Requested: External Hard Drives for Dummies

Sorry for my delay in posting. My work has been picking up, and I've basically have been sorta running the show on my project...regardless, I'm back and I'm going through some requests that I've missed...Jean I'm looking at you.

(If anyone is ever looking for some great advice on places to go in NYC that aren't touristy but trendy, check out my friend Jean's blog.)

Alright, here we go.

Hard Drives: The Never-Ending Battle of Storage Space

As with a lot of things on computers, there is a constant need for more. More memory so our programs can load faster, more screen size and resolution to see more stuff on our desktop, more graphics power for our games, more processing power for all the stuff we do on our computers....including games, and more hard drive space to store all of our photos, documents, video, music...and games...

Ugh, I'm such an old man I remember when hard drives were listed in megabytes, and not gigs. The value of hard drives were measured in terms of $$$ per gig. I remember when it was above a dollar a gig. Nowadays, internal SATA hard drives go for less than 10 cents a gig. External hard drives are hovering at just over a dime. Prices continue to drop. Had I made a recommendation before Christmas (like Jean asked me) it would actually be more expensive than it is now by a little bit. In addition, a few months from now, prices will change, and probably for the cheaper. As companies figure out how to cram more space into a hard drive and parts and manufacturing becomes cheaper the price will continue to go down, benefitting the consumer.

So What Should I Look For?
Since prices are constantly in fluctuation, there are some basic things to look for in a hard drive.

External vs. Internal vs. Make your own external
Back in the day, the cost between an Internal Hard Drive and an External Hard Drive were fairly significant. My 120 gb external cost me $150 bucks, while a 120gb internal hovered at around 120. Nowadays the cost between them aren't as bad. This is very helpful for those of you who: A. Don't know how to swap your hard drives in your computer, or B. Have a laptop or want to keep the drive somewhere away from your machine.

In addition, you can purchase enclosures and internal hard drives and combine them together. You can get them in desktop hard drive or laptop drive sizes (3.5 inch vs. 2.5 inch) I know people that keep literal stacks of hard drives, have an enclosure that they plug the hard drive into whenever they need it and store the drive away until they need it again. Probably too geeky for most of you.

Hard Drive Brand
Throughout my geekhood, I have run across die hard fans of certain brands of hard drives. (The fact that there are hard drive fan boys and the fact that they are friends of mine is a scary thought but I digress) Much like my tv recommendation, brands don't matter as much as specific models. In general, I would stick to major names like Maxtor, Western Digital, Hitachi, Samsung, and Seagate. Even then, do check the internet over the model you want to buy. Issues crop up here and there for certain models, like Seagate's Barracuda or Western Digital's 500gb MyBook. Or if we want to keep on this train there's also issues with Maxtor's MaxLine Pro 500 gb. They also don't call Hitachi's Deskstar drives failstars for no reason either. You could try other companies like Fantom too. The bottom line is: Do your research. If there are known issues, they will be obvious online when you type in your model number. If random people bitch about it here and there they might just have isolated issues. But if you see the words well known or widely reported, buyer beware.

Cost

At this point and time, I think the sweet spot for external hard drives is roughly 1Tb for less than $100 bucks. You can pay a little extra for more features, but if you just want simple drive that turns on and off and lets you put stuff on it, anything around $100 is a good deal.

Backing up your system

Some people like to have little things like backup systems built into the external hard drive that automatically back up your stuff. While some work ok like Maxtor's OneTouch for the most part I honestly don't recommend those as they usually require installing some special app that takes up resources or require the use of that app to restore the system. Me personally, I drag and drop all my important files in My Documents (pictures, paperwork, music, video) and Program Files (saved games, configuration files, etc).

While there are tons of different apps for pc, my friend requested help for Mac, which makes the choice easier: most external hard drives don't come with apple-compatible software for backing up, or the programs are crap compared to the ones out there, namely Super Duper and Time Machine. Super Duper is an extra $27, while Time Machine is built in.

For those of you with Macs, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you guys use either one, preferrably Super Duper, which keeps a bootable copy of your ENTIRE system on whatever backup drive you want, which will let you instantly boot up your hard drive on a different machine if your old one kicks the bucket. Time Machine requires the OS install cd and needs to restore itself to a new machine before you can use it. That isn't to say that Time Machine is useless, since it keeps incremental versions of your system, which allows you to find that word doc you deleted yesterday, or even those photos from a few days before. For a better breakdown, check out Shawn Blanc's article on Bulletproof Backups. If you are a geek on a budget though, you can either go it alone, or try out Carbon Copy Cloner, which I have heard is a great alternative if you want something better than Time Machine with the flexibility of Super Duper.

Beyond backup apps, there really aren't too much in terms of raw features for external storage. Security might be an issue, but I would be more concerned about physical security (aka locking it up) than connection security. You could look at something like Maxtor's Black Armor, but if you need that much security, I wouldn't look at this article.

Firewire might be important if you need a dedicated connection for something, or maybe an ethernet connected one so you can share on a network. But those don't come cheap.

Recommendations

So what do I recommend? For barebones and cheapness, I recommend the Seagate FreeAgent 1.5 TB for $130. If you need that security, there's the BlackArmor 320gb for $80. If you need portability, the Western Digital Passports aren't that bad either. Finally, Fantom has a 1TB for just over $100, and the reviews aren't bad at all. Always check prices and reviews. If you need to know the very cheapest hard drive price at any time, you could use pricewatch.com to get a baseline before you start shopping. Remember, always check reviews for the model you're going to buy.

Again, with backups, pc-wise you'll have to look for them because I don't use them. Mac wise it's simpler: Time Machine, but Super Duper if you can muster it, or Carbon Copy if you're cheap.

Next article will be on gaming, since every spare minute I have I spend on that. I haven't bought a new game in a while, but I have amassed a freakin' collection now. Again, if you have a request, just drop a comment or email. Geek smart and geek cheap.