External HDD

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jasonwaiheke

277 posts

Ultimate Geek

#240014 15-Aug-2018 12:21

Bot sure if this is the right place or if a thread already exists.

I am in the market to buy an external HDD minimum 2TB, but with various models and limited reviews I was seeking more.

So what have you got and how good is it?

I have been told by one to steer clear of Seagate and WD... thoughts?

My thoughts are that it will sit at home as a backup drive, but I wont discount a rugged one as you never know and the extra protection will not be overlooked.

DeepBlueSky

547 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2073867 15-Aug-2018 13:12

I have a 2TB external from Transcend Storejet 25H3 rugged drive its been great I have had this over a year it sits in my bag and get carted about. I have had Seagate and WD but this has been great better built and just goes. Looking at the site they now also have a 4TB version.

https://nz.transcend-info.com/Products/No-324

Review a good too just Google it.

Price $129.00 including GST at PBtech https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/HDDTRS16200/Transcend-2TB-StoreJet-25H3P-25-USB-30-External-HD

Davy

196 posts

Master Geek

#2073869 15-Aug-2018 13:20

For convenience, I recommend the small USB-powered ones. Otherwise you have to carry around a power supply, power lead and USB cable with the drive!

In my experience no external USB drives are very reliable, so only use them as a backup.

Davy

196 posts

Master Geek

#2073870 15-Aug-2018 13:22

ps the Transcend recommended above by DeepBlueSky looks ideal.

tripper1000

1617 posts

Uber Geek

#2073951 15-Aug-2018 15:22

I have a bunch of Seagates that I bought in 2015. They seem to be going fine, and some have been given pretty good thrashings. What was the reason you were told to avoid them? Have they changed?

I personally don't like WD but that is only because they have gone a bit proprietary which makes it impossible to repurpose the cases and drives, but that's geeky and wouldn't bother Joe Average consumer.

JimmyH

2886 posts

Uber Geek

#2074122 15-Aug-2018 18:08

What's your use case, and what's your budget?

If it's for backup and stationary, then I recommend a 2-bay or 4-bay NAS. Get a 2-bay NAS, put two equal-sized drives in it (WD Red or Toshiba Ironwolf), set it up as RAID1, and you would have a pretty good backup solution. It would sit on the network, all your machines could be set to back up to it, and RAID1 would mean that your backup would survive if a drive failed.

If it's for backup and you are budget constrained, then a powered USB drive is probably the most cost effective, but not as convenient as the NAS option above. But, if the backups really matter to you, get two and rotate them.

If portability matters then, as Davy suggests, one of the smaller USB ones is probably best. Again, if the backups really matter to you, get two and rotate them.

As far as bands, they are probably much of a muchness. Tripper, as per above, likes Seagate and not Western Digital after good Seagate experiences. My experience has been pretty much the opposite (3x Seagates have failed, c.f., 1x Western Digital over the years). But it's probably just luck of the draw.

Jase2985

13462 posts

Uber Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#2074128 15-Aug-2018 18:18

Ive used WD portable ones for a long time with no issues

Currently running 4 5TB ones and a few smaller 2TB ones in various applications with no issues.

richms

28189 posts

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#2074159 15-Aug-2018 19:26

Well if you avoid seagate and WD that only leaves a couple of the smaller manufacturers of drives which I dont recall ever seeing a samsung in an external.

All drives fail eventually so basing not getting a brand because some one had problems with that brand once and lost some files says more about their carelessness than the reliability of the drives. I have several WD 2TB USB powered drives that have been running for years and years without missing a beat. Would I store the only copy of anything even slightly important on them? Hell no.

Richard rich.ms

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surfisup1000

5288 posts

Uber Geek

#2074206 15-Aug-2018 21:03

I'm just gong through a bunch of old drives now- checking them with Crystal disk info.

To my knowledge they were all working last time i used them but a few have actually failed. One hitachi, several WD 3TB green drives, and a seagate.

