External Hard Drives Reviews

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External Hard Drives Reviews Reviewed
Review Ratings	Citation	CS Credibility Rating	External Hard Drives Ratings Comments on Reviews
1. Extreme Tech.com	Storage Joel Durham Jr., Loyd Case As of Nov. 2007		ExtremeTech's reviews are outstanding in all regards. Testing is thorough, reviews cover all important considerations and ratings are appropriate. In an August 22 roundup review, Joel Durham directly compares five eSATA external hard drives. Although Seagate and Western Digital drives fare best in most reviews, they come in last here. Durham says, "In their zeal to reduce power usage and noise, these drives are also slower than the rest." The lesser-known Cavalry CAXM37500 is the best of the batch. ExtremeTech also reviews individual drives and conducts roundup reviews of other closely related types of drives, including NAS boxes.
2. Register Hardware.co.uk	Latest Reviews: Storage Tony Smith, Rob Kerr As of Nov. 2007		U.K. website Register Hardware's reviews are refreshingly cynical about marketing hype and fluffy features. The site frequently reviews a full variety of consumer and small business external storage devices, including hard drives, biometric hard drives and network-attached storage boxes. Testing is competent and appropriate. Reviews would benefit from more direct comparisons, but all products are carefully positioned and the range of ratings is broad. Ratings are consistent with reviewer comments, while reviewer biases toward a product are clearly not factored into ratings.
3. Tom’s Hardware Guide	2.5" External HDD Spring Fever Patrick Schmid, Achim Roos Apr. 12, 2007		Tom's Hardware compares three 2.5-inch portable hard drives in this roundup review. Testing and evaluation are very thorough. The drives are benchmarked against more than 20 alternatives. The conclusion weighs all important buying considerations. Although the three products are different enough that they don't have to be considered to be direct competitors, the Seagate FreeAgent Go 160 GB has the most functionality. The Toshiba USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive 160 GB is the company's first foray into portable storage, but it is the most conventional of the three products. It includes backup software, which the Seagate lacks.

External Hard Drives Reviews above this line are significantly better than reviews below.

Review Ratings	Citation	CS Credibility Rating	External Hard Drives Ratings Comments on Reviews

