Best drive to use in an external enclosure?

[Driveman-32]

I need a PATA hard drive in the 350-400 GB range, to use in a fanelss Acomdata 509 enclosure. The enclosure will sit on my desk. Which ones are best for this application? The Samsungs are supposed to be quiet but have vibration; would this be bad?

Also there is always talk of Western Digital being unreliable somehow. My main choices are that Spinpoint 400GB that was reviewed here, WD Caviar 250GB or Seagate Barracuda 250GB. Most of the discussion here seems to be about building PCs rahter than using enclosures.

[Thomas]

Well, at my opinion it depends largely on whichever the drive is on most of the time or not...

If it's not on all the time... it wont matter much.

If it's more or less constantly on, I think it's a matter of preferences... I dont know the enclosure you mention, so I for a start, I would prefer a drive with low idle noise, because a drive with low idle noise, and high vibration, could easily became quitend down by placing it on a piece of foam.

Depending on your enclosures carathestichs, things might change...

[jessekopelman]

Also there is always talk of Western Digital being unreliable somehow.

??? No more so than any other brand. Hard drive brands are a religious thing. People have certain ones they prefer and certain ones they will avoid at all cost. Personally, I have always been happy with WD. I also wonder about these claims of unreliable brands, as in 20 years of owning PCs and using them daily at work, I've never had a single HD fail on me. Obviously, 1 or 2 in 100 will fail prematurely due to defect, but I think most of the stories you hear are from people running the drives in an unsafe environment (poor temperature/humidity control).

[whiic]

I don't think WD is much better or worse than average. It's also the failure types that differ with drives. WDs tend to die at once with electrical failures where as Samsungs tend to die of uncorrectable sectors (servo track problem?), Maxtors due to bad sectors and firmware corruptions (media degradation), IBMtachis due to mechanical faults such as head crashes, Seagates due to electric faults and stuck bearings. Those are just some stereotypical failure types and any brand may die of any failure type.

I wouldn't consider any brand worse than other... not any longer since Maxtor went bankrupt. I would just choose a cool-running drive (because heat increases likelyhood of HDD failure, whether it's electrical, servo track, media, firmware or mechnical). For cool running I'd probably go for Hitachi or Samsung, but there's certain relatively cool-running models from WD and Seagate as well.

Your capacity range 360-400 only contains one capacity point: 400GB. Nearest other capacity point (slightly out of range of your preference) are: 320GB and 500GB. I, personally, think these two capacity points are better in that the utilize the platters fully.

Most 320GB drives have 2 platters and 4 heads. 400GB: 3 platters, 5 or 6 heads. 500GB: 3 platters, 6 heads. Since heat output and idle noise is differs with the number of platters, 400GB inherits the higher noise of 500GB variant.

Well, the next generation of HDDs will fit that 500GB onto 2 platters, but I don't think it's good idea to wait... and wait... and wait. Because it will continue to improve all the time and you'll be waiting 'til the end of the world (or your life, whichever comes first) for your first 1 petabyte single platter HDD. Somewhere along the road you have to decide from available choices instead of waiting new ones to appear. (I added this disclaimer because someone will recommend you to wait until Seagate 7200.11 arrives. I would not wait, because Seagates haven't been worth waiting lately.)

Well, you want the drive to be IDE/PATA. That makes it impossible to choose a Samsung T166 320GB or 500GB, leaving 3-platter T133 400GB. That's a good drive too.

If you go for Hitachi, T7K500 320GB (2-platter) or 500GB (3-platter) variants are a way to go.

If you go for WD... WD3200JB, 3 platters. WD4000... is that even available as PATA? Either way, that'd be 4 platters. Newer WDs with "AA" (for example: WD3200AAJB (2-platter) and WD5000AAJB (3-platter)) have one platter less when compared to older versions. WD4000AAJB probably has 3 platters.

Someone else can recommend which Seagates would be good... or at least borderline acceptable for quiet operation. I don't want to recommend any because I have no first-hand experience with modern Seagates and because none of the models support AAM, the whole range of drives doesn't look very promising. It's the small decisions that can make a difference in niché market such as silent computing. Well, it appears it will not remain a niché for long as some OEMs already sell very quiet media PCs. (But I don't think they have yet reached the point where they would choose the HDD to be used based on noise level instead of price. And I don't think they ever will, OEMs have always prioritized on price.)

[Driveman-32]

Your capacity range 360-400 only contains one capacity point: 400GB. Nearest other capacity point (slightly out of range of your preference) are: 320GB and 500GB. I, personally, think these two capacity points are better in that the utilize the platters fully.

I made a typo, I meant 250GB to 400GB. Thanks for the info.

Samsung also has a 300GB T133 Spinpoint.

As far as noise goes, for now it'll be on a desk next to my Apple Emac, so I want something that's not loud in relation to that. I don't know if that's difficult to achieve or not.

[Driveman-32]

Well, the 400GB Spinpoint deal sold out. I ordered the WD Caviar 320GB OEM, the "AA" version that you say has fewer platters. (WD3200AAJB) Ultra ATA100. $75 shipped from Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136109

I hope it works and I'm not missing something by buying OEM.

Edit: the reviews though say it only formats to 298 GB. Is that normal, and proportional to what I'd get with other drive sizes?

[jessekopelman]

I hope it works and I'm not missing something by buying OEM.

What you are missing is mounting screws. Hopefully your case has these already. If not, you will need to go to a store that sells screws and be prepared to pay $1 or so.

Edit: the reviews though say it only formats to 298 GB. Is that normal, and proportional to what I'd get with other drive sizes?

