Computers & Electronics

Best 1TB ext. Hard drive with e-SATA?

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  • Jan 23rd, 2010 10:36 am
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Jan 11, 2009
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Best 1TB ext. Hard drive with e-SATA?

I've been looking for an external hard drive (1TB) for a while now, and while I have found some good deals, it seems that almost all of them do not have e-Sata, which is a necessity for me.

Does anyone know of any good deals?

Is it better to just buy a HDD (1TB $85) and an enclosure?

The only problem with that is that I'd like to have the software that does the 1-touch backup (or something like that which backs up my computer for me) like what Western Digital (WD) has with their hard drives. Could I possibly download this and put it on my HDD?


What do you guys think?
3 replies
Deal Addict
Oct 27, 2007
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Yes. Imho, it's better to buy a drive and enclosure. Then you can choose which drive it is, i.e. which brand, Samsung, Hitachi, Western Digital, Segate etc. There are more choices and you can even get an enclosure with a fan (which I recommend). It just might take more time setting it up, that's all.

I really recommend buying a lower powered, low heat, drive when it's not in your computer case. I don't really like the Green Power WD drives, though, because I'm not so sure about the parking heads function that they have. I do like Samsung's newest EcoGreen F3 drives, though. Seems like lower heat/lower power consumption and that's what you want with a drive in an enclosure. I think for enclosure drives, I would choose 1) Samsung 2) Seagate and don't worry about speed: these are for data or backups, right? It might be a bit slow when you do initial transfers and disk writes but the fact is, you don't need immediate speed since added speed and extra specs add to more power and likely, more heat.

I also would consider an enclosure with a fan for added security. It can't hurt to have an external fan going to keep the drive cool. I notice my drives with Vantec NextStar enclosures can be very warm to the touch and that is especially true for those external drives you can buy in the big box stores like Futureshop and Stooples. Also, with those, you are not sure what drive is in there until you get it home and plug it in.

If you use Windows 7, it has its own built-in backup software. I hear it works well. I did witness someone using it before and was impressed quite honestly. Not bad for Windoze stuff.

Acronis True Image does a decent job now with backup functions. I don't know if you can download the backup software like WD's One Touch. I know what you mean, though.
I typed too much, eh? I hope someone finds my perspective useful! ;)
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Jul 10, 2008
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Do not buy a WD MyBook. Do not.

Anything else and you're golden.
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Nov 18, 2007
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Canada Computers has a 2-bay, USB2.0/eSata enclosure with 4 modes, including RAID 0/1 for $59.

See it here.

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