Help me make a choice .

[majithia23]

@beer

frankly speaking , i am yet to try a USB 3.0 interface .

but its advertised that 3.0 is about 10x times faster than 2.0 ,

but for clarity purposes ,

this is under the theoretically best ideal conditions , which practically are never possible .

so i dont think , its exactly 10x faster ,

but from the reviews i have seen , its mostly 2x or 3x more faster .

still it is twice as fast ... !

but it would be good if some one who tried 3.0 could shed some light ....

[beer]

hahaha sorry man... i forgot you are using the 2.0 interface

enjoy your new disk!

[majithia23]

ok , one more thing mates ...

which is the safest n best Drive Partitioning n Management software ..?

i use the default windows disk management , but not too happy with it ..

it converted my basic partition to dynamic while simply partitioning it and this caused a whole lot of other problems ...

[DKT27]

The most famous disk partitioning software out there is GParted. ;)

[beer]

ok , one more thing mates ...

which is the safest n best Drive Partitioning n Management software ..?

i use the default windows disk management , but not too happy with it ..

it converted my basic partition to dynamic while simply partitioning it and this caused a whole lot of other problems ...

Is there a hidden partition or an existing partition with manufacturer's software on the drive? If there are and you don't need them, then try deleting all existing partitions(I always do) and repartition the drive again. Another thing is make sure the account has admin rights.

I have always used Windows Disk Management to partition my disks, and the only time I had problems was when there were existing manufacturer's software/partitions on the drive.

[majithia23]

@D

of course Gpart is the best .

i use it for some troubleshooting disks and when simple tools fail .

looking for something simple , easy n safe .

know there are some well known like the easeus n paragon ,

but wanted some hands on experience from members as to what is the best .

@beer

no , there aint any hidden partitions on the drive .

its a bare bone all clean piece of metal ready for you to use the way you want . !

and this is the reason i dint go for the Passport WD edition .

it reportedly has an obnoxious hidden partition on it , that refuses to go , no matter what you try ...

me too always worked with the default Windows tool ,

but wanted to try some thing else ....

[beer]

@D

of course Gpart is the best .

i use it for some troubleshooting disks and when simple tools fail .

looking for something simple , easy n safe .

know there are some well known like the easeus n paragon ,

but wanted some hands on experience from members as to what is the best .

@beer

no , there aint any hidden partitions on the drive .

its a bare bone all clean piece of metal ready for you to use the way you want . !

and this is the reason i dint go for the Passport WD edition .

it reportedly has an obnoxious hidden partition on it , that refuses to go , no matter what you try ...

me too always worked with the default Windows tool ,

but wanted to try some thing else ....

I have one more suggestion. Try booting from a Windows Installation disc and try deleting the hidden partition from there.

[LeetPirate]

Don't count out Buffalo. Buffalo is a good brand in terms of the product they offer, the controller is high performance, the drive itself may be seagate or western digital since Buffalo does not make hdd but their enclosures are of the top performers.

[majithia23]

I have one more suggestion. Try booting from a Windows Installation disc and try deleting the hidden partition from there.

no no . you got me wrong beer .

there aint any hidden partitions on this drive .

its all clean .

if you are mentioning this trick for some other drives i might encounter with hidden partitions ,

i ll keep it in mind .. ;)

Don't count out Buffalo. Buffalo is a good brand in terms of the product they offer, the controller is high performance, the drive itself may be seagate or western digital since Buffalo does not make hdd but their enclosures are of the top performers.

thanks for the response Leet .

but it came a lil late .

i already bought a WD Elements drive .

i knew Buffalo is a worthy brand , but wasnt sure about its HDDs , so dint go for it . and the majority in the thread recommended WD , so went for it .

but if you say its a good one , then it should be .

i ll keep it in mind . may be the next time i buy an HDD ;)

[beer]

Alrighty, I think I drank a little too many beers earlier and didn't read your reply correctly.

LOL

[LeetPirate]

Sorry I came to the party too late but no worries, WD is excellent choice my friend. I have a first edition piano black gloss WD passport drive and it is still going strong. :)

[Olexijl]

@majithia...

USB 3.0 needs a special driver for Windows to ensure enabling the maximum speed. My motherboard has 2 USB 3.0 things on back and i had to install USB 3.0 driver to enable them...

[majithia23]

Alrighty, I think I drank a little too many beers earlier and didn't read your reply correctly.

LOL

the bartender himself is going drunk ..

Lawd have mercy on this bar ... !

:P

Sorry I came to the party too late but no worries, WD is excellent choice my friend. I have a first edition piano black gloss WD passport drive and it is still going strong. :)

no probs Leet .. ! :)

and thanks for the reassurance on WD .

if i may ask , how long has it been when you purchased your WD drive . ?

@majithia...

USB 3.0 needs a special driver for Windows to ensure enabling the maximum speed. My motherboard has 2 USB 3.0 things on back and i had to install USB 3.0 driver to enable them...

thanks for the heads up Olexiji .

no 3.0 interface atm ,

might be some time soon . !

and doesnt Windows itself download the necessary drivers from its repository , ?

i mean do we have to ourselves download this driver ..?

[majithia23]

i have been playing around with this new drive all day and i have noticed , its quite fast .

data transfer speeds from a 2.0 interface to the WD drive reached a max speeds of about 22 to 25 Mbps and a minimum of about 9 Mbps , with an average of about 12 Mbps .

compared with >>

-- to a USB drive , reached a max of about only 7-8 Mbps

-- internal HDD transfers at max of about 12 - 13 Mbps

these are the stats on my PC and all transfers done with Teracopy .

i dont know if these are normal or not , but if we compare the transfer rates among each other on the same system , then the external HDD transfers are fast for sure . ! :yes:

i wonder if its because the drive is all new at the moment .. ?

:think:

any idea guys .. ?

[DKT27]

You mean MB/s? :)

My internal HDD, as far as I remember, is about 40 to 45 MB/s. Sata 3Gb/s interface.

[LeetPirate]

no probs Leet .. ! :)

and thanks for the reassurance on WD .

if i may ask , how long has it been when you purchased your WD drive . ?

Since early 2007. It's the older one that's shaped like this.

[majithia23]

You mean MB/s? :) My internal HDD, as far as I remember, is about 40 to 45 MB/s. Sata 3Gb/s interface.

ahh ... of course MB/s ... !

and seriously you get these speeds on your media ??

coz , thats about the perfect theoretically max speeds possible that you can get on either of the media !

Since early 2007. It's the older one that's shaped like this.

cool ..

its slimmer than my present Elements .

and do these portable HDDs have a certain shelf life ,

i mean decreased life or chance of failure with time , like a laptop will usually falter in about a 5-7 years . ( for most builds . unless if an HP , it would fail in less than 2 years !! . )

and one more thing ,

do i need to register my drive with WD for warranty purposes , if ever the need arises to avail it . ?

the shop keeper said , i just need the drive serial number to let WD know of it and nothing else . not even proof of sale .

and one of my friend says get it registered . ??

[LeetPirate]

In theory since they are not permanently connected they work for less hours and should last longer. But I also had a seagate 1TB desktop size external drive that first came with a firmware bug that corrupted all the data on it. I updated the firmware to fix the issue and it worked for a while but a year later it decided to die. The Seagate was much younger than my WD so sometimes things go against our expectations.

You can register your WD if you want, I'm not sure if they start counting the warranty from their recorded date of manufacture or from the date you purchased it. I believe your shopkeeper is right, all you need is the serial number.

[Olexijl]

1. To be able to use USB 3.0, the motherboard with built-in USB 3.0 support is needed. You can buy one, it stands on the packaging.

2. The motherboard has usually 2 USB 3.0 ports, they are usually in blue colour inside, unlike 2.0 which has another colour.

3. To enable full speed a driver has to be installed. It comes via CD with the board, something like "USB 3.0 driver" on CD-interface. This driver starts on every Windows startup, and if something is pulled in the ports, it will be recognized as USB 3.0 device. That has nothing to do with internal recognition, what device exactly is pulled in (HDD driver model etc.).

PS: my name is OlexijL , which is logged here as Olexijl, not Olexiji

[DKT27]

You mean MB/s? :)

My internal HDD, as far as I remember, is about 40 to 45 MB/s. Sata 3Gb/s interface.

ahh ... of course MB/s ... !

and seriously you get these speeds on your media ??

coz , thats about the perfect theoretically max speeds possible that you can get on either of the media !

Well, that's what TeraCopy says. I tried transferring an ISO from my 4th partition to the 5th partition and it seemed that TeraCopy wasn't lying. Was swift. :)

I don't quite remember (again :P) , but my USB 2.0 pendrive speeds are of 14 MB/s. Kingston 8GB.

@Olexijl: I thought one can install a PCI card to have USB 3.0 if the motherboard doesn't support it.

