TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I love my MDisks also - been preaching them as the best archive media available for a long time.

Regarding SSDs, I started with Intel (500 series) when SSDs were new because they had the best reliability as determined by our engineering guru at DDN, and have never been disappointed - I have 4 that have been running 24x7 for 8 years. I have recently placed several Samsung 960s in service based on their excellent reputation in the industry - too soon to provide long term data, but it meets it’s published benchmarks (3,000 MB/sec read in an m.2 to PCI adapter). I gave Samsung T5 USB externals as gifts to several people 2 years ago, and they love them. The T7s are now available at 2x the speed of the T5s if you have USB 3.2 ports available. If you’re placing these in a transactional environment such as a server with multiple clients, I’d pay attention to the specific technology (SLC, MLC, TLC, etc) and consider buying the pro SLC versions rated for more erase/write cycles.

robertcbyrd Loc: 28754

This old IT guy goes with Western Digital. Overall excellent reliability.

But ANY HDD can fail, and will, eventually, fail. Get two and keep one as a backup.

I recommend SyncBackFree for free, simple backup and / or synching if you are using Windows.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

I have two G drives and no problems over the year I have had them. But, that is not very long.
I am not sure, but I think G-Tech drives come Apple formatted. So, if you are like the majority of people in the world, you will need to reformat the drive. But that is not difficult in the PC world where unnecessary complications in procedure are not the rule. The G-Tech drives have been well rated (when they have been included in comparisons [which they often are not])
The OP mentions portable rather than external. Just a note that current "regular" (meaning the kind you just leave on your desk because they are too big to lug around) external drives tend to have faster transfer rates portables. But, if you are a Lightroom or even a PS user, that is not so much an issue except during import. LR uses the catalog (that you should keep on your primary drive) and only accesses the external where you have your original files occasionally. So read/write speed is not as big an issue.
Given that the drives brands the OP mentions all do well with their portable drives. Would have to know more about the use to give more refined advice.

JBRIII

Agree with all said about Western Digital.

mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma

Western Digital. Straight forward, not fussy.

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

For PORTABLE backup and storage, as the OP states, here's another vote for WD Passports. I've used 'em that way for years with no problems. I find it especially convenient to use one formatted ExFAT to move/copy files between Mac and Windows boxes. (If we still had kids at home they could set up a home network to do that, but since they're all grown and gone I do it with a portable drive.)

marvkaye

WD is great. I've got Passports and Elements, both perform well. That being said, SSDs have come way down in price and will be the only portables I'll buy from now on. Faster, smaller, lighter, no moving parts... yeah....

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

Last year I switched over my harddrive and both backup drives from HDD to Samsung SSD. One of the backups is internal, the other external and easily portable. No case or cage needed. All are incredibly small and incredibly fast. The box that each came in was considerably smaller then an HDD! I'll never go back to HDD. Got mine at B&H.

limeybiker

nobler

WD all the way! Also, you need to buy TWO drives. Redundancy, redundancy. A program like PC-Sync makes it easy to keep your drives in-sync.

MDI Mainer

Ditto. No problems over 15 years.

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

I have a different issue about drives. My desk topis 90% full so want to add internal drive but not sure if Im running win 7 are there going to be compatibility issues with newer drives. Going to go SS drive and probably WD.
I have lap top win 10 and not fond of it

kcl Loc: Ottawa, Canada (formerly Sacramento, CA)

I've had all brands of portable HDDs fail over the years causing me to lose both professional and personal files. I now only use SSDs - they are relatively inexpensive these days and if they do fail are almost 100% recoverable (versus the issues caused by head crashes on spinning disk). I've picked up 1TB SanDisk SSDs at Costco for $120. Amazon offers 1 and 2 TB SSDs from Samsumg, SanDisk and others at pretty decent prices.

I'm just waiting for desktop SDDs to become a bit more affordable as backup to the backup... I'll never buy another HDD

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

There are no compatibility issues between Win7/Win10 and what you choose for your HD, BUT Win7 support has ended, and it will become more and more vulnerable to attacks and there will be less and less drivers for new products (both HW and applications) to support it. Since you’re considering changing the internal drive, now is a good time to install a new OS from scratch. Not auite as easy as just cloning the old drive, but you’ll be starting with a fresh OS, without all the performance killing clutter that eventually accumulates after you use an OS for a long time AND your system will be more secure from viruses/malware since all the definitions will be up to date (and automatically stay that way.

Either way you choose, by all means buy an SSD of 1-2 TB. If you have a PCI slot open (or an m.2), buy an m.2 NVME drive and if you only have a PCI slot, purchase an inexpensive PCI to m.2 adapter card. If you have neither available,, then get a SATA interface SSD. Both the Samsung 850/960 series and Intel’s 540 series are good choices last I checked. And if you decide to stay with win 7, many/most SSDs come with a link for SW to clone your HD. If not, just download a free copy of Macrium Reflect, and use it to clone the HD. Feel free to PM me with any questions. You’re going to be very pleasantly surprised at the speed increase - it will feel like a new machine in terms of performance when you move from a conventional HD to an SSD.

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

I'm not ready to give up win 7; have too much other life stuff to learn win 10 at this time but I like the way you think.
Could I install win 10 on new ss drive and pick one to use? Might be like training wheels for a while