Internal HDDs, what should I get?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I've always been partial to Seagates.

[klr]

I've always been partial to Seagates.

Between internal and external drives, I have units from all four of the above manufacturers, plus at least one from Fujitsu, who are now leaving the business IIRC.

The most recent internal drive I bought was a 2TB Western Digital model, only last week. It's from their "Caviar Green" range, with the slower spin rate of 5400 rpm - many internal drives are 7200 rpm, especially 3 1/2 models. But it has a big buffer cache, and it's really, really, really quiet. I mean, seriously quiet.

I'm not so enthusiastic about WD portable drives, but that's not an issue here.

EDIT: For my main PC, I have one 1TB drive each from Hitachi and Seagate. I also have a 2TB "desktop" external drive and a 1TB portable from Seagate, both relatively new. I like both of those. And I bought a Toshiba 1TB portable only today.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

So you're saying look for the most bang for the buck regardless of manufacturer?

[klr]

So you're saying look for the most bang for the buck regardless of manufacturer?

That's what I normally do. I see no real reason to favour one manufacturer over others. There should be much of a muchness between them. They all have advanced inbuilt self-diagnostic features (lookup SMART).

My current laptop drive (1TB) is Hitachi. So of the 4 internal drives in my 3 PCs at present, there are 2 from Hitachi, and one each from WD and Seagate. All of those were purchased by me, upgrading from earlier drives I'd bought, or whatever was in the laptop to begin.

I've just realised it would be prudent to create a detailed inventory of my hard drives.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Looking at $140 for hot 3Ts at Amazon.

[klr]

Looking at $140 for hot 3Ts at Amazon.

That sounds about right. I'm guessing you have to add some tax to that. Prices over here are "all in", as we don't have your state-by-state tax variations.

[klr]

If you can get a 3-year warranty (or better), that's worth paying more for.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

No sales taxes, no shipping on that amount.

[klr]

No sales taxes, no shipping on that amount.

All the better then ...

[Jason]

For my 2 cents I always go with WD. Avoid Maxtor like the plague. I've owned two and both failed.

WD comes in three flavours (basically): Black, Blue, and Green, which equate to performance, standard, low power consumption (i.e. not so great performance). I've got a 1TB WD Green in my machine that I use for storage and it's just dandy. My OS and programs are on a 150GB VelociRaptor.

(Maxtor is now Seagate)

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The one that ate my computer was a Maxtor.

[pErvinalia]

The next question is automatic synching software. I'd be interested in this as well, as I am fucking hopeless at manually backing up my data.

[klr]

The next question is automatic synching software. I'd be interested in this as well, as I am fucking hopeless at manually backing up my data.

I still do this manually with FreeFileSync, but it's possible to automate to some degree.

There are of course a zillion possible programs for backing up.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I need one that will update some directory backups once and then only the subs that change, and do other directories on a daily basis.

Is that so much to ask?

[klr]

I need one that will update some directory backups once and then only the subs that change, and do other directories on a daily basis.

Is that so much to ask?

Nope, but there are just so many programs to evaluate. Even just the free ones.