POST: Why to never buy 3.5" external HDD's

flo-rate wrote

Interesting post.

Nope.

Is he right not to buy external 3.5 HDDs?

Nope, mine all work fine.

++++

http://forum.piriform.com/?showtopic=37513
Posted 24 December 2012 - 05:15 PM

Why to never buy 3.5" external HDD's? A good number of reasons.
But 2.5" are ok. If I haven't warned you guys & gals before then read up!

1- The drives that go into these external enclosures, like
the WD MyBook series for example, are sub-standard.

Bull****.

2- More surface errors. Externals have more errors on the surface
right out of the factory than their equivalent desktop models do.

Mindlessly silly.

Every single HDD ever made in the entire world has surface defects.

That isnt necessarily true of the lowest density original ones.

But externals have more than their desktop counterparts.

Mindlessly silly.

Every HDD comes with a bad sector map.

Yes,

The defective spots are recorded in a chart
and the drive skips over them, substituting
a bad sector with one from a reserve area.

Not always, often its just difference in the mapping
between logical blocks and the head/cylinder/sector.

Thus the disk "presents" a 100% error free drive to the OS.

Yes.

And in the old days, you had to manually enter the
defective sector list by hand according to certification
chart taped to the drive at time of mfg.

Stuck too, not usually taped to.

Today it is stored in th firmware.

Yes.

Accessing these spare areas takes a few mSec more than a normal
sequential sector - because the head has to swing to the reserve area.

Not when its all done in the mapping between LBA and HCS.

This latency (for external disks) is buried
out of sight deep inside the USB interface.

And in fact is swamped by the lack of speed in the USB interface
with the USB that was current at the time this **** was written.

But on a hi-performace Enterprise class drive, speed loss due to
defect remappings are noticable and thus they get the best platters.

Not when there are no spare sectors and its all done in the LBA HCS mapping.

3- Balance. You'll note that on average external drives generate more
vibration.

Even sillier and more pig ignorant than you usually manage.

This is from sub-standard bearings in the motor/spindle

They are EXACTLY the same motor/spindles as with internal drives
because they are just the internal drives in an external case.

and out of round platters.

They are EXACTLY the same platters as with internal drives
because they are just the internal drives in an external case.

While each HDD (if you take it apart) seems ultra-precise,
there's a real difference when looking at their tolerances
on a microscopic scale.

Not between internal and external drives.

4- Cheaper engineering. You'll find less cache in externals along
with single processor cores as opposed to 2 and 4 core controllers.

They are EXACTLY the same caches and logic cards as with internal
drives because they are just the internal drives in an external case.

That, and number of heads.

They are EXACTLY the same number of heads as with internal
drives because they are just the internal drives in an external case.

As the number of heads increase, the reliability decreases.

There are no more heads with external drives.

The desktop equivalent will have less surfaces,

Wrong, as always.

thus less parts to fail, and fail they do!

Surfaces hardly ever do anymore.

5- Overall machining tolerances and materials are worse in the externals.

They are EXACTLY the same drives as with internal drives
because they are just the internal drives in an external case.

The materials are more sensitive to temperature changes,

They are EXACTLY the same materials as with internal drives
because they are just the internal drives in an external case.

parts expand and contract more,

Only if the external case isnt as well cooled as the internal drive.

producing different geometries of the heads and
surfaces, and therefore requiring more compensation
from the electronics to keep things on track.

Even more pig ignorant than you usually manage.

In fact with modern embedded servo tracks, the
system completely automatically handles any
changes to the platters due to thermal effects.

Incidentally, this creates more heat.

Even more pig ignorant than you usually manage.

Typically 5-10`C.

Even more pig ignorant than you usually manage.

What does often see external drives run hotter than
internal drives is just the inevitable poorer cooling
with external drives because very few have a fan.

Might as well throw in +5`C more due to rougher
and less than "perfect" machining of the bearings.

They are EXACTLY the same bearings as with internal drives
because they are just the internal drives in an external case.

And unbalanced platters require a bit more
current to keep them spinning steadily.

They are EXACTLY the same platters as with internal drives
because they are just the internal drives in an external case.

More stress more heat. Unbalanced platters
add about 3`C to overall tempertature gain.

They are EXACTLY the same platters as with internal drives
because they are just the internal drives in an external case.