Yes. This is the formated size under NTFS. If you use a different file system you may get a different value.

[whiic]

Yes. This is the formated size under NTFS. If you use a different file system you may get a different value.

It pretty much the same with any file system, at least to those three most significant digits. Fourth digit is likely to vary with file system format (including cluster size, meaning not even all NTFSs are as effective).

The main reason for "losing" 22GB out of 320GB is conversion is completely different:
1KiB = 1024 Bytes - IEC standard since 1999
1kB = 1000 Bytes - SI standard scince 1793
1kB = 1024 Bytes - Never standarized, but used occationally in the software industry
1KiB = 1000 Bytes - Never standarized, never used

And if reviews say it formats to 298 GB (instead of 298 GiB), the reviewers don't have their facts straight, or are simply idiots who refuse to accept the fact even when they are aware of it (like M$ who is still insisting on using decimal SI-prefixes to denote binary ones).

It is very questionable if there's any benefit from using binary units for HDD capacity but it's even worse to use a wrong prefix in these binary numbers.

[Driveman-32]

The drive came. The first thing the manual for the enclosure says, is to set the drive as a master. It says to consult the drive manual, but of course I don't have the manual. The drive came with a white jumper block on the two pins closest to the power supply pins. Should I just leave it there?

[whiic]

Check the sticker on top cover of the HDD for jumper settings. If basic jumper setting are not there, try seeking information from HDD manufacturer's website.

And it's quite likely that it was configured as MASTER when it left the factory. You can always try it with the current setting. If it's a SLAVE (unlikely) it just won't be recognized by OS when you have powered on the enclosure. If it's set up as CABLE SELECT (more likely) I'm not sure whether it'd detect or not. MASTER is the setting that will certainly get it recognized. There's no physical damage to PATA HDD if it's set to wrong MASTER/SLAVE setting... well, not in 99% of HDD models. With certain Seagates (that are now obsolete) you absolutely had to configure it correctly befory trying it out the first time in a system or you might fry the circuit board. But modern drives aren't as bitchy.

EDIT: one addition to previous - while trying out with default setting isn't dangerous avoid guessing jumper configurations. A misplaced jumper on Samsungs can PERMANTLY cut the drive to very low capacity! Yeah... and forget what I said about jumper configuration not being bitchy nowadays...

[Driveman-32]

I'm an idiot, the jumper info was on the drive but I hadn't taken it out of the bag. I have the drive installed and working. It apparently spins down automatically when it's not used for a while.

It's pretty quiet, quieter than my Emac, but it seems to have a lot of its noise in the high treble, so it's sort of harsh. I can still move it further from myself though, maybe that will help.

I might also want a second drive just to back up my main drive, an extra. As far as I can tell, 40-80GB drives seem to go for $35 at the lowest. Any drive would work for that.

[Driveman-32]

I've had this drive (the Western Digital Caviar WD3200AAJB) for a while and I'm not really happy with it. The sound is too harsh. I can hide it behind my printer and it's okay, but I don't like doing that.

Is there any other drive that would work better? It's the really high frequencies that are bothering me.

I was thinking about the Spinpoint 400-gig, but it seems to be out of stock now. One place sells it for $240 dollars apparently. The 300-gig is $70; would that be good?

[Driveman-32]

Anybody? I'm not really a quiet-PC enthusiast. I have my Emac which makes fan noise, so I just need something that's hopefully at least as quiet as that. Also, I want it to not have that grating high-treble noise like the Caviar. It could easily be as loud as Caviar, if it was just regular white noise.

There must be a satisfying drive for this kind of enclosure, or else they wouldn't make so many of them, right?

[FlorisNielssen]

Samsung drives are one of the quietest drives available, so it should be more silent. Although the kind of enclosure makes a difference too.
But be sure to search for a PATA, not a SATA, drive.

I've taken a short look at the enclosure and it seems to me the front is open (for airflow). That means sound will get out more easily.

Why they make so many? Because external HD's are very popular. Easy for back-up. And enclosures with less quality are also made, same reason, big market. If they make it fanless they are often plain stupid, because they don't think about cooling. Or not enough. And not about silence. Just about speed, capacity and price.

[jbw]

I've had this drive (the Western Digital Caviar WD3200AAJB) for a while and I'm not really happy with it. The sound is too harsh. I can hide it behind my printer and it's okay, but I don't like doing that.

Is there any other drive that would work better? It's the really high frequencies that are bothering me.

I was thinking about the Spinpoint 400-gig, but it seems to be out of stock now. One place sells it for $240 dollars apparently. The 300-gig is $70; would that be good?

Driveman, what was your resolution to this? I had an old WD "Dual Option" enclosure lying around and I just swapped its old drive for a WD3200AAJB. The enclosure has no fan and also has ventilated sides, so you can pretty much hear any noise that comes from the drive inside. And this new drive makes a lot of noise (intermittent squeaking during formatting; tinny, clacky read/write noise; high-pitched noise generally). It may be fine when locked away in a mini-tower, but it's too noisy for me to have on my desk.

I need a PATA drive and I'd like to limit it to 320GB since that was the largest original capacity of the Dual Option USB series. (Or does anyone know if these enclosures can handle larger drives? A 500GB costs about the same.)

Update: I bought another WD3200AAJB from Best Buy and the second specimen is much quieter. There's less vibration when it spins up and it doesn't make the intermittent squeaking sound. I'll just take the first one back and tell them that it's too loud (sometimes it's worth paying the extra $20 to get stuff from Best Buy--no waiting for replacements to ship).