choward_ab Loc: Alberta, Canada

Just purchased a Dell laptop with a Thunderbolt drive. Anyone using this technology? Looking for portable hard drive recommendations?

rstrick2 Loc: Beverly Hills, FL

I just bought a WD passport 4TB for my laptop

Pegasus Loc: Texas Gulf Coast

SSD. Hard drives are so 2012.

bdk Loc: Sanibel Fl.

I have a lot of drives, I have a WD 4tb like Rstricc2, no problems with it. I also have an internal drive i got VERY cheap and bought an external case for $19.00. I like it and may buy my next drive as an internal and put it in a case. and save lots of money.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I've been using a couple of Western Digital "My Passport" 1Tb drives for a couple of years now and am pleased with them.

Basil Loc: New Mexico

If you specifically what Thunderbolt connection, take a look a Lacie rugged drives.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

If you google "portable hard drive recommendations" you would be surprised at the correct, not misleading information that is out there.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

You mean something small and sleek? Is this for travel or for backing up/storing images? There are lots of choices, and they design some very nice boxes. My concern is what's inside. Did they put most of their effort into the appearance or the performance. Apple pays its designers much more than it pays its engineers. I would never rely on just one drive for anything.

For external backups, I buy HGST Ultrastar Enterprise drives and put them into cases, like this Sabrent.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LS5NFQ2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

SSD prices will be rising substantially because of a shortage of NAND chips. My Samsung 500GB SSD is about $50 moran than I paid for it a few months ago. Prices will come down again, of course.

jbk224 Loc: Long Island, NY

I originally used the WD 4TB Thunderbolt drive as my primary external storage. I then used another as BackUp #1 and have a raid..Drobo5N as primary backup. Two issues: You will need a Thunderbolt hub (or computer with multiple thunderbolt inputs) to backup/copy your files. This also points to the fact that Thunderbolt, while good when introduced, will not end up being the best protocol. Second, it is a hard drive (actually 2 discs). And they will fail. WD stood behind one that did and replaced.
This led me to the Samsung T3 SSD. Expensive, but worth it. First, as my primary drive, everything in PP is much faster. Second, the USB 3.0 is much faster and more versatile than the Thunderbolt connection. You will find that flexibility is important when you work out your backup workflow. Keep in mind that even though you may have multiple Thunderbolt connections; they are not the easiest to link together. Especially TB 2.0. You cannot daisy chain this protocol. So, I suggest you use the SSD with USB 3.0 as your primary external drive; and keep your WD 4.0 TB drives as backup(s).
Jon

James R. Kyle Loc: Saint Louis, Missouri (A Suburb of Ferguson)

I have (in running condition - and all working) At Home for Storage of my out of camera RAW files = Western Digital - Toshiba - And Seagate. Two are 4-T drives, and a 3-T drive. As for my "traveling drives" as for back-ups = Two W.D. 500 G. and a "bank" of Four-64 G. Thumb-drives, connected via "USB Hub". (Those are for back-up storage while on trips.)

Every brand that I have bought has failed in the past - So I would not recommend any Mechanical Drive - They all have failures, so - one is as good as the other. The solution to this problem... I bought two of each... I have one of each at my home, and another at my sister's house - just incase.

I know very well that THIS procedure is of the extreme - OKay!!! .. I am CooL with that. Everyone has their own ideas about what to buy, where to buy, and how to do everything. This is the way I do it. Everyone else will, and should, have their own way of doing things that is comfortable for them.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

I've had pretty good luck with Buffalo HDD drives - they have Thunderbolt (most external drives do not) and are quite portable. More costly than the typical WD/Seagate stuff because the Thunderbolt electronics just cost more.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Didn't they change their name to Bison?

choward_ab Loc: Alberta, Canada

Thanks - very good info to consider

Pegasus Loc: Texas Gulf Coast

The reason I like SSDs is there's nothing to break. Hard drives fail sooner or later and for backup, SSD is great, albeit more expensive. In my laptop, I have 2 SSDs and one HDD. I store all my critical stuff on the SSDs and the data on the HHD is backed up to the cloud.

Also, Thunderbolt3 uses a USB-C connection and is essentially DP (display port) and USB-3.1 combined. You should be able to connect a USB-C drive to the Dell. I recommend the Samsun 850EVO SSD drives.