Bit annoyed about the 3tb drives failing, but i've had a number of issues with those WD "green" drives. WD use some weird power saving features on the green drives that can cause them to drop out of some controllers too. They are so bad that I only use them for archival purposes now.

jasonwaiheke

277 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2074301 16-Aug-2018 09:01

Thanks all for the feedback.

What I am looking for is a place where we can store photos and videos without consuming all the space in our internal HDD on the PC.

Over the years we have backed these up (moved) to CD and more recently DVD, so they are not lost in the event the HDD fails, the PC breaks down or we need to leave in a hurry due to fire or other such disaster. Also this frees us space on the internal HDD.

We have only had one occurrence of this not working successfully and this was because (I believe) the disc was not closed off in the burning process, and I am in the throws of doing that batch again.

But what I have found is that footage from the Go Pro is simply just to big to move on to any disc, so I need another solution. Also if I can store these photos and videos in bulk with a file structure complimented by DVD then this would be great.

The external HDD came to my mind as a solution to this, as I can plug it in, move the data, and then if we need to take it with us. Portable could be nice when we travel, but not essential as I don't know if we will take it with us yet or if it will be left at home. But the ability to swap it between the PC and the TV would be nice.

I have heard from one source with respect to Seagate and Western Digital that these are more or less one in the same and his reasons behind not recommending them were based on his knowledge of the manufacturing process.

I am open to suggestions, I am thinking minimum 2TB, but possibly even 4TB. Budget wise well I don't really have a figure, I would rather spend a little more for security, reliability, stability and peace of mind and all that. Also if a 4TB is only marginally more than a 2TB why would I not go bigger. In saying that if I can keep it under $500.00 then that would be ideal.

xcon

147 posts

Master Geek

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#2074305 16-Aug-2018 09:07

This one, under $500 for 10 TB external hdd

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/HDDSEA3310/Seagate-10TB-Backup-Plus-Desk-Hub

1101

3122 posts

Uber Geek

#2074360 16-Aug-2018 10:30

jasonwaiheke:

I have been told by one to steer clear of Seagate and WD... thoughts?

The person who told you that is an idiot . :-)
What are the other options then . Some server HD brand that you cant buy ?? a 2Gb SSD : $$$$$$$$$$$$$$
heres some real stats, for ~server~ enterprise drives. Brand means nothing
https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/175089-who-makes-the-most-reliable-hard-drives

Also, other brands will probably just have a Seagate or WD inside it....if youre lucky.
God knows whats inside some of the other USB HD brands . Possibly the cheapest slowest ....
Just buy a well known brand.

As for failures, all brands have had some dud products. Some HD models were very reliable, some were very unreliable , some were discontinued & replaced with better model. And you will never
known exactly what drive model is in the case anyway.

jasonwaiheke:
What I am looking for is a place where we can store photos and videos without consuming all the space in our internal HDD on the PC.

NO NO NO NO....................................................NO
Never use an external HD like that . You MUST have all that data on at least 2 separate devices
If(when) the UISB HD fails , you loose everything.
Ive seen it so many times, customer stores precious photos on USB HD, that fails or gets corrupted/wiped , it then costs them $1000++ on data recovery.

A NAS might be a better idea , and make sure the NAS is backed up . Most descent NAS's have a USB port so you can do dayly backups .
Or buy 2 different USB HD's and save all that data to both (one being a backup of sort)

JimmyH

2886 posts

Uber Geek

#2074477 16-Aug-2018 13:35

OK, given that, here is my advice for what it's worth (based largely on what I do).

Since it's your original created content, which you can't replace (unlike music and movies), you need to follow the 3-2-1 rule. Three copies of the data, on at least two different types of media, with one copy stored offsite.

For the main storage I would get a NAS, as per my original post.

As stuff is added to the NAS, I would copy it to an external hard drive as well (as the NAS backup), or even better keep the NAS backed up to two external hard drives which you should rotate.

For the final copy, I would stick with write-once optical disks, burned each time you have a accumulated sufficient new data to fill a new disk. But NOT the DVDs that you have been using. Aside from your stated issue that your files can be too big for a DVD, writeable DVDs use organic dyes. These aren't reliable and degrade over time, particularly if exposed to heat/light. Instead use blu rays. These hold more (25/50 GB each). They are also more reliable don't suffer from the same organic dye issues that DVDs do PROVIDED you use HTL blu rays and not the cheaper LTH ones (which do use organic dyes). Store them offsite.

The blu rays aren't that expensive. I am landing 50GB HLT disks for $US75 for a 50 spindle (about $NZ 2.40 each, or $50/TB).

Assuming you go with 4TB of data you will be looking at about $1,100: the NAS will cost about $720 (circa $250 for the NAS and $470 for two 4TB NAS drives), an external USB drive $220, and 4TB of optical at about $200. That's about 27 cents a GB. Drop bits of the solution if that's too much for you - only you can decide how precious/irreplacable the data in question is to you.

The cost per GB will drop if you have more data. Four-plus bay NASes use disks more efficiently, and $/TB drops with increasing size. For my larger version of the above solution (RAID NAS + external drive + optical) I'm down to around 19 cents a GB.

nitro

658 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2074515 16-Aug-2018 14:53

JimmyH:

OK, given that, here is my advice for what it's worth (based largely on what I do).

Since it's your original created content, which you can't replace (unlike music and movies), you need to follow the 3-2-1 rule. Three copies of the data, on at least two different types of media, with one copy stored offsite.

For the main storage I would get a NAS, as per my original post.

As stuff is added to the NAS, I would copy it to an external hard drive as well (as the NAS backup), or even better keep the NAS backed up to two external hard drives which you should rotate.

For the final copy, I would stick with write-once optical disks, burned each time you have a accumulated sufficient new data to fill a new disk. But NOT the DVDs that you have been using. Aside from your stated issue that your files can be too big for a DVD, writeable DVDs use organic dyes. These aren't reliable and degrade over time, particularly if exposed to heat/light. Instead use blu rays. These hold more (25/50 GB each). They are also more reliable don't suffer from the same organic dye issues that DVDs do PROVIDED you use HTL blu rays and not the cheaper LTH ones (which do use organic dyes). Store them offsite.

The blu rays aren't that expensive. I am landing 50GB HLT disks for $US75 for a 50 spindle (about $NZ 2.40 each, or $50/TB).

Assuming you go with 4TB of data you will be looking at about $1,100: the NAS will cost about $720 (circa $250 for the NAS and $470 for two 4TB NAS drives), an external USB drive $220, and 4TB of optical at about $200. That's about 27 cents a GB. Drop bits of the solution if that's too much for you - only you can decide how precious/irreplacable the data in question is to you.

The cost per GB will drop if you have more data. Four-plus bay NASes use disks more efficiently, and $/TB drops with increasing size. For my larger version of the above solution (RAID NAS + external drive + optical) I'm down to around 19 cents a GB.

sound advice!

although, the OP did not mention anything about other requirements (media transcoding, etc.) for the NAS, so the used route via trademe might be a cheaper option.

i have a 4-bay NAS backed up to a 2-bay NAS and a portable USB drive. i'm not doing the optical backup, as that's a bit cumbersome for lightroom (can't really just do incremental backups). considering cloud storage, but haven't decided on which one to use.

i have seagate ironwolf drives in the NAS and have had no issues, but i haven't had them for long.

gehenna

8511 posts

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#2074541 16-Aug-2018 15:51

Seagate Backup Plus Slim is great, have had a few over the years for various purposes. Reasonable cost, very small, USB powered, and USB 3 speeds.

afe66

3181 posts

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#2074584 16-Aug-2018 17:48

I've got 2 drive NAS (synology) raided, two USB drives one in garage, the other at work.

Pay $100 for 1Tb of dropbox storage which gets all phone photos uploaded and selective videos.

I keep having to remind myself to print out the best photos otherwise it's relatively pointless to have photos of you never look at them..