[Discuss] USB hard drive

[David Bronaugh]

Adam Parkin wrote:
> Deryk Barker wrote:
>> I'm in the market for a 750GB-1TB USB hard drive.
>>
>> Anyone any recommendations? I'd like it to be reasonably inexpensive 
>> and reasonably quiet.
>>
>
> Sorta flipping the question a bit: are there any USB HDD's people on 
> here would recommend one avoids? (either specific drives or particular 
> brands)
>
> I'm looking for a USB drive myself, and always find the "horror" 
> stories more helpful/entertaining than the "it works great" stories. :)
If you want something that's rock-solid reliable with the fewest parts 
to fail, stick a 2.5" HDD in a 2.5" enclosure without a separate power 
supply and use USB power.

The main failings of the cheaper units are power supplies.

Of course, this doesn't work when you want a larger storage unit, which 
was the initial question; but it's certainly a good way to go for 
smaller units.

However: my experience is that none of these units fail very often. I 
don't run them 24/7, but the failure rate's probably still on the order 
of 10-20% or less. And even if the power supply cooks itself, you can 
always replace the enclosure - usually it doesn't kill the drive itself. 
It's potential inconvenience, but it's not a showstopper.

David