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From: Daniel Cohen on 18 Dec 2009 06:38 Jolly Roger <jollyroger(a)pobox.com> wrote: > Further, with an external enclosure > of any kind, you have additional potential defects, such as defective > power supplies or cooling fans, to worry about. What happens if one of > those stops working just after the warranty is expired? Since most of us need to run our hard drives in an external enclosure, this raises an interesting question. Is it likely to be better to buy a bare hard drive and one's own enclosure, or to buy a hard drive already installed in a manufacturer's enclosure? Thanks for the reminder about LaCie. I've had no trouble with them, but I know others have, especially with the power supply. My most recent purchase was from Seagate, a drive already installed in their enclosure. -- <http://www.decohen.com> Send e-mail to the Reply-To address. Mail to the From address is never read.
From: Jolly Roger on 18 Dec 2009 11:37 In article <1jax0tq.p8hg26etqdrcN%dcohenspam(a)talktalk.net>, dcohenspam(a)talktalk.net (Daniel Cohen) wrote: > Jolly Roger <jollyroger(a)pobox.com> wrote: > > > Further, with an external enclosure > > of any kind, you have additional potential defects, such as defective > > power supplies or cooling fans, to worry about. What happens if one of > > those stops working just after the warranty is expired? > > Since most of us need to run our hard drives in an external enclosure, ....not sure I agree that most people need an external enclosure, but... > this raises an interesting question. Is it likely to be better to buy a > bare hard drive and one's own enclosure, or to buy a hard drive already > installed in a manufacturer's enclosure? Well it seems to me you naturally have much more control and knowledge of how external enclosures are made (and the quality of them) if you purchase them separately. And I don't think anyone can argue you definitely have more control and knowledge of the make and quality of the hard drive when you buy the hard drive separately as well! So in my opinion, it's always better to purchase enclosures and drive separately. .. .. .. For external enclosures, where you need tons of space and a way to increase storage space later on as your needs grow, I highly recommend the Drobo line of enclosures: <http://www.drobo.com/products> The RAID technology used in Drobo enclosures is really cool technology that makes removing hard drives, adding new drives, swapping out drives, and recovering from the inevitable hard drive failure completely pain-free. It gives you a freedom and security no other simple enclosure can offer. For external enclosures where maximum portability is more important, I can't say enough good things about the Firewire version of OWC's Mercury On-the-Go 2.5" series: Firewire 400 / USB 2.0 (SATA): <http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MSTG400U2/> Firewire 800 / USB 2.0 (SATA): <http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MSTG800U2K/> Firewire 800 / USB 2.0 (PATA): <http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MOTG800U2/> The Firewire versions of these enclosures have proven to be extremely reliable and problem-free. And while the clear plastic may not appear it, these are very durable, sturdy enclosures. I tend to prefer Firewire for bus-powered external drive enclosures. This is because USB bus limitations can result in low power in some situations, especially with laptops, where power is already low, which can, in turn, lead to the drive not being powered sufficiently, which, in turn, can lead to data corruption on the drive! This is why, very often, you will see the USB Y cables that require *two* USB ports on USB bus-powered enclosures. Firewire buses are more powerful, and don't have this problem. For bare hard drives, I personally stick with Seagate-only, because in over a decade, I have only had a total of two Seagate drives fail before the warranty period expired, and Seagate efficiently replaced or repaired those in each case to my satisfaction. Also, Seagate's newer "green" (low heat, low energy usage, etc) drives are quite good, IMO. -- Send responses to the relevant news group rather than email to me. E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM filter. Due to Google's refusal to prevent spammers from posting messages through their servers, I often ignore posts from Google Groups. Use a real news client if you want me to see your posts. JR
From: Daniel Cohen on 18 Dec 2009 18:54 Jolly Roger <jollyroger(a)pobox.com> wrote: > In article <1jax0tq.p8hg26etqdrcN%dcohenspam(a)talktalk.net>, > dcohenspam(a)talktalk.net (Daniel Cohen) wrote: > > > Jolly Roger <jollyroger(a)pobox.com> wrote: > > > > > Further, with an external enclosure > > > of any kind, you have additional potential defects, such as defective > > > power supplies or cooling fans, to worry about. What happens if one of > > > those stops working just after the warranty is expired? > > > > Since most of us need to run our hard drives in an external enclosure, > > ...not sure I agree that most people need an external enclosure, but... You could be right, but most Macs don't have room for a second internal hard drive, and I doubt if one would want to run adrive without any enclosure. > > > this raises an interesting question. Is it likely to be better to buy a > > bare hard drive and one's own enclosure, or to buy a hard drive already > > installed in a manufacturer's enclosure? > > Well it seems to me you naturally have much more control and knowledge > of how external enclosures are made (and the quality of them) if you > purchase them separately. > > And I don't think anyone can argue you definitely have more control and > knowledge of the make and quality of the hard drive when you buy the > hard drive separately as well! That's true, of course. But, as someone else has pointed out, if things go wrong, one has to work out whether it is the drive or the enclosure. You have the kind of experience that would enable you to tell this, I think, but I doubt if I could. > > So in my opinion, it's always better to purchase enclosures and drive > separately. > > For external enclosures where maximum portability is more important, I > can't say enough good things about the Firewire version of OWC's Mercury > On-the-Go 2.5" series: Not sure that I would need portable drives. And being in the UK, OWC is probably not relevant to me, though I suppose it would be fine if I went for a bus-powered drive. At present all my drives are mains powered. > I tend to prefer Firewire for bus-powered external drive enclosures. > This is because USB bus limitations can result in low power in some > situations, especially with laptops, where power is already low, which > can, in turn, lead to the drive not being powered sufficiently, which, > in turn, can lead to data corruption on the drive! -- <http://www.decohen.com> Send e-mail to the Reply-To address. Mail to the From address is never read.