4. XBitLabs.com	Storage Aleksey Meyev As of Nov. 2007		X-bit Labs is a prolific reviewer of external hard drives. Testing is incredibly comprehensive, but overly focused on speed. Aleksey Meyev reports that USB 2.0 and FireWire are limiting bottlenecks that decrease the maximum throughput speeds between computers and external hard drives. As a result, he measures few performance differences. The reviews are balanced and decisive, but products aren't rated or ranked. Still, Meyev usually manages to pick a winner in occasional head-to-head roundups of multiple drives. He also identifies the 250 GB Western Digital Passport mobile hard drive as an excellent performer with the highest capacity for a 2.5-inch hard drive.
5. Tom’s Hardware Guide	500 GB External Drives Tested Patrick Schmid, Achim Roos Aug. 17, 2007		In this roundup review, Tom's Hardware compares four 500 GB external hard drives: two from Western Digital, and one each from LaCie and Wiebetech. Testing and evaluation are superb; the four drives are benchmarked against 20 competitors. The conclusion decisively asserts that you should only consider drives with eSATA interfaces. However, the writers are wishy-washy about which drive to choose. They weigh the pros and cons of each, and express a slight preference for the LaCie d2 Quadra. A key reason is that the drive has four interfaces. However, that contradicts their recommendation to use eSATA, and you can only use one interface on the LaCie drive at a time.
6. PC Magazine >> Details/Subscribe	Storage Devices Joel Santo Domingo As of Nov. 2007		PC Magazine regularly tests new hard drives, including a dozen so far this year. Each receives a rating. Testing and evaluation are competent, but far less comprehensive than testing and evaluation conducted by some other reviewers. Five hard drives receive an Editor's Choice designation this year, but most fit into different categories (e.g. portable, NAS, Mac-only). Reviews are productively comparative, and Joel Santo Domingo identifies the best choices for each type of product. One negative is that the reviews do not address some key buying considerations, such as noise and heat/projected reliability.
7. Benchmark	Search Keyword external hard drive Olin Coles As of Nov. 2007		Benchmark Reviews both reviews products and links to other reviews. Site navigation is very awkward, but when you can find the in-house reviews, they are worth reading. Comparisons are often just general, and Olin Coles frequently feels compelled to apologize for sounding like a salesman. Otherwise, reviews incorporate solid testing, a balanced approach and good context. They conclude with pro/con lists and overall ratings, as well as subcategory ratings for presentation, appearance, construction, functionality and value. The budget D-Link DNS-323 SATA RAID Gigabit NAS is "a solid network storage device with plenty of performance and functionality for your dollar."
8. Tom’s Hardware Guide	Is On-The-Go Storage Ready for Primetime? Marcel Binder Aug. 15, 2007		This lengthy article evaluates high-capacity portable backup drives, and includes tests and evaluation of the Startech Infosafe SATCASE250TG and Thecus Yes Nano N1050. These drives are particularly marketed for transferring data (images) from memory cards while "on the go." Marcel Binder concludes that the drives work satisfactorily, but slowly, when attached to PCs, and that functionality is as advertised. In spite of that, he says the battery life is inadequate for practical use in the field. Carrying more memory cards makes more sense than carrying extra batteries, he believes.
9. Bit-tech.net	Hardware Tim Smalley, Richard Swinburne As of Nov. 2007		Bit-tech.net's reviews are superb. They are balanced and comparative, and fully document and illustrate detailed testing. Some reviews conclude with overall ratings and subcategory ratings for features, performance, build quality, software and value, but other reviews do not. Reviewers carefully weigh considerations to give readers an excellent idea of whether each product fits their needs. Storage product reviews are infrequent, with the most recent articles dating to this past February and December. That and the fact that no reviewer is dedicated to reviewing drives results in a limited frame of reference. The Seagate 160 GB 2.5-inch portable hard disk is recommended.
10. BigBruin.com	Storage Category Michael Fiss, Jason Kohrs As of Nov. 2007		This tech news and reviews website primarily focuses on external hard drive enclosures. Any hard drive(s) can be put into an enclosure to create an external device. The site also occasionally reviews external hard drives. Reviews are very good in most regards, but comparisons are mostly limited to benchmark performance tests. Ratings aren't numerical or explained, but distinctions are somewhat evident. BigBruin reviewers often evaluate heat and noise, two major concerns that are inadequately covered in other reviews. No current external hard drive is "Highly Recommended," but the Western Digital Scorpio 250 GB 2.5-inch SATA hard drive is highly recommended for putting into an enclosure.
11. I4U.com	Hard Drive Reviews Shane McGlaun As of Nov. 2007		Shane McGlaun regularly reviews hard drives for I4U.com and other websites. His reviews are thorough, supported by solid testing and balanced. Each review concludes with a list of pros and cons and a single rating. However, specific product comparisons are rare and the ratings have little meaning. Recently reviewed drives are all rated 8.5/10, except for one rated 8/10. Those include the Seagate 500 GB eSATA external hard drive, Maxtor Shared Storage II 1 TB external hard drive and Toshiba USB 2.0 200 GB external hard drive.
12. ClubOverclocker.com	Hard drives Editors of ClubOverclocker.com As of Nov. 2007		Club Overclocker regularly reviews external hard drives. Drives are compared in benchmark tests, and each drive is given a subcategory rating for innovation, performance, quality, stability, software/drivers and value, as well as an overall rating. Everything reviewed in the past few years is recommended, and all ratings are high. In fairness to Club Overclocker, reviewed products are made by manufacturers that consistently receive high ratings elsewhere for premier products. As hard drives are not overclocked, the overclocking -- or even gaming -- perspective doesn't color these reviews.
13. EverythingUSB.com	External Hard Drives - USB, FireWire R. Scott Clark As of Nov. 2007		Everything USB's reviews are always excellently and appropriately illustrated. Graphics of performance tests are published along with screen shots of backup software. The reviews are thorough and balanced. However, they are never comparative and products aren't rated or ranked. In spite of that shortcoming, reviews are usually conclusive enough to help readers decide whether to buy individual products. In addition, one product stands out as the best if it fits your needs and budget. Scott Clark says the Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750 GB external hard drive has great speed, the best and most user-friendly backup software and a five-year warranty.

External Hard Drives Reviews above this line are significantly better than reviews below.

