Backup HDD

[Syruia]

Dear all,

 

I am looking for an HDD (preferably 2TB) that I can use as a backup drive for my laptop. After a quick look at some drive's reliability, I was leaning towards an Hitachi GST Deskstar 7K2000.

 

My questions are these:

1. Is buying an internal HDD and an enclosure cheaper than buying a pre-built one?

2. Are these enclosures "safe"?

 

From what I could see from other posts about external hdd enclosures, only compatibility was mentioned (getting the right form factor 2.5'' or 3.5''; the right speed USB 2.0 or 3.0; or even if its IDE or SATA), but not reliability. I am afraid I could be buying a good internal drive where I want to put important data, but then risking it by having it burn out from a crappy power supply or some other issue like that...

 

Should I just buy the pre-built ones?

 

Thank you so much for your help my friends, cheers!

 

Syruia

 

 

[tekgeek1205]

Just get a mybook the $per Gig is usually decent. I had a 3TB that flew all over the country with me in my checked luggage.

[tekgeek1205]

if you go DIY i have the same HGST drive you mententioned. ive only had it for a monthe but i have no complaints so far,

[spartaman64]

with the cost of the enclosure and the drive that is actually probably more expensive than "prebuilt" ones. i would rather get a WD passport as ive been using those for a while and they been working for me

[tekgeek1205]

BTW

Western Digital and HGST are the same now.

[Syruia]

Wow, thank you so much for the quick reply!

 

Yes I was thinking that they'd be cheaper indeed... My actual doubt with those like WD Passport was what was actually "under the hood". After looking at the WD Passport specs page I couldn't find what drive was actually in the cases, aren't they "normal" drives inside a box?

 

The main reason for choosing a DIY was that I had actual info about driver reliability from that website I mentioned earlier... I know my backup drive wouldn't be experiencing the same environment as those server drives, but I don't know, I'm a bit confused with too much information lol

 

Guess I will probably pick up something like the WD Passport you told me about

[tekgeek1205]

the drives in the WD externals are usually WD Green drives. You might even get a HGST lable one it. Ive had 3 My Books in the past a 1TB and 2 3TB drives. All with Green drives. 

 

 

one of these from my experiance.

 http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-771438.pdf

 

they are slower than the HGST from earlyer, spinning at only 5400RPM vs 7200RPM. plenty fast enough for backups or videos, i wouldnt put any programs on a 5200RPM drive tho.