings to the other side of the world (from Baltimore MD) and Happy New Year. I have a couple of opinions in response to your questions:
1.) What do you think of External HDD's that have a Power Source ? I have both self-powered and HD's with an external power supply. I use the self-powered drive for portable use with a laptop and the other drive with a stationary machine. The only problem I see with the external power model is the hassle and weight of the extra power connection when used for traveling. The self-powered drive is also a little slower, mostly for the reduced power available via the USB port.
2.) When using a Portable drive which one day you may be running off of PCLinux, another Win XP, firstly is that a NO, No? I use both drives with multiple OS's. The self-powered drive is FAT32 for general comparability and the files I'm likely to need tend to be less than 4GB.  The other drive is EXT4-formatted. I use ext2fsd on my Windows (XP and Win7) boxes to access it and my other Linux partitions on the internal drives. This tool is FOSS and can assign Windows drive letters to the Linux partitions for ease of use from MS environments.
3.) How should I format a Drive that may be connecting between Linux, and Win; Partition half as ext4, and other to Fat 32, or NTFS ? Or Don't use between different OS's? See my answer to #2.

[Tony]

Greetings The_Dadu, and Happy New Year !

2.) When using a Portable drive which one day you may be running off of PCLinux, another Win XP, firstly is that a NO, No?
 - I use both drives with multiple OS's. The self-powered drive is FAT32 for general comparability and the files I'm likely to need tend to be less than 4GB.  The other drive is EXT4-formatted. I use ext2fsd on my Windows (XP and Win7) boxes to access it and my other Linux partitions on the internal drives. This tool is FOSS and can assign Windows drive letters to the Linux partitions for ease of use from MS environments.

Thanks for your reply, something I'll look into most definitely. Cheers.

[yonnie]

FYI, I been shopping at Fry's since the first store in Santa Clara in the 1980's.  They were the size of a 711 and open all night for the maintenance guys from AMD and National Semi nearby (and the late-nite hackers).  After they got big, the quality went to crap and they started closing at mid-night.  50% of what they sell is no good and you have to take it back.  I now live 600+ miles from there and 240 miles from Wilsonville, needless to say, I don't shop there much anymore.  The last drive I purchased from Willsonville only because I was driving to Portland and I had to send that drive back to Winchestor Digital for repair.  The only thing good about Fry's is their prices and their return policy, providing you can get back to the store within 30 days economically.

[Texstar]

50% of what they sell is no good and you have to take it back.

Indeed! I stopped shopping there a few years ago.

[Tony]

Any Brand preferences for Ext Hard Drives, I mostly see Seagate, and Maxtor, which I believe are the same Co.

Off Topic I know, sorry. Probably irrelevant since I'm in Australia and suppliers are totally different.

[µT6]

maxtor disappeared along time ago, absorbed by another company

what you can find is toshiba, samsung, western digital and seagate

other brands like lacie or buffalo uses hitachi or samsung

[Tony]

Thanks µT6, yes Maxtor is Seagate.

Will keep those names in mind when I go shopping.

My Maxtor 500 GB Ext HDD got corrupted when I plugged it to a XP Comp I'm working on, which had been hacked, think it's a USB prob. Obviously I wiped the(hacked) drive, fresh install WinXP, plus added LXDE, but hacker really really did a job on all drivers; and BIOS, USB, DVD driver; a work in progress.

Hoping will get the Maxtor running again, meantime I want a good External HDD for storage.

Thanks !