Which external hard drive should I pick?

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by Sleepy_Sentry, Aug 7, 2008.

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  1. #1
    I am in the market for an external hard drive, but am having trouble picking between two 1 TB models. I have an iMac and plan on connecting it via FireWire.

    Option 1: Really good deal on a refurbished Western Digital drive. This drive supports Firewire 800, Firewire 400, USB, and eSATA. Using a coupon, I can get it for $159.99.
    http://www.wdc.com/en/buy/clearancedrives.asp?DriveID=374

    The problem? The drive only has a 6-month warranty. I'm not very concerned abou this, because if the drive is going to die prematurely, isn't it most likely to do so in the first 6 months?

    Option 2: Buy a brand new Seagate FreeAgent Pro. The drive only supports Firewire 400, USB, and eSATA. Using FireWire 400, I will probably only get half the speed as I would using FireWire 800. I can get the drive for around $190 using a 5% coupon at Buy.com. It comes with a 5-year warranty though.
    http://www.buy.com/prod/seagate-1tb...erface-usb-2-0-esata/q/loc/101/205986351.html

    Which would you pick? I can't decide between a drive with better features and price but short warranty or a drive with fewer features, higher price, but longer warrranty.
     
    Sleepy_Sentry, Aug 7, 2008 IP
  2. twistedspikes

    twistedspikes Notable Member

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    #2
    I'd pick the western digital. They are great! You won't bother about the warranty.

    I doubt a refurbished HD would die so soon (I bought one 2 years ago, it still works).
     
    twistedspikes, Aug 7, 2008 IP
  3. comapro

    comapro Peon

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    #3
    I'd go with the Seagate for the 5 year warranty. $30 more for 4.5 years more of warranty. Plus it's new.
     
    comapro, Aug 7, 2008 IP
  4. blichev

    blichev Peon

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    The Seagate Freeagent drive are not the best choise. I've got one 500GB Freeagent Desktop this year - this is USB only version (no FireWire and eSATA). The Problem is that the USB connectors there are too weak. Mine is now broken and I cannot use the drive.

    I've gone to the shop and tried to replace it, but they told me that this is a mechanical failure and it's not covered by the warranty. So i opened the drive to try to repair it, but didn't have much success...The 5 year warranty is now void this way :( I checked some forums about this and there were many other users with the same problem on both the Desktop and Pro Version, the Seagate support didn't help them either.

    Now I need to buy a new External Box for the drive. It's a normal SATA2 Drive inside and it worked fine before the connector failure.


    Hope I helped you with the choise.
     
    blichev, Aug 7, 2008 IP