Buffalo drive station ?

[Jodi Frye]

I'm looking to get an external HD...currently looking at the Buffalo Drive Station brand (still not sure what size I want ). The prices have come down alot in the past couple of years so I may go ahead and actually do this.

Anyone with any experience with this brand ? Basically I'm asking if they are reliable. B&H and NewEgg have some good prices...

[LeeOtsubo]

Hi Jodie,
I noticed this thread a few days ago and started to write a long treatise on disk drive technology but suddenly realized I had gone into my disk drive engineer/college professor mode. Since you haven't had any answers, here's a synopsis of what I wrote previously.

Buffalo's expertise is RAID (redundant arrays of independent [or inexpensive] drives). They develop systems that tie together several drives in a way that increases speed and/or provides fail-safe operation. Such systems were originally developed for financial institutions that stand to lose millions of dollars for every minute of downtime. Other applications include nuclear testing where failure is not an option. Bottom line, as a non-technical, home PC user, you probably don't want to invest the time and money for RAID. So, what's this got to do with your question?

USB external drives are simple technologies that any Taiwanese factory can knock out by the gazillions. Buffalo's systems aren't any better than Wee Be HD in Taipei.

My recommendation is to buy the cheapest unit from a known source with good return policies. Costco comes to mind. I have 3 external HDs on my office network. I built 2 from scratch and the third was a closeout at Staples. Don't put a lot of brain power into this decision, just buy it and move on.

Keep in mind that USB2.0 is much slower than an internal drive. It's best for near-line data storage. You don't want to offload working files to an external HD. If you want to speed up your PC, you're better off with a bigger, faster internal drive. For a desktop PC, a SATA controller with a fast SATA drive is the best bet. You can get a 100GB SATA drive and controller for about about $150. HTH.

[NMarti]

Jodi
Office Max near me this week has a 250 gb on sale for $120. It's USB and it is a Seagate brand. They do sell online so I'd check there too, although their online prices usually vary from the store prices by a few dollars.

[Jodi Frye]

Hey Lee0.. thanks for the extensive info. Indeed i just wanted it for data storage...not to run programs from. Tho I would want to use it as a system back up as well so not really sure what size i should get. I got more reading to do. Thanks again.

Thanks Nancy, Seagate is in fact a ' popular ' brand and the prices do tend to be higher on those...I guess this is what made me about the 'Buffalo' brand ...cheaper but is it reliable ? Anyways, thanks for posting that...I'll have to do more research....that's just how i am...hate to leap and then look ;)

[Tom K]

Hi Jodi;

My opinion is that most of the hardware is pretty good. To me the most
important part is the software that comes with it.. Most of us are not
computer geeks, we are picture takers who want backup capabilities
with the least fuss.. Questions to answer are.. Is it easy to install,
is it easy to configure, and last but not least - god forbid - if you actually
have to use the data will the reload process work?

Maybe Lee has thoughts on the importance of the software..

Good luck Tom :)

[LeeOtsubo]

if you plan to use the external HD for backup, my advice is to stay with full volume b/u where your entire disk is copied to the external. There are other forms of b/u such as differential or incremental and, while they sound good in theory, are way too much hassle for most home users.

There are lots of good backup programs available so what comes bundled isn't always meaningful since you can't really test it before you buy unless they have a free trial version on the Web. HTH.

[johnfranklin]

Anyone with any experience with this brand ? Basically I'm asking if they are reliable. B&H and NewEgg have some good prices...

PCWorld magazine recently reviewed LARGE External drive arrays (1 terrabyte) systems, Buffalo was mentioned. Their website is open to anyone: www.pcworld.com I'm sure you could find more infomation there than you could digest in a month. The Seagate drives are notoriouosly quiet! Also they have returned to a 5 year warranty. I can only speak with certainty about this on their internal drives. As to where to buy, at present Newegg.com enjoys the best reputation in the online computer sales industry. They are also thought of more highly thought of than even most brick & mortar stores. One of their warehouses is in New Jersey, I live in Philly and lowly UPS ground is likely overnight service for me. I've dealt with them only a couple of times but these experiences were more than satisfactory. B&H has a good rep but I,ve always thought of them as a camera store. Adorama is my camera store of choice and my sales guy always treated me very well, never a problem. Best Buy is doing away with mail in rebates and giving deep discounts directly, so that WHEN, AND ONLY WHEN, something is on on sale there, the prices can be very good and you won't have your money tied up for months. You could buy the Thanksgiving Day Paper, cruise the walk-in electronic stores websites Thanksgiving day and then hit the ground running Black Friday morning.

[MarieBoyer]

Jodi:
I am in the market for the same. I went to a computer expert locally whom I know and trust and I asked him what brand he would recommend. He said all the top names are almost indistinguishable (Maxtor, Seagate, LaCie, Western Digital, etc...), with the exception of the warranty. I asked about some cheapies I had seen on techbargains.com ("Fantom" and "Simple Tech") and he said to stay away from lesser known brands.

He said you cannot go wrong these days, so buy the one with the best warranty.

I have heard of Buffalo Drive Station but nothing specific.

I have been checking out techbargains.com every morning lately and have seen some real deals.

Also, I know Colleen just bought a Maxtor 300 gig for around $100-130 at Costco. I believe you can get this size Maxtor at Best Buy and Staples these days too.