external harddrive question....

keizza

hello!!!

i got a new computer recently....and i plugged in my western digital book. when i did i was prompted with "unrecognized usb device". i searched online and found this is a common problem with western digital books. so fuck those dudes. sorry. i need a new storage device badly for backup. anybody got any recommendations on good quality RELIABLE drives?

BadgerBaiter

My Western Digital thing died - never will be going back to them.

It depends on how much you wish to spend really. I would personally be tempted to get a NAS and just fill it up with some F3 or F4 Samsung hard drives - there is a lot more room for expansion with one of those than with a desktop external drive.

I have heard good things about Buffalo and Lacie - however I think you pay more for Lacie as their enclosures tend to be somewhat more 'pretty'.

EarthQuake

I was just looking for an external drive, I wanted something easy that came with simple backup software. After reading a lot of reviews, I just bough a WD Blue 1TB internal drive, and i'll find my own software. Virtually every external drive has a good % of bad reviews, and all the software that comes with them is terrible, or doesn't work on win7 64 etc.

So, unless you really need external, just buy a nice reliable internal drive. - I've never had a problem where all my data fails on multiple drives in my computer.

Avanthera

I have a 500gb simple drive external and a 500gb seagate goflex external.

Ive had the simple drive for about 2 years, and the seagate goflex for about 4 months. I have all of my junk on the simpledrive and use the seagate as backup. No problems, very reliable.
But like any electronic, some are shite and others are fantastic.

Ruz

keizza - was there no software that came with it?. i am sure I had the same message, but got it working.

EarthQuake

Yes and generally, with any external drive, you can take it out of the enclosure and mount it in your computer, if there is data you need to recover from it. Often times the controller goes bad before the drive.

oXYnary

Rosewell makes good enclosures.

monster

I got one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153133&cm_re=usb_sata_hard_drive_adapter-_-17-153-133-_-Product

It makes any SATA drive into an external drive. I've rescued lots of data with this. It's been working great for about 2 years now. (I have the USB 2 version.)

keizza

@ruz.....i dl'd the drivers for it. but if you search "western digital my book usb not recognized"...you'll find LOTS of angry people. some people have said that the issue can be resolved by buying "a shorter usb cable"????? which i will try to get my shit back. but god damn.....are you serious? A SHORTER USB CABLE??? i won't buy from these dudes. and i tell anyone else i know not to.

i'll monitor this thread for a bit. thanks for the responses guys. i appreciate it. i need something soon.

Psyk0

I bought a vantec enclosure and stuck a 1 TB WD caviar black in it. The enclosure supports USB, firewire and e-sata. Mine's plugged in e-sata, works like a charm.

EmAr

I use a Thermal take docking station too. It has eSATA option too. It has been working properly for some months now. Also, it has this nostalgic feeling of inserting game cartridges into 8-bit/16-bit game console

haiddasalami

Man my Western Digitals have been going rock solid for like 5-6 years. Remember though that every harddrive has a chance of mechanical breakdown/ Also I agree with getting an enclosure.

ikken

keizza wrote: »

hello!!!

i got a new computer recently....and i plugged in my western digital book. when i did i was prompted with "unrecognized usb device". i searched online and found this is a common problem with western digital books. so fuck those dudes. sorry. i need a new storage device badly for backup. anybody got any recommendations on good quality RELIABLE drives?

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Starck-Desktop-External-301889KUA/dp/B002SH43MO/ref=sr_1_34?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1301910304&sr=1-34[/ame] - my current external HDD (the 1 TB model, planning to buy another one ltr)
fuck WD

thomasp

i use a couple of [ame=http://www.amazon.com/SATA-Hard-Drive-Case-Enclosure/dp/B001AAVA08/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301912009&sr=8-1]these[/ame] with laptop harddrives. quiet, no special software and no external powersupply required.

seem perfectly fine as backup and media drives to me.

keizza

thanks again dudes...this is a lot of help. i no nothing about computers and their guts. only programs. so this is a big help

CHEERS

Ruz

have you tried this?
http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/usb-device-not-recognized/

Psyk0

Oh and something similar happened with an older USB enclosure with IDE drives...my fix was to disconnect the USB cable from the enclosure before turning on the power, the drive showed up when i hooked the USB back.