When you need portable data storage

[KSoD]

IT is all personal preference. Each of us use a different method for portable storage. I use just a plain old External HDD. I know others that use SD Cards. It is what you are happy with to use. Not what we are acustomed to using.

 

[jbcohen]

Why do oyu preferr to use an external HDD? Here is what I can think of 1) My HCSD is a bit cumbersome I plug the adapter into a USB then plug the SDHC into the adapter, the PC does not have a drive for SDHC just SD; the HDD is plug directly into the USB takes less time;
2) The HDD has much more space.

Waht other reasons can you see?

 

[saltynay]

SeaGate and Western Digital are the two big ones. Samsung I don't think is too bad, and Hitachi if you're looking at getting TB drives.

what are you on about :s

Samsung has a higher reliability rating then seagate and are faster drives its just the warranty that separate them. only do smaller capacity drives

Seagate Excellent drives loved by all with a 5 year warranty just to prove they are good. High capacity i.e. 1tb drives are the best in their class

WD not particularly remarkable IMO not worth buying unless on a good deal same goes for Hitachi.

Maxtor was bought out by seagate a couple of years ago it was never a great manufacturer and has become seagates shitstick all the drives that don't make quality testing are rebranded as maxtor. Mixed bag could be lucky and get a great one, could get one that is DOA

Don't mean to be rude but I have answered your original question here:

I thought you wanted high capacity low physical space :s your never going to manage that on a 2.5" drive. I f you want it external and your serious about it then get one of these
Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
and plug it in here
Newegg.com - SilverStone MS03-S Aluminum 3.5" Silver USB 2.0 & eSATA External Enclosure - Retail
you can obviously go cheaper with both the hdd and external caddy but I like this combo

USB2.0 is a bit low in bandwidth so an esata port if you have one is much more preferable for full speeds of the external. That is the highest capacity for lowest physical space, currently available to consumers as an external solution

If physical space or having to lumber around a drive is still to cumbersome then consider virtual space like here:
Home - bunkerbackup.com
you pay to rent out gb off of their server and have access wherever there is an internet connection.

btw if your interested in the on-line solution I know a forum that offers you free set-up costs so there is no lump sum just the the monthly fee

 

[Cunjo]

MicroSD cards can come up to 4GB now. It's nowhere near as economic as a 500 gig or even a TB drive, but it's 4 gigs on a chip half the size of your fingernail.

You could hold 100 gigs in an altoid tin.

It just costs $10 per gig, so you're better off with a good HD.

 

[jbcohen]

For me what the real driving factor in the drives is the cost/gigabyte ratio. How much do I have to pay per gigabyte. I think that I have found the best ratio for me in the Segate Passport, which Bestbuy tells me will go on sale shortly.

 

[jbcohen]

I think you are right about the SD Cards the cost per gig is no where near what an HDD can do.

 

[peterhuang913]

Don't go with Maxtor.. they have a high failur rate... SeaGates are one of the most recommended brands, however.

o rly?

 

[bmxfreakrider]

yeah, i have had soo many maxtor drives die on me. I have only have had one seagate die on me however, but ive had like 3 WD drives that died on me, but I have always like WD. currently got a 160gb that was like 50bux when i got it, so im happy. its dead silent and fast as heck

 

[Cunjo]

ya rly

Me and my ex each bought the same model of Maxtor external HD (the 200GB One Touch II). Hers failed within two months, and she lost all her data.

I'm still waiting for the inevitable failure of my own, after everything I've heard from other buyers of Maxtor drives.

Sure, you might get lucky and never have a problem, but is it really worth the risk, or even the fear something might go wrong?

You won't lose any sleep over a Seagate, and WD isn't bad either... but don't buy a Maxtor if you care about quality.

To whom it may concern: as far as cost/storage goes right now with HDDs, the sweet spot is right around the 500GB range. A 1TB disk is going to cost you more than twice what a 500GB disk will cost. If you REALLY want to go with a low-cost high-value drive though, even a 250GB is still large enough for most things, and they're practically dirt cheap these days. I'm using a RAID array of 4x250GB HDDs right now, for 500GB of full-redundancy storage... I went with the WDs (hey, even if one DOES fail, it's RAID, so I can just replace it and keep going without losing anything)

Of course THE most economic form of backup data storage is still DVD-R. If you find a deal, it'll only cost you 5-10 cents per GB... that's cheaper than dirt.

 

[KSoD]

Why do oyu preferr to use an external HDD? Here is what I can think of 1) My HCSD is a bit cumbersome I plug the adapter into a USB then plug the SDHC into the adapter, the PC does not have a drive for SDHC just SD; the HDD is plug directly into the USB takes less time;
2) The HDD has much more space.

Waht other reasons can you see?

I prefer a external HDD cause it is simple. Just a plug and a USB cable. Almost any PC out there will recognize it. Macs and Linux wont but any Windows box that reads NTFS will.

You can get some externals that are for either MAcs or PC so there eliminates 1 issue.

It is really simple to jsut plug it in. Transfer any data to it. Unplug it. Travel and do it all over again. Yeah they maybe a bit bigger in size. But when you can get a external hdd with 500GB of storage you dont have to worry about getting only partial files or not all of what you want from your friends.

To me externals are just a simple solution. If USB isnt your thing most are also firewire capable. A friend and me swap out externals for weeks or even months at a time. I get his stuff to mess with and copy to my PC. He gets my stuff. We do it all over again.