All this consipires to compound things. The metallic coating
(where your data is stored) has its coercivity affected by
hotter temps, and presents a less defined magnetic pattern.

That utterly mangles the real story too
with such small temperature differences.

6- Larger parts, platters, actuator arms, motors, bearings,
fly-height adjusters, micro-positioners, voice coils, things
like that, it all takes more power to operate.

They are just internal drives in an external case.

No difference with any of that stuff.

7- Lack of any form of cooling!

Another pig ignorant lie. They do in fact cool the drive by conduction.

That's correct.

Nope.

There is no cooling fan anywhere in most external disks!

Yes, but that does not mean no cooling at all.

You're taking a desktop drive and basically putting it into a box.

Yes.

No air circulation.

There is in fact some air circulation with some external cases.

And cooling by conduction with most of them too.

You don't do this with your desktop drives do you?

I do actually.

You've got some kind of airflow,

No I do not.

or if not, you've got the disk attached to
a metal frame that absorbs some heat.

Just as true of many external drives.

In an external USB-style drive you don't
any of those two cooling mechanisms.

Wrong, as always.

You might as well put the disk in a baggie and then a shoe box.

Wrong, as always.

This one factor alone is responsible for
the high failure rate of external disks!

Wrong, as always.

Externals can typically run 20-30`C
higher than their desktop cousins.

Mine don't.

A hotter running disk from the get-go, trapped in
a box with no ventilation, is just asking for trouble.

Which might just be why some have some ventilation
and why plenty more have metal cases with conduction
of the heat from the drive to the air outside the case
and even you can put your hand on the metal case
and feel that it is warmer than something else that
doesn't have a hard drive running inside it.

And manufacturers know this! Evidenced by
the shorter warranty 1-year vs. 3 or 5 years!

There are plenty of internal drives with only a 1 year warranty
and some external drives with 3 or 5 year warrantys.

They know the disks will fail, they know
about the lack of cooling as the #1 reason.

The #1 reason is in fact the drive getting knocked
over or knocked off the table top etc or being
slapped down on the table top.

They are too cheap to put in a $5 fan, citing a number of
excuses - one of which, ironically, is extra moving parts.

---------------

I've seen Western Digital external drives run at a blistering 68`C !!

Sure, but not all external drives do that.

How can you expect a cheap consumer grade product
to operate reliably under those conditions. You can't!

So don't use such badly designed external drives. Mine don't.

And I have to say that over the years I've had many drives
both professionally and personally, and without a doubt,
every single Western Digital 3.5" external disk that has no
cooling fan has died prematurely. ALL OF THEM! 100% fail.

So don't use such badly designed external drives.

None of mine have failed.

Manufacturers expect this. They expect a short lifespan. They know this.
Remember that 1-year warranty as opposed to 3-years or 5-years!

There are plenty of internal drives with only a 1 year warranty
and some external drives with 3 or 5 year warrantys.

It should be noted that 2.5" disks don't exhibit
many of those cascading failure scenarios.

Even sillier than you usually manage.

They are engineered to work in an enclosed
compartment with no ventilation. A laptop!

Plenty of laptops do have an internal fan.

They handle vibration better.

And handle being dropped better too.

Parts are smaller, better spec'd. Less stress, less power consumption.

And cost quite a bit more for the same capacity.

Better surface verification procedures.

BULL****.

All a necessity with the higher density
of 2.5" platters and portable environment.

And you pay for that.

So if you're looking for external USB disks buy only 2.5",

No thanks.

afterall these smaller drives were engineered for
the portable environment from the ground up.

Yes, but if you know what you are doing,
3.5" external drives can work fine too. And
are too big to put in your pocket so you are
much less likely to cart them around too.

They were not afterthoughts and hey let's do this types of hacks.

Even sillier than you usually manage.

And eventually, once SSD's become ready for the consumer market,

They have been for a long time now.

then I will recommend those.

No one cares what fools like you do or do not recommend.

For now, stick with 1TB 2.5" externals for your cost-effective storage
needs.

Go and **** yourself.

Get two 1TB 2.5" disks as opposed to a single 2TB 3.5" external.

No thanks, costs much more.

