Which hard drive? I seek advice on an external hard drive to transfer all my pictures to. My budget is under $200. All recommendations appreciated. Thank you.

d3200prime

I seek advice on an external hard drive to transfer all my pictures to. My budget is under $200. All recommendations appreciated. Thank you.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I have one of these and it works well.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1415979-REG/wd_wdbwlg0080hbk_nesn_8tb_wd_elements_desktop.html?sts=pi

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

d3200prime wrote:

I seek advice on an external hard drive to transfer all my pictures to. My budget is under $200. All recommendations appreciated. Thank you.

4TB Western Digital.$ 110.00 Will 4TB handle all your images?

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1277275-REG/wd_wdbyft0040bbk_wesn_4tb_my_passport_portable.html?sts=pi

Quixdraw Loc: x

PixelStan77 wrote:

4TB Western Digital.$ 110.00 Will 4TB handle all your images?

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1277275-REG/wd_wdbyft0040bbk_wesn_4tb_my_passport_portable.html?sts=pi

Been very pleased with mine - shop for price.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I have two WD My Passport Ultras and they work very well.

Hamltnblue Loc: Springfield PA

d3200prime wrote:

I seek advice on an external hard drive to transfer all my pictures to. My budget is under $200. All recommendations appreciated. Thank you.

First question is how many pics are there and how much space do they take off.

Your answer may be simple usb thumb drives.
128 gig are on sale for 20 bucks
256 gig for 45 bucks.
Fill them up and throw in a drawer.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

d3200prime wrote:

I seek advice on an external hard drive to transfer all my pictures to. My budget is under $200. All recommendations appreciated. Thank you.

Transfer to? Or back up to.....
Never have them in only one place!

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

HGST Ultrastar

johneccles Loc: Leyland UK

For that amount of money, I would advise you to buy at least two, so any failure would not cause you a problem.

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

d3200prime wrote:

I seek advice on an external hard drive to transfer all my pictures to. My budget is under $200. All recommendations appreciated. Thank you.

You don't specify how much storage you need.

But the rule of thumb is that you can get a much better (more reliable, faster, longer lasting) solution if you buy an enterprise quality hard drive and a separate case, and take the 2 minutes to install in the case.

Western Digital sells their Ultrastar (formerly Hitachi Ultrastar) DataCenter hard drives that have a long standing reputation in the field:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=Ultrastar%20hard%20drive&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search=

Western Digital Black and Gold drives are also very good -

All three come with 5 yr warranties.

The consumer grade, low-budget, external drives like the My Book or My Passport, etc - are pretty unreliable with a high failure rate - warranty ranges from 1 to 3 yrs, depending on which model.

Here is a chart that shows warranty periods for their drives:

https://support.wdc.com/warranty/warrantypolicy.aspx

I would feel comfortable using any of their 5 yr drives in an external case.

If you are using this in a RAID array, the RE series is what you'd want to get.

Seagate has some drives, but generally speaking the WD solutions are better in my opinion.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

Gene51 wrote:

You don't specify how much storage you need. br b... (show quote)

I agree

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

d3200prime wrote:

I seek advice on an external hard drive to transfer all my pictures to. My budget is under $200. All recommendations appreciated. Thank you.

You don't specify how much storage you need.

But the rule of thumb is that you can get a much better (more reliable, faster, longer lasting) solution if you buy an enterprise quality hard drive and a separate case, and take the 2 minutes to install in the case.

Western Digital sells their Ultrastar (formerly Hitachi Ultrastar) DataCenter hard drives that have a long standing reputation in the field:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=Ultrastar%20hard%20drive&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search=

Western Digital Black and Gold drives are also very good -

All three come with 5 yr warranties.

The consumer grade, low-budget, external drives like the My Book or My Passport, etc - are pretty unreliable with a high failure rate - warranty ranges from 1 to 3 yrs, depending on which model.

Here is a chart that shows warranty periods for their drives:

https://support.wdc.com/warranty/warrantypolicy.aspx

I would feel comfortable using any of their 5 yr drives in an external case.

If you are using this in a RAID array, the RE series is what you'd want to get.

Seagate has some drives, but generally speaking the WD solutions are better in my opinion.

Wanderer2 Loc: Colorado Rocky Mountains

d3200prime wrote:

I seek advice on an external hard drive to transfer all my pictures to. My budget is under $200. All recommendations appreciated. Thank you.

I recently bought one of these from Amazon: "Toshiba Canvio Advance 2TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0" for $63. This is my third Toshiba Canvio and I have had not a problem with any of them.

d3200prime

Hamltnblue wrote:

First question is how many pics are there and how much space do they take off.

Your answer may be simple usb thumb drives.
128 gig are on sale for 20 bucks
256 gig for 45 bucks.
Fill them up and throw in a drawer.

I really had not even thought about thumb drives! I will research for dependability. Thank you!

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

d3200prime wrote:

I seek advice on an external hard drive to transfer all my pictures to. My budget is under $200. All recommendations appreciated. Thank you.

I use Western digital and Seagate. I like Seagate better because of the backup sync program that comes with it.

But if you're handy at all I think Gene is already told you you can make your own a lot cheaper than buying a plug-in play.