Review Ratings	Citation	CS Credibility Rating	External Hard Drives Ratings Comments on Reviews

14. PC World >> Details/Subscribe	Top 10 External Hard Drives Melissa Perenson Nov. 16, 2007		PC World charts and ranks ten previously reviewed external hard drives. The list includes some brands that aren't widely known or distributed. Unlike some other PC World reports, the reviews here are mostly limited to charted data or opinion. A category score that encompasses factors such as ease of setup and use, and quality of bundled software, is not very helpful without explanation. Testing is good, but the ratings are too heavily based on superficial considerations such as design, while overlooking key considerations such as noise. The magazine's strength is the frame of reference created by reviewing at least as many hard drives as any other reviewer. The Apricorn EZ Bus Desktop SATA, LaCie Quadra and SimpleTech Duo Pro drives share the highest score.
15. PC World >> Details/Subscribe	Top 5 Network Attached Storage Devices Narasu Rebbapragada July 18, 2007		PC World charts and ranks five previously reviewed network-attached drives. The reviews have the same strengths and weakness as the magazine's list of Top 10 External Hard Drives (see above). Documentation is minimal. Scores provide the only basis for comparison, and they aren't easy to decipher. Once you've determined which product or products meet your needs, PC World's opinions and test results are worth checking, but the magazine is too uninformative to be a primary review source. The NetGear ReadyNAS NV+ is selected as a Best Buy.
16. CNet.com	Untitled Editors of CNet.com As of Nov. 2007		CNet reviews about one external drive per month. The short reviews are improving, as aesthetics and features no longer consume the first 90 percent of review copy. Still, the reviews struggle to be relevant. Some comparisons are good, but some reviewers don't seem to grasp the key buying considerations. Testing is still shallow, but the recent addition of benchmark comparisons is a significant improvement. All products receive a single rating, but no drive reviewed in the past year is selected as an Editor's Choice. The Seagate FreeAgent Pro earns the highest rating.
17. MaximumPC.com	Backup Drives/Hard Drives Josh Norem, David Murphy As of Nov. 2007		MaximumPC reviews an average of one external hard drive in every other monthly issue. Reviews are all of higher-end products. The short -- but substantive -- reviews are exceptionally balanced and adequately address the appropriate buying considerations and concerns. However, the magazine fails to provide a method of distinguishing one product from another. Individual reviews lack direct comparisons, and all hard drives reviewed since May 2006 are rated 8/10 or 9/10. Because of that, MaximumPC's reviews are only useful as a secondary resource.
18. Tom’s Hardware Guide	Untitled Editors of Tom's Hardware As of Nov. 2007		In addition to the roundup articles listed above, Tom's Hardware regularly reviews new external hard drives. While many are comprehensive reviews, others are just cursory introductions. Testing in the better reviews is outstanding and detailed performance results are charted. For example, in the review of the Apricorn Aegis Mini 60 GB, benchmark charts compare the drive with 14 alternatives. However, other than data-transfer-rate tests, products are not compared. Tom's doesn't rate products, and conclusions don't always add up to buy or don't-buy recommendations. The roundup reviews are much more useful in that regard. In individual reviews, the Western Digital My Book Pro Edition stands out as a top product.
19. Hexus.net	Mass Storage List Steve Kerrison As of Nov. 2007		U.K. enthusiast website Hexus.net periodically reviews high-end external storage products, primarily NAS (network-attached storage) devices. The reviews are competent and backed by testing, but they are hard to read and relevance is debatable. The products reviewed here are well beyond the needs of consumers and perhaps many small businesses as well. Furthermore, performance evaluation may be arbitrary, as users can usually choose which hard drives to install in a NAS unit. The evaluation done by Hexus is worthwhile, but reviews are not comparative, and all products apparently receive awards.
20. Consumer Reports >> Details/Subscribe	Backup Drives Editors of Consumer Reports Sept. 2006		In this older review, Consumer Reports tests six external hard drives and four NAS devices. The review is mostly limited to charted objective and subjective data, however, and ratings are based mainly on software. Major concerns such as reliability, noise and ease-of-use aren't addressed. The review doesn't even mention the existence of eSATA drives, and backup speed is the only performance measurement. That's a limitation for consumers who may want to run software or play media from an external drive. An accompanying article emphasizes the importance of a backup strategy.
21. XBitLabs.com	Ultra-Small Hard Disk Drives: Does It Make Sense? Aleksey Meyev Aug. 29, 2007		In this article, Aleksey Meyev notes that the 8 GB Seagate Pocket Drive has no direct competitor yet, so he compares it with an 8 GB Corsair Flash Voyager USB flash drive. In one test, the flash drive writes almost twice as fast and reads three times faster. Other tests are just as decisive in favor of the flash drive. Meyev concludes that since hard drives have no benefits that flash drives lack, one-inch external hard drives such as the Seagate Pocket Drive have no market niche.

