Best 2.5" Drive

Now I am all concerned about the Seagate drive. I am still torn because I feel like failure rates are highly misrepresented online, but still... Since I am moving in January and will not be dealing with warranties/RMAs if things stop working... well I would like to cut risks. That being said, since something is likely to get tossed if it stops working, I do not want to pay high for great warranties either .

Anyway... I really like the 750gb Seagate ProFlex because it is 2.5" AND eSata. The HP I have on the way has eSata, and I love the speed because I do ocassionally do very large transfers (I do some graphic design etc. and frequently have large amounts of files to move around).

I have however decided that is really more of a convenience than anything else.

But then I get stuck because 2.5" is really just a convenience as well .

I may opt to just get a larger 1-2tb desktop drive (not like I cannot put enough content on a 16gb flash drive to entertain me for plenty of time anyway), but I want to at least shop around the 2.5" form.

Optimally I would not mind getting a 2.5" form and a larger 1-2tb desktop unit for additional storage, and more importantly to backup the portable to. Though to be fair, I have never been one to backup data and it has never gotten me in trouble either. This will be non-essential data for the most part.

EDIT: Oh so the Seagate is so attractive because the price is right, plus it can go eSata and 7200 RPM. If I have to compromise down to a USB2(5400rpm) I think I would live, not like it will not work to stream media.

Not opposed to crafting my own, though it seems a lot of 2.5" drives are 12.5mm and many enclosures 9.5... will not have much time for returns due to sizing so package deal is better .

 

Bump to the top

 

How about the WD Passport Essential SE 1TB drive.

 

What is your definition of best? Most reliable, fastest transfer speed?

Again all manufacturers have the same failure rates. But people will have anecdotal evidence and swing towards one manufacturer. I only use and personally recommend WD drives.

 

Eyeballing all 2.5" form factor from 500gb - 1tb.

eSata is a huge plus, but not a strict requirement.

I do not really have any opinions towards manufacturers, it seems more so than X manufacturer being bad it is X series of HDD is bad honestly.

I am leaning strongly towards the goflex pro (Seagate) because of the option to switch out cables, and get eSata without an AC adapter.

Strictly speaking, I just purchased that 2tb desktop drive, so drive reliability is great, but not as big of an issue. All options are on the table, may even skip it (all essential data should fit on my 160gb SSD, and if the 2tb fails and I lose some TV shows and whatnot, oh well).

I see this WD 2.5" 500gb on Amazon for $56, seems like a great deal. No eSata but since I can stream media over 2.0 just fine I am not all that hugely worried.

 

Just a warning, in most esata you will need to powered them externally defeating a bit the purose of small portable as you also carring a psu for it, unless you have a powered esata.... i yet to try one, all my esata experiences are with 3.5hdd docks and always have needed to power them externally, but its really fast

 

The way I understand it is the Seagate GoFlex eSata cable is a combination USB/eSata cable, so as long as the eSata port is a combination eSata/USB port, it can draw power for the drive. However, if it were not this kind of eSata port the connection would be impossible. Though you can then just swap to the USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 cable in this case thanks to the modular system .

How much faster are we talking yout think? I was reading some basic information and it looked like it was one of those "statistical difference" but in actuallity just a matter of seconds. Though I did not get detailed enough to see what we were talking, if we shaved a couple seconds off a four second transfer, excellent .

 

esata is as fast as your internal sata controllers, its just an an external format but its as fast as it gets, its even faster than usb3 if you source is sata. I transfer on my 2.5 hitachi last week, doing some backups, around 70-80 mb/s, but this is with an external powered dock.

 

I probably went around this backwards. Should have done the desktop drive in eSata and not worried about it for the portable! Oh well, that 2tb deal was too good to pass up.