[Tig] removable storage disks

[Bob Kertesz]

This did not come back to me on the list, perhaps it got lost, so I'm
reposting it:

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>I'm wondering what experiences people have had with removable storage
>disks, i.e. firewire and usb disks, especially high-capacity ones, in
>terms of their reliability when sending them across the world. I'm
>absolutely fed up of the appalling unreliability of lacie drives (my
>last estimates were that about 30% seem to fail within a year), and
>was going to go with G-Disks instead, but I'm hearing from a
>distributor that they've been having lots of returns of those lately.
>Any other options out there?

LaCie drives have a pretty poor reputation if you do a Google search. Lots of
reported problems. Since they seem to use off the shelf drives like everyone
else, it may have something to do with the cooling (or lack thereof) in their
cases. Excess heat kills drives faster than anything except impact.

If you can do without firewire, Antec makes an excellent well-cooled quiet
USB/eSATA case called the MX-1 for around $60, and you can drop an eSATA 300
drive in there from Seagate. 

Be aware that Seagate makes several levels of drives at the same capacity, so
for instance at 750 gig they have eSATA 300 drives rated at 8 hours/day
operation, 24 hours/day operation, and their DB35 line, which has been
designed to run in DVRs like the HD TiVo essentially silently 24/7 for years
(it says here).

So for somewhere around $350 street price and about 10 minutes easy labor, you
can put together a portable 750 GB USB/eSATA II drive that's pretty much as
reliable as you can get, and the drive comes with a five year no bullshit
warranty where they will pre-ship the replacement if you ask them to.

Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with any company mentioned here, except as a
satisfied customer, blah, blah, blah.

--Bob

Bob Kertesz
BlueScreen LLC
Hollywood, California
bob at bluescreen.com

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