I wouldn't trust a regularly used external hard drive after 3 years. Hard drives really shouldn't be moved around, they aren't a long term backup solution, but can be a fine extra offsite backup option or used to transfer files without the internet.
If you have a hard drive it's gonna die eventually, it's a mechanical device. Trust me, I've had to return hundreds of every hard drive brand imaginable. Buy harddrives based on their phone support and warranty :-P
Honestly you should feel ashamed for trusting any work to a USB hard drive. Back your shit up if its important, on multiple sources, and for christ sake do not keep your work on a USB hard drive.
It appears I have just lost all of my 3D work I'd done in the past 4 years. Went online, and apparently it is a common problem with Western Digital external Hard Drives, particularly the MyBook. :/ So... uhhhh yeh, don't buy this PoS. I lost my stuff. oh well, at least I have my webpage up. :[
Back your stuff up on every hard drive you own. Have two in your computer? or have two computers? put it on both...Back your main work pieces up on your web server if you own a website. Then put stuff on your portable hard drive. Having all your stuff in just one location is asking for it...I don't know how you would sleep…
and yea.. dual raids are a easy way to backup very safely stuff like NETGEAR SC101 Storage Central or Iomega Storcenter Network Hard Drive access over LAN or eSATA
Both my 500 gig mybook and my 160 gig passport shit out on me... I shoulda learned after the passport but didn't realize how epic of a fail WD was (though obviously you either get a great drive or one that dies after 3-6 months). 1 TB fantom drives are on sale right now though, very tempting:…
you sure it's the hardrive or just the enclosure? like the guys have said, pull that shit apart and put it into your pc to see if the drive still works. I've had 5 hard drive enclosures and the powersupplies or chips connecting the power die long before the drive.
I had a catastrophic drive failure about 12 years ago, and still won't buy Maxtor hard drives. Hate hate hate. Anyway, rather than just archive via my own hard disks or DVD-R, I pay about $12/month for a web host with 500gb of space and also back up everything there. They make weekly backups, and store their backups…
TRUTH !!!!!!!!! i have at least 1 hard drive die on me every year all my friends for the past 10 years have be going on and on and on about how maxtor is the most reliable manufacturer so about 90% of the the hard drives i owned where maxtor and guess what 90% of the ones that died on me where maxtor too there is no trust…