External HDD and DVDRW...

[Paddy]

I am looking to into purchasing some offline storage. I'd like to buy an external HDD enclosure, mount a 500GB+ drive and connect it to my laptop via frewire. I have seen such caddys on ebay for under £30 but have not had any experience with them. Are there any pitfalls, or are they fairly standard?

I'm also thinking about replacing the DVDRW that came with the laptop. It reads most disks but is very prone to bad burns. I cant find a better internal drive, but am wary about anything over USB. What would you suggest?

cheers!

[cjolley]

Why wary of anything over USB?
For that matter, why firewire over USB when the latter is cheaper and more universal (so to speak)?

[Dr Mordrid]

Because firewire has better streaming throughput than USB, at least until USB 3 (partly optical) comes out.

I use Panasonic DVD-everything drives in my laptops.

[az]

Some internal DVD drives in laptops are USB units as well.

[degrub]

Firewire can be more reliable for streaming data and quicker if you get a FW800 device. One thing to watch out for is some of the combo USB2/FW caddys have a combo interface chip that has serious problems - but random - enough to loose data and not know it until after the fact. Just do a google on it. It was one specific chipset, IIRC.

[Paddy]

Thanks guys, I assume it will be better to by a caddy and a seperate HDD, rather than an external unit?

[az]

Better? Probably about the same; big brand name units are quite good nowadays from what I hear. But buying them separately is probably cheaper.

[Paddy]

I've seen a Seagate FreeAgent Desktop for £70 at Amazon which is just cheaper than a seperate drive and enclosure. The Desktop model is only USB, but for an extra £20 I can have the 'pro' model with firewire. Is it worth it?

[degrub]

depend on what reliability you want out of the drive - the prebuilt units often have the lower spec drives to save cost. i would get firewire if you are going to use it for backups or streaming. OtherwiseUSB2 would work. FW 800 would be the fastest short of ESATA.

Get a firewire caddy for the DVD burner or get a Plextor external FW . I've been using a 716UF since it came out and nary a problem over FW.

[Paddy]

Thanks guys.
Can you recommend a specific caddy for the HD and DVD ?

[degrub]

i have one 5.25 labeled micro plus. Unless it is a combo interface, i have not seen any reports of issues unless outright hardware failure. For the DVD burner make sure it has a cooling fan or maybe all alluminum to radiate heat. Although my Plextor case seems to not have a fan but has some thermal design features (thermosyphon passive cooling flow through case). A plastic case should work fine though if it is open to free air around it and no external heat source. a fan is insurance.

[UtwigMU]

I saw 500GB WD MyBooks for 120 euros which is cheaper than you can buy 500GB bare WD drive. Just get that, the hour you spend screwing drive inside and another when you have to take it out for warranty replacement can be better spent.

Plextor doesn't have anything much better than competition lately, the enclosures are same generally. I got this Canyon enclosure with LG burner 1.5 years ago as part of laptop purchase and had no problems (burned 100-200 DVDs). Just don't move enclosure while burning and it will be fine.

Find one that is aesthetically pleasing and matches the rest of your gear.

[Paddy]

I bought a Seagate Freeagent external HDD. It was the 500GB non-pro version which only had USB2. I managed to get it for £60 at PCworld, at that price I couldn't pass it up.

Very quiet and works as advertised. It's a shame about the plastic case and the fact that must be mounted vertically. Great unit. cheers guys.