Was asking for the Samsung F3 HDD in Kuching Sarawak here and no one seems to have or even know about this T.T" very sad...

Oh, that's pretty bad, buy a cheapo UPS just to last a shut down time to prolong your hardware life.

UPS's software (even the cheapo Ablerex) can shut down your computer safely when the UPS battery runs low (setup using software), it also has AVR too to protect over-voltage.

24/7 is more off the reason that you should invest in UPS to protect your precious data, not just the hardware.

As for warranty, if you buy from a friend, I think he/she should be able to help you even though it's not qualified, usually by just swapping a new drive (that what most RMA does).

I don't think F3 is the GP, the spec is 7,200rpm? If it's 5,400rpm, I don't think it can even put up a challenge against WD Black, and put it to shame on both throughput and value.

Windows itself can set the write-caching features of the HD.
Follow steps below:
1) Right click My Computer > Manage (NOT properties )
2) Select Device Management > expand Disk drives, select the drive that, right click Properties, or you just double-click on it.
3) Go to Policies (tab) > untick Enable write caching on the disk.
4) Restart PC? (I never does this before so just follow next instruction if any)

This post has been edited by wildwestgoh: Mar 5 2010, 11:45 AM

Ahh.. F3 has so many specs that's very confusing... indeed @.@"
Just to let you know that WD GP is 5400rpm and can spin up to 7200rpm when required but still slow.
I got 1 1TB WD GP as well, used as movie storage, not much problem so far, only once in a blue moon (as far as I can remember) the explorer will lag for 3~5 seconds when I open up My Computer, and that's about all. Access speed can't be compare to my other 1TB Carviar Black.
Looking into Samsung F3 future product when my HDD is full again, hehe~ Hopefully it won't die on me like my friend's 2.5" Samsung HDD did, RMA-ed 5 times 0.0;; and finally in the trash bin. ^^;;

Tape backup? LOL super expensive, HDD backup still rox.
A dozen HDD in RAID1, 0wNz!

Data recovery will depends on how much your data worth, if your data gonna worth millions, it's that feasible to spend that thousands to get the data recovered. Downloading Anime, pirated... LOL recovery? Get sued instead. xD"

If you don't mind the performance, any brand will do, Transcend brand is good, got anti-shock, not sure how much can it withstand.

Buffalo seems to have a good deal too, I myself choose Seagate because of its good look and 5-years warranty.

Darn!! Samsung very tempting!! >.<" Must...get... another... hdd.. this... PIKOM.... 30th...aa....r.g.h... can't wait...

Anyway, anyone know any shop that sells Samsung HDD with great price in Kuching? Maybe the 1.5TB can get at RM350 or less? 0.0"

Which brand you referring to? Samsung? I would say bigger better, faster, cheaper.

Get the Samsung, if it's cheaper.

This post has been edited by wildwestgoh: Apr 20 2010, 11:26 AM

Mind tell me the price for 750GB and 1TB in your case? Cause I can't find 750GB in price list in this thread.

Which shop you bought for that price? MOD? I don't see any other shop selling Samsung HDD, or maybe I'm out-dated already??

Bandwidth are usually calculated in bits, notice the small letter "b" means bit, capital letter "B" means Byte.
So you get divided by 8? bits become bytes, and the 300MB/s means the maximum actual data rate that you should expect from it.
It also means there's overhead or some marketing calculation, etc. to confuse the consumer.

Durability of the HDD will very much depends on how you use it, and also the manufacturing process, some people receive bad product, some only notice it after sometimes of using it, that's why they give period time of warranty. Use a good airflow fan to cool it, most basic way to give it a longer life-time.
I didn't see any people complain about Samsung, try to use the search function to search for "samsung warranty" if you are very sensitive to it.

Just like processor's cache, higher better but its all depends on circumstances.
64MB cache case for example the Western Digital Green Hard Disk 1TB, if you do some research on the comparison between a 32MB cache sibling, the different isn't there, further more the 64MB cache version has advantage of the latest 4k sector tech introduced by WDC.
1TB Samsung still using 32MB cache beat the hell out of WD Carviar black that uses 64MB cache, hehe...

Western Digital has 3-years manufactorer warranty, but depends on the shop that sells it, it might be different from one to another, some offer 3 FULL years without charging you anything, some offer only 1 year free and 2 years with extra charges.
I bought mine at ComCable Kuching (WDC 1TB Black, yes BLACK!) that should have 5-years manufacturer warranty but they only do 3 (1 year free, 2 years + charges).

Samsung Spinpoint F3 (500GB, 750GB, 1TB), now considered as the fastest spindle HDD around, high transfer rate, but not too sure about the access though.

With Samsung price, you can consider 2x 1TB and RAID 1 them, but if you don't have a RAID capable motherboard or RAID card, just use any free backup software to daily backup them to another HDD. All in all it's up to you.

Any brand is fine as long as it fits your budget, about what I suggested earlier, you can buy 2 with RAID 1 or backup daily, if you can afford 2x 1TB then go ahead, if not 2x 500GB is fine, or 2x 750GB.
For brand that has recommendation now, you'll see many people saying "Samsung is the way to go" but it's all depends on your belief, some people still stick with Seagate even though it's much expensive. Samsung is now the value-able brand, for price/performance.

Have someone using Western Digital Passport 500GB at the office, so far no problem (1~2 months).
Saw some critiques on the website regarding the Seagate FreeAgent Go 500GB model has some issue, unconfirm from which batch though.
Buffalo, many people bought it and was told it's tough built, durable, etc. Since I don't see many review on this, good luck??!

Umm... maybe you should look at this review before you make your decision. Hope it helps.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/portab...hdd,2272-3.html

You can change to a bigger capacity but judging from your hard disk size, I have a little doubt newer IDE can even boot from your laptop, not to talk about current IDE hard disk availability.
You can try other ppl, friend's IDE hard disk to see if your laptop can detect and boot the hard disk, as far as I know some old mainboard has limitation on the hard disk capacity due to old BIOS firmware and such... buy and regret is painful, especially it's now very expensive.

Performance hard disk? Storage hard disk, please state some details so people can recommend you.
Your price range can also get a 40GB SSD.

External storage, you can get around 1.0TB to 1.5TB depends on brand.
I won't recommend specific model but I would say depends on your preference.
Either 1 you get is almost the same, but just some get extra service, warranty, etc.

Price point, I taking pricelist from PC Zone @ 18/05.
Samsung G3 1.5TB @ RM369, 1.0TB @ RM299, value!
Seagate, Free Agent Desk 1.0TB @ RM345, Raptor Portable storage @ RM325, different? Google?
Buffalo Drive Station w/ Turbo USB 1.0TB @ RM315, Drive Station w/ Encryption @ RM345.
Western Digital has several series,
Elements Desktop 1.0TB @ RM300, 1.5TB @ RM370
MyBook Essential Series 1.0TB @ RM345
MyBook Elite 1.0TB @ RM385

That's about all that fits your budget.

This post has been edited by wildwestgoh: May 27 2010, 11:40 AM