[Tfug] In need of hard drive info

[johngalt1]

How often does this topic come up?
Repeating my self...

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harry McGregor" <micros>
To: "Tucson Free Unix Group" <tfug at tfug.org>
Sent: Friday, December 26, 2008 4:57 PM
Subject: Re: [Tfug] In need of hard drive info


> keith smith wrote:
>>
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I need to add a second drive to two of my boxes for back
>> up purposes
>> only.  I was looking on NewEgg and found prices have
>> dropped more than
>> I would have ever imagined.
>>
> Storage, for lowend to high end is getting cheaper than we
> would have
> ever imagined, and it's only going lower.
>
>>
>> I'm wondering the best place in town to buy hard drives?
>>
> Internal or external?  For external I like the Western
> Digital MyBook
> series, and for that checking the ads, and going with a
> big box store is
> probably cheapest.

I second that WD MyBook recommendation. The non-Passport
version has good ventilation to allow the drive to cool
properly

> For internal and almost any computer parts, nothing in
> Tucson beats SWS
> (shopsws.com).

I won't buy another drive from them without inspecting the
label very carefully before I leave the store. Once I bought
two 120GB drives. (Or was it 250 GB?) Got them home only to
find that one was a used/a refurb with 1 year used up on the
WD warranty. SWS would honor the third year. Have to keep
track of the SWS receipt. Unsat...

> In a lot of ways I prefer to buy an external enclosure and
> a drive
> separately (from SWS or NewEgg), than to buy a bundled
> set.  I can then
> figure out which part has failed, and deal with it,
> instead of a single
> monolithic warranty claim...

I don't care for the cheap generic extermal drive case. They
run too hot. They don't do much if anything to address
thermal issues. OK for low duty cycle perhaps...

At one time, I bought every extermal drive case SWS offered.
One had a fan but only had tiny holes on one side of the
case. Worthless... You can buy good cases with adequate
cooling from Antec and Rosewill at Newegg, but you are going
to pay $40-$50 just for the case.

Might as well just get a MyBook. If it craps out within the
warranty period you try a different power supply and when
there are still problems, send it back anyway. If it's after
the warranty, then crack it open because the warranty
doesn't matter. Whatever...