Re: [PLUG] Hardware upgrade question

[Art Alexion <art.alexion@gmail.com>]

On Oct 18, 2011 3:34 PM, "Lee H. Marzke" <lee@marzke.net> wrote:
>
> I've had many of these external USB enclosures have their hard disk fail
> at client sites or  at my house.   ( 2 different manufacturers )  I think all
> these low cost devices USB are unreliable,  and poor cooling the HD is the
> likely a major factor with the tiny internal fan.
>
> There are many external eSATA enclosures and eSATA cards that
> use generic drives that you might investigate.   eSATA is something like
> 6X faster raw data rate than USB 2
>

Thanks, Lee. I am using the firewire interface; esata is not an option. I ended up re-evaluating the situation and decided to go with a new external appliance which uses firewire 800. The old enclosure was firewire 400. Ironically, I have three Iomega/Western Digital firewire and one USB of the same brands and the only one threatening to go is the newer USB. In corroboration with what you point out the firewire appliances have bigger enclosures and fans. I think they have more efficient sleep modes as well which probably helps to preserve them, too.

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