hal9000

Here are the choices...

Acom@ Fry's... Maxtor@ Officemax... WD@ Staples

I have a small dilemma... I need to upgrade my current (iTunes library) external hard drive to a larger size and obviously I can't be at three places at once. So out of the three hard drives pictured, I've owned a Maxtor and a Western Digital (different models) but I have never personally used the Acom brand.

I love my external Maxtor, it has run my iTunes library practically 24/7 for the past 3 years without a hitch (knock wood).

The Western Digital I "had" was internal, it died after only 2 years of use, taking everything with it. So I'm still a little gun-shy about buying another WD even though 400GB would be very sweet. Especially at that price.

On to the Acom... Bueller... Bueller? Anybody have a good, bad or other experience with this brand?

Obviously hoping to get a new external HD at these prices and actually surviving the mass crowds at all these stores are two different things. But then again I can't imagine hundreds of people showing up at Staples at 6:00 a.m. like myself just to get a BF deal on a hard drive. Besides aren't there other amazing deals to be had at other stores?

cloudnin

I've had a 300GB OneTouch II for a while now and I've never had a problem with it. I've never heard of Acom, so between that and the $50 mail-in rebate I woudn't even consider that one. I've never owned an external Western Digital hard drive, but I have bought several internal ones over the last few years and I've only had 1 crash (so far) and no problems with their mail-in rebates besides the general hassle. Although the 400GB is tempting, I've read that noise is a major issue with My Books. So personally I'd go with the Maxtor, based on my experience with the OneTouch II and the lack of a mail-in rebate. Good luck with whatever you decide to get.

scarab007

Yeah, Maxtor all the way.

Michael Corvin

the MyBook series is sleek. I've got my eye on the 500 just waiting for a "must buy" deal. So far I haven't run across one. It seems to hover around the $200 mark on sale/with rebates.

I've had a 250gb external Maxtor(non MyBook) for two years and haven't had so much as a hiccup.

Jimmy James

I love the Seagate HD I bought recently, but that's not an option. I'd still go with Maxtor. If I'm not mistaken, Seagate bought them out, right?

I did nearly buy a version of that Maxtor drive until I discovered that the backup software on the Seagate is tons better. Since that isn't a concern, that would be my pick.

hal9000

Wow guys, thanks for your opinions I appreciate it. I think this is pretty much a no brainer based on your responses and the fact that it doesn't have a mail in rebate attached to it, I'm definitely going with the 300GB Maxtor at OfficeMax.

I'm kind of relieved nobody recommended the Acom, although I love Fry's, I despise any type of mail in rebate, especially from them. I've been screwed twice on mail in rebates from Fry's. So I've pretty much sworn to myself I'd never buy a mail in rebate item from them ever again. But for the past 6 months they have had a 300GB Seagate on sale for $150.00 that I was hoping might end up being a BF deal but that doesn't look like it's gonna happen. And yes Jimmy James, from what I recall Segate bought Maxtor a while back.

Thanks for pointing out the noise issue with the Western Digital Cloudnin, I did a little more research and it appears to be a pretty widespread occurrence, not a major issue but noticeable especially when you have the HD on your desk near your computer.

I'll report back tomorrow with my results (fingers crossed). Thanks again!

Patman

Well, Fry's has a $59.99 300GB Maxtor hard drive for sale (limit 2, and has an extra 20GB on the drive as well). Get a $20 external hard drive case and it's a good deal if you get shut out of the $80 320GB external hard drive deal.

I'm hoping to score 2 of the 300GB HD at Fry's tomorrow morning.

hal9000

Well crap, this opens a whole new can of worms. I never thought of doing this but the skeptic in me wants to know... how reliable would it be to buy the 300GB "internal" hard drive and put it into a generic $20 "external" case? A drive is a drive right?

Any pros out there want to lend a little last minute advice.

Jimmy James

I can offer that I haven't heard about problems, and I have known a good number of people who went the DIY route.

My first external was a WD drive. It got bitchy on me once, so I opened it up. The drive was just a normal WD internal drive once I got past the plastic and hidden screws. It seemed like it was glued down, and I didn't force the issue. Instead, I unplugged all the cables, blew them out with compressed air, and plugged them back in. It worked and still works even though I have never trusted it since that episode.

hal9000

MY UPDATE: GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS...

So I wake up at the 4:00 am, arrive at OfficeMax at 4:15 there's a line of at least 30 people already, what the hell, aren't they supposed to be at the Best Buy down the street? I take my place in line, a OfficeMax employee walks down the line asking what people are interested in buying, he tells them where the items are located (pretty much everything is located down one long isle). He gets to me and I ask him how many Maxtor 300GB HD they have, he says he'll go check and see (I'm worried that there are just way too many people in front of me that want this same HD). He comes back and says "we have two Maxtor's", WTF!!! Two!?! OMG, I'm so screwed, 30 people ahead of me, there's no way in hell I'm getting one of these. For the next 40 minutes I try to remain optimistic.

Finally the doors slide open and there's a mad dash to the main sale isle, I can see from a distance a guy picking up one of the two HD's and a lady right beside him about to pick up the last one. By the time I get to the HD's the lady puts it back down on the table and I swoop in, she gives me a look like "umm, excuse me, but I'm not done..." tough, you set it back down and it's fair game now. Whoohooo! I got one...

EEEEeeeeeeeeeerck!!!!!! Stop the presses...

Let me preface this whole situation by saying this Maxtor external HD is supposed to be for my Apple iMac (so I can run my iTunes library that I mentioned previously in this thread).

Well, it turns out (on the package, unlike my other Maxtor HD) there is no indication whatsoever that this Maxtor OneTouch lll supports Mac OSX. I went to the Maxtor website to see if there are any drivers available, I couldn't find anything.

So once again I'm putting a call out to all those computer pros that have helped previously with my decision, is there any hope? Can I still use this drive with my Mac to manage my iTunes library or do I need to return it and get one that specifically states it supports both Windows and Mac?




EDIT: UPDATE OF THE UPDATE...

So it turns out the Maxtor above would have been more of a headache (performance-wise) had I kept it. It was just my luck, in Saturday's Fry's ad they were selling a Seagate 300GB USB/FireWire for $119 only $20 more than what I paid for the Maxtor. I run over to Fry's, it's a complete warzone/zoo, I grab the Seagate and I'm outta there! I return the Maxtor to OfficeMax, check this out, the person that had purchased the other one (remember they only had 2 for sale on BF) returned it too but they had opened theirs, I never opened mine. The cashier had the manager come over and grill me, I guess two people returning the same drive was too much of a coincidence, HA! turns out I might have made a good choice in returning it after all.

So here it is, my new baby, it took under an hour to transfer over 70GB's of music to the Seagate. She's pretty responsive and a lot more quiet (whisper quiet actually) than I was anticipating. LOL, thanks for your input once again!