Which portable Hard Drive do I get?
Jan 21, 2015 07:06:40 #
Ultra-Man wrote:
Hello fellow Hoggers and Hoggets. I need your help and expert advice. Time to clean up my computer. I have a mac and need to transfer my Lightroom catalog to one convenient place. Which portable hard drive do I get and how big? If necessary I'll buy 2 so I can have backup. I shoot RAW with a D800 Nikon, so the files are large. Thanks
I've been using WD Black for several years. I figure if I am backing up, I might as well back up to a good drive. WD now has Red drives, which I have in my NAS. They're better.
I recently learned about a class of drive called Enterprise. They are certified to run 24/7. The WD version is called Re. That will be my next drive. Get yourself a case for the drive, and make your own external drive.
As for size, I would say that 2TB is the minimum. Of course, you always need two external backups because if your main drive fails, and your one and only backup drive doesn't work, well, there goes your data.
Jan 21, 2015 07:11:07 #
It depends (my stock answer).
First, is speed a concern? Firewire is a dying connection method, so if you plan to keep the drive more than a few years, or if you're on a PC system, go with SATA3 which is both current and fast. USB2 is OK but as mentioned above, USB3 is preferable - however there are not many USB3 peripherals being made yet. I know nothing about Macs, but Firewire seems to be a standard with them. I know that the new computer I just built does not have a Firewire connection, but does have USB3 and the new SATA3 6.0GB/sec connections.
Second, @Gene51 is correct on drive quality. My personal experience with WD drives in my lab and at home has been horrible, mainly because our lab always went with the low bid on computer equipment, or had to take what the equipment manufacturers supplied with their outrageously priced products. Don't go cheap. Each manufacturer has a cheap line and a good line. They all make both good and bad drives, so don't judge by name alone.
Third, it is very difficult today to know which are the batter manufacturers of drives. I have two Samsung Spinright drives that may outlast me. The problem is that these drive manufacturers are being bought out and merged with other companies and we don't know any longer which technology is being used by Seagate, WD and others. It's a crap shoot, so the best bet is buy drives with longer warranties like the black WD level. That doesn't guarantee your data, but it does say something about the life expectancy of the drive itself.
First, is speed a concern? Firewire is a dying connection method, so if you plan to keep the drive more than a few years, or if you're on a PC system, go with SATA3 which is both current and fast. USB2 is OK but as mentioned above, USB3 is preferable - however there are not many USB3 peripherals being made yet. I know nothing about Macs, but Firewire seems to be a standard with them. I know that the new computer I just built does not have a Firewire connection, but does have USB3 and the new SATA3 6.0GB/sec connections.
Second, @Gene51 is correct on drive quality. My personal experience with WD drives in my lab and at home has been horrible, mainly because our lab always went with the low bid on computer equipment, or had to take what the equipment manufacturers supplied with their outrageously priced products. Don't go cheap. Each manufacturer has a cheap line and a good line. They all make both good and bad drives, so don't judge by name alone.
Third, it is very difficult today to know which are the batter manufacturers of drives. I have two Samsung Spinright drives that may outlast me. The problem is that these drive manufacturers are being bought out and merged with other companies and we don't know any longer which technology is being used by Seagate, WD and others. It's a crap shoot, so the best bet is buy drives with longer warranties like the black WD level. That doesn't guarantee your data, but it does say something about the life expectancy of the drive itself.
Jan 21, 2015 07:41:18 #
I can't tell you what to buy, but I have had, and still do have a selection, some of which have been working for years. The only drives (2) that I have had fail are both Seagate. I know what I wouldn't buy !!
Jan 21, 2015 07:56:55 #
Jan 21, 2015 08:01:32 #
Learning from my bad experiences of buying 3tb externals, 1 WD and 1 Seagate. Both have failed and one at the same time my laptop failed taking 3 tb of data with it. Now I bought 3 one tb drives from radio shack, (local store), and the most I can lose is 1 tb. I have actually 3 backups, desktop, laptop and 1 tb drives.
Jan 21, 2015 08:33:35 #
jims203 wrote:
Both Western digital and LaCie drives are excellent. I have used both for many years. The new iMac works better with LaCie as all external drives appear on the desktop upon boot. This was not always the case with Western Digital, but neither companies drives ever died on me either.
LaCie drives work great, until they don't. Then all goes to hell - support can be good or it can be awful. I had a WD Re drive that I thought had failed - it would not mount to a RAID array. Called, WD, they took a credit card number, shipped out the replacement overnight, waited until they received the failed drive, never charged my card. It turned out to not be the drive, but a defective cable. You cannot get better customer response than that.
