next »

[Please Support Us!]

Please Support Us!

Please help keep (=WDG=) alive

• Server rules
• Forum rules
• Join us
  
• Clan members
• About the clan
• Server stats
• WDG YouTube Channel
• WDG Downloads
• IRC Webchat

Steam groups:

• WDG community
• WDG clan group
• WDG Battlelog Platoon

Our allies:

• [NuB] TF2 clan
• Velocity Gamers Hub
• Destination Gamer

GoG Links:

• Wix Discord
• Wix IRC channel

TF2 Links:

• Official TF2 Blog
• TF2 Steam Forum
• The Fort 2

October 2025

Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa	Su
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31
	Birthdays
Chaos (40)
	Upcoming Events
Upcoming Birthdays: Chaos (40)

[mode_seven]

So, I'm running out of space a bit on my laptop, and want to buy an external hard drive. Ths is partly for backups, partly for photo storage. As some of you may have picked up, I do some freelance work around the uni, and when I can easily end up taking upwards of 4GB of pictures on one shoot I can fill up space pretty quickly.

Any chance I can draw on the extensive knowledge of these here forums for some recommendations?

[DeadlyAvenger]

I too am running out of space, but i'll probably just get a 1TB drive or something next.

I have used enclosures before, which just mean you put a harddrive you've bought into a box. You can get these for 3.5" or 2.5" drives (2.5" can be USB powered) and are about £20

Or alternatively, something like this which you just slot a drive into the top of. Some of them even have card readers built into them:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Max-Value-eSATA-Docking-Station/dp/B001E44GBK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1234306469&sr=8-4


If you want something more compact to take with your laptop everywhere, they do those USB-powered ones (not as fast for transfers & suck power from laptop, but more compact/convenient):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Passport-Essential-Portable/dp/B0012IAA8G/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1234306529&sr=1-10

[aquila]

I've got an Antec MX1 enclosure and am very happy with it.  USB2 and eSATA.  Its quite big but that allows for a quiet fan and air flows around the disk.  When I was looking there seemed to be quite a few reports of problems with reliability and disk overheating on the really compact options.  Just chose your own HD.  I put a 500Gb disk in and use it for backup for video - from my 4 disk raid 5 - I'm nothing if not cautious!

[aquila]

Mode,

Is is your award for cunning that remarkable since, in the episode when Blackadder is looking for the spy in the hospital, he thinks he catches out Mary when he talks about the 3 great Universities of England - Oxford, Cambridge and Hull - and she doesn't point out there are only two.  Blackadder later agrees with Melchett that there are of course only 2 - Oxford's a complete dump!  This must imply M'lud that a Professor of Cunning at Oxford University is not really that cunning.

[Hzza]

He's got you there mode mate!

[Chaos]

Right..
You can go down 3 routes here!

First off, you can get a ready to go package like the Western Digital one that Sam showed you

OR

you can go the cheaper and (IMO better) way and buy an enclosure (aka caddy) and a hard drive.

OR

you can get a NAS enclosure, and add to it when you want!
NAS is network attached storage and the enclosures come in 1/2/4/6/1000000 drive format! they can work in independant mode or in RAID mode whichever you see fit (I prefere RAID1 for storage)
There are 2 types.

USB powered (aka portables)
these are 2.5" laptop drives that only need USB or FireWire to power them.
Theyre usually between 80-320GB and range in price a lot! But WD is the best brand to go for IMO (as with all hard drives)

External powered
These are 3.5" desktop drives that need an external power source (into the wall)
These go from 320GB-4TB depending on what you want to spend.

I have 2 external LaCie drives and neither of them have failed me ever!
1st is a 160GB USB and firewire powered drive, I even partitioned it into 2 drives. extremely handy!
2nd is a 1TB external powered NAS drive and its wonderful! has all sorts of interfaces and again, never let me down!

I would go with a nas enclosure as theyr so upgradable and versatile. (you could also rent out some space to your dorm mates) but its very expensive for the caddy and I have too much money for gadgets and computery stuff as you know!

For you I would recomend getting yourself a nice looking Externally powered encolsure and a high capacity 3.5" drive (like a WD Caviar Green 1TB, theyr very good and quite cheap)
youll have plenty of storage and all sorts of flexibility.. A friend of mine had one and took it to uni, so Im sure you can do the same if you wanna take it to class

[mode_seven]

@Aquila: Blackadder is of course only humouring Melchett here, this was of course after all the man who tried to have him shot for murdering a pigeon. Implying that his university's arch rivals had any sort of merit whatsoever would have been unwise.

@Chaos: Cheers for the comprehensive answer, applaud for that. I of course would have expected no less from you!

Basically, portability isn't a concern, this is just something to sit in my room. Cost, capacity and reliability are. Perhaps you could link me to an example of that last recommendation?

[Gasman]

I have had 2 x external Lacie drives - one clones the other but sits on my server remotely. Till last week I would have sworn by them but the one on my desktop has stopped working.

But, I've had them 5 years so fair do's. I'll get another to replace it.

[Chaos]

anything from this list and you can buy 1 or 2 1TB WD Caviar Black drives from me for a good price

eSATA isnt really needed as chances are your pc and laptop wont support it (unless you have a fairly new mobo)
Your laptop deffo wont support it, FireWire 800 is also useless!
Look for one that you like the look of, and has firewire 400 and USB2 and your sorted!

As for hard drives, get what you can afford.. Stay away from the Hitachi and the basic Samsung and Seagate drives (higher end samsung and seagate drives are pretty good, but the basic ones are awful)
As a rule, Id say the Western Digital Caviar Drives are best for this sorta thing...

once you found a caddy or drive you like, run it by us before you pay for it and youll be good to go

Also, 5 years isnt a bad run gas

[DeadlyAvenger]

@Chaos: Cheers for the comprehensive answer, applaud for that. I of course would have expected no less from you!

mine had pictures

[Chaos]

@Chaos: Cheers for the comprehensive answer, applaud for that. I of course would have expected no less from you!

mine had pictures

pitty karma for you then

[claws]

I'd like one that actually connected to the network (looked at some of the Scan ones and they seem to be USB/etc). Anybody have one they'd like to recommend?

[r007]

Most of these Networked boxes run some sort of Linux anyway, it's not that they're _THAT_ different.
I've heard good things about Synology, QNAP and Thecus/Allnet.
Also, possibly check out this NAS comparison.

€dit:
Totally forgot: There are mainly two kinds of devices: Embedded Linux and Oxford Semi based devices. The Idea behind using a Linux based one is, that if your device should break, you can slap the (possibly RAID) disks into a PC, boot a halfway desent linux from CD and get your data. On hardware raid, you usually have to put the drives back into a box with as similar hardware as possible. The advantage of OxSemi Boxen OTOH is that they can come with all sorts of freak interfaces, like eSATA, giving you 3GBit uplink to your storage. But if you want Networked anyway, go with a Linux Box.

[Chaos]

I just built a pc with an ITX board, 1Gb ram and an ATOM CPU
Get a really small/cheap case, Install OS with a DVD drive, then remove it.. sorted

[claws]

I'm way too lazy to build something, I'd rather pay a bit more and buy one. Ideally want a Linux one that I can SSH into/etc. Thanks for the info, r007, I'll have a poke around.