Western Digital or Seagate

[Tatsujin]

I have a forum friend using WD WDC MyBook (Essentials) 3.5" USB3.0, 2TB.. it failed on him same with caviar blue on the same day here some screenshots: from 100% health to this

<<< those head parking sucks



he already sold that external and he said he never go back to WD because of that.. me also as an WD user I experience slowness in my caviar blue *already sold it*.. so for me avoid caviar blue and green *internal or external* they sucks head parking per 8 seconds that causes wear and tear

That's good information. Now to see if WD Red has any issues. WD Black is good for everything else.

[Dhruv]

Woah pretty bad review for the Caviar Green and Blue Drives. We have successfully converted this thread into Hard Drive discussion Thread.
A park per 8 seconds is too bad. The drive will surely die within the warranty period along with all your data.

I am considering Black in an External enclosure and i have USB 2.0 in my computer. So here are a few enclosures i managed to dig out.
http://www.frys.com/product/6523353#detailed
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817620036
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817404098

I wonder which one would be the best.

[megido-rev.M]

You're still going at this I see.

Anyway, why are you considering a docking station, after that thread about them killing drives?
If you really need an enclosure search for something that is

- made of metal (e.g. aluminum)
- supports the drive's 6Gbps in its SATA interface

I still don't really recommend it myself though, as the USB 2.0 interface pretty much cuts the benefits of the Black anyway.

[Dhruv]

^The first link in my previous post is an enclosure
1. Made from Aluminium
2. Has USB 3.0
USB 3.0 is useless for me but I do wonder if it has eSATA connection too. The description says nothing about it so maybe I should ask Sashamaru as he uses that enclosure and suggested me too for it.

As far as this thread goes it isn't gonna die soon as it has valuable information for anyone who wants to buy a new drive and others can also share their experiences with different drives they have tried using.

[sausuke]

agreed.. I just happened to be here because of google and after reading some of those head parking.. I researched and then my forum friend experienced those.. so it will help some when choosing a hard drive brand...

[Dhruv]

agreed.. I just happened to be here because of google and after reading some of those head parking.. I researched and then my forum friend experienced those.. so it will help some when choosing a hard drive brand...

Thanks
Since I know your opinion about Green and Blue
What do you say about Caviar Black Drive? And the external enclosure I mentioned above

[megido-rev.M]

agreed.. I just happened to be here because of google and after reading some of those head parking.. I researched and then my forum friend experienced those.. so it will help some when choosing a hard drive brand...

Thanks
Since I know your opinion about Green and Blue
What do you say about Caviar Black Drive? And the external enclosure I mentioned above

What more needs to be said for the Black, really?

And I did see the enclosure details: not really detailed on specs (i.e. the bandwidth that it supports, because SATA II does not say much). But assuming the SATA interface can support the 4~6Gbps, with the fact that it can run on USB 3.0, and it's made of metal and has an actual built-in fan, it looks quite good for an external enclosure (especially from what I typically find at that price point, anyway).

[Dhruv]

Well it is backward compatible so good for mr since I only have USB 2.0. But it would have been better if it had eSATA since I have a eSATA port too. I'll have to ask Sashamaru since the detailed information is as detailed as shit.

And as far as Black goes I believe it is the Best drive from Western Digital along with Velociraptor.
Velociraptor's abilities will be wasted if I buy it since I need it only for anime storage etc. and maybe some touhou games. Black also meets the requirements but it's not as high performing as velociraptor but extremely reliable with 5 year warranty and 2TB capacity.

[megido-rev.M]

The Velociraptor really has little point for your purposes if you don't perform long disk-intense activities (cross-disk data transfers do not count). I'm talking about applications that require huge amounts of scratch space.

[Dhruv]

The Velociraptor really has little point for your purposes if you don't perform long disk-intense activities (cross-disk data transfers do not count). I'm talking about applications that require huge amounts of scratch space.

Yup really no purpose for me at all. Seeding, streaming anime, storage and some games really does not require a velociraptor. And also a 1TB Velociraptor costs as much as a 2TB Caviar Black.
Though other externals aren't that bad. Elements is a very good external like tatsujin said since I have heard from many users saying it is a good drive.
So it does come down to Elements and Caviar Black in an enclosure for me.

[megido-rev.M]

I am one of those other users BTW . If it didn't have such an odd AC adapter I would have gotten another Elements myself.

[Dhruv]

Odd adaptor? I'll have to see about that. Is Elements good in your opinion?

And yes before I forget the enclosures I mentioned above... All of them are made of aluminum but only the first one has a fan. It has some screws too so opening it would be a bit bothersome. I wonder if they deliver in India...

[Freedom Kira]

You're still going at this I see.

Anyway, why are you considering a docking station, after that thread about them killing drives?
If you really need an enclosure search for something that is

- made of metal (e.g. aluminum)
- supports the drive's 6Gbps in its SATA interface

I still don't really recommend it myself though, as the USB 2.0 interface pretty much cuts the benefits of the Black anyway.

SATA III/6Gbps support is far less important than USB 3.0 support. Only the fastest hard drives are able to saturate SATA I/1.5Gbps bandwidth - SATA III/6Gbps is a joke on a conventional hard drive, especially if used mainly for large data transfers as opposed to small files (which may sit in the cache).

[megido-rev.M]

^ Yeah, the supported USB speed is definitely critical for USB enclosures. And I believe you're right about the SATA bandwidth not being the bottleneck for HDDs: error on my part.

Odd adaptor? I'll have to see about that. Is Elements good in your opinion?

And yes before I forget the enclosures I mentioned above... All of them are made of aluminum but only the first one has a fan. It has some screws too so opening it would be a bit bothersome. I wonder if they deliver in India...

I mean the shape of the adapter: it would cover 2 plugs space on the surge protector, which I can't really spare.

[Dhruv]

Everything throws me into a fix... I thought finally i was closing in on making a decision but now this.
1. Elements has an unusual adapter.
2. Dunno if the enclosures for black i have in mind are good or not.

Pfft.

[megido-rev.M]

If you have an extra surge protector just plug the Elements to that. My problem is that I ran out of room for those .

For the enclosure, I said it was good. You just need to confirm that it's legit.

[kitamesume]

just buy an external and replace it if it dies... although i'd rather build a NAS with it going raid5 or raid1(less drives) for redundancy.

[Dhruv]

If you have an extra surge protector just plug the Elements to that. My problem is that I ran out of room for those .

For the enclosure, I said it was good. You just need to confirm that it's legit.

Already have a 6 point surge protector.
And enclosure is legit... sashamaru told me about it and he has one too.

just buy an external and replace it if it dies... although i'd rather build a NAS with it going raid5 or raid1(less drives) for redundancy.

NAS will be when i get a job...

[megido-rev.M]

6 points are not that many.

[Dhruv]

6 points are not that many.

I use one HDD at a time.. so they are sufficient...