Join Now
Join ePHOTOzine, the friendliest photography community.
Upload photos, chat with photographers, win prizes and much more for free!
If the unit was designed as an external, Then the size will not matter, So if you need 500 Gb, go for it.
As for Brands, Best of the bunch is Seagate, Close second is Western Digital.
Ones to avoid are Lacie, Your paying for silly design label, & overheating probs.
Places to Buy.
Microdirect. co .uk
Komplett.co.uk
Ebuyer.com
Overclockers.co.uk
All have good stock/great delivery/super prices.
I have used many makes of HDD and have found no difference between them. 500GB may be a bit on the large size and it may need to be partitioned into 2 or 3 partitions. These would show as 2 or 3 different drives. I would suggest you look around locally for a bargain. Distance buying may not be a good idea as things tend to get thrown around in transit, HDD's do not like being thrown around. I recently got the best price locally from PC World (for a 250GB HDD).
Quote: tend to get thrown around in transit,
Whilst this is true, They have already been on a trip from the point of manafacture, This can be almost anywhere on the planet, I always have my HDD's delivered from any one of the suppliers listed, A total of some 50 plus drives i the last few years, Never had a problem.
Also as a further point re warranty, Seagate offer a 5 year warranty on all thier drives, With a 10 day max turnaround direct via them.
There is no reason to partition a 500Gb external drive, But you can if you wish, If you buy Seagate retail versions you get a drive install software called Diskwizard thrown in, That makes light work of installs & setting up partitions.
Or you can download a free copy of Diskwazard from the Seagate site.
Sorry Cameracat, when I said "thrown around" I was referring to postal and courier deliveries. Bulk deliveries in packing cases tend to be handled better.
Quote: postal and courier deliveries
Yeah! tell me about it, I had a Camera I bought ( a Nikon 35mm SLR ) turned up via special delivery, Looked as though it had been run over..
Not a happy bunny, For sure the Post & Couriers can get a tad careless, Unfortunately I'm at their mercy due to living in the Wilderness, But must confess if I had a supplier within a reasonable distance, I would probably collect my drives in person.
Other bits & bobs don't fare to badly, If the boys in the despatch departments pack them well, And I have sent stuff back when it has arrived in less than adequate packing... Wot a pain
Take Dabs for example sent me a new oem CDRW in a jiffy bag, Guess what it was broken, Then the you can't believe it, They sent the replacement in a Jiffy Bag....AAaaarggg....
And you have guessed it, I don't use them anymore.......LOL......
Make that Firewire-800. USB2 has caught up with the original Firewire specs....
I had issues with a USB2 external drive which I recently bought - it wouldn't mount on my Mac's desktop. So I ditched it and got a Firewire one. Absolutely no more problems now!
USB2 may not be as fast as Firewire 800 but is no slouch. Let's face it, most uses of an external drive will be for backup and you don't need to sit around waiting for those to finish, you can run them while you are out taking photos.
I recently got a Western Digital Elements 500gb from eBuyer for less than £100. No problems with it and it has a nice pretty blue light on it when working.
Ian
Quote: Ones to avoid are Lacie, Your paying for silly design label, & overheating probs.
Never had an over heating problem with Lacie Drives myself and the most recent one I bought, a 500GB USB2 model was under £75 including VAT and postage so I would have to disagree with this statement.
I have 3 of the FA Porsche ones at home stacked up, 160, 250 and 500GB. The 160 and 250 are firewire and I use for photo/data storage the 500 is the USB 2, but that is my back up drive so speed is less of an issue.
At work I use a mix of D2 firewire and Ethernet drives for all our office backups.
Never had a problem with them and the D2 firewire drives have been in use on alternate days for over 3 years now.
Quote: Never had an over heating problem with Lacie Drives
Ditto
Very often, PC Pro's External Drive Gold Award winner.
Recently i bought a casing off ebay and a 320gb drive, totally useless, very slow....
Add a Comment
ePHOTOzine, the web's friendliest photography community.
Upload photos, chat with photographers, win prizes and much more.
Related Content
Join Our Free Newsletter
Awards
Current Competitions
Olympus 'Portraiture' Competition - Win £1000 Worth Of Gear!
30th April 2013 - 31st May 2013
This month, to celebrate the launch of Olympus' new micro site Olympus Image Space, Olympus are giving you the chance to win £1000 worth of Olympus gear!...
Featured e2 Photo
May's Photo Month
Check out ePHOTOzine's inspirational photo month calendar! Each day click on a window to unveil new photography tips, treats and techniques.
