Buy External Hard Drive OR Case and Drive separately?

[codeblue]

I think it's time I bought some sort of back up hardware, what with nuhi's drive going down a while ago, more recently RyanVM's Raid10 collapsing and my HD invoking the BSOD recently, I’m kind of spooked!

Looking for about 200Gig of external storage to back up my drives and probable the wife’s laptop and after plenty of Googling these where my preferred choices, but I’m open to suggestion:

Western Digital Media Center 250G

Maxtor OneTouch II (200G version)

Whilst surfing around I came across sites that sell just the enclosure. As I have a copy of Ghost already is it just as good a solution to buy an enclosure and stick a drive inside? This way sound more flexible and cheaper, but is it reliable?

Any advise or suggestions will be welcome

[I_Broke_My_MHZ]

I recommend the case and drive separately. Upgrading becomes easier if you want.

[sven]

exactly. if you already have spare drives around the house, just put them in. you can have a different drive for your wifes back-up if you want, without having to spend money on a case.

[MAVERICKS CHOICE]

Ive been doing the same for the past two years ide cases & drives are always getting cheaper.

Greater benefit than raid & I use both.

I probably buy em seperate & ya know what your'e gettin inside.

Cheers

MC.

[jcarle]

Stay away from Maxtor if you value your data.

And you're better off using a seperate case and hard drive since you can replace and upgrade the hard drive at anytime on your own.

Purchase a Western Digital or Seagate hard drive of the capacity and price range you're comfortable with and simply slap it in any generic external hard drive case.

And careful not to drop it or bang it... it's very sensitive.

[codeblue]

Thanks for you help everyone . I think an Enclosure is the way to go, but which one?

I dont want any fancy buttons or flashing blue lights. Ive spotted the following:

Venus DS3 This is my prefered option, small and quite with fan

Icybox IB-350 Also a very nice unit as it acts like a heatsink.

What do you guy use?

If a fan a must?

Are flashing blue lights important

Edited January 5, 2006 by codeblue

[nmX.Memnoch]

I've got one of the WD Media Center drives and they're pretty nice. Being able to use either FireWire or USB is a very nice option. Has anyone tried upgrading the drives in these?

I didn't purchase the drive I have...but if I were purchasing for myself I'd say go with the drive and seperate enclosure. As has been mentioned several times, you can upgrade the drive at any time.

[jcarle]

bytecc enclosures tend to be reliable, other then that, i personally have no idea.

[Wolf_Demon]

Stay away from Maxtor if you value your data.

i've known someone who has had the same Maxtor hard drive for 6 years...

[sven]

well, im not sure about which type of case for external driver, but get a maxtor hard drive. i got one of those in my pc and its running perfectly. i bought a western digital drive 6 months ago and it seems to be dieing on me. its making odd noises lol. should have bought a maxtor.

[Edit]

the icybox does not seem to be hot-swappable (according to the site), the other site says it clearly that it is. choose the drive that does what you want and need. i personaly would go with the Venus becuase of the hot-swap.

Edited January 6, 2006 by sven