A quick search turned up the following thread:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/lacie.html
There are three drive manufacturers remaining in the industry - Seagate, Western Digital and Toshiba. Seagate now owns LaCie, Quantum used to own LaCie before 2012 - so you are either getting a Quantum drive or a Seagate Drive. If you like Seagate products and customer service, and don't mind paying a premium for a pretty case, then get the LaCie. Otherwise you are likely to do better with WD and a third party external case.
Jan 21, 2015 08:42:30 #
Just consider it a crap shoot. Just because one manufacturer owns a former brand name doesn't tell us which technology is being used for their current line of drives.
Back everything up and bet on a failure at some time or another.
Back everything up and bet on a failure at some time or another.
Jan 21, 2015 08:43:30 #
I see nobody has mentioned Other World Computing - http://www.macsales.com - I've had good experience with their drives (including their RAID units) over the past 5 years. I realize, as @Gene51 points out, that the actual drives in OWC's units are made by one of the manufacturers he names, but while I've had WD drives fail on me before I haven't had any issues with OWC drives yet.
Of course, ALL hard drives fail eventually - it's just a fact of life given they have moving parts that someday will wear out - so the customer service side of things is also important if or when you need to contact the company. OWC has always been good on that front as well.
Of course, ALL hard drives fail eventually - it's just a fact of life given they have moving parts that someday will wear out - so the customer service side of things is also important if or when you need to contact the company. OWC has always been good on that front as well.
Jan 21, 2015 09:28:54 #
I use a Porsche Design 1TB and love it. It is fast with aluminum cover ans is about 1/2 " X 5" X 3".
Jan 21, 2015 09:40:17 #
studavis wrote:
I use a Porsche Design 1TB and love it. It is fast with aluminum cover ans is about 1/2 " X 5" X 3".
Porsche, LaCie and Other World Computing do not manufacture drives - they just repackage them in their own cases and retail boxes - remember - only Seagate, Western Digital and Toshiba actually manufacture the drives themselves.
Jan 21, 2015 09:45:12 #
sueyeisert
Loc: New Jersey
B&H and people who know tech recommended G-Drives to me .My Western digital external Drive crashed.
Ultra-Man wrote:
Hello fellow Hoggers and Hoggets. I need your help and expert advice. Time to clean up my computer. I have a mac and need to transfer my Lightroom catalog to one convenient place. Which portable hard drive do I get and how big? If necessary I'll buy 2 so I can have backup. I shoot RAW with a D800 Nikon, so the files are large. Thanks
Jan 21, 2015 09:47:25 #
f8lee wrote:
I see nobody has mentioned Other World Computing -... (show quote)
For MAC users, this is the best place with great services.
:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
Jan 21, 2015 09:57:32 #
sueyeisert wrote:
B&H and people who know tech recommended G-Drives to me .My Western digital external Drive crashed.
I have been in the IT business since 1983 as a system integrator - makes me somewhat familiar with computer hardware.
Open your G drive one day - you'll likely find an IBM/Hitachi/Western Digital hard drive - one of their cheap ones - maybe their Blue drive. Again - only three remaining mfgrs - WD, Seagate, Toshiba - which provide product to others, such as G drive, to package in a nice looking silver case and retail boxes with nice graphics. Inside its a run-of-the-mill HD.
If you had an external WD fail - it was likely a consumer grade cheap drive that I wrote about in my first post on this thread. These are to be avoided at all costs. Not worth the hassle and cost to recover data from them when, not if, they fail.
FYI - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/25/review_gtech_gdrive_mobile_with_thunderbolt/?page=2
Jan 21, 2015 10:03:22 #
wcmoorejr
Loc: Birmingham Alabama
Personally I use external NAS enclosures that I plug into my gig switch. I have both dlink and buffalo units (each with 2 2TB drives) and they have been running for 3-5 years without failure. They initially come up in just a bunch of drive mode. I change that to raid 0 (mirroring) so if I have a failure of a drive, I don't lose all of my pictures. This setup lets me access my pictures from any PC/Mac in the house. I do not open up my store to the cloud or from outside of my internal network. I have seen too many horror stories to do that.
Regards,
Willie
Regards,
Willie
Ultra-Man wrote:
Hello fellow Hoggers and Hoggets. I need your help and expert advice. Time to clean up my computer. I have a mac and need to transfer my Lightroom catalog to one convenient place. Which portable hard drive do I get and how big? If necessary I