cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

That's a great example of a drive system I would stay far away from. This is a slow, consumer oriented system and not one to be trusted with something as valuable as your image files. A pro-level 10TB bare drive will cost at least twice that amount. All drives are not created equal. Best of luck.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Good to know, hopefully they have now improved their reliability, because it was terrible at one time. Some Seagate drives are OK while the reliability of others has been abysmal - would be interesting to know what model Seagates are being used in LaCie externals.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

As I haven't purchased a LaCie smallish external in quite some time, I can't answer, but Seagate tech support or the website might just provide a clue. I was perfectly happy with the drives that came with the 2Big, although I would have preferred the Pro model. Best of luck.

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

Mine too. Also.
Mine are a bit older, tho. I have two 4tbs, and one 2tb.
The 2tb was a gift- one of the hard drives had turned into a heater.
ebay! Two new 1tb drives later, better than new.

Whilst I was at it, I picked up a fugly ide/sata > usb adapter.
I can just plug a HDD into it, and use it from there.

11bravo

1. These days, I use Western digital 4TB red drives (Pros offer longer warranty, higher speed, but, for me, not worth the price difference). These are NAS drives, but work fine in a desktop.

Heat is the enemy of HDD'S.

2. I really like this external enclosure:
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16817182247?item=9SIA0722KG3221

Have a number of them. Yes, 10 screws to insert a drive (6 on the case, 4 inside for the HDD), but the internal fan is ESSENTIAL. It keeps the drive at a decent temperature even with continuous read/writes for 16 hours (see below).

3. For Windows, I never use an HDD until it's been provisioned:
A. LONG format, not a quick format

B. Full command line chkdsk:
chkdsk drive_letter: /x /v /r /f /b

C. Full StableBit scan (paid program)

Now, after 16+ hours of reads/writes, I'll use the HDD. My experience, a drive is either DOA, fails quickly, or runs for a long time.

4. Windows: I use 2 paid programs. They overlap some, but each has its strengths:
A. Hard Disk Sentinel: monitors my HDD temps and health. Can set alerts, with audible alarms, on overtemps (user specified); will even shut the computer down. Had an external HDD without a fan, several times, forgot to turn on the desk fan to keep it cool, audible alarm alerted me when it started to overheat. Also keeps track of health using SMART data. Author is very responsive to questions. Packs available; I have it on all my computers.

B. StableBit scanner: also monitors health, with pop-up alerts. I use this to automatically do a surface scan every 60 days (adjustable) on all my HDD's. Monitors temps during scans and will throttle scans if temps exceed your chosen temps. Author very responsive. Packs available; again on all my computers.

Both also handle SSD's appropriately; no need for surface scan.

I prefer making my own external HDD's so I know what's inside and the enclosure has a fan.

5. SyncBackFree can sync folders across 2 drives on a schedule. Paid version offers additional capabilities. Have used free version for years to sync folders.

For drag-and-drop work, I use the free version of TeraCopy rather than windows explorer. TeraCopy will not hang on copies/moves, just logs errors and continues. The big bonus for me is it displays what it's doing AND will do a verify after the copy/move. Yes, verify doubles the time, but I know I have an exact copy and it doesn't lock the explorer window while working.

Used Acronis for several years until backups started failing with no reasonable explanation of why.

Switched to Macrium Reflect and have had no problems. The free version does images and differentials. The paid version adds incrementals. I have both the paid (they offer 4 computer packages) and free. The free goes on every friend's computer I support. Just put it on my sister's new notebook and took an image. Reflect allows you to browse a backup image to restore individual files/folders.

https://www.macrium.com/product-comparison

https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/plugins/servlet/mobile?contentId=7734212#content/view/7734212

Just yesterday, cleaned my travel laptop and 2 Touro 3TB 2.5" HDD's by using TeraCopy to copy and verify to a WD 4TB Red. Then used Macrium Reflect to clone the Red to another Red. If you use a toaster style HDD dock, use a small floor fan (Honeywell HT-900) to keep the HDD cool.

One of my external travel HDD'S had a corrupted MFT, so showed up as RAW. Used GetDataBack for NTFS to recover the files (paid program. Over the past 8 years, have had to use it a couple of times, nice to have in your toolkit).

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

connievloutely Loc: Quaker State (PA)

I just ran Hard disk sentinel on my system drive.

It reported that my hard disk had to many reallocated sectors (163) an may start to loose data.

Does this only apply to my data, but not the system tracks?

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Unless your tool shows where the bad sectors were and what was stored there, there is no way to tell. Is the number of relocated sectors increasing?

11bravo

Consider it a warning. When a sector goes bad, the drive marks it as bad and reallocates whatever is in there to a spare sector. Consider that normal wear and tear. But if it is happening quickly, then it CAN be an indication of pending disk failure. I'd look at the health tab (which is a representation of the SMART data) and see what percent it is.

Did you run a test, or just start hard disk sentinel and are looking at the overview tab?

connievloutely Loc: Quaker State (PA)

This is the first time I ran Hard Disk Sentinel so I have no history to look at.

I guess you are suggesting I monitor the drive.

11bravo

That's what I do. You can configure to set alarms and actions. I have it display temps and health on the desktop.
Configuration->Status Window->Display information on Desktop

You can play around with the X and Y values to position as you like.

You can set alerts:
Confirmation->Alerts
and actions for various situations

Configuration->Thresholds
to set your own temperature thresholds

I have it sound a repeating audible alert if temperature is above 110 and shutdown if above 122. That way, even if I'm not around, if HDD'S get too hot, they won't cook.

connievloutely Loc: Quaker State (PA)

This HDD is running at 122 F which sounds way to high. My HDD's in other computers run at 100 F.
so I need to check this out and setup the alarms.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

It’s certainly warm - does the enclosure have a fan that blows air over the drive? If not, it should. A key to long HD life is to keep the temperatures down.

connievloutely Loc: Quaker State (PA)

No Fan, but vent holes.

Maybe I can mount a fan at the vent holes.

I'll check it out

Thanks for all your help

Matches Malone

Almost bought one of these yesterday, but the credit card company effectively said, "Wait 'til October!"