Gaming Good 2TB External HD?

[raing3]

My 500GB external HD and 400GB internal HD are full.

So I need to buy a new hard drive so I can basically empty those other 2 hard drives.

I would like to hear some personal opinions of a good 2TB external hard drive for me (from people who actually own them). I don't want to purchase some POS which breaks down straight away and causes me to lose all my data.

My current 500GB external HD is pretty much like this and constantly disconnects from the computer causing in corruption of files and the like, it is USB powered and every computer I have found doesn't provide enough power to keep it alive and with some computers it even causes BSODs.

My budget is around ~$250AUD

and I would prefer to purchase from an actual store.

Currently I am considering the following:

• WD Elements 2TB Desktop Hard Drive - $199
• Seagate Expansion 2TB Desktop Hard Drive - $248
• WD MY Book Essential 2TB Desktop Hard Drive - $249

Do any of those possible purchases look like bad choices? At the moment I'm swaying towards the last item in the list because it looks like it would be more reliable then the other 2 but if anyone else can recommend me an alternative 2TB external HD around the same price that they have been using for a while that would be great.

 

[martin88]

I have the WD Elements 2TB (and an previous generation 1TB), and I'd recommend it.

The Elements line has always been the no-frills version of other product lines. Compared to My Book, it means no fancy LED and gauges on the exterior, and no crap software to uninstall.

It's simply just plug in the computer, and have an additional empty 2TB drive added to your computer. No unnecessary software bundles. It's great when all you're looking for is just storage.

But I'd say try to see if you can find a better deal. Price for WD Elements 2 TB in Canada is $150 CAD (~$170 AUD).

 

[raing3]

So the My Book Essentials requires software installed to use it? :\ That would be enough to put me off of it in case I ever want to use it at uni.

Have you ever had any connection problems with your WD Elements HD?

My Verbatim external HD disconnects on average 2-3 times a day which is a huge pain in the arse and completely unreliable for keeping a complete collection of something as copying large amounts of data also causes it to disconnect. At the moment I'm planning on using the 2TB solely for storing PSP dumps so I don't want it to disconnect and corrupt the HD when I'm copying new games to it.

 

[smf]

I would like to hear some personal opinions of a good 2TB external hard drive for me (from people who actually own them). I don't want to purchase some POS which breaks down straight away and causes me to lose all my data.

I use a western digital greeb 2tb in an IB4210 NAS case, which hasn't caused me any problems.
Although there are better NAS out there now it was the cheapest at the time that could have other software installed.
If you just want USB then caddies are pretty cheap, often cheaper to buy them seperate. Also you can swap drives around without voiding the warranty.

 

[Scorpei]

Might I suggest you replace the casing on your old 500gig HD? Cases aren't that expensive and you can get an external powered one eliminating your problems with it. Other then that you could find an USB cable that can connect 2 USB connections --> use 2 ports instead of one on different hubs in order to draw more power.

 

[hunnymonster]

So the My Book Essentials requires software installed to use it? :\ That would be enough to put me off of it in case I ever want to use it at uni.

Have you ever had any connection problems with your WD Elements HD?

The MyBook I have came with some crudware on it so you can set off stuff like a backup just by touching the button on the front of the drive... never used it ever, so the software has never remained installed. External powered, works a charm.

As for the Elements - I just got a 1TB one for dead cheap (foul up at the store on the price - shelf = £70, checkout = £120, price pledge "wrong price we'll give you double the difference back"). External powered, works a charm - see no reason the 2TB version would be any different.

 

[Originality]

You can either go with a 2TB drive inside a normal external case (like all the ones mentioned) or you can go for a external RAID case with two slots. I have a Sumvision case like that with two 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 drives inside (F1 and F3 are the best 1TB drives in the market - F2 is the 2TB version of F1). It's worked perfectly for me for years.

Another option is going for an external HDD dock. Then you can just get any drive laying around, slip it in, plug it into the comp and it'll work. The problem with this is lack of vibration control (meaning it's louder and shakes a bit) but it has the immensely useful feature of hot-swapping.

Unfortunately my Maxtor Basics 1TB died not that long ago, and I hadn't even been using it much. I can't even get the drive out of the bracket from within the enclosure (the one screw it has was badly made). I'm gonna have to drill it out when I can get round to it. Short and long of it - even though I loved the curved shape of the Maxtor drive, I'll never buy Maxtor again

 

[KDH]

I've had 3 Western Digital MyBook Essential Drives (2 1 TB and 1 250 GB) and they all worked great. The 250 GB on gave out after 6 years, but the other two are still going strong, though they now reside inside my case. I also have a 2 TB Western Digital HDD that performs well, but its always been internal, so I have no idea how it would perform in the external enclosure.

My point is, the Western Digital MyBook is probably the best option on your list for reliability. Just format it yourself first, they all (seem to*) write data faster that way.

* I only benchmarked the second 1 TB drive over USB, but it showed an improvement of 4 MB/s after I formatted it myself.

 

[qlum]

most PC have at least two internal hdd slot maybe you should look into that and add a second internal one.

 

[C.S.I.]

I had a 1.5tb Seagate, didnt last a month before the click of death, even when just turning on.

Returned and Replaced it with the WD MY Book Essential 2TB Desktop Hard Drive at A$249. Very nice drive.
Will never touch another Seagate. POS.

 

[Njrg]

I'm not too sure Externals come as cheap as internals. I can pickup a 1TB harddrive at Walmart for $80, but if I want an external drive, its like $100-$120 for 160GB. Or you could delete some of your porn. I don't know for sure if thats what you have, I just know that its hella hard to fill up 800+ GB with just Music and Games unless you're into pirating 25GB Blu Ray movies.

 

[MelodieOctavia]

I have a WD Elements 1.5 and it is awesome.

 

[raing3]

Well it seems everyone here agrees the WD elements is a good choice and it's also the cheapest so I'll probably be getting that one in a month when I will hopefully have enough money.

@Scorpei: My current external hard drive already uses 2 USB ports. 1 for data and 1 for power and having a quick try at prying the case open it doesn't want to come open too easy and I don't wanna break it.

@Njrg: Only 4GB of porn, 600GB of games, 15GB music, 25GB of MSDNAA downloads and the rest is programming crap, an old website backup, year 12 formal video and a few other things.

Thanks for all the replies guys it took me a while to reply cause I've been fairly busy with sooo many fucking assignments due this week!

But they are almost over only 1 assignment left, 2 presentations and 2 exams.