"Mr. Man-wai Chang" wrote in message
...
On 1/04/2016 9:11 PM, flo-rate wrote:
Interesting post. Is he right not to buy external 3.5 HDDs?

Most 2.5 inch external hard disk are 5400RPM. I supposed 3.5 inch ones
could go 7200RPM. But then USB 3.0 might not be fast enough to handle the
increased data transfer rate.

Anyway, there are USB 3.0 and/or eSATA docking stations for both 2.5 and
3.5 inches ones, if you don't mind running a hard disk naked.

And you can always have a sign saying that children should avert their eyes.

"Mr. Man-wai Chang" wrote in message
...
On 1/04/2016 9:11 PM, flo-rate wrote:

Get two 1TB 2.5" disks as opposed to a single 2TB 3.5" external.


What if you need to backup more than 1TB of data?

You use a backup app that can handle removable media, stupid.

How do you draw the line?

Right between his eyes, and aim for that.

"flo-rate" wrote in message
. ..
On Sat, 2 Apr 2016 10:35:06 -0500, VanguardLH wrote :
flo-rate wrote:

One answer could be to buy a known internal 2.5 inch drive whose spec
you
like and mount it in an external USB enclosure.

At newegg.com, I can find a 3.5" 8 TB 7200 RPM drive at $440. For a
2.5" 7200 RPM laptop HDD, the biggest they carry is 2 TB costing $990.
With the 3.5" form factor, I get 4 times the capacity at less than half
the cost.

Yeah, 2.5" is technically doable but at a much greater cost per byte.
Of course, a 2.5" external HDD will probably fit [tightly] in your shirt
pocket (as long as there is no fan) but you'll need to tote the 3.5".
Who carries their 2.5" external HDD in their shirt pocket?

Check those prices. Here are a 3.5 and a 2.5 drive chosen at random. Both
of the same capacity for comparison.

A Seagate 3.5-Inch 4TB Desktop HDD costs $115.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B99JU4S/

A Samsung Momentus 4TB 2.5-inch Hard Drive costs $140.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B99JU4S/

Now try that with 8TB drives.

"flo-rate" wrote in message
. ..
On Fri, 1 Apr 2016 11:37:43 -0500, VanguardLH wrote :
flo-rate wrote:

Interesting post. Is he right not to buy external 3.5 HDDs?

++++

http://forum.piriform.com/?showtopic=37513
Posted 24 December 2012 - 05:15 PM

Why to never buy 3.5" external HDD's? A good number of reasons. But
2.5"
are ok. If I haven't warned you guys & gals before then read up!

1- The drives that go into these external enclosures, like the WD
MyBook
series for example, are sub-standard.

2- More surface errors. Externals have more errors on the surface right
out of the factory than their equivalent desktop models do. Every
single
HDD ever made in the entire world has surface defects. But externals
have
more than their desktop counterparts.

Every HDD comes with a bad sector map. The defective spots are recorded
in a chart and the drive skips over them, substituting a bad sector
with
one from a reserve area. Thus the disk "presents" a 100% error free
drive
to the OS. And in the old days, you had to manually enter the defective
sector list by hand according to certification chart taped to the drive
at time of mfg. Today it is stored in th firmware.

Accessing these spare areas takes a few mSec more than a normal
sequential sector - because the head has to swing to the reserve area.
This latency (for external disks) is buried out of sight deep inside
the
USB interface. But on a hi-performace Enterprise class drive, speed
loss
due to defect remappings are noticable and thus they get the best
platters.

3- Balance. You'll note that on average external drives generate more
vibration. This is from sub-standard bearings in the motor/spindle and
out of round platters. While each HDD (if you take it apart) seems
ultra-
precise, there's a real difference when looking at their tolerances on
a
microscopic scale.

4- Cheaper engineering. You'll find less cache in externals along with
single processor cores as opposed to 2 and 4 core controllers. That,
and
number of heads. As the number of heads increase, the reliability
decreases. The desktop equivalent will have less surfaces, thus less
parts to fail, and fail they do!

