Cheap Firewire-400 500GB Drive?

[mrlynn]

Looking for one for not much over $100 (USBs are cheap, but USB 1.0 on son's TiBook is slow); found a few, but somewhat sketchy:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6822204042
Fantom: Only 1-yr warranty

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6822216031
acomdata: Only 1-yr warranty

http://dealmac.com/Maxtor-One-Touch-III-...24973.html
Maxtor: CNet gives "horrible" reviews (2)

http://dealmac.com/Seagate-Free-Agent-Pr...26532.html
Seagate (750GB ) : Refurb; DM says 5-yr warranty applies, but eCOST page says only 90 days. ??

I know, beggars can't be choosers. Anyone with comments, better ideas?

The Seagate drive is $137 with shipping—anyone with better information on the warranty?

/Mr Lynn

[StingMe]

[quote mrlynn]The Seagate drive is $137 with shipping—anyone with better information on the warranty?
If it's factory refurbished, ask Seagate...

Chat: http://seagate.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/seag...r/chat.php
Email: https://seagate.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/sea...p_cats=262
Phone: 1.800.SEAGATE (1.800.732.4283)

[mrlynn]

Thanks, StingMe. I e-mailed Seagate CS.

The phrase eCost uses is "Seagate Recertified", not 'refurbished', but maybe they mean the same thing. I asked Seagate.

Pretty good price for 750GB. Comes with Seagate imitation-Time Machine software for PC, but you can format the drive for Mac.

/Mr Lynn

[jdc]

that $100 maxtor is FW 800 as well, great deal

did you consider the PCMCIA card?

for $20, that gives him the ability to use anything USB 2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6815124013

[jdc]

although only 320, did you see this

http://1saleaday.com/?referrer=dealnews

those acomdata cases are great...fanless aluminum

[mrlynn]

[quote jdc]although only 320, did you see this

http://1saleaday.com/?referrer=dealnews

those acomdata cases are great...fanless aluminum
I guess the main worry I have is this: Is the drive itself any good?

What drives are in those Acondatas? Or Fantoms?

And Maxtors don't seem to have a good reputation. . .

Time was, you could expect a 5-year warranty on a decent drive.

/Mr Lynn

[jdc]

maxtors are fine.

you could *never* expect a 5 year warranty out of an external drive -- at least not until the last year or so

now seagate and maxtor both offer 5 years, and think WD has 3 on their externals

all drives can/will fail

buy whatever is in your budget and be done with it...

[GGD]

[quote mrlynn]Time was, you could expect a 5-year warranty on a decent drive.

/Mr Lynn
I seem to recall that the 3-5 year warranties were always on bare drives in retail packaging, but when that same drive manufacturer put it in an enclosure and sold it, it tended to have just a 1 year warranty. Perhaps they have more faith in their drives than in their enclosures.

[tronnei]

[quote mrlynn][quote jdc]although only 320, did you see this

http://1saleaday.com/?referrer=dealnews

those acomdata cases are great...fanless aluminum
I guess the main worry I have is this: Is the drive itself any good?

What drives are in those Acondatas? Or Fantoms?
/Mr Lynn
I bought a 250 GB Firewire Acomdata. About a year later it started causing kernel panics and randomly dismounting, then suddenly stopped working altogether. Cracked the case and found a Western Digital drive inside, which I transplanted into a OWC Neptune case, where it has performed perfectly ever since. Moral of the story for me: Acomdata = bad, regardless of the drive inside.

Those Fantom cases look almost identical to Acomdata's cases; I'm guessing they come from the same factory.

[Psurfer]

Deal or no deal?
Anyone have that Maxtor? That's a scary couple of user reviews on Cnet:

and the Amazon reviews for this one (mdl. # T01W500 is the one that has FW800) have 2 of 5 reporting failure.