Topic: Best External Hard Drive?

[OldNeumanntapr]

Hey all,

What's the best external hard drive (for a decent price)? I'm looking for a good quality 2 TB external drive.

Thanks for the advice.

[twatts (pants are so over-rated...)]

I've had good luck with Western Digital and Seagate, but there are people that don't like either for whatever reason...  A friend recently recommended Hitachi, but they seem a little more expensive...  Maybe its worth it??? 

http://tinyurl.com/bov5anr

Terry

[Brian Skalinder]

My experience has been that the all-in-one external HDDs typically have cheapo HDDs internally and if the HDD bombs, you have to replace the whole thing -- enclosure and HDD.  (Also, some of them use consumer-level and / or proprietary RAID0, which can make it difficult or impossible to recover from a crash.)

I think the best option is to buy an external enclosure and bare HDD separately.  I use this enclosure for my off-site backups:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817173042

I wanted a solid case since I transport it regularly, and a good fan to keep things cool during long, sustained writes on a periodic basis.  If you don't need both eSata and USB 2.0, there's also a pure USB 3.0 option, I think.

I've always liked Western Digital HDDs.  I typically pay a little more for a model with a 3-5 year warranty instead of 1 year, on the theory they're better made and more durable.  And even if they're not, at least I have the longer warranty.  I also really like WD's return / exhange policy in case the HDD fails within warranty.

What's the purpose of the external HDD?  Daily use and working space?  Primary storage?  Backup / redundancy?

[DigiGal]

I'm currently using a "G Technology G-Drive" for primary and an old LaCie "Porsche" drive for misc shared files via Airport USB.  Also picked up an OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro for Time Machine backups on my husbands computer.  All of these have been great so far.

For lots more coin, Glyph Drives have a good reputation but I haven't tried them.

I had a couple of "LaCie Big Disk D2's", both of these were prone to failure and I got tired of taking them apart to replace blown zener diodes on a fairly regular basis.  Briefly tried a used Fantom Drive for my hubby but it failed within a couple of weeks.

All said and done HDD's do not last forever.

[OldNeumanntapr]

I am needing a good external hard drive for my Mac. It will be used primarily for storage. I'm going to try and convert my CDRs (about 2,600) to FLAC. A good portion, but not all, of my discs are HHb CDR 800 master discs of my DAT recordings.

Thanks again.

[DigiGal]

I'm on Mac platform too.  All the HDD's I mentioned are FW except the Porsche which is a USB Only Drive, it's connected to Airport Extreme, effectively serving as a file share storage drop box.

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

Brian is correct. Buy an OEM or Retail bare drive and put it in an external enclosure yourself. If you can put legos together you can install a bare drive into an enclosure.

The Rosewill enclosures have been good to me. Good $ to quality ratio.

Personally I use these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182155

The bare drives come with a longer warranty so that is a big plus...and if something goes wrong it's much easier to figure out if the problem is with the electronics in the enclosure or with the drive itself.

With the pre-made external drives you're out of luck if you're unable to get the data of the drive. You COULD  open the enclosure and see if you can get data off the drive by hooking it up directly to a computer (or in a new case)...but you will void any warranty that way.

As far as warranty is concerned I've been very happy with Western Digital. They only offer a 2 year warranty now, but you can request a new drive be sent to you first (and then send the dead drive back later). This is handy if the drive still works, but is failing, so you can get your data off (although you should be backing everything up so this shouldn't really be an issue).

If a longer warranty interests you the Seagate drives have a 3 year warranty, and I understand they are more reliable than they used to be.

[dnsacks]

One effective (but more costly) way to do this is to build yourself a raid/NAS.  I just put together the following setup for an uncle and it screams:

1) http://www.amazon.com/Synology-DiskStation-Diskless-Network-Attached/dp/B005YW7OLM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355860454&sr=8-1&keywords=synology -- the ds212j is a mini computer -- it will serve as a standalone device (doesn't need to have computer running) and has some nice features (I've recently discovered how mine can be a file server -- I can send folks links to files/directories that they can download at will and/or give folks access to a web interface that will let them browse and upload/download contents) -- it can also independently download/upload bittorrents. 

The key advantage to this device is that it uses two drives that are configured to be mirrors of oneanother.  Hard drives can and will fail -- you reduce your chance of catastrophic data loss by having two drives contain the identical information.

2) a pair of hard drives -- I'm currently a fan of the WD red series for raid situations -- Their 3tb drives provide a lot of space   -- http://www.amazon.com/WD-Red-NAS-Hard-Drive/dp/B008JJLW4M/ref=pd_sim_e_2

This setup is not cheap, but the synology is VERY fast (I see xfer speeds over my gigabit wired lan match those I see between sata drives on my pc -- 5-6x faster than my netgear readynas) and my 5 disk synology setup has been insanely reliable in the 2 years that I've owned it (knock on wood)

[Gutbucket]

For portable storage I buy the largest capacity USB powered drives I can find and duplicate the data across several of them as well as on a muti-bay 3.5" enclosure at work.  Once I fill them up I by another, and by then the capacity probably has increased.  The USB powered requirement dictates 2.5" sized drives but means no hassle with external powering.  Latest couple have been 2TB WDs which are USB3 but I just use them into standard USB2 ports on my computers.  The WDs were the first avaialble 2.5" 2TB externals that I found last summer and have been working fine.  I tend to use one for other more demanding use too and they've worked fine.

Key words for me: Small, portable, easy, redundancy.

[Brian Skalinder]

They [WD] only offer a 2 year warranty now

Thanks for the update, I didn't realize they'd changed the warranty policy.

I am needing a good external hard drive for my Mac. It will be used primarily for storage. I'm going to try and convert my CDRs (about 2,600) to FLAC. A good portion, but not all, of my discs are HHb CDR 800 master discs of my DAT recordings.

As dnsacks suggests, now is the time to start thinking about redundancy and backup.  I always operate on the assumption that HDDs will fail without warning.  Sometimes they fail with warning and the opportunity to save your data, sometimes with warning and no opportunity to save your data, and sometimes with no warning at all.  Since one never knows which might occur, or when, it's best to assume the worst, i.e. the latter.  So it's prudent to have redundancies / backups.  While you'll still have your CDRs as backups (or even your DATs), both will start to fail at some point.  I can say that after transferring all my DATs and ripping all my CDs, I really didn't want to do it all over again in the event of HDD failure.

A good general rule to follow:  you want at least 3 different copies of your data, preferably one of them off-site.

Alternatively to dnsacks' option, I swore off RAID long ago and use a different solution to ensure I have redundant copies of all my data.  If your budget allows, it requires 2 external enclosures and HDDs -- one for primary use, one for redundancy (and really, you should have an off-site backup, too, but that's yet another extension of the discussion).  And if your budget doesn't allow...think of all the time and effort spent ripping CDRs and assign some monetary value to your time...the 2nd enclosure and HDD won't seem like such a big deal, then.

[Fried Chicken Boy]

I'm in full agreement with Brian and Mike: purchase a good-quality bare hard drive, a separate enclosure and then put it together yourself.  It's about as hard as using a screwdriver and formatting the drive.  As noted, Western Digital has a solid warranty program (I'm a fan of their drives myself) and if the enclosure should crap out then you can easily replace it and, hopefully, not lose the data on the actual HDD.  Having taken a lot of WD and Seagate pre-made external enclosures apart to salvage the data/drive (another as recently as yesterday ), I can tell you that they don't make those things terribly easy to dismantle.

Parting thought: heat is one of the greatest culprits contributing to hard drive failures so I would suggest an enclosure that has plenty of venting and possibly a fan to circulate air.  More expensive but worth the extra bit of insurance against a crash, IMHO.

[stevetoney]

I'm in agreement with the last few posts above...

Since you should assume that all drives will fail, the quality of a drive is less important than having drive redundancy, IMHO. 

As a matter of priority, I'd spend extra money on redundancy to give you back-up before investing that same amount into a theoretrically better single drive expecting it to last longer. 

Obvioiusly, the best solution would be that if you have the funds, buy both redundant and high quality drives.

[jbou]

Brian, thanks for your always informative replies on this topic. Does anyone have experience with this Rosewill enclosure?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182144&Tpk=rosewill%20dual%20enclosure

I like that is has both drives in one enclosure but I would want to do the mirroring with software like Brian suggests, not the hardware. I think you would be able to do that because it looks like you can have the drives operate as separate drives. Then use a program to mirror one to the other. Am I thinking on the right track or am I completely off?

[dnsacks]

After having a 4 drive rosewill enclosure crap out on me, I'm a bit scared of this company (and clearly prejudiced).  That said, I see a few other potential issues with this enclosure -- first, you're limited to 2tb drives, with 3tb drives continuing to come down in price, I'd want an enclosure that would support this larger size.  Second, you're limited to usb2 connectivity.  This will cause a significant bottleneck.  I'd want to see usb 3 capability (even if your current computer doesn't support) and, ideally, esata capability.

nice to see it does have a fan tho.

[Gutbucket]

At the risk of redundancy, this bears repeating.. 3 times!!

Since you should assume that all drives will fail, the quality of a drive is less important than having drive redundancy, IMHO. 

As a matter of priority, I'd spend extra money on redundancy to give you back-up before investing that same amount into a theoretrically better single drive expecting it to last longer. 

Since you should assume that all drives will fail, the quality of a drive is less important than having drive redundancy, IMHO. 

As a matter of priority, I'd spend extra money on redundancy to give you back-up before investing that same amount into a theoretrically better single drive expecting it to last longer. 

Since you should assume that all drives will fail, the quality of a drive is less important than having drive redundancy, IMHO. 

As a matter of priority, I'd spend extra money on redundancy to give you back-up before investing that same amount into a theoretrically better single drive expecting it to last longer. 

I've been meaning for years to implement some sort of file sync like Brian outlined so well in the thread he linked above.  But I'm still just manually syncing the three (or more) copies across drives via copy/paste and comparing file sizes to confirm.  It is a bit of a hassle to find differneces if/when they occur, but not enough to push me to make the effort to sync-ware yet.

As good redundancy practice, its a good idea not to delete the original files off the recorder memory cards until verified copies of the cataloged FLACs have been written to at least two hdds.

[jbou]

Ah ok. Are 2 TB drives ok in terms of reliability? It likely could have changed as I don't keep up to date on this stuff as much, but about a year ago, it seemed most people on here thought drives became a lot more unreliable above 1 TB.

[dnsacks]

I've had 7x 2tb wd green drives running in raid configurations 24x7 for the past two plus years without failure (knock on wood).  So my personal experiences have been good.  Have had more than my fair share of 500gb, 1tb and 1.5tb drives fail on me tho.

FWIW

[DigiGal]

OWC - Other World Computing sells external enclosures for build your own kits as well as pre-built solutions.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/enclosure-kits/

[flipp]

I had to get a new SATA laptop drive for my Dad's laptop* when I visited him last month. Got a retail boxed WD Black because it still has a 5 year warranty. The WD Blues have a 2 year and I'm not sure what the WD Greens have. In my own builds I prefer WD Velociraptor 10K-RPM drives which last time I checked still had a 5year warranty. Check which color drive you're getting if shopping Newegg/TigerDirect/Fry's etc as the warranty varies by color and model (Velociraptor, Caviar, etc).

That said I've had good luck with everything except one Hitachi DeskStar in an IBM laptop which died an unexpected, and extremely loud and smokey, death. There was a reason they were referred to as DeathStars. The new Hitachis may be reliable but I stick with what I've had good luck with.

I'll also ditto the comments about getting a bare drive and an external enclosure.



* replacement was needed due to him picking up malware, not from a drive failure - easier for me to just replace the drive, reload the OS and be done with it

[spyder9]

I think the best option is to buy an external enclosure and bare HDD separately.  I use this enclosure for my off-site backups:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817173042

I wanted a solid case since I transport it regularly, and a good fan to keep things cool during long, sustained writes on a periodic basis.  If you don't need both eSata and USB 2.0, there's also a pure USB 3.0 option, I think.

Great choice Brian.  I have 2 of these are part my own redundancy solution.  Never had an issue with them.   That bigass fan is not that loud either.     

[jbou]

I've always liked Western Digital HDDs.

What model WD drives do you use for your redundancy - Black/Green/Blue?

[Brian Skalinder]

What model WD drives do you use for your redundancy - Black/Green/Blue?

Hmmm...had to go and check, as I didn't recall offhand.  I have a mix of Blue from 2008* and Black from 2010.  I also have a 2.5" Green for non-critical portable backup of my laptop, though I don't use it much anymore since I'm not traveling for work much these days.

* As an aside, 2008 was one of the few times I took advantage of WD's warranty exchange policy.  Two of the Blue HDDs I bought in 2007 both bombed within the first year, within days of one another.  Turns out I got caught up in a bad production run.  Thankfully, they didn't die suddenly, and I was able to transfer all my data when the replacements arrived...before returning the originals.  But even had they died suddenly, I would've been safe -- the two Blues weren't part of the same redundant pair, but rather one each from two different pairs.  Thankfully, at some point before 2008 I got nervous about getting hosed by a bad production run -- if memory serves, due to a recommendation from someone here on TS -- and started using Blue and Black in my pairs, rather than 2 Blues from the same manufacturing time window.  Food for thought if you're building up your redundancy plan.

Also, at the time of the two Blue failures, I wasn't diligently using an off-site backup.  I can tell you, I found it nerve-wracking to know all my critical data existed in only a single place for the ~2 days it took for my replacements to arrive.  Needless to say, it motivated me to start performing more diligent off-site backups!

That said, don't let the bad production run turn you off off WD.  Every HDD manufacturer has had issues at one point or another.  The key -- regardless of HDD manufacturer -- is developing a redundancy strategy that won't come back to bite you in the event of a problem.

[spyder9]

Also, at the time of the two Blue failures, I wasn't diligently using an off-site backup.  I can tell you, I found it nerve-wracking to know all my critical data existed in only a single place for the ~2 days it took for my replacements to arrive.  Needless to say, it motivated me to start performing more diligent off-site backups!

Probably the #1 thing people take for granted:  What if my house burns to the ground and both copies of my data are in there? 

I store extra copies of my stuff at a different location from my home.  Even if I had a 2 bay NAS server, with the 2nd bay mirroring the 1st, I'd still make a 3rd copy for an offsite location.  That's how you're suppose to do it. 

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

That is a great idea to use two different levels of drives from the same MFG. I've had 2 drives I bought at the same time die within weeks of each other.

Good way to start at least.

At this point I usually have 1 drive die, and then order a single replacement so I'm not getting drives from the same batch.

I pretty much just use the WD Greens.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

USB 2.0 is Slllloooowwww for drives this large.

I like eSata a lot.  eSata and usb3.0 options tend to drive the cost per GB up quite a lot.

For backups, using bare drives and plugging them into an open dock is one of my favorite approaches.

Extensively testing and burning in your drives before use is critical.  Slow interfaces like usb 2.0 make that very time consuming.

[Brian Skalinder]

Extensively testing and burning in your drives before use is critical.

FWIW, I've never extensively tested or "burned in" my HDDs before use.  I occasionally run basic tests on a new  HDD to confirm it's in working order, but nothing beyond that.  (And I don't even know what "burning in" means.)  I don't believe I've suffered any ill effects as a result.  YMMV.

I suppose extensive testing might help weed out a bad HDD arriving from the manufacturer with known, existing issues.  But I figure whether my HDD bombs 5 years from now or next week (due to a problem I might have identified during extensive testing), my redundancy strategy should have me covered in either instance.

[DigiGal]

USB 2.0 is Slllloooowwww for drives this large.

I like eSata a lot.  eSata and usb3.0 options tend to drive the cost per GB up quite a lot.

For backups, using bare drives and plugging them into an open dock is one of my favorite approaches.

Extensively testing and burning in your drives before use is critical.  Slow interfaces like usb 2.0 make that very time consuming.

The OP's on a mac, which generally allows (excluding NAS) a choice between FW800, FW400 and USB 2 on the recent machines or between Thunderbolt and USB 3 on the current models, eSata is not an option.

[OldNeumanntapr]

Thanks for all your advice,

A lot of this is over my head. (I'm just an old taper.)

I will also ask at the MAC Super Store in San Luis Obispo.

I was looking through the B&H catalog the other night. Anyone have any advice on 'G' Hard drives?

[DigiGal]

Thanks for all your advice,

A lot of this is over my head. (I'm just an old taper.)

I will also ask at the MAC Super Store in San Luis Obispo.

I was looking through the B&H catalog the other night. Anyone have any advice on 'G' Hard drives?

As I mentioned earlier I'm using a G Drive on a Mac for my primary external drive. It's a 3 TB drive connected via FW800, no issues very satisfied with it so far and it works great with Time Machine.

[OldNeumanntapr]

Thanks DigiGal. I must have missed that.

[noahbickart]

A great way to do off site backup is to allow your music loving (yet less nerdy) friends have clones of your drives.

I've got two friends each with a 3tb clone of my music drive. Every time I go over there I bring new files.

I enjoy having off site backup, they enjoy having my complete music collection.

[shownomarcy]

I've been meaning for years to implement some sort of file sync like Brian outlined so well in the thread he linked above.  But I'm still just manually syncing the three (or more) copies across drives via copy/paste and comparing file sizes to confirm.  It is a bit of a hassle to find differneces if/when they occur, but not enough to push me to make the effort to sync-ware yet.

I realized its very easy to synch directories with Total Commander (by filename, date(!) etc...) to compare my hdd to external hdd to make sure be the same. This is very useful in case of hundreds of folders and files. Also easy to copy the results from folders to folders automatically!

Anybody else using it?

Commands/Synchronize directories
http://www.ghisler.com/screenshots/en/08.html