Help needed in purchasing an external hard drive (Page 4): In order to secure that you don't loose any of your images, you need multiple backups of your files on multiple medias. One...

stevetassi

In order to secure that you don't loose any of your images, you need multiple backups of your files on multiple medias. One copy can be on an external hard drive, another copy can be on M discs, and a third copy can be on the cloud. Never rely on a single point of failure.

Grace98 Loc: Waterlooville, Hampshire - United Kingdom

I'm overwhelmed at all the kind responses and advise. I've never really backed up anything (I know most of you are horrified) although I have backed in the past on USB's and CDs. Thanks for all the links which I will go through....when my head stops spinning. I will let you know what I finally chose.
I don't think I'll go for the Seagate as I think this brand seems to have more failures than WD. Thanks again. Grace

Grace98 wrote:

Thank you all to those who kindly replied. I'm still in a dilemma as some of you have advised against Seagate and suggested WD. Now I can only get it from this company as it would be free. However, they also have a WD one (4TB). Please have a look at this link :http://www.argos.co.uk/product/6258021. What do you think...shall I go for the WD? Thanks again....

Grace98 Loc: Waterlooville, Hampshire - United Kingdom

Thanks Bob - it's amazing how much failure Seagate have...so I think this is definitely out. I'll read the article when my head clears :)

rmalarz wrote:

Grace, here's a link to an article posted by a company renowned for their back up service. It assesses hard drive failures. Since they use thousands of drives, I'd say they have a pretty good insight into drive reliability.
--Bob

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-failure-rates-q1-2017/

Grace98 Loc: Waterlooville, Hampshire - United Kingdom

Thanks John. Do you mean WD? I have enough Nectar points to get it free. I was going this afternoon but it is P*****g with rain down here...I also have to read the reviews and have a look at the links which fellow Hoggers have sent me. Grace

johneccles wrote:

Hi Grace, that drive you have see in Argos is a very good relaible drive and at that price I would get to Argos before they run out. Thanks to your post I am off there now.
I already have a Seagate HDD and an extra one for photos back up won't do any harm.
Cheers, John.

JeffR Loc: Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

Grace98 wrote:

I'm overwhelmed at all the kind responses and advise. I've never really backed up anything (I know most of you are horrified) although I have backed in the past on USB's and CDs. Thanks for all the links which I will go through....when my head stops spinning. I will let you know what I finally chose.
I don't think I'll go for the Seagate as I think this brand seems to have more failures than WD. Thanks again. Grace

It's a coin toss as to which is more reliable -- you've heard from people who've had good and bad experiences with both Seagate and WD. The important takeaway is that ALL drives eventually fail, so use more than one backup. At US$69 for a 2TB portable drive, get 3 or 4 and stop worrying about a failed drive. You're more likely to lose photos by failing to back them up at all.

jccash Loc: Longwood, Florida

Grace98 wrote:

Thanks John. Do you mean WD? I have enough Nectar points to get it free. I was going this afternoon but it is P*****g with rain down here...I also have to read the reviews and have a look at the links which fellow Hoggers have sent me. Grace

Buy the G-Drive for external hard drive. Worth the money. Used Hutschi hard drives. Then use Backbkaze to back up all your drives. That's what I do but use Crash Plan. I'll switch to Backbkaze ones the subscription ends. CP is going budinedd plan only.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

If you want to see some definitive failure rates vs drive mfg and model, take a look at this link from Backblaze: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-failure-stats-q2-2017/

Backblaze has been criticized (by the sales/marketing manager from Seagate) and for using only commodity vs enterprise class drives, but the fact remains that it is one of the only neutral large scale reliability studies of HDs. If you want to see why Seagate gets a bad rap, look no further than the stats on the 4GB ST40000 series... if you delve deeper, you can often correlate failures with the country/factory where the specific series of drives was produced.

HBPERER

Hello Grace98, Just one more suggestion for you after so many other replies. Consider getting an external 'My Cloud' from
Western Digital. My model is Ex2 Ultra and has 12TB of storage. It automatically backs up your pictures. Any knowledgeable
computer person should be able to install it. Good luck.

Kuzano

brucewells wrote:

I use one of these drives (the WD) and it works fl... (show quote)

Seagates problems stem from increasing market share by buying up lesser drive mfrs over time and attempting to raise standards of those drives. They purchased Quantum (remember Bigfoot series). They bought Maxtor. There were others. The last and I "Choke" on it, they bought LaCie, which was not a drive maker, but rather a horribly unreliable drive enclosure company with a trendy French name and an unforgivable failure rate.

That move stopped all my purchases of consumer grade. Checking reviews justifies my reluctance to buy Seagate, and particular consumer external drives, due to LaCie acguisition.

I considered them higher at one time.

After 25 years of computer service and consulting, I am now buying exclusively Western Digital Black and an occasional Toshiba drive.

flyguy Loc: Las Cruces, New Mexico

I like Seagate drives very much, have used them for years, and have had no problems.

Please, please don't just rely on one back up drive --- REDUNDANCY IS THE NAME OF THE GAME IN BACK-UP--- at least two drives and three would be better.

rck281 Loc: Overland Park, KS

I have used a number of different drives over the years and the only failures were with Seagate drives. I had a Seagate Free Agent stand alone that failed but it wasn't the drive but the enclosure electronics. I have also had 2 1TB Seagate drives fail that were in a RAID array. I switched to Western Digital and haven't had a failure. I did have a solid state drive fail a couple of years ago.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Kuzano wrote:

Seagates problems stem from increasing market shar... (show quote)

I've read all that too. So likely commercial or enterprise level Seagate's are likely good.

PhilEveratt Loc: Oxfordshire, UK

Hi Grace, I have the 1tb version of this (which I bought from Argos) and it's fine. I've also had Seagate drives in computers for years and never had any problems. Have several backups as they're unlikely to all fail at once !

sirlensalot Loc: Arizona

I prefer Western Digital. Never an issue.

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

Before I chose a mechanical hard drive, I would look into SS (Solid State) drives which have no moving parts and are reputed to have better reliability that mechanical hard drives. Of course, they do have solid state electronic parts which do have a life but a longer one than mechanical rotating drives. My latest computer uses a SS drive as the main drive and I have been very satisfied. Start up is faster, as well.