[Discuss] Tired of unreliable external drives... recommendations?

[bogstad at pobox.com (Bill Bogstad)]

On Wed, Jul 11, 2012 at 7:43 AM, Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org> wrote:
> flawlessly. Most external drives are 2.5in. I'm wondering if there is a
> difference in MTBF on some of the consumer grade 2.5in. USB drive
> enclosures are very cheap. You could buy a bare 2.5in drive of your
> choosing and an enclosure so you know exactly what drive you are getting
> in contrast to a prepackaged one.

Since USB drives are usually spec'ed on capacity (RPM and cache are
often not disclosed at all), I suspect some vendors switch drives in
the same "model" depending on what they can get cheap that quarter.
I also know from the "deal" websites that people routinely look inside
to see if a particular external is currently shipping with a high end
drive.  It does happen and hobbyists sometimes save 50% off the bare
drive price by buying an external and throwing away the case (albeit
with a shorter (and now void) warranty).  I personally did this with a
3.5" 3Tbyte external last year.

Bill Bogstad