lschiz Loc: Elgin, IL

Many good options out there as recommendations here. I am partial to Seagate but even more important I believe is using a RAID enclosure.
Using two 4T drives in this configuration is one of the best ways I’m comfortable with.
Then I back up this RAID drive to another single drive.
That single RAID backup drive I keep with me at work offsite away from home for a secure location back up. Here is the link to what I’ve seen, read and heard much about and now use myself.
These can be purchased with 4T drives mounted or empty and you provide your own drives.
https://www.cru-inc.com/products/rtx/rtx220-3qr/

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

RAID arrays are a powerful storage tool. RAID 1 (mirroring) RAID 1+0 (sometimes referred to as RAID 10), or RAiD 5 are common uses. If you can find an array that supports it, RAID 3 is the best and highest performance for large image files. You don’t need an external RAiD system to implement it because Windows supports RAID 1 and 5 directly - you just need at least 2 drives for RAID 1 or 3 for RAID 5. An external RAID system with its own HW controller can be higher performance than the SW implemented RAID from Windows, but the controller is one more thing to fail in the storage chain.

frjeff Loc: Mid-Michigan

Checked with WD to find out if two different drives were PMR or SMR technology. Lot of useless rambling, but no real answer:


Dear JEFFREY JOHNSTON,

Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support. My name is Brandon.

I understand your concern that you want to know whether the drives are PMR hard drives. We value your concern and are happy to assist you.

Based on your concern, please be informed that the drive inside your external hard drive, network hard drive, or router enclosure may vary depending on application.

There are several things you should know about WD external hard drives:

Depending on model, the internal hard drive in an external enclosure could be either SATA or native USB.

We can only guarantee drive capacity. We cannot guarantee a particular internal hard drive model, data interface, rotational speed, transfer speed or cache size in the external hard drive enclosure.

For more information, please refer the link mentioned below:

What Kind of Hard Drive is Inside a Western Digital External Product?
https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/13652

If you have any further questions, please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further.

Sincerely,
Brandon
Western Digital Service and Support
http://support.wdc.com

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Yep, that’s what I found also when researching the issue some time ago. An excellent reason to “roll your own” external so you’ll know what drive is inside.

lositton Loc: Pensacola, FL

I have several, my most recent desktop external is an 8 TB WD My Book, for $159 at Walmart. I'm converting VHS, Hi-8, & Digital-8 video to digital, editing out the garbage, and saving for my children on their own 2 TB WD My Passport drives. It is a huge project as I have hundreds of tapes, and I hope to get it done in this lifetime!

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Great project, but make sure you backup as you go. My stepson (who never listens to anyone’s advice) spent the summer ripping his entire CD music collection to a large cheap, external, and you guessed it, just as he was done, it crashed. No backup, and no data - 3 months of work wasted.

GrandmaG Loc: Flat Rock, MI

I’ve had better luck with Seagate than WD on my iMac

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC