Best external hard drives to buy right now?

Maria Kelly37 said:Hi there!
After digging through a few sites, I’ve narrowed my search down to just two models based on price and storage capacity. I’m torn between them:

http://www.diskont24.com/product.php...cat=530&page=1

and

Does anyone have any advice?
I just need a drive to store some photos and music; I don't plan on carrying it around much, so the portability isn't a huge deal.

I would lean toward the General Electric model, but the Microsoft one comes with a three-year warranty. I know General Electric actually manufactures drives, whereas I haven't heard much about the other brand...

Someone?

You can go ahead and grab the Generic ones—they're perfectly fine disks.

I am asking here as well🙂

I need a 2.5" SATA drive for this cooler. I'm looking for something without an enclosure, though I honestly have no idea if an external drive would even work since I don't quite understand the technicalities. The drive will be used strictly for storage, and I’m looking for at least 500 GB or more.
Quality is my priority; I don't mind paying a premium as long as the drive is reliable and lasts for several years rather than failing prematurely.
Please provide your recommendations.🙂

Take a look at Adata or Transcend drives—they usually come with a three-year warranty, so just make sure you grab one with USB 3.0. And honestly, the laptop cooling pad won't do anything for the drive; the drive has its own housing and you're just plugging it into the laptop via USB anyway.

Look, any drive can die—there’s no magic rule where certain brands are immortal. If you’re the type of person who’s constantly dropping things, then maybe go with something from the Generic Superior series; they have that extra rubberized coating for protection. 😁

Benjamin King2 said:You can go ahead and grab the Generic; the drives are perfectly fine.

Thanks, I went ahead and ordered the Generic. 🙂
The clerk at the Best Buy was trying pretty hard to push the Transcend Jet on me, likely just because they had them sitting right there on the shelf ready to move. It was marked down, but when I checked the manufacture date, it was from 2011—so I figured the discount wasn't exactly a steal. Feel free to correct me if I'm overthinking it. Interestingly, this guy claimed customers constantly return their Adata drives because they overheat and underperform, which is funny because a different associate told me the exact opposite earlier this morning...🙄

Benjamin King2 said:Check out some Adata or Transcend drives; they offer three-year warranties, so just pick one with USB 3.0. A laptop cooler won't affect the drive since it has its own housing and connects via USB.

Any drive can fail; there is no rule against it. If you tend to drop things frequently, perhaps look into the Generic series, as they feature a rubberized coating for extra protection. 😁

But I am not looking for a standard external drive. I already have one of those. I need something that fits inside that cooler (when I have the chance to use it) so it stays connected to my laptop without being an extra piece of gear I have to worry about.

Maria Kelly37 said:Thanks, I went ahead and ordered the Generic. 🙂
Though the guy at the Best Buy was really pushing the Transcend Jet on me—probably just because he had them sitting right there on the shelf. You know, clearance items. I checked the manufacture date, 2011, so I figured that’s why they were marked down. Feel free to correct me if that doesn't actually matter. The clerk claimed customers constantly return the Adata drives because they aren't great and tend to overheat. Funny enough, a different employee told me the exact opposite earlier this morning...🙄

Well, you probably should have waited for the third opinion. 😁 The manufacture date isn't a big deal—an unboxed drive can sit in a warehouse for years and be perfectly fine.

Ashley Chase92 said:but I don't want an external drive like that. I already have a standard external one. I need something I can actually slide into that cooler (once I get my hands on it) so it stays connected to my laptop and I don't have yet another extra gadget cluttering things up.

My bad, I didn't realize the cooler was meant to house the drive itself. 🙈 In that case, you're looking for a 2.5" laptop SATA drive, something like this:

For instance, this one comes with a 60-month warranty:

Everything is fine. I appreciate your assistance. 😁

We’re currently scrambling to scrape together enough cash to cover data recovery services because our WD Green just gave up the ghost for absolutely no reason at all 😠. Honestly, we clearly haven't learned our lesson yet... we aren't smart enough to know what actually works. We've sworn off WD entirely—no more Green, no more Black... nothing.

What we need is a 2 TB, 3.5" USB 3.0 drive
. Someone suggested grabbing a Samsung F4—just a standard internal drive tucked into an enclosure to act as an external one—but I can't find any in stock.
As for Adata, we couldn't even find anything in a 2 TB capacity
. We did track down a Seagate , but from what I'm reading, it seems like a total headache...

Does anyone here actually own that Seagate
? Or does anyone have a better recommendation?
Thanks!

What’s actually going on with that Seagate drive?

If you want to just grab something reliable, maybe look at these: +

I picked up an Adata, and honestly, it’s performing quite well without any overheating issues—it was manufactured back in 2012.😉
However, I find myself facing another question. I left my drive plugged in, and when I booted up my computer the next day, it actually tried to boot Windows from the external hard drive instead of the internal one. How can I change that setting?

You’ll need to dive into the BIOS once that drive is actually plugged in—just make sure you head straight for the Boot settings. You want to set your internal hard drive as the primary boot device and just disable the external one entirely. It should look something like this, with the internal HDD sitting right there as the First boot device:

Benjamin King2, much appreciated. Just to clarify... am I supposed to tap DEL or something similar when I boot up the machine to actually enter the BIOS? Is that what you had in mind?

Yeah, you’ll see it pop up in the bottom left corner of your screen right when you boot up—it usually tells you which key to hit, and most of the time, it's just the Dell key.

Benjamin King2 said:Yeah, you'll see it pop up in the bottom left corner when you boot the machine; it’s usually a Dell key you need to hit.

True, though for some reason mine looks nothing like what you posted... I suppose I could call tech support. I need to reinstall Windows anyway, which should be just as much fun.🙄>

Benjamin King2, is there actually a reason this drive is priced so much lower than others with the same capacity? Or am I looking at a genuine steal here? A few years back, I managed to snag a 1TB drive for about this much...

http://www.nabava.net/cvrsti-diskovi...00rpm__1261421

My Book series isn't being manufactured anymore—I'm assuming that's why the price has dropped so much.

Hey everyone!

I'm looking for some recommendations on an external HDD.

Here’s what I’m after:

1) 500GB capacity
2) USB 3.0 interface
3) Price capped at $183
4) The best possible read & write speeds for the money (based on actual tests or benchmarks)

So, besides those four things, I just want to know what the absolute "best buy" would be for this price point.

I know there's a ton of drives sitting on shelves at Best Buy and stuff... but I can't find any decent comparative specs or tests for 500GB drives. I only found stuff for 1TB models, so if anyone has a link...

Thanks in advance!

Cheers! 😉

wanderingwalker3

2.5" or 3.5"? Look, if you’re actually hunting for speed—I mean, you want that 7200 rpm punch—then you pretty much have to stick to 3.5" drives. That's just how the math works.

Benjamin King2 said:2.5" or 3.5"? If you're looking for speed, like a 7200 rpm drive, then honestly, you're pretty much stuck with 3.5" drives.

my bad, forgot to mention... I meant 2.5'' (probably 5400 rpm)