Which hard drive?
Jun 6, 2019 09:46:55 #
Jun 6, 2019 09:58:07 #
I would just add that you get what you pay for. An enterprise class drive for $200 is a much better deal in the long run than that $65 external. I contend that you cannot design, manufacture, test and market (at a profit) a reliable drive, enclosure, power supply, and interface for $65.
To echo Gene’s comments, buy the external case and insert your own choice of HDs - takes all of 5 minutes and you know what drive is in the case. Many/most of the prepackaged units use the cheapest drive available, and when it fails, you not only lose your investment, you lose your data. You’ve spent sometimes thousands of $ to do one thing - acquire data; does it make sense to trust it to the cheapest storage you can find (unless of course, your pictures are valueless to you).
To echo Gene’s comments, buy the external case and insert your own choice of HDs - takes all of 5 minutes and you know what drive is in the case. Many/most of the prepackaged units use the cheapest drive available, and when it fails, you not only lose your investment, you lose your data. You’ve spent sometimes thousands of $ to do one thing - acquire data; does it make sense to trust it to the cheapest storage you can find (unless of course, your pictures are valueless to you).
Jun 6, 2019 10:37:34 #
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.
Hopefully you have USB3.0 or 3.1 ports on your computer. I just bought a Seagate 8TB external drive that works quite well. Got it from B&H for $150
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1261838-REG/seagate_stel8000100_8tb_desktop_drive_with.html
Jun 6, 2019 10:59:09 #
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.
Well, I don't know about under $200 but I have been conducting research on that very subject because my wife lost some photos and was heartbroken and I vowed never to let that happen again. So, what I was looking for was a good product with very good customer service and a good warranty. What I found was, GLYPH; made in the USA with an outstanding warranty and great customer service.
Jun 6, 2019 11:03:12 #
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.
Whatever you buy, remember that if you should ever need to have the drive sent out to recover data, (broken, etc.), an SSD is normally not recoverable. So you loose the data.
If you decide on a regular hard drive, it can take a very long time to copy and and transfer data. One good thing is, you can normally recoverable data by an outside vendor.
Jun 6, 2019 11:24:04 #
If you have a Costo account, they have some hard drives at around $100 that include free trial of Adobe cc. Otherwise, even at Staples, they have great buys on hard drives for under $100. Good luck.
Jun 6, 2019 11:25:12 #
I have a Seagate 2tb that has been super reliable and I have lots of good stuff on it.
Jun 6, 2019 14:28:18 #
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 bought one not too long ago, it's an 8TB Seagate, and I like it a lot! Its plug'n play, so it couldn't be any easier to use. Paid about $130!
Jun 6, 2019 14:48:48 #
GENorkus wrote:
Whatever you buy, remember that if you should ever need to have the drive sent out to recover data, (broken, etc.), an SSD is normally not recoverable. So you loose the data.
If you decide on a regular hard drive, it can take a very long time to copy and and transfer data. One good thing is, you can normally recoverable data by an outside vendor.
If you decide on a regular hard drive, it can take a very long time to copy and and transfer data. One good thing is, you can normally recoverable data by an outside vendor.
But the cost of a recovery service will be so high for a HD (north of 1K$) that you are unlikely to do it. Modern SSDs are at least as reliable as spinning disk, and not all failures are unrecoverable - depends on the nature of the failure.
Jun 6, 2019 14:53:33 #
If you are doing this it is imperative that you get two hard drives and duplicate on onto the other. The question isn't which hard drive will last a long time, it's when will a hard drive fail. Will you live forever? Your hard drive is the same thing.
I've had hard drives of every size and make fail, but all in all, I find WD to be the best. But sitting on my desk now are two failed HD's, one a seagate and one a WD, both are dead on the exact time and date. Good thing I have three copies of everything.
I've had hard drives of every size and make fail, but all in all, I find WD to be the best. But sitting on my desk now are two failed HD's, one a seagate and one a WD, both are dead on the exact time and date. Good thing I have three copies of everything.
Jun 6, 2019 16:10:02 #
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 a pair of Seagate drives, a 1T and a 2T plus my computers hard drive. No issues to date,, they just work. The Seagates were well under $100.oo each.
Jun 6, 2019 16:43:19 #
I use three formats. A 1 TB Toshiba spinning drive, a Monster 256 GB SSD and a Lexor 64 GB thumb drive that I got on sale. That way if any tech fails I have backup in another.
Jun 6, 2019 21:02:21 #
The funny thing (not really) about "super reliable" hard drives is that they are just that until they stop working. A good reliable hard drive has a 5 yr warranty, cost more than a 6 tb drive for $110, and will let you sleep at night. The old adage from the mid 80s regarding hard drives is that there are those who have suffered catastrophic data loss due to hard drive failure, and there are those that will. . . My advice - don't be lured by the cheap drives. They break. I suppose if you want to do triple redundant backup getting two of those cheap drives might make sense, but then there goes the cost benefit. And they still won't last as long as a good drive.
Jun 6, 2019 23:44:10 #
Depends on how much data you have.
I agree with the suggestion regarding USB Thumb Drives (USB-3 only) - IF they have sufficient capacity.
Use a data replication program such as Vice Versa to expedite back-up.
IF you have Terabytes of data - you can't beat rotating disks in a USB-3 docking station.
IF you want reliable
Get one rated for use in a RAID-5 NAS such as WD Red (Seagate IronHorse IMHO Not recommended)
Again - Vice Versa is Highly recommended along with a Sabrent USB-3 Docking Station.
I agree with the suggestion regarding USB Thumb Drives (USB-3 only) - IF they have sufficient capacity.
Use a data replication program such as Vice Versa to expedite back-up.
IF you have Terabytes of data - you can't beat rotating disks in a USB-3 docking station.
IF you want reliable
Get one rated for use in a RAID-5 NAS such as WD Red (Seagate IronHorse IMHO Not recommended)
Again - Vice Versa is Highly recommended along with a Sabrent USB-3 Docking Station.
Jun 7, 2019 05:54:54 #
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 have six 2TB WD My Passport Ultras. I use them only intermittently so they seem pretty safe to me. If I were going to leave them hooked up and running I'd probably get full-sized HDDs and put them in cases with fans instead.
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