Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Computers & Peripherals => Topic started by: yvonnerichie on September 03, 2012, 09:40:59 pm
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I've been happy with my two WD My Book drives. I'm considering getting a third one. I would really appreciate hearing what you all recommend.
My big Maxtor sits on my desk dead as a doornail (actually it's not quite dead but it might as well be...it sucks power from my computer till everything shuts down). I realize that any drive will die and that sometimes they just suffer a random death. Incase I do have a modicum of control in this situation, I'd really like your recommendations. Thanks for helping.
yvonnerichie, www.yvonnemuller.com
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How big, what for? (as in for storage, are going to access the data often)
On your computer, do you have usb 2 vs 3, eSATA, firewire?
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I use thermaltake docking stations. Then you can swap out drives. I have had no problems with these.
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1346&ID=1642 Of course, you have to buy the drive. :)
Sharon
Do you use the single or double drive docking station? Anyone else have any experience with similar products by other manufacturers? I have had a couple of the Newer Technologies single drive docking stations for a about a month, and so far seems to be working fine. I am wondering if there are any differences in quality between brands. Seem to be pretty simple devices, so not hard to manufacture and not much to break down, but still.... The double drive dock would seem to be convenient for backing up outboard drives.
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...it sucks power from my computer till everything shuts down
Are you saying you're trying to use the USB port to power it, rather than a mains power supply ? If so, there's your problem.
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Docking stations are great for people who are familiar with bare bones drives and how to handle and store them, but they're beyond some people's comfort level. All manufacturers have their challenges; personally I've always liked Seagate drives.
Mike.
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+1 on Seagate - the current WD's are shipping with a *very* irritating "CD like" device driver, that will install without notice when you connect them. I'd also recommend 2.5" form factor drives as you'll no longer need to deal with an external power supply.
I'll go out on a limb and speculate the "sucks power" comment might be referring to a failing drive with a corrupted filesystem......
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I'm also a fan of the docking stations with bare drives. I use them constantly for backups. As a matter of fact, I have a docking station built into my 5 inch bays. They are connected to the SATA ports so they go much faster than USB.
This is what I got the last time I rebuilt my system:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817991008
It says it is ESATA, but that is misleading. By putting this in one of your open drive bays you can use an internal SATA port and power supply cable.
I then put the bare drives in cheap storage cases like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817998076
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OT, a bit, but Microsoft will be ceasing support for XP within the year I believe. This means no more security patches - ineffective though these often are.
Roy