External HD recomendations?

[jsktrogdor]

I need a 1-2 TB external HD with these things (in order of priority).

-1 Password protection on a file and/or a partition
-2 A fast read speed, write not that important.
-3 If available at all the option to hide a file and/or partition
-4 Software for running a backup for a vista PC.

...any recommendations?


Dozens of gigs of p.... um, I mean dozens of gigs of schoolwork isnt going to hide itself!

[Freddie]

You can't go wrong with Western Digital My Book drives, they have recently added a USB 3 drive to their range (but your going to need to buy a USB 3 PCI card as well) and this will give you maximum performance. A cheaper alternative is to get a My Book drive with ESATA support, you only then need to buy a ESATA backplate (which are dirt cheap) but if your PC is fairly new and half decent you might already have esata ports already. The only draw back with esata is unlike USB you can't just turn the drive on and off at will, if you want to use the esata drive you have turn it on and restart your pc in order for it to appear in explorer for me this actually quite annoying as the drives aren't exactly quite so it's nice to be able to turn them off when you don't need it and turn it on ad-hoc.

Western Digital provides backup software on it's website and you can view their range and compare features here and most of their range comes with password protection and hardware encryption but there are also third party freeware tools for this sort of thing as well.

I also need a new external device and I'm eyeing up the My Book 3.0 (USB enabled) 2Tb edition, I have tons of movies that have filled up my existing device and now I need to expand.

[Simetrical]

-1 Password protection on a file and/or a partition
...
-3 If available at all the option to hide a file and/or partition
-4 Software for running a backup for a vista PC.

These are all the same no matter what drive you get. You'll want to use standard Windows features/programs for these. All should be possible with any drive.

-2 A fast read speed, write not that important.

Most external drives aren't very fast. If you want speed, the primary thing to look at is RPM. 5400 RPM is slower, 7200 RPM is regular, 10000 RPM is very fast. (There are also 15000 RPM drives, but those run like $140 for 74 GB, and are SCSI only.) You probably want to shoot for 7200 RPM; that's the fastest you'll get for an external drive.

The only draw back with esata is unlike USB you can't just turn the drive on and off at will, if you want to use the esata drive you have turn it on and restart your pc in order for it to appear in explorer for me this actually quite annoying as the drives aren't exactly quite so it's nice to be able to turn them off when you don't need it and turn it on ad-hoc.

You shouldn't need to restart your computer to use an eSATA drive. At most, you should need to tell Windows to scan for new devices. Google suggests that Device Manager → Scan for hardware changes might help. On Linux, the scsiadd command works, although there's probably also some GUI way to do it.

Western Digital provides backup software on it's website and you can view their range and compare features here and most of their range comes with password protection and hardware encryption but there are also third party freeware tools for this sort of thing as well.

I'd suggest you use the built-in Windows tools if possible. They're likely to be more reliable, although perhaps less featureful, and might not be available on all systems (i.e., unless you shell out for the expensive versions).

[kinshipknight]

I also have an eSATA and I don't have to restart either. Works just like USB....I eject it using "Safely remove" in Windows

[Ishan]

Correct, eSATA doesn't requires a restart it supports Hot-Swapping.

[philiper]

the Buffalo HD is my latest collection,it has 1TB and fast speed,you can consider,buddy

[mp0295]

I was confused too, though eSATA supported hot plugging. As a general question, would it be worth getting some USB3 ports for an external HDD if i already have an eSATA port?

By the time I'll have pother needs for USB3, I will have a new MB

[Ishan]

eSATA is faster than USB 3.0 so i see no reason to go for USB trouble.

[danzig]

I got 2 of these http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&sku=M261-8232 and very happy with them, one hooked up via usb just general storage and other thru esata (warning drive doesnt come with esata cable).

[mp0295]

I got 2 of these http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&sku=M261-8232 and very happy with them, one hooked up via usb just general storage and other thru esata (warning drive doesnt come with esata cable).

Well there's monoprice for cables so whatever

[Kritic]

I just have a cheap Nexstar 3 enclosure http://www.vantecusa.com/en/product/view_detail/354 Works great and will accept a 2TB HD.I use it for backups and since I still have my hard drives from ALL my old computers it's fun to pop one in and see what I was doing in 1999 LOL Hard drives are cheap now and why anyone would want to buy a dedicated external I don't know. I guess there are reasons though.

[kinshipknight]

What's the latest killer External drive (I want the best for editing HD video using Premiere, but want to keep it off my system drive....this is why Premiere suggests using a different "Scratch Disk"