From: Jolly Roger on 18 Dec 2009 21:47 In article <1jay228.1b7hnm917gyvuoN%dcohenspam(a)talktalk.net>, dcohenspam(a)talktalk.net (Daniel Cohen) wrote: > Jolly Roger <jollyroger(a)pobox.com> wrote: > > > In article <1jax0tq.p8hg26etqdrcN%dcohenspam(a)talktalk.net>, > > dcohenspam(a)talktalk.net (Daniel Cohen) wrote: > > > > > Jolly Roger <jollyroger(a)pobox.com> wrote: > > > > > > > Further, with an external enclosure > > > > of any kind, you have additional potential defects, such as defective > > > > power supplies or cooling fans, to worry about. What happens if one of > > > > those stops working just after the warranty is expired? > > > > > > Since most of us need to run our hard drives in an external enclosure, > > > > ...not sure I agree that most people need an external enclosure, but... > > You could be right, but most Macs don't have room for a second internal > hard drive, and I doubt if one would want to run adrive without any > enclosure. Why is replacing the internal drive not an option in your book? To me, it's the most attractive way to upgrade to more capacity. > > > this raises an interesting question. Is it likely to be better to buy a > > > bare hard drive and one's own enclosure, or to buy a hard drive already > > > installed in a manufacturer's enclosure? > > > > Well it seems to me you naturally have much more control and knowledge > > of how external enclosures are made (and the quality of them) if you > > purchase them separately. > > > > And I don't think anyone can argue you definitely have more control and > > knowledge of the make and quality of the hard drive when you buy the > > hard drive separately as well! > > That's true, of course. But, as someone else has pointed out, if things > go wrong, one has to work out whether it is the drive or the enclosure. > You have the kind of experience that would enable you to tell this, I > think, but I doubt if I could. That's fairly simple to figure out. And, again, with a separately purchased enclosure, you know what you are getting. With an all-in-one, who knows whether the power supply, fan, I/O interface, will be of good quality. -- Send responses to the relevant news group rather than email to me. E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM filter. Due to Google's refusal to prevent spammers from posting messages through their servers, I often ignore posts from Google Groups. Use a real news client if you want me to see your posts. JR
From: Daniel Cohen on 19 Dec 2009 07:34
Jolly Roger <jollyroger(a)pobox.com> wrote: > In article <1jay228.1b7hnm917gyvuoN%dcohenspam(a)talktalk.net>, > dcohenspam(a)talktalk.net (Daniel Cohen) wrote: > > > > You could be right, but most Macs don't have room for a second internal > > hard drive, and I doubt if one would want to run adrive without any > > enclosure. > > Why is replacing the internal drive not an option in your book? To me, > it's the most attractive way to upgrade to more capacity. Not sure that I would want to do it on an iMac (2007 model IIRC). And anyway, I prefer having additional drives. > > > > That's true, of course. But, as someone else has pointed out, if things > > go wrong, one has to work out whether it is the drive or the enclosure. > > You have the kind of experience that would enable you to tell this, I > > think, but I doubt if I could. > > That's fairly simple to figure out. Maybe, but again I doubt if I would have the knowledge to work it out without detailed advice. >And, again, with a separately > purchased enclosure, you know what you are getting. With an all-in-one, > who knows whether the power supply, fan, I/O interface, will be of good > quality. Agreed. One would have to rely on the manufacturer's reputation in general. -- <http://www.decohen.com> Send e-mail to the Reply-To address. Mail to the From address is never read. |