I really don't trust anything Seagate makes. Had way too many failures of my own, and seen way too many accounts of other people having problems/failures.

The OWC enclosures are top-notch, I'd unhesitatingly recommend them (with some other brand of drive, such as Hitachi or Western Digital, put inside). Some of the enclosures sold by the "major drive manufacturers" like Seagate and Western Digital are pretty sketchy.

I'd also dis-recommend any Lacie enclosure. Poorly-designed, high failure rate (especially their power-supplies, which tend to be marginally-designed), and overpriced. Classic example of a purely marketing-driven company.

I had my 2tb Hitachi give out on me. They replaced it but lost everything on that drive. Thank god for back ups. I have 4 seagate 1.5's and they are all holding up to 3/4 full first one purchased 2 years ago and still rocking. I personally have no draw backs on seagate. The main one see's alot of use pretty much every day.
I hear problems with seagate hence the backups... Knock on wood.

thx fo da feedback fellas. I may just fork out the extra loot for the OWCs cause i've never had a problem yet.

Very good call. Their internal circuitry (controller chips and power-supplies) seems to be of much better quality than most others. Also ventilation/heat-dissipation (one way a LOT of other companies fall very short...excess heat is probably the most surefire way to prematurely kill a hard drive besides dropping/jolting it while its running.

I have no personal gripe with Seagate...just many bad experiences, and hearing of a lot of others. Google things like "Seagate recall" and you should find stories of several well-publicized major issues over the last several years. Things that just aren't happening with other drive manufacturers, like badly-buggy firmware, drives literally disintegrating internally, and general higher-than-par failure rates for a lot of their products.

Also Seagates support/RMA service is known to be pretty bad. By comparison, Western Digital is good in that regard...just had to use it for my first-ever WD drive failure (a Raptor 600 drive that's about six months old).

+1

I''ve also had 2 Seagate drives fail in the last year or so, a 2.5 and a 3.5. OWC enclosure and roll your own drive.

Ive been runnin the older 2tb seagate for mac external for nearly 3 years and have had no issues besides the power supply failing, which is easily replaced under warranty. I think in this day and age, we all know the importance of backing up x2 or even 3 times any/all important data...

Okay, I love the goflex 3tb besides the fact that I cannot use truecrypt on it. Here was my game plan fellaz on getting this at discount with the usb 3.0 and firewire 800 adaptor for almost same price as the 3tb mac version.

Go to frys, compare to best buy price at $149 to have them match the price, then pick up the fw800 adaptor and your good.

I use the usb 3.0 on my pc since that is where my master files are, and the fw800 when I go live. I also used the software it came with to format the drive to osx extended journaled, and used the software hfs4win that they provide a link for which requires the goflex to be connected while installing.

I have had five external drives all containing Seagate barracuds (2TB) Three have failed in succession, yet these same/similar drives inside the PC have lasted 7+ years and are still going strong. If the drives in PCs failed like the extenals, something would be done about it surely. I have a valuable and irreplaceable archive of Radio Commercials & Jingles from all over the world, covering the 50s to the 90s, and I need three drives to feel safe with the 2TB this archive takes up. I am certain the problem is caused but just one thing

Cooling, (or rather the lack of cooling in the external units. Although spaced apart, and never moved, they get very hot inside, with not even a small fan to help. I have come to the conclusion it is safer to buy a proper enclosure with active cooling, and then populate with the self-same cheap barracudas, so far things are OK.

Agreed, cooling is very important. Any suggestions?

i have found that firewire is not as necessary as it once was. i even use a usb hub.

the ext cases i use are linked below.
www.newegg.com
www.newegg.com

SO I have the seagate goflex 1tb. I really don't see or have had any problem with it.. I use firewire 800.And I've seen a few people talk about changing the case on it.. Am I to understand it might work even better with a different case?

if ur mixing video i highly recommend firewire :)

I use firewire 800. I don't and haven't never had a problem with it either

i guess that was for hard drive that doesn't have one I guess

USB still hits the main CPU harder and the max throughput is way below what FW800 is capable of.

Is that true for USB 3.0 also. I just bought a backup drive that has usb 3.0 I normally use a rugged 1TB Lacie firewire 800

I will put it as best as I can. Think of usb as a highway with cars on it. Your mixer/soundcard is one, your midi controller, your hard drive. Well now think of your firewire being another exclusive lane on the highway only devices that use firewire can use. 1 less thing for the usb to manage, flows better and sends that 1 device on a dedicated channel. Please correct me if I am wrong.