portable harddrives... do you trust them?

forcer

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My laptop is starting to run out of space so i went and bought myself a LaCie 250GB USB Portable Hard Drive.

I've stuck up all my movies, audio and pictures to it.

But for some reason, it has me worried. I've got it into my head they break so easy?

Who uses them? do u trust them as your main storage system? has it ever broken on you?

It will very rarely be getting moved, its parked on my desk where it will probably be for a long time.

Also, is there any way i can password protect folders on it, either by software or whatever?????
 
I've dinged a few off of lamp posts without issue :) I've even dinged a few naked hard disks against lamp posts without issue :)

Just don't drop it and you'll be fine. Chances are if you do drop it you'll only loose some data and not the whole disk too.
 
External hard drives are nothing more than internal drives with a fancy case and (In some cases) an external power supply...

They should be just as reliable as an internal drive. That said I wouldn't put anything hugely important only on an external drive (Or internal drive, either!)

Backups are your friends! I've had two internal drives fail on me in such a way that I couldn't recover any of the data on them... :(

Oh... and +1 on the Truecrypt. I use it on several of my systems. Good stuff.
 
As long as they are not operating any HD is fairly rugged. Head crash zones, etc.

But if you drop a portable on the table or tilt it at too steep an angle (> 90 deg) while it's operating you can end up with mssive data loss across the entire disk.

I know this from experience. i should have waited for the drive to spin down...

So when the drive is plugged in let it lie, litterally.
 
The important thing to consider is the portable's case. I prefer to put my own portable drives together and usually use aluminum cases since they transfer heat away better than a thick chunk of plastic.
 
As long as they are not operating any HD is fairly rugged. Head crash zones, etc.

But if you drop a portable on the table or tilt it at too steep an angle (> 90 deg) while it's operating you can end up with mssive data loss across the entire disk.

I know this from experience. i should have waited for the drive to spin down...

So when the drive is plugged in let it lie, litterally.

Eh, what? I'll agree with the dropping it while it is operating, however tilting it is absolute crap.

I have plenty of hard drives that are mounted on it's side, and or upside down, it does not matter. I even have an external drive (Western Digital) that while it is spinning I will twist it side to side to feel the rotational force and the gyro effect it brings with it.

Always keep backups, that is something you should be doing anyway. As for trusting them, do you trust the hard drive in your laptop any more? Why do you trust it more? It could just as easily have the same issues if not more than the one sitting on your desk.
 
Yep. Always back up! I have a western digital one terabyte hard drive. It hasn't failed me yet...
 
I trust them more than people.... Consider the more mundane aspects when protecting your data before you worry too much about hard drive failure.

My Maxtor OneTouch never failed in it's lifetime. Chances are it is going to run and run. I'll never get the data though. MY ex has the drive and I don;t think I'll be seeing that again! :dead:
 
haha thanks. :)

that truecrypt seems a bit OTT for what i'm looking for, ive checked the screenshots. All i really want to do is password protect a folder within the drive? is possible with this?
 
haha thanks. :)

that truecrypt seems a bit OTT for what i'm looking for, ive checked the screenshots. All i really want to do is password protect a folder within the drive? is possible with this?

There is no way to password protect a folder without encrypting the contents... even if you set NTFS permissions so that nobody else can access the folder it takes about 5 seconds while plugged into a different computer to set the security so anyone can access it.

Truecrypt creates an encrypted file on the disk that looks to the computer like another drive while mounted. Double click the file, type the password, then just use the encrypted drive like any other. After unmounting it (Or shutting down the computer) it will be impossible to get the data without the password you assigned.

It's actually very easy to use... even my wife can do it! :D
 
External Hard drive....aaaaahhhhh these devices are an awesome addition to anyones arsenal of storage options. I have had this Western Digital 300GB External HDD that has stored my entire catalog of music I have collected over the years and it has lasted about 5 years so far. The awesome thing about this HDD is that when it is not in use it goes into a sleep mode and when accessed it comes back on for your browsing pleasure. I leave it on all day everyday and it has not crapped out on me yet. I think its time to back it up though just in case that day comes when my entire music catalog dies out!!! That would be the day you see this man cry....
 
Me too, in the mean time I'm just finishing putting my nas box to server 2003 from openfiler. I can see needed a seperate switch for all the drobos I'd end up buying :)
 
Eh, what? I'll agree with the dropping it while it is operating, however tilting it is absolute crap.

I have plenty of hard drives that are mounted on it's side, and or upside down, it does not matter. I even have an external drive (Western Digital) that while it is spinning I will twist it side to side to feel the rotational force and the gyro effect it brings with it.

Always keep backups, that is something you should be doing anyway. As for trusting them, do you trust the hard drive in your laptop any more? Why do you trust it more? It could just as easily have the same issues if not more than the one sitting on your desk.

i think he means tilting it and moving it around whilst it is operatiing, which is something you should try and avoid, moving it slowly is less harmful, but try shaking that bitch... and see what happens.

I've actually had one of those Lacie 250gb drives fail on me, true i did plug a dc into an ac input, but hey.... wasn't my fault...
 

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