Re: External 1TB HDDs - Maxtor OneTouch III Turbo vs LaCie BiggerDisk Extreme
- From: "link-pan" <link-pan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 20:22:40 GMT
Arno Wagner <me@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:49uud4Fqh6joU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
Previously Anna Martin <anne_m_martin@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Has anyone here had any experience with either the Maxtor OneTouch
III Turbo Edition 1TB External HDD or the LaCie BiggerDisk Extreme
1TB External HDD?
I have found them at very similar prices here in Australia (LaCie
slightly more expensive) and from the specs the only difference I
can judge that might mean anything to me is that the Maxtor has RAID
1 as well as RAID 0 -but I dont really know anything about these so
I dont know if it is important. I'd love to hear if people have any
positive or negative experiences with either or if, by magic,
someone has actually done some comparisons between the two (I've
searched the net and am just getting more confused the more info I
find). Sorry for my ignorance in this matter and I hope it's not too
basic, too big or too open a question.
It is actually not so obvious what the characteristics of these
things are. The most important question is reliability.
RAID 0 gives you the full capacity and maybe higher speed (not really
in external ones) but halves the reliability: If one drive fails,
then all data is gone. RAID1 halves tha capacity, bit gives you
the square root of the failure probability, i.e. you loose only if
both drives fail. Example: Assume 1% failure rate for one drive per
year, then RAID1 has 0.01% failure rate per year. This only works
if the failure rates are independent. In addition you need to notice
when a drive has failed and replace it. I recently talked to some
guy that had RAID1 in his server, but no monitoring or alterting.
WHen he tried to move the installation to another server, he found
that one disk had failed completely and the other one was about to.
(Incidentially bthese vere inadequately cooled Maxtor disks.)
As to Maxtor external enclosures, they are _very_ unreliable.
Maxtor disks are only reliable if cooled well. The external Maxtor
cases do not do this for some strange reason. I would strongly
advise to stau away from them!
As to LaCie, they seem to be more reliable, but still have
the RAID0 problem. In addition, you cannot do SMART monitoring
on external disks, so the time you will notice an external
disk is going bad is when you loose (part or all of) your data.
For that reason I remove the disks from my external drive
cases every few months and run a full SMART self-test, i.e.
surface scan.
My advice: Stay away from these large drives. You can get 500GB
as single drive. Get at least two of them and have all critical
data on both. Make sure the data on both disks is completely
readable every few months. Still not a perfect solution, but
this way you have a pretty good chance of not loosing anything.
Arno
Hope you do not mind me jumping in - but your advice is the kind I was
looking for when I navigated to this group. I have an internal 300GB
Seagate that I purchased to help with my video requirements for myself, and
it is getting quite full. Because of the larger HD I began saving video in
a larger size - not outrageous, 480x368 MPEG2 at 2400Kbits, and it is
mounting up. I create a DVD when full, but I think of DVD's like I used to
think of CD-Rom's, just a backup if the HD fails. I want the original
video on my computer for access.
Is the Lacie Big Disk actually two disks? The site does not mention RAID
for the Lacie Big Disk - but others do. My original backup medium looks
better and better everyday, albeit slow. I have been handling video for a
number of years as a hobby, since the Pentium II days, so I would send my
video out via a Scan Converter to my VCR. Tape is slow, but dependable.
Now I have a DVI out port for video, plus Composite out, Component Out, and
Svideo Out. Since I am basically archiving video - I guess go back to Tape
with the VCR (until there is an HDTV solution) - but what about having
instant access to video?
Is two 500GB drives the best one can obtain? If so, would it then be best
to combine two or mor computers - each with two 500GB HD's. Old p3's can
be had for $20 or so - install two 500GB drives in them, and then learn how
to access them - plus my system with a TB.
Am I on the right path? Video uses a lot of data, and the new HDTV spec
will just eat up a HD - even a TB.
any thoughts?
thanks
.
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