5- Overall machining tolerances and materials are worse in the
externals.
The materials are more sensitive to temperature changes, parts expand
and
contract more, producing different geometries of the heads and
surfaces,
and therefore requiring more compensation from the electronics to keep
things on track. Incidentally, this creates more heat. Typically
5-10`C.
Might as well throw in +5`C more due to rougher and less than "perfect"
machining of the bearings. And unbalanced platters require a bit more
current to keep them spinning steadily. More stress more heat.
Unbalanced
platters add about 3`C to overall tempertature gain. All this
consipires
to compound things. The metallic coating (where your data is stored)
has
its coercivity affected by hotter temps, and presents a less defined
magnetic pattern.

6- Larger parts, platters, actuator arms, motors, bearings, fly-height
adjusters, micro-positioners, voice coils, things like that, it all
takes
more power to operate.

7- Lack of any form of cooling! That's correct. There is no cooling fan
anywhere in most external disks! You're taking a desktop drive and
basically putting it into a box. No air circulation. You don't do this
with your desktop drives do you? You've got some kind of airflow, or if
not, you've got the disk attached to a metal frame that absorbs some
heat. In an external USB-style drive you don't any of those two cooling
mechanisms. You might as well put the disk in a baggie and then a shoe
box. This one factor alone is responsible for the high failure rate of
external disks! Externals can typically run 20-30`C higher than their
desktop cousins.

A hotter running disk from the get-go, trapped in a box with no
ventilation, is just asking for trouble. And manufacturers know this!
Evidenced by the shorter warranty 1-year vs. 3 or 5 years! They know
the
disks will fail, they know about the lack of cooling as the #1 reason.
They are too cheap to put in a $5 fan, citing a number of excuses - one
of which, ironically, is extra moving parts.

---------------

I've seen Western Digital external drives run at a blistering 68`C !!
How
can you expect a cheap consumer grade product to operate reliably under
those conditions. You can't! And I have to say that over the years I've
had many drives both professionally and personally, and without a
doubt,
every single Western Digital 3.5" external disk that has no cooling fan
has died prematurely. ALL OF THEM! 100% fail.

Manufacturers expect this. They expect a short lifespan. They know
this.
Remember that 1-year warranty as opposed to 3-years or 5-years!

It should be noted that 2.5" disks don't exhibit many of those
cascading
failure scenarios. They are engineered to work in an enclosed
compartment
with no ventilation. A laptop! They handle vibration better. Parts are
smaller, better spec'd. Less stress, less power consumption. Better
surface verification procedures. All a necessity with the higher
density
of 2.5" platters and portable environment.

So if you're looking for external USB disks buy only 2.5", afterall
these
smaller drives were engineered for the portable environment from the
ground up. They were not afterthoughts and hey let's do this types of
hacks.

And eventually, once SSD's become ready for the consumer market, then I
will recommend those. For now, stick with 1TB 2.5" externals for your
cost-effective storage needs.

Get two 1TB 2.5" disks as opposed to a single 2TB 3.5" external.

The problem with your analysis is that you imply there is a separate
production line with all the extra costs of additional tooling and
manpower to produce sub-standard external 3.5" HDDs. Those are produced
one the same assembly line using the same personnel using the same
tooling and the same parts as the internal 3.5" HDDs. The testing of
the finished product determines in which cost market the item gets sold.
This is the same with CPUs: those that can test at higher speed are
priced higher, those that fail the standard test but pass at slower
speed are priced lower. Same production line but resulting in different
grades of products. Nothing new here.

Also, the way you present your arguments is that a 3.5" or 2.5" external
drive requires that it be pre-built by someone else. Build your own.
Then you get to determine the quality of all the components. That's why
I still build my own home PC and why we build are own test rigs at work
for the alpha lab. They don't end up being cheaper than pre-builts
which are constructed based on specifications (so quality and brand and
model of components change depending on what the purchasing agent
decided to get cheapest that week). Instead of paying someone else
their overhead and profit margin for a pre-built, buy the components at
higher quality and, of course, higher priced. When you get done, your
own-built will be the same price, or a bit higher, because you aren't
charging yourself for your time and effort to build the thing but you
have higher-priced higher-quality gear.

