Sure, quick recap with SimpleDrive unit:
Original: 6 year old Dell XPS with XP - worked perfectly
Present: 3 year old Dell XPS with Win 7 Ultimate - usually connects fine
Present: New mini-ITX system with: Intel® Desktop Board DG45FC - Overview
and Win 7 Ultimate x86 - cannot make USB connection
Ques. 1
I & family have 5 portable WDs 500/750GB with no problems. Two get heavy use with a media center. Probably lucky.
Still high precision, mass produced, relatively low cost HDDs should never be fully trusted. I suggest at least 2 externals duplicating vital information.
Ques. 2
Portable HDDs will have problems of course if the USB port cannot deliver enough power. You could try a powered hub.
Are you connecting via the front ports or the rear ports on the Intel Mini ?
Usually rear have the best power.
It's funny you should ask. I've been looking for one myself and plan to buy one soon. I can give you some tips that may help.
First of all, assuming that you're going to be getting an external that's USB-connected, it depends on whether you want to get a USB2.0 or USB3.0 connection. USB3.0 is faster, but at the same time it's newer tech and doesn't currently have many with a sufficient enough amount of customer reviews by which to get a thorough idea of what good they are as versus to USB2.0 connected externals which have been around longer and have a lot of customer reviews. It depends on which one you want to get.
If you are willing to sacrifice data transfer rates and go for a USB2.0, then I'd recommend a Western Digital Elements drive. Newegg.com has hundreds of customer reviews on each that get consistently about 4 out of 5 egg reviews and on amazon for at least 3.5 stars each. One on Newegg.com had 480+ reviews and 4 out of 5 eggs which I think are good odds.
However, if you want something faster and want to wing it with USB3.0, then I'd recommend what I'm going to be buying perhaps within the next week or so: Samsung Story Station 3.0. Surprisingly although it's only 5400 RPM, it has performance reviews that outspace 7200 RPM externals and are also USB3.0 such as the Western Digital MyBook and Seagate Freeagent models.
It all depends on what you need, what you want, and what you're willing to spend.
The Samsung 3.0 Story Station looks awfully good, reviews and pricing make it a contender. Amazon has the 1 TB model for $86.00.
Good info.
It's funny you should ask. I've been looking for one myself and plan to buy one soon. I can give you some tips that may help.
First of all, assuming that you're going to be getting an external that's USB-connected, it depends on whether you want to get a USB2.0 or USB3.0 connection. USB3.0 is faster, but at the same time it's newer tech and doesn't currently have many with a sufficient enough amount of customer reviews by which to get a thorough idea of what good they are as versus to USB2.0 connected externals which have been around longer and have a lot of customer reviews. It depends on which one you want to get.
If you are willing to sacrifice data transfer rates and go for a USB2.0, then I'd recommend a Western Digital Elements drive. Newegg.com has hundreds of customer reviews on each that get consistently about 4 out of 5 egg reviews and on amazon for at least 3.5 stars each. One on Newegg.com had 480+ reviews and 4 out of 5 eggs which I think are good odds.
However, if you want something faster and want to wing it with USB3.0, then I'd recommend what I'm going to be buying perhaps within the next week or so: Samsung Story Station 3.0. Surprisingly although it's only 5400 RPM, it has performance reviews that outspace 7200 RPM externals and are also USB3.0 such as the Western Digital MyBook and Seagate Freeagent models.
It all depends on what you need, what you want, and what you're willing to spend.
I forgot to mention I only use WD Elements. They are cheaper and come without what I consider troblesome addon firmware. The 2.5" run relatively cool. They are generally 5400 rpm but some are 5200 rpm. I get ~ 30MB/s transfer.
WD don't appear to support their smaller Elements HDDs with USB3.
I struggled with this for a while. Spent some time head scratching and researching, and think I found a great solution.
Rather than re-type the whole thing, here is the Blog article I whipped up for my clients:
Backup Storage – Inexpensive, Expandable, Portable, and Flexible!
Hope that makes sense, and helps you get a great backup/external drive solution!
Patrick
Quote