[majithia23]

In theory since they are not permanently connected they work for less hours and should last longer. But I also had a seagate 1TB desktop size external drive that first came with a firmware bug that corrupted all the data on it. I updated the firmware to fix the issue and it worked for a while but a year later it decided to die. The Seagate was much younger than my WD so sometimes things go against our expectations.

You can register your WD if you want, I'm not sure if they start counting the warranty from their recorded date of manufacture or from the date you purchased it. I believe your shopkeeper is right, all you need is the serial number.

of course , you never know . ideally and practically , two ends of the same spectrum ! ....

and when it died , dint the Seagate cover your product under warranty ?

and yes the Warranty is counted from the date of manufacture .

Nov 2011 for this drive . produce of Malaysia .

1. To be able to use USB 3.0, the motherboard with built-in USB 3.0 support is needed. You can buy one, it stands on the packaging.

2. The motherboard has usually 2 USB 3.0 ports, they are usually in blue colour inside, unlike 2.0 which has another colour.

3. To enable full speed a driver has to be installed. It comes via CD with the board, something like "USB 3.0 driver" on CD-interface. This driver starts on every Windows startup, and if something is pulled in the ports, it will be recognized as USB 3.0 device. That has nothing to do with internal recognition, what device exactly is pulled in (HDD driver model etc.).

PS: my name is OlexijL , which is logged here as Olexijl, not Olexiji

thanks for the info OlexijL . i ll keep it in mind .

and

sorry for the typo .. :)

Well, that's what TeraCopy says. I tried transferring an ISO from my 4th partition to the 5th partition and it seemed that TeraCopy wasn't lying. Was swift. :)

I don't quite remember (again :P) , but my USB 2.0 pendrive speeds are of 14 MB/s. Kingston 8GB.

@Olexijl: I thought one can install a PCI card to have USB 3.0 if the motherboard doesn't support it.

cool . thats good ...

it has to be most likely the faster processor , that enables faster transfers .

i think so ..

or any ither reason ?

is your HDD 7200 rpm with a bigger cache ?

my pendrive is an HP 8 gb . and the max speeds reached are about 7 - 8 MB/s .

and yes there are cards available for about a Rs1500 ( $30 ) , with which you can add 3.0 support to your existing laptop hardware . thet plug into the Data card slot .

must be available for Desktops too ..

[LeetPirate]

and when it died , dint the Seagate cover your product under warranty ?

Seagate warranty is horse crap. First I would have had to ship back the drive to them at my expense in an approved packaging. This means I either had to get back the original packaging or pay them to send me some approved packaging. ROFL yes you heard it right. I would have had to pay them 15-20USD to send me an empty box with some padding so I could then pay for a trackable shipping method to deliver my dead hdd to them. Bubble wrapping or a regular padded fedex box wasn't good enough for them. That is what I call a shitty company that I will never support in future. I hope they have changed their ways, else I could never advise anyone to buy anything from them. That Seagate warranty was one that wasn't worth using.

[majithia23]

and when it died , dint the Seagate cover your product under warranty ?

Seagate warranty is horse crap. First I would have had to ship back the drive to them at my expense in an approved packaging. This means I either had to get back the original packaging or pay them to send me some approved packaging. ROFL yes you heard it right. I would have had to pay them 15-20USD to send me an empty box with some padding so I could then pay for a trackable shipping method to deliver my dead hdd to them. Bubble wrapping or a regular padded fedex box wasn't good enough for them. That is what I call a shitty company that I will never support in future. I hope they have changed their ways, else I could never advise anyone to buy anything from them. That Seagate warranty was one that wasn't worth using.

wtf ! :o

i mean seriously , this is utter non sense . crap .....

on the other hand , i have read too , and also the shopkeeper from whom i got this drive also recommended me WD because it has a better warranty policy .

he even told me , that WD would even pick up the drive from my residence if i tell them it has faltered .

dont know if thats true ...

[Olexijl]

PCI card with USB 3.0 support is indeed another solution. However i prefer new motherboard, because i do not like the idea to use a PCI slot for just this.

[DKT27]

@majithia23: My drive description. I'm only on desktop, and I guess you are talking about laptop, so that could make a difference.

I see ebay having one you are mentioning.

@Olexijl: Good point there. It would be wasting a good PCI-E slot. But like my motherboard, where there's two PCI-E slots (one at x16 [graphics card inserted] and one at x4) with no USB 3.0, if USB 3.0 devices take over from 2.x then it will be quite useful in those cases. :)