External Hard Drives Reviews above this line are significantly better than reviews below.

Review Ratings	Citation	CS Credibility Rating	External Hard Drives Ratings Comments on Reviews

22. Newegg.com	External Hard Drives Contributors to Newegg.com As of Nov. 2007		This retail site allows users to review products. Because Newegg sells to computer builders, user reviewers are more knowledgeable than on some other sites. In general, Seagate and Western Digital products have the highest satisfaction, but the 750 GB Seagate FreeAgent Pro is an exception. Nearly half of owners give the lowest rating to the Maxtor OneTouch III. Cavalry drives also prompt considerable unhappiness. Product failure and noise are very common complaints. This is a good site to visit when you have your choices narrowed.
23. Amazon.com	External Hard Drives Contributors to Amazon.com As of Nov. 2007		Few owners have significant experience with external hard drives, so user reviews are primarily useful for identifying common problems. The Amazon website integrates defunct and current products, and you must click on an individual products in a lengthy list to find out how many reviews the product has. That means this site is only useful for researching specific products once you've narrowed your search to a few. All drives with significant numbers of reviews receive complaints, mainly for drive failure.
24. PriceGrabber.com	Hard Drive Reviews Contributors to PriceGrabber.com As of Nov. 2007		This shopping site allows visitors to review products. Customers are not likely to have much, if any, basis for comparison in this product category. Site users can sort drives by popularity or average rating. However, internal and external hard drives are lumped, and as you might expect, internal drives dominate sales. The Western Digital My Book Essential Edition External 160 GB Hard Drive and Cavalry CAUE37500 External 500 GB Hard Drive have the highest average ratings and lots of reviews at the time of our visit. LaCie drives have higher percentages of unhappy customers.
25. ITReviews.co.uk	Disk Drive Review Editors of ITReviews.co.uk As of Nov. 2007		On this site, each product is examined for its unique strengths and weaknesses, but the amount of actual testing is unclear. Reviews are balanced and occasionally cover factors not addressed in other reviews. Reviews are also substantive, in spite of their short length. The shortcoming is minimal testing and the absence of ratings. Some products earn recommended awards, including one current drive: the Seagate FreeAgent Pro. Other sources with weaker reviews are more valuable because they include a method of comparison.
26. CoolTechZone.com	Storage Reviews Gundeep Hora As of Nov. 2007		CoolTechZone reviews external hard drives and related products fairly often. Although the reviews are nicely balanced, they are mediocre from the standpoint of helping a reader who is starting from scratch to make a buying decision. Comparisons are infrequent and products aren't rated or ranked. Speed test results are reported, but the reviews ignore major considerations like noise and projected reliability. Setup and usage are explained, but Gundeep Hora does not help readers sort through the confusing array of external data storage products. A couple of Seagate solutions are highly recommended, but Hora identifies no product as the best in its class.
27. Small Business Computing.com	Special Report on Storage Basics Joseph Moran As of Nov. 2007		Joseph Moran reviews external storage solutions on a regular basis. Reviews are informative and somewhat evaluative. Testing does not include performance measurement. His focus on features and explanations of use are balanced, yet readers need to know more about what Moran doesn't address, especially alternatives to the product under review.

External Hard Drives Reviews above this line are significantly better than reviews below.

Review Ratings	Citation	CS Credibility Rating	External Hard Drives Ratings Comments on Reviews

28. XYZ Computing >> Details/Subscribe	Storage Sal Cangeloso As of Nov. 2007		XYZ Computing reviews only one current external hard drive: the ultra-compact, portable Western Digital 6 GB Passport pocket drive. The review is already out-of-date, as Sal Cangeloso identifies the competition as USB flash drives, which had no capacity greater than 4 GB at that time.