dandina

what would be the best external hard drive to store photos, and would it be better to use usb drives for storage?

whitewolfowner

No, the best and cheapest way is to use two hard drives; the second backs up the first one. That way when one fails, you don't lose your photos. There is no guarantees, but from test that have been run (most dependable and longest lasting) HGST and Western digital are on the top, with Toshiba running a close second (any of these three is a good choice). The Western Digital My Book series is hard to beat for price and they have a version for mac and one for PC's too). What ever you do stay away from Seagate. Their quality has gone down the tubes so bad that they have a class action suit after them because of their huge failure rate.

Dwolfe1941

G-Technology sells the G-Drive made for MAC.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

I have had great success using WD's My Passport for Macs.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

Added to that: keep one of the externals at your workplace, mother-in-law's house, or wherever, but away from your computer and home.
If you have the photos on your computer's hard drive as well, keep the second external also in a different place.
And of course, regularly update the externals.
Due to size limitations I don't have photos on my computer's hard drive now, but use an external WD 1TB as a 'working drive.' At home I have a 4TB external, that I copy my photos to, right away when they come out of the camera, and again when they're edited. That 4TB is kept on the opposite end of the house from my computer. I have a second 4TB drive in the care of my grandson. Every time we visit his home, the 4TB goes with me and the two are swapped out, so I can update the second one.

This system has worked well for me. Just the other day I was talking to a computer technician and was told that he gets at least two or three calls a week from people who lost ALL their photos because something went wrong with the hard drive. Many are recoverable - for a price! and it isn't cheap.
So while you're setting up your back-up system, may I also suggest you download and install the (free) program Recuva from piriform: https://www.piriform.com/recuva/download

whitewolfowner

Yes, an off site drive is an excellent idea. Avoid loss from fire or theft.

Jim Bob

Don't know about "the best" but I have had excellent experience with Western Digital.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

bdk Loc: Sanibel Fl.

Right now I have 2 WD hard drives, a seagate 1Tb that fits in your pocket and an internal drive 2tb in an external case. another internal drive in an external case was given to me, years ago, its still working. I wouldnt use a USB drive for storage IMHO

JeffR Loc: Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

I recommend usb external drives because they are cheap, reliable, and easily transportable when travelling. I keep my catalog and photos on one I label master, and make two backups. One backup is kept at home, the other in my safe deposit box. I've used Western Digital and Toshiba, but mostly Seagate. Out of at least a dozen drives, the only one that's ever failed was the Western Digital.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

I have two Seagate's, one is a good 10 years old and runs just as good, as it did, when I plugged it in for the first time. I never had any issues with either one!

whitewolfowner

They are old enough that they were good back then. They have surely out lived their life span if you have them on all the time, so be prepared. I'm not sure when Sea Gates problems started but a few years ago when I last shopped for a drive, I was aware they were a problem. Then again, just like cars, you buy the best on the market and get a lemon or buy the worst and get a good one. Can only play the adds.

F8 Forever Loc: Lng Island, NY

External hard drives are ridiculously cheap now, so I have three hanging off my PC. One of them is my main storage drive to keep that stuff off my primary drive. The other two are backups of that. And then there's Flickr...

Cloud storage is probably the easiest and safest thing now. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Dropbox and others are giving away gigabytes of it, and you don't have to worry about thefts, fires, and such. If you run out of free storage with everyone giving so much away, there are several options. Don't trust one? Get two. Or three.

The first thing, of course, is to go through those thousands of images and pick out the ones really worth saving. Two hundred snaps of cats in sinks could be considered a bit excessive no matter how cute. Really, every time I go through my files I end up throwing lots away-- that tree become less interesting every time I see it.

Nobody- pro, amateur, or Great Artist can run through two memory cards on a shoot and every one is a keeper. Be brutal in your critiques and fill the trash bin.

Then when you are convinced of the keepers, if you still run out of free room on the uploads-- pay the man. If your stuff is that good, it should be worth paying to keep.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

I use Western Digital for my external HD My internal HD failed and when I replaced it with a WD Blue found it was a Seagate All my HD drive failures have been Seagate

CO

The Samsung T3 SSD is an excellent portable hard drive.