Pre-built external HDDs are often built to be green. They power off or
spin down to save power. Some external HDDs have "green" drives which
make it impossible to use them for long backup jobs as the program will
eventually hang or timeout because the HDD won't wake up or take too
long to wakeup. Because of the cooling problem (with no fan and
non-ventilated cases), they need to keep the HDD spun down as often as
possible. Spinning up an HDD taxes its components: surge current
through the motor that experiences higher torque to start spinning the
stopped platters, heads no longer flying off the platter surface, surge
current through the electronics, and thermal flex due to change in
temperature. More power cycling an HDD results in a shorter lifespan.
If you build your own, you can stay away from green drives and use those
that are designed for 24x7 constant spinning usage. You can also pay
more money for enterprise-grade HDDs but your build won't be more
expensive because you're not paying you to build the external HDD. You
just pay for the parts.

Note that external HDDs rarely have active air circulation. There is no
fan (unless you build your own using a case that has a fan). That's why
pre-built external HDDs have slower rotating platters: less heat. The
pre-builts rely solely on convection to move the hot air away from the
HDD. When building your own, you can get a case with better passive
circulation (more and bigger ventilation holes) or even use a case with
a fan. Build your own and you get to choose the specifications and
quality of the parts that go into your build. External HDDs are pretty
easy to build. All pre-builts are sub-standard to what YOU can build
for the same cost to you.

So how hard is it to build your own external HDD (whether using good
quality 2.5" or 3.5" HDDs)? Not very. Slide the HDD inside the case,
connect the cables or slide the HDD into the connector, and close. The
hardest part is probably getting the tiny case screws to stay in place
until you get at them with the tiny screwdriver (so you'll need one if
not supplied). Of course, if YOU buy the cheapest components for the
build then you are doing the same thing the pre-builts are doing except
then they tack on their profit margin and overhead.

Which is better for quality: a pre-built sandwich you get out of a
vending machine or one you build yourself at home?

The post I quoted says lower spec hard drives
get supplied as 3.5 inch external drives.

And that was always a pig ignorant lie.

This is very unlikely to be done by running
different production lines of different qualities

There isnt any other way to do that with the original stupid
claim about inferior bearings and more heads and surfaces.

but by tests to determine which are
substandard for use as an internal drive.

In fact if you do that with heads and surfaces, you get
LESS heads and surfaces in the external drives because
the substandard ones are the ones that don't have a
viable head or surface and are sold with those disabled.

In practice what actually happens is that the drives which
have all the heads and surfaces working fine are sold as
the largest drives in the series and the ones with a defective
head or surface are sold as lower total capacity drives with
the bad head or surface disabled.

That's how I read it

More fool you with bearings and heads and surfaces.

and that's what he is describing.

No he's not. He doesn't have a ****ing clue about the basics.

As you say, you could get around this problem by buying your own
internal 3.5 inch drive and mounting it in a carrier with USB lead.

But when external drives can sell for less than the same drive
sold without the case, that doesn't necessarily make any sense.

That is in fact why I have a couple of Samsung 2TB external drives,
they were in fact cheaper than the same bare internal drive so I
bought them because I knew I could take the drive out and use
it in the HDD docking station that I use for most of my TB drives
if I didn't like the way the case was done. Turned out that it's a
very well designed metal case that cools the drive by conduction
to the metal case so the drives done get any hotter than they do
when used internally, so I use them as external drives and if the
USB/SATA bridge ever does die, I can still just remove the drive and
use it in the drive docking station along with all the other drives.

The author suggests it's better still to buy an external 2.5 inch drive.

He is just plain wrong unless you need to carry it around in your pocket.

3.5" drives are a bit too big for that and you normally need to carry
the power cable or wall wart for them too. With a 2.5" drive most of
those can get the power they need from the USB cable so the only
thing you need to carry around is the drive itself.

In other words, external 3.5 inch drives are low
spec drives derived from a design for internal use

That was always a pig ignorant lie.

but external 2.5 inch drives are designed to do a better job

Yes, but there is a significant price to be paid for that.

and they seem to do it.

One big problem is if you look inside what is supplied as
an external 2.5 inch drive then it's anyone's guess which
particular model/manufacturer drive was been used.

Its trivially easy to see what drive is inside it using the SMART data.

E.G. Seagate changes between using Samsung Spinpoint
or Seagate Barracuda drives for the same capacity enclosure.

And trivially easy to see which has been used from the SMART report.

Also there are additonal variations from 2.5 inch drive thickness which is
likely determined by the number of platters and, in turn, the platter
density.

