khm105 Loc: Louisiana

Can anyone recommend a good external hard drive that I can use for my photos. Hubby offered me one that he had, but the darn thing doesn't work. I have never fooled around with an external hard drive or would a portable one be better?

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Here are several previous posts about this exact topic: http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/search.jsp?q=external+hard+drive&u=&s=0

Leitz Loc: Solms

B&H has a 3 TB Western Digital for 92 dollars, free shipping in the US.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/983303-REG/western_digital_wdbwlg0030hbk_nesn_3tb_elements_desktop_external.html

Doddy Loc: Barnard Castle-England

I was told hard drives are vulnerable to knocks..so try and get a shock proof one.

Fran Loc: Northeast, United States

I have two of these (1 for photos and 1 as a back up)...they are awesome!

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Good to know! I used to think that 1-Tb or 2-Tb hard drives were adequate for photo storage, but I now know better.

Bill Houghton Loc: New York area

Here is an another option for the WD Cloud. Wireless, it hooks to your router, you can then access it with IPad, or other computers without having to carry it around, because it's always available on line. Any where.

http://www.google.com/search?q=wdmycloud+t3&oq=wdmycloud+t3&aqs=chrome..69i57.7354j0j4&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8#q=wd+my+cloud+t3&tbm=shop

larrywilk Loc: Palm Harbor, FL

External or portable hard drives are often handy and useful, but often they are unnecessary. Many desk top computers have room for an extra hard drive internally. I use a 4 tb hard drive in mine and use it almost exclusively for photo storage. Takes less space and less likely to be damaged by drops or spills.

sr71 Loc: In Col. Juan Seguin Land

It depends on the type make of computer whether or not you can put a HD inside or not...

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Most consumer external hard drives are comprised of the manufacturer's cheapest hard drives in a cute little container, with passive cooling. A better solution is to get an "enthusiast" class or "enterprise" class drive - you will recognize them by their higher price and 5 yr warranty. Purchase a Rosewill drive enclosure with USB 3 or Thunderbolt connectivity, but make sure you get the one with the fan (active cooling) - which will cost abotu $35 at Newegg or Amazon. Heat, power anomalies and vibration are the enemies of hard drives - this solution does 2 out of the 3 - (heat and vibration). The process to install a bare drive into such an encloser takes a total newbie about 2-3 minutes - open the case, electrically connect the hard drive to the case (2 modular connectors and impossible to get wrong), put the cover on and secure with the 2 screws. Done. And you end up way ahead of the game.

The money you save will make you angry that you went the cheap route when the drive fails - and it will. At least you improve your chances with my suggestion. If you go Western Digital, the enthusiast drive would be the Black, or Veliciraptor, and the Enterprise would be the RE. Seagate would be the Constellation series.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Of course if you loose your connection, or don't pay your bills, or if the server becomes corrupt, or if the cloud service you use goes belly up, there go your photos. The cloud is great, but for better security, I would also suggest an external backup as well. If something is important, multiple backups is the safest way to go.

redhogbill Loc: antelope, calif

:thumbup: :thumbup:

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I can't fault your logic regarding the superiority of those drives, however, the MTBF of consumer WD and Seagate external hard drives is quite good. In many years of using them I have always ended up retiring them in favor of larger capacity drives before any of them failed. Since even the best hard drives can fail, or data can become corrupted, redundancy is critical, requiring at least two of the drives you suggest. My approach is to perform automatic incremental backups to 3 consumer quality external hard drives. The odds of more than one failing at any given time is extraordinarily tiny. The odds of all three failing at the same time is astronomically small. While in general I use my faster internal hard drive for editing, since all three external drives are current and contain my Lightroom catalog and the same folder structure, I can use any of them as my primary source. I even take one with me when I'm on vacation to use with my laptop rather than my primary desktop machine when I'm home. All drives are then synced upon my return.

Bill Houghton Loc: New York area

Just for your aware: The WD My Cloud - is a hard Drive that you connect to your personal Router, you buy it you own it. I also have a My Book that is 3T that backs up the Hard Drive (weekly on my schedule) and my System if I so desire. There is no monthly cost since I own it. If the internet goes down it's still on my router and I can access it on any computer on MY SYSTEM. it's not out there in space some where. It's a private cloud. Not yours, not Sams. It has it's own micro processor so it goes to sleep till I ring its bells to wake up. You can look at it as a Portable Hard drive on steroids.

I can also keep my LR files it. Depends on how you set up. I like the fact that when I'm in a restaurant some where that has WiFi, my photos are with me on my tablet.

zerobeat

Hi Kathy,

I have five Western Digital's and haven't had one break yet.

Dale