What external hard drive to get? Some data recovery help needed as well

[pardesi_bhai]

So guys, I am in the market for a external hard drive. Like everyone else here looking to save every penny, I have come across great deals as well. Now a little background on myself. I bought a imicro external hard drive (250 GB) like over 5 years ago. I dont even remember from where and how much it was. Let me tell you, that thing has been bulletproof for me. Now that I am back in the market for one, there's all these manufacturers, and not only that, you cant seem to find a clear winner. As soon as a deal is posted, the bashing starts and I go from, wow what a great price to, what a piece of junk after reading everyone's input and reviews. This seems to be the case with pretty much any deal but they're still flying off the shelves and stock is usually gone within a day of the posting. That just confuses me even more so I have no idea which one should I go after. I just need at least 1TB of space and dont mind paying a little extra if it can last like my imicro. Afterall you get what you pay for. So help me out guys. I know im probably gonna get 5-6 different names but at least that would narrow things down a bit.

On a side note, would anyone know whats the best program to recover deleted pics? One day I was backing up my laptop on my imicro hard drive and it said space is low. Well I looked up what stuff I can delete and I accidentally deleted a folder with some important pics. Were talking like maybe close to 10 GB of pics. Well I completed the backup without knowing and did not touch the hard drive since then till I later realized what had happened. I know people said do not use that hard drive anymore if you want even a slim chance of getting anything back and I havent. Ive ran several programs and havent really recovered much. Some of them are photorec, active file recovery, aid file recovery, easy photo recovery, glary undelete setup, pci file recovery, undeleteplus, and a few more. Any help would be appreciated.

[Mars2012]

You have to decide whether you want a desktop drive or a portable one that just plugs in via usb. You can also build your own harddrive by purchasing a hard drive and an enclosure. I did this for my laptop. I bought a Samsung HD and a Vantec enclosure. It's been good so far. I also have Hitachi 1 TB desktop drives and a lacie one as well. They have all been good.

I accidentally deleted three years of pictures by accident one time, so I know what you are going through...can't help you with the data recovery, but I hope you will learn from it as I did with my oops. Now, I back my pictures to at least three hard drives and have a cd of the more important ones. Good luck.

[Busybuyer888]

Once you overwrite deleted files/folders the chances of recovery are VERY slim. It sounds like the backup would of overwritten some of the deleted data.

[pardesi_bhai]

You have to decide whether you want a desktop drive or a portable one that just plugs in via usb. You can also build your own harddrive by purchasing a hard drive and an enclosure. I did this for my laptop. I bought a Samsung HD and a Vantec enclosure. It's been good so far. I also have Hitachi 1 TB desktop drives and a lacie one as well. They have all been good.
I accidentally deleted three years of pictures by accident one time, so I know what you are going through...can't help you with the data recovery, but I hope you will learn from it as I did with my oops. Now, I back my pictures to at least three hard drives and have a cd of the more important ones. Good luck.
I will most likely be getting the desktop drive. Ive never tried building one so am not sure how about would I go that, also wouldnt it be somewhat the same price?
As for the data recovery, some programs have pulled a good number of pics back but I was wondering if I can try something I havent tried yet and that someone has personal experience with.

[pardesi_bhai]

Once you overwrite deleted files/folders the chances of recovery are VERY slim. It sounds like the backup would of overwritten some of the deleted data.
True but it hasnt been used since then so one pass shouldnt be that brutal

[singhrh]

I would stick with either of the two big guys (western digital or Seagate). You'll get pro/cons about both of them. Best bet would be to buy one of each as you should have multiple backups of your important data. I keep three copies in different physical locations. Also don't forget to look for what warranty each of them offer and see if you can get a multi-year one (either through the manufacturer or your credit card if that applies).

As for data recovery there is numerous freeware out there also look at the Freebies section some company is doing a promotion and giving their software away. I have never tried it but worth a shot.

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/free-file-recovery-undelete-software-1206515/

[xalex0]

you should have multiple backups of your important dataQFT. Regardless of how low the percentage of failures is for a particular brand/model is on average, it wouldn't make it any easier for you if your drive turns out to be one of those few that fail.

[fred999]

Depending how important the pics are, and if you don't mind paying somewhat, here's another recovery tool:

http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

[Mars2012]

I will most likely be getting the desktop drive. Ive never tried building one so am not sure how about would I go that, also wouldnt it be somewhat the same price?
If you build your own drive, you can select the exact hard drive that you want instead of going with what is in a ready-made one. But you are right, it isn't necessarily cheaper. I am not a fan of Seagate or WD drives, but there are lots of people that have them.

[xalex0]

I am not a fan of Seagate or WD drives, but there are lots of people that have them.It's not like you have much choice nowadays.

[george__]

Just get whatever is cheaper. Seagate and Western Digital, especially the 1TB and 2TB models, are both meh. I've had issues with both. If you can still find, Hitachi are a good investment but they are expensive compared to Seagate and Western Digital (~20$ more?)

[pardesi_bhai]

I would stick with either of the two big guys (western digital or Seagate). You'll get pro/cons about both of them. Best bet would be to buy one of each as you should have multiple backups of your important data. I keep three copies in different physical locations. Also don't forget to look for what warranty each of them offer and see if you can get a multi-year one (either through the manufacturer or your credit card if that applies).

As for data recovery there is numerous freeware out there also look at the Freebies section some company is doing a promotion and giving their software away. I have never tried it but worth a shot.

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/free-file-recovery-undelete-software-1206515/

Thanks, and yea most of the stuff has been either seagate or WD. Looks like WD is a better pick compared to Seagate from all the user reviews I have been reading up. Thanks for that free software link, tried it out but it didnt work for me.

Depending how important the pics are, and if you don't mind paying somewhat, here's another recovery tool:

http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

I dont mind paying but I want guranteed results, not the same stuff the freeware softwares are picking up when scanning my hard drive. I wish this at least let me scan and let me see what content had it pulled so if its what I want, I will pay and recover the pictures I am actually looking for.


Just get whatever is cheaper. Seagate and Western Digital, especially the 1TB and 2TB models, are both meh. I've had issues with both. If you can still find, Hitachi are a good investment but they are expensive compared to Seagate and Western Digital (~20$ more?)

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/b-h-hitachi-1-tb-touro-mobile-79-hitachi-2tb-touro-desk-99-more-1203857/
The 1TB Hitachi one comes out to about a 100 after taxes and duty. Would that be a better buy?

[xalex0]

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/b-h-hitachi-1-tb-touro-mobile-79-hitachi-2tb-touro-desk-99-more-1203857/
The 1TB Hitachi one comes out to about a 100 after taxes and duty. Would that be a better buy?
Hitachi has been bought by WD, so there is a chance that it's actually made by WD.