So, even accepting, the poster's proposition that external 2.5
inch drives in general are better than 3.5 inch external drives,

I don't, particularly with the larger drives.

there is no easy way of telling what is inside an external
2.5 inch drive's enclosure that a particular review is testing.

But with the retailers that do accept free returns, you can
always buy the drive, see what is inside it using the SMART
report and return the drive when you don't like the drive
that has been used.

This would affect transfer rate, seek times, power requirement, etc.

With an external drive, that is often swamped by the
speed of the interface standard used, even with USB 3

For this reason it may be better to follow your suggestion
and buy an internal 3.5 inch drive of known performance
(from reviews) and use it as an external drive.

I personally use HDD docking stations but I don't have
cats and little kids around so that works fine for me.

But who want an heavy old hot clunker of a 3.5
inch drive with it's own external power supply?

I like my Samsung 3.5" external drives that not only
aren't anything like heavy, or hot or clunkers, but are
in fact not much heavier than the internal drives,
run quite cool even when I haven't got around to
turning the aircon on because I am quite happy
with an air temp of 30C and only turn the aircon
on when its over that, and don't clunk at all.

I couldn't care less about the power supply, it just
sits in the massive great pile of them that power
everything else except the desktop system itself.

One answer could be to buy a known internal 2.5 inch drive
whose spec you like and mount it in an external USB enclosure.

Or buy decent external 3.5" external drive and get much
better $/GB that way, particularly with 6 and 8TB drives.

Instead of enclosures and docking stations, how about those
cable adapters? They would work any drives including 2.5" and 3.5".
--
Quote of the Week: "When I look up and see the sun shining on the patch
of white clouds up in the blue, I begin to think how it would feel to be
up somewhere above it winging swiftly thought the clear air, watching
the earth below, and the men on it, no bigger than ants." --Eddie
Rickenbacker
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail privately. If credit-
( ) ing, then please kindly use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.

Rod Speed wrote:

3.5" drives are a bit too big for that and you normally need to carry
the power cable or wall wart for them too. With a 2.5" drive most of
those can get the power they need from the USB cable so the only
thing you need to carry around is the drive itself.

Some 2.5" external drives won't run on a single USB2 port. Not enough
power from just 1 USB2 port. They come with a Y-adapter cable to plug
them into 2 USB2 ports to get enough power. USB3 is not a problem but
that portable drive might be getting connected to older computers that
only have USB2 ports. So mind the peak power spec of the drive you put
into your external case.

I personally use HDD docking stations but I don't have
cats and little kids around so that works fine for me.

Yeah, those can take both 2.5" and 3.5" HDDs. Use what you like at
home. Twould be a problem using them elsewhere so portability is an
issue unless you drag along your docking station and its power wart.

I had one and it was great to use in one location with a drawer-full of
old drives of either form factor. often a slot is shared with both
drive sizes. The 3.5" gets good support but the 2.5" just dangles there
with a spring-loaded dust cover over the extra/dead space in the slot.

One answer could be to buy a known internal 2.5 inch drive
whose spec you like and mount it in an external USB enclosure.

Or buy decent external 3.5" external drive and get much
better $/GB that way, particularly with 6 and 8TB drives.

Just be sure the external case allows decent cooling. A fan helps but
is noisy, especially since it is small diameter which generates more
turbulence which is more noise, and a stack of them will make a lot of
noise. A 7200RPM WDC Black drive spins faster (than 5400RPM drives) and
generates more heat than, say, their Blue drives (or their Green drives
but I wouldn't waste my time with those power-saving drives that keep
power cycling down too soon, take too long to cycle back up). Too many
external cases don't even have ventilation holes, and those that claim
the case is a heat sink are lying because obviously you aren't applying
thermal paste between the HDD case and the enclosure.

A docking station eliminate the cooling problem since the HDDs are
exposed to the air with plenty of circulation. However, they aren't
easily transported so those raw HDDs aren't really portable, just easily
swappable.

Ant wrote

Instead of enclosures and docking stations, how about those
cable adapters? They would work any drives including 2.5" and 3.5".

The main problem with those is that the drive isnt protected at
all and so can get physically damaged, particularly the logic card.

I don’t have any cats inside the house and don’t let little kids that
show up with visitors fiddle with the hard drive docking station and
find those much more convenient to use than those cable adapters
because you just drop the drive in the slot in the top of them.

"VanguardLH" wrote in message
...
Rod Speed wrote:

3.5" drives are a bit too big for that and you normally need to carry
the power cable or wall wart for them too. With a 2.5" drive most of
those can get the power they need from the USB cable so the only
thing you need to carry around is the drive itself.

Some 2.5" external drives won't run on a single USB2 port. Not enough
power from just 1 USB2 port. They come with a Y-adapter cable to plug
them into 2 USB2 ports to get enough power.

Sure, but those don't add much to carry around and the total
is quite a bit easier to put in your pocket than a 3.5" external
drive alone, let alone its wall wart or power cable.

USB3 is not a problem but that portable drive might be getting
connected to older computers that only have USB2 ports. So mind
the peak power spec of the drive you put into your external case.

I personally use HDD docking stations but I don't have
cats and little kids around so that works fine for me.

Yeah, those can take both 2.5" and 3.5" HDDs. Use what you like at home.

I use 3.5" drives because they are much better value $/TB.

Twould be a problem using them elsewhere so portability is an issue
unless you drag along your docking station and its power wart.

Yeah, I don't actually do that sort of thing much. One of the neighbour's
kids do get me to get movies and TV series for them using torrents, but
the 32GB and 64GB USB sticks are plenty big enough for those.

I had one and it was great to use in one location with a drawer-full
of old drives of either form factor. often a slot is shared with both
drive sizes. The 3.5" gets good support but the 2.5" just dangles there
with a spring-loaded dust cover over the extra/dead space in the slot.

One answer could be to buy a known internal 2.5 inch drive
whose spec you like and mount it in an external USB enclosure.

Or buy decent external 3.5" external drive and get much
better $/GB that way, particularly with 6 and 8TB drives.

Just be sure the external case allows decent cooling.

I only get green drives because its mostly just overflows from the
PVR that I haven't got around to watching yet that goes on all
those drives and the Samsungs that I bought until Seagate took
them over run so cool that even in a poor case they still do fine.

In fact the Samsungs that I got in their own case have a very
well designed metal case that is barely warm to the touch
even when the room temp is 30C. I like it warmer than most
people and only turn the aircon on when its hotter than that.

A fan helps but is noisy, especially since it is small diameter
which generates more turbulence which is more noise, and
a stack of them will make a lot of noise.

Yeah, I never bother with those, hate noisy systems.

I don't even bother with fans in the desktop system, don't
bother to put the covers on, the only fans in the system are
the power supply fan and the cpu fan. Don't have a video
card that needs a fan, just a heatsink.

The Samsung green drives do fine, only a little warmer
than the bare drives in the docking station because
there are so many of them stacked adjacent in the
3.5" drive bay stack inside the desktop system. Normally
runs at about 40C even when its 30C in the room.

A 7200RPM WDC Black drive spins faster (than 5400RPM drives) and
generates more heat than, say, their Blue drives (or their Green drives

I don't bother with anything other than green
drives now and haven't used WDs for many
years now. Don't use Seagates either.

but I wouldn't waste my time with those power-saving drives that
keep power cycling down too soon, take too long to cycle back up).

Yeah, I avoid them too. The Samsungs are fine in that regard.

Too many external cases don't even have ventilation holes,

The Samsungs don't.

and those that claim the case is a heat sink are lying

Nope. You can feel that the case is warmer
when the drive is powered than when its not.

because obviously you aren't applying thermal
paste between the HDD case and the enclosure.

Don't need to to get significant conduction
cooling to a well designed metal external case.

A docking station eliminate the cooling problem since
the HDDs are exposed to the air with plenty of circulation.

In fact with the Samsung green drives the external case doesn't
see the drives get much hotter than in the docking station,
barely warm to the touch even with a room temp of 30C.

However, they aren't easily transported so those raw
HDDs aren't really portable, just easily swappable.

Yeah, don't use hard drives for portable drives much
at all now that USB sticks are so cheap and plenty
big enough for anything much that I move around.

2 lines for your reply: 127 characters for 16% of your post. 11 lines
for your signature (de facto netiquette says 4 maximum: 687 characters
for 84% of your post. Very lopsided in content.

Reply (16%): XXXXXXXX
Signature (84%): XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX