Ask Engadget: Best external hard drive under $100?
By Darren Murph 
posted March 5th 2009 10:11PM
posted March 5th 2009 10:11PM
Ask Engadget is back this week with yet another thoughtful reader-submitted question, and if you'd like your own inquiry to get some face time, just send one in to ask at engadget dawt com. Without further adieu, we'll let Zach take it from here:"So I need some extra storage because I've been going a little iTunes "crazy" lately and have been downloading gigabytes of albums, podcasts and movies. I'm looking for a reliable hard drive but at the same time, price is a key factor considering not a lot of money is available at the moment. I'm thinking 100GB or more should suffice. I don't want to get roped into buying a crappy hard drive and have it die on me a week after using it. What's the best one out there for around $100 or less? Thanks!"
We'll go out on a limb here and assume he's looking for USB 2.0 (sorry, FireWire 400), so let loose those opinions!
Um.... pick your favorite SATA hard drive brand, buy a 500-750 GB model for $70, and add a $30 external enclosure.
Done.
Agreed.
Yeah, "downloading gigabytes of albums, podcasts and movies" and only looking for 100 gigs? I don't think so.
I lost 150 gigs of music, and probably about the same in TV shows. My recommendation is buy two drives and set them up in RAID or do periodic backups.
I agree as well. I have done this for several friends who have come to me with the same question. Vantec makes great enclosures. Makes for great portables when you upgrade a notebook drive.
amzon /Western-Digital-Passport-Essential-WDME3200TN/dp/B0012GQZZU/
All WD Passports and competing 2.5" external drives do not require a power supply, which makes the drive a lot more portable and convenient. This is the way to go, but they only go up to 500GB for the time being. You can snatch a 500GB for 110. Now go download some torrents, stat!
I did that and I came to regret it a lot. The enclosure was cheap, but it was crap. ..'course it was PATA, not SATA, but..
I just got a 900 GB fanless external drive for $130, it has eSATA and USB 2.. Fantom Drives GreenDrive or something.
I agree with the external enclosure. You can also get a network drive set up if you go this route, which makes the drive even more useful. In that scenario you could have it be an ftp and access it anywhere if you have a laptop. I have it set up that way since multiple computers access it.
I agree with this. Even though it is a bit techy for the average person, I am not a fan of the prepackaged external HDDs on offer.
If you can, I would get an enclosure with a fan and eSATA support.
Ethana2 they acually have the 1tb phantom greendrive external hard drive for $89.99 using their $20 mail in rebate, from the reviews I've seen it's a great drive and very quiet, also works great on a mac in case that's what you're using
futureshop has 1TB's on sale for 119 canadian up here....
thats like what....a cup of coffee there?
@ cjwild
what's the link?....
I love my western digital my passport hard drive. It was $80 for 320GB
I've always had good experiences with Western Digital.
I'm glad you have...3 of the 4 WD external drives I've owned have failed within 20 months.
I have both a Seagate and a Western Digital HDD in my computer, and an external WD. I've had no problems with any of them.
If you don't mind an externally powered, 3.5 in drive, try the Western Digital My Book Essential 750GB drive (Model #WDH1U7500N, $99.99 on Newegg). If you do, try the Western Digital My Passport Essential 400GB (Model #WDMES4000TN, also $99.99 on Newegg), which is portable and doesn't require external power. So if you don't mind the external power issue, I'd say go with the bigger drive. More bang for the buck.
Yeah, I've bought 3 WD's (all around the same time) and not one is running less than 2 years later. Forget anything WD.
Everyone has a horror story about every brand. Every time I see a story about any brand, I see at least 5 responses saying people have never had ANY problems and I see 5 responses saying people have never had anything BUT problems.
Except for the Hitachi Deskstarts, I only see bad stuff about them.
But seriously, with hard drives it's just whatever luck you have at the moment, there are no brands to avoid and no brands to stay on. Personally I prefer WD, but you'll have just as many people saying Seagate and Samsung and the rest are their favorites.
i've got one seagate 6 years oldand three western digitals (5 years, 1 year, 2 months old). None have died. Oh i forgot i got one WD drive that's only 25 Gbs but i use it as a back up drive. it's about 10 years old and still works.
Yes, google said they are all equally good. And google has lots and lots of hard-drives to sample (I wish I could find a link for this, but I can't be bothered now). Although external WSs do tend to be more problematic (probably due to passive cooling)!
I have owned 4 western digital drives, and every single one of them has made at least one trip back to western digital within the first six months.
I have never had a problem with samsung or seagate drives.
Anything that doesn't say "Western Digital" on it.
How about the exact opposite?
Eastern Analog?
OK, aznofazns, you win: Nothing that does say "Western Digital" on it.
you guys... stop baffling me with your wit!
I do onsite computer repair and consulting and I've been using a 750 GB western digital drive to keep various utilities, Windows XP & Vista CD images, etc.. for about 2 years and it's never given me anything but perfect service. It's dropped out of my truck (about a 3 feet drop) several times, been used on hundreds of computers, and basically abused the whole time. My experience with hard drives has been that the brand doesn't matter at all, some will always break and it's basically just the luck of the draw. When you have spinning discs at 7,200 RPM it's going to fail like very other machine with moving parts and depending on any 1 drive is like driving around without a seatbelt on, you'll get away with it for a while but someday you're gonna crash.
lol eastern analogue ....nice grabby dad!
I've been running a WD MYBOOK Pro for almost 24/7 about 3 years now and have not had any problems with it or my two 150GB raptor-x drives or my WD single platter 160GB (WD1600AAJB) drive.
Western Digital - My Book Essential 500GB External Hard Drive at bestbuy $99 i just bought 2 today and they worked perfectly right out of the box.
If you have a laptop I would suggest the seagate 500GB go drive. It's an external notebook drive. The fact that it's bus powered makes it 10x less of a pain than its 3.5 inch counter parts.
agreed. i have the 500GB FreeAgent Go drive and it is fantastic. you can get them for 115 on newegg, or staying under the 100 mark you can get 250GB for $83. The bus powered designed is very handy. all you need is a mini USB cable.
I got a 500gb seagate for $89.99 on Tiger direct and love it!
120gb on ebay will run ya $30, external case on ebay $10, send me the remaining 60.
A custom one like the one I made from an old 2.5in 80GB I had lying around, and a $20 case from Tigerdirect..
i'm refer to my experinces which were with $200 Canadian prices but the ideas still apply. I first bought a SeaGate FreeAgent 1 TB for 179.99. DOA out of the box. Went out spent 199.99 on a 750 Gb WD MyBook and that thing has worked flawlessly for a year and a half (almost now) including 2 falls (one of which broke the ugly blue light and cracked the case).
my vote go WD
If you shop around right, you can get one of the new sleek USB powered 500GB Seagate or Western Digital external drives. I got mine (Seagate) for 105$ as a combo, that came with a dock and a leather case.
They are only 5400RPM, but if you're using it for storage then speed doesn't matter. They are small, light, and as I said, USB powered so no extra cables. Basically perfect.
I say just get 20 USB Sticks XD
worst suggestion ever...
Please insert stick 17/20.
[ OK ] [ Cancel ]
Low Rank for the win!!!
(sarcasm obviously has no place here...)
build a raid controller with an FPGA and it gives you maximal flexibility, not that bad an idea. Still, I'd rather have a terabyte external for my Benjamin.
I wouldn't recommend a Western Digital. I've had mine die on me quite quickly.
Is this for a desktop or a laptop? Either way I'll bet you could get another 100 gigs by spending $100 upgrading your hard drive. No need to hook up a USB bitchdrive.
There are 3 different 1 Terabyte external drives on Newegg for $120 bucks.
I use my Western Digital Passport every day. Throw the thing around and it holds up good (they redid the case, I would presume it was due to people breaking the corners like I did).
Shoot, I'm with you... all my WD drives run great, carried in a not very gently held backpack, given to my kids when they are full of movies... I have 4 and one is a mybook that is over 3 years old.
At CompUSA, there's a 1TB External for $99
http://www.compusa.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=4140385&sku=H452-1006
What are you guys doing with your western digital drives? I work in the helpdesk department at a biomedical research center and I only order western digital external drives for them. We haven't had one fail on us yet.
Also if you are looking for the best drive for you just go to newegg.com and look under external drives and check the options you need.
I can't speak for the others, but both of mine have failed. Not the drives, but the power supplies. Did a little research and found out it's very common.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080805074355AAFfMxu