Triggerhappy

I need an external hard drive for my IMac computer to back up photos. I have heard that Western Digital is good. I need advice on what to buy. Which is reliable and long lasting?
How do I get just my photos to go to the backup drive and not all other info? Do I need more than one and what size?

Mike D. Loc: Crowley County, CO.

Too many variables here TH but 2 tb are cheap and will last quite a while. I save everything in jpg and raw & have yet to put a serious dent in the 2 tb that I have and thos includes almost every picture that I've taken in the last 25 years.

Without more info it's anyone's guess. Good luck with your search.

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

LaCie drives work flawless on Mac's

Moving photos depends on if you use any post processing programs like Lightroom, and where they are located now.
****EDITED****
So you are getting into the backup debate here when you ask if you need two drives or not. let me just say to the BU question. You need one copy of your data off-site. How you get it there does not matter Some will suggest multiple drives rotating them to an off-site location like Aunt Betty's house, or a bank vault. Personally I like cloud based BU as they are automatic and not dependent on my input. You can use a service like Backblaze, or crashplan.

How to get your photos an not other stuff on this external drives depends on where they are now. If the are in the standard /User/Pictures directory, you can copy the folder there manually. You would however be much better off using some kind of Syncing program. Again there are many of these for a Mac. You have to set it up to sync your pictures directory to the external drive and run at scheduled times.

The way I do it is a little different, I use the External LaCie drive for storage for everything. That drive is backed up in my Time Machine locally, and in the cloud using Crashplan.

But again, before moving any photos I would want to know what you use for Processing work. Because it may matter to the program how you move them.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Hitachi, now owned by WD I believe and labeled HGST get very good rating for long life and low failure rate. I have 5 different WDs but will look at HGST for my next HD.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

If you're going to back up your data, yes you need more than one. External hard drives are pretty much just as reliable as internal hard drives (although they can be subject to more physical stress). If your internal hard drive can fail, so can your external hard drive.

Most people who are concerned about it go with at least 2 (or more) drives. If one fails you still have two to extract your data from. And failure isn't always due to the drive. Your computer could catch fire. There goes your internal drive. If you keep your backup drive on your desk, it's gone too.

Keep your first backup drive somewere in your house well removed from your computer. If your office burns up or a tree falls on it, you still have your backup. Keep your second backup drive somewhere else. If your whole house burns or gets flooded, the second drive will be somewhere else. You just have to find a place that isn't subject to the same environmental risks.

(All the above assumes you keep your data on the drive in your computer. If you are using the files for archiving your data, not just backing it up, you should have 3 or more drives).

And what makes you think you only want to back up your photos? Isn't there anything else valuable on your computer? If you need to back up, you need to back up everything. Your photos. Your word processing files. Your emails. Your program configuration files. Anything that would cause you grief if it disappeared and you had to reconstruct it.

As far as size is concerned, I would estimate you need at least 3 times the amount of room you are currently using for your data. That allows for some growth. Recognize that storage requirements tend to get larger over time. New cameras have more megapixels. The programs are larger. If you use Photoshop those files can be really large. Video files are very large. A factor of 3 will only hold you for a few years. However the price of large drives drops with time so you will be able to replace your drives eventually with much larger drives for the same money.

Erik_H Loc: Denham Springs, Louisiana

I have a 1 TB WD MyPassport, a 2 TB WD MyPassport Ultra, and a 4TB WD MyBook. I've never had any problems with Westerd Digital products.

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

I use WD for both my external and I also have a WD 4tb cloud with a 4tb USB 3 drive added giving me 8tb on the cloud. WD has been extremely reliable and the one failure that I did have was quickly replaced under warranty and I recovered it with backup. The cloud gives me private access to my selected photos from any computer with Wi-Fi access. I use this for customer demos.

Dds82

Capture 48: Heard of LaCie and will look into it if you say it works well with Apple software BECAUSE SEAGATE DOESNT! I have two Seagate external drives working with time machine and both eventually crashed and I have two free replacements that I don't expect to see lasting.
So don't buy Seagate products for iMac backups.

hj Loc: Florida

With my Western Digital I always back their "black" version. Pay attention to the warranty offered as that tells you something. The "blacks" have a 5 year limited warranty. Most drives have 3 years or less.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

A backup drive will let you recover your files if your computer's drive fails. Suppose the backup fails? That's why you want two external backups.

Here are links to good articles. Don't rush into this. I use SyncBack to do backups every couple of days. I have seven folders with pictures, word processing files, manuals, etc., and they get saved on a regular basis.

http://www.backblaze.com/blog/best-hard-drive/
http://improvephotography.com/31924/best-hard-drive-for-photographers/
http://lifehacker.com/how-long-will-my-hard-drives-really-last-1700405627
http://www.zdnet.com/article/solid-state-disks-lose-data-if-left-without-power-for-just-a-few-days/
http://the10bestreview.com/top-10-best-external-hard-drives-in-2015-reviews/

I've always gotten WD Black, but they have RED, which are better, and Re, which are better still. WD now owns Hitachi, which makes excellent drives. Seagate is facing a lawsuit because their drives have been failing at a very high rate.

NorthPacific

Triggerhappy
I use only Transcend Storejet external drives....they are military weapons grade (seriously) and very solid and don't require a supplemental power unit ....Amazon.com usually has the best prices......also this case is a perfect fit for the Transcend external.....I have used these for some years now and have 9 of them and none have ever failed....Can't go wrong with this Transcend...

Also buy a six foot USB/USB3 extension since it will make handling these easier ...the USB extension that is included is a bit short BUT it fits inside this case logic carrier.. You can pick up the USB2 discontinued models cheaper if you prefer and can find them still....

And strangely I have found using the USB3 model into a older style USB2 port, you still get faster speeds though I can't say why.

Anyway though I have western digital externals and others, I prefer the Transcend brand. Now I am a WIN 7 user (refuse to migrate to 10) and you are a MAC user? Now these work out of the box in Windows..no formatting needed...I looked it up and you can use this with mac gear but you have to format it.... here is the link for that info.
http://www.transcend-info.com/Support/FAQ-878


Amazon listing of Transcend Storejets
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dcomputers&field-keywords=transcend+external

Case Logic PHDC-1 Compact Portable Hard Drive Case (Black) is the brand and model available on amazon...last batch I got cost around six dollars each with free shipping...

good luck...

TennisCoach Loc: Saginaw, MI

I presented the same question to an employee at an Apple store yesterday. They sell Lacie and Seagate. I asked him which one is best. He said they sell more Seagate than Lacie and recommended Seagate. But he also said you can't go wrong with either.

GWR100 Loc: England

My advise from experience, do not rely on 1 backup, they can be prone to crash and while in the majority of cases there are people and companies who can retrieve your data it is expensive, I back up on 2 Ext drives and I store in the cloud which for a few pound a year is money well spent,

Geoff

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Too many choices. Check out Other World Computing (aka MacSales) at http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/storage?_ga=1.4404851.1775429792.1455973969.

You might want to consider some sort of a RAID device for redundancy.

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

A RAID device is NOT a backup it is only a storage device. RAID make horrible backup devices.