Need recommendation for 1TB hard drive (Page 3): I use My Passport WD free standing hard drives purchased on Amazon. Available in different capacities. Reliable and I like the fact...

Hank Fanelli Loc: Denver

I use My Passport WD free standing hard drives purchased on Amazon. Available in different capacities. Reliable and I like the fact that the hard drives don not need a separate power source. They use your computer as a power source.

BlackRipleyDog

I built 2 external drives with Rosewill USB Enclosures and populated each with dual Western Digital Red hdd's . They turn slower at 5600prpm but are designed for a very long life and they only come to life when files are accessed. They operate as NAS drives. I have them set-up right now in a non-raid config with the second as a redundant backup of the first. When I get more conversant in RAID-geek, I will set them up to mirror each other automatically. I have a 1gig for my portfolio and a 2gig for general file archiving in each enclosure.

Mike1017

Wally Mart (wal mart ) 4 TB 119.00 western digital

lsimpkins Loc: SE Pennsylvania

Gene51 wrote:

Eileen, I would stay away from the consumer-grade ... (show quote)

I would agree with Gene, having just replaced my previous 1.5T WD backup drive with a 4TB WD Gold (Enterprise class with 5 year warranty) in a Vantec USB3.1 enclosure. The enclosure came with the necessary cable for my Windows system and is a cinch to install the HD. Macs or some smaller Windows laptops may need a different cable (USB C). If you are not comfortable creating a drive partition and formatting the new drive, I would think you might know someone or a computer shop who could do it for you.

One question, going back to the original post - why is it that you need the external drive if all you are doing is "moving" you photos from one application, Aperture, to Lightroom Classic? I would think that you should be able to point LR to the folders that Aperture has your files in and not move them at all.

If you still have room on your internal HD, I would still get the external, but use it for backup. And if you truly need the external for the "move", once it is done, I would re-purpose the external HD for backup of not only you image files, but also any other data that you don't want to risk losing.

Dziadzi Loc: Wilkes-Barre, PA

Gspeed wrote:

Hello there - moving my photos from Aperture to Lightroom Classic and I apparently need an external hard drive. My current photos take up about 284GB so I'm thinking a 1TB external hard drive should do the job. Can you recommend a manufacturer that is of good quality? Thank you, Eileen

I have had great experience with Western Digital. Not so much with the Seagate drives, Eileen.

banjo-player

Either one will work just fine. Both companies have a very good reputation. I would pick the less expensive one - quality is the same. If you get two 1TB drives you can use one to backup your pics and the other to "archive" a copy. If you'd like help, let me know. I have shopped throughout and have found that Costco has the least expensive 1TB & 2TB drives.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

If your computer is a desktop, it probably has room to add at least one internal drive, which will be less expensive than an external and will run faster. Some larger laptops have room for a second hard drive, too... though most use a smaller 2.5" that tend to cost more.

For long term storage like a photo archive, DON'T use an SSD! Sure, they're fast... but they're A LOT more expensive and not as reliable as a standard HD. A friend of mine is a managing engineer manufacturing SSD and other types of HD for one of the top companies and tells me SSD aren't a good idea for photo storage.

I buy "enterprise" class standard hard drives for photo storage and backup. They've been costing me around $25 to $30 per terabyte recently.

If you need an external drive, I've recently gotten a 3TB G-Drive that works well (it came formatted for Mac, was a bit tricky to reformat for the PC that I use).

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

amfoto1 wrote:

If your computer is a desktop, it probably has roo... (show quote)

Alan, I love your detailed and comprehensive posts and your technical expertise, but I wonder if you ought to check back with your drive engineer friend about the reliability of modern SSDs and see if he’s changed his mind now. I know that there were some poor players originally, but i’m In the storage industry, and I’m just not hearing any stories about SSD failures. i’ve been running 8 Intels on a couple of different systems here at home going on 5 years without a glitch (yes, I know Karma’s a bitch and half will fail tonight 😩).

Cheers,
Chris

Merlin1300 Loc: New England, But Now & Forever SoTX

I have a USB-3 Sabrent HDD Docking Station, and use it with TWO 4TB back-up drives alternately Cloned every 2 weeks from my data drive using Macrium Reflect (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - Free for personal use).
Once Cloned - REMOVE the HDD and put it back in it's anti-static bag. This way, RansomWare will never strike your back-ups.
HIGHEST Reliability is for drives rated for use in RAID-5 Network Attached Storage (NAS) units - MY favorite is Western Digital RED (YMMV)
However - with the alternating strategy listed above, AND how much NEW data you accumulate each week, lower cost value drives may suit you just fine.
And remember - - at any time you've placed a significant amount of new data on your drive that you JUST wouldn't want to lose (a wedding maybe - - etc)
Simply re-clone your data drive after the new images have been transferred, processed in Post, etc.
Yeah - - I do this. http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-496767-1.html

Mochaman Loc: Wilmington, NC

Gspeed wrote:

Hello there - moving my photos from Aperture to Lightroom Classic and I apparently need an external hard drive. My current photos take up about 284GB so I'm thinking a 1TB external hard drive should do the job. Can you recommend a manufacturer that is of good quality? Thank you, Eileen

Another 2 cents: I have been using Western Digital(WD) 'My Book' and 'My Passport' USB drives for years with excellent results - see link
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=wd%20my%20passport&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ps
However, I'll echo these comments a) don't put 'all your eggs in one basket'.... b) never assume that 'basket' lasts forever.
Every 3 to 4 years I'll 'retire' a good, working back-up drive for something new, and maintain no less than one secondary back-up of the primary back-up.
Yes, this can be confusing and time consuming, but consider the alternative

With that said, there are several good products suggested by others here, as well as suggestions on setting up a system of backing up your valuable photos, data, etc. on a regular basis.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Gspeed wrote:

Hello there - moving my photos from Aperture to Lightroom Classic and I apparently need an external hard drive. My current photos take up about 284GB so I'm thinking a 1TB external hard drive should do the job. Can you recommend a manufacturer that is of good quality? Thank you, Eileen

I use western digital and have had no problem at this point in time. Buy the largest drive you can afford; you will be surprised at how quickly the drive fills up.

TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA

rgrenaderphoto wrote:

A Seagate or Western Digital 1 Tb $90 - 100 both excellent quality for a USB 3 drive.
WD My Book SSD 1 Tb $390, and it is fast. But, how can dead nuts be reliable?

Their performance is repeatable.