Rugged HDD's

[Morgo]

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking of buying some portable HDD's to backup photos to while out and about or away. These rugged HDD's some promising, has anyone used them before?

The one I'm currently looking at is the LaCie
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058VIWTM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2HX2MRG96ONB3

[Tannin]

Cheers Morgo.

You could try one of these: http://redhill.net.au/d/134.php :lol:

Jokes aside, to the best of my knowledge, there is no such thing as a "rugged" hard drive these days, insofar as drives are mass produced in vast numbers by only four manufacturers, all with very similar one-size-fits-all products. The actual drive inside your external casing, in other words, will be a stock standard Seagate, Hitachi, WD, or Toshiba model, bought in by the company making the external case and putting their brand on it.

With that said, modern laptop drives (like this one) are incredibly tough and withstand abuse in a way that is still quite unbelievable to this 35-year industry veteran. By putting that remarkably tough little modern drive in a thick, rubberised casing, it will be tougher again. Remember, though, that small, relatively light objects experience very, very high gee forces from even trivial-seeming bumps in a way that larger objects do not - so treat it like eggs anyway!

There can be no great harm in the "ruggedised" model as opposed to any other external drive, but be aware that (so far as shock is concerned) it can offer you nothing at all that you can't achieve yourself as well or even better by putting any other drive in a rubberised casing or wrapping it in foam and sticky tape or even shoving it into something like a pair of Explorer socks. The drive inside is exactly the same, remember, and quite possibly came from the same factory on the same day.

However, the Lacie product might save you hunting around for a suitable DIY protective rubber sleeve, and leave you with a nice, neat one-piece unit. I reckon it comes down to price: I'd pay an extra $10 for it (as compared to an otherwise similar standard external drive), maybe go to $20 extra. More that that would be too much.

Oh, and of course, for shock resistance, solid state drives are by far the best, but (as you know) they are small and very expensive per GB.

PS: the Mark IV ruLeZ!

[MissionMan]

Spindle is always an issue when it comes to rugged. If I was going to go rugged, I'd try find a rugged enclosure and put a small solid state in it.

[Morgo]

Cheers Morgo.

You could try one of these: http://redhill.net.au/d/134.php :lol:

Jokes aside, to the best of my knowledge, there is no such thing as a "rugged" hard drive these days, insofar as drives are mass produced in vast numbers by only four manufacturers, all with very similar one-size-fits-all products. The actual drive inside your external casing, in other words, will be a stock standard Seagate, Hitachi, WD, or Toshiba model, bought in by the company making the external case and putting their brand on it.

With that said, modern laptop drives (like this one) are incredibly tough and withstand abuse in a way that is still quite unbelievable to this 35-year industry veteran. By putting that remarkably tough little modern drive in a thick, rubberised casing, it will be tougher again. Remember, though, that small, relatively light objects experience very, very high gee forces from even trivial-seeming bumps in a way that larger objects do not - so treat it like eggs anyway!

There can be no great harm in the "ruggedised" model as opposed to any other external drive, but be aware that (so far as shock is concerned) it can offer you nothing at all that you can't achieve yourself as well or even better by putting any other drive in a rubberised casing or wrapping it in foam and sticky tape or even shoving it into something like a pair of Explorer socks. The drive inside is exactly the same, remember, and quite possibly came from the same factory on the same day.

However, the Lacie product might save you hunting around for a suitable DIY protective rubber sleeve, and leave you with a nice, neat one-piece unit. I reckon it comes down to price: I'd pay an extra $10 for it (as compared to an otherwise similar standard external drive), maybe go to $20 extra. More that that would be too much.

Oh, and of course, for shock resistance, solid state drives are by far the best, but (as you know) they are small and very expensive per GB.

PS: the Mark IV ruLeZ!

Cheers mate :) I know what they mean by "rugged" in reference to the HDD's though.
My main reason for wanting one is mostly for dust, if these are sealed to be slightly more weather resistant then they should fare better in Africa than my standard portable drives. I'd go SSD but as you say the cost of two 500 or 1tb ssd drives is more than I want to pay especially since I'm already very careful with my electronic stuff.

[Tannin]

Sounds sensible to me, Morgo. The drive itself is pretty much immune to dust - contrary to popular belief, hard drives are almost never hermetically sealed but they have only a very small air inlet to allow for changes in altitude and barometric pressure, and this small inlet is always filtered. Dust in the connectors, on the other hand, is pretty much unavoidable, though I can't really see that doing too much harm. I've traveled around outback Australia (which couldn't be less dusty than Africa) for the last decade or so and dust has never been an issue for my computers and drives. It can be a right pain with camera gear though. Back before we had self-cleaning sensors, it was a huge problem, and one of the reasons I would up with my peculiar habit of traveling with four or five DSLR bodies .... 'coz I was always so afraid of changing lenses!

What is the price difference between the rugged drive and a standard equivalent?

- - - Updated - - -

Sounds sensible to me, Morgo. The drive itself is pretty much immune to dust - contrary to popular belief, hard drives are almost never hermetically sealed but they have only a very small air inlet to allow for changes in altitude and barometric pressure, and this small inlet is always filtered. Dust in the connectors, on the other hand, is pretty much unavoidable, though I can't really see that doing too much harm. I've traveled around outback Australia (which couldn't be less dusty than Africa) for the last decade or so and dust has never been an issue for my computers and drives. It can be a right pain with camera gear though. Back before we had self-cleaning sensors, it was a huge problem, and one of the reasons I would up with my peculiar habit of traveling with four or five DSLR bodies .... 'coz I was always so afraid of changing lenses!

What is the price difference between the rugged drive and a standard equivalent?

[MattNQ]

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking of buying some portable HDD's to backup photos to while out and about or away. These rugged HDD's some promising, has anyone used them before?

The one I'm currently looking at is the LaCie
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058VIWTM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2HX2MRG96ONB3


Hi Morgo. I have this one. So far, so good.
When it arrived I had curious looks from my co-workers. So I dropped it onto the floor from about desk height to demonstrate, much to their horror (it is rated for 1.2m drop). It bounces :D
It hasn't missed a beat. Been on several camping trips so far.
I bought mine from site sponsor Eglobal. They have it currently $109 + $29 shipping. Not sure how that compares to Amazon when you add in shipping.

They are supposed to be rain-proof, so should be fairly dust resistant.

[landyvlad]

Nothing new under the sun. There have been ways of storing data in a very hard to damage manner for ages....

http://rockysubjects.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/rosetta_stone.jpg

Note the highly specialised read head....

http://history-of-macedonia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/The-Rosetta-Stone.jpg


(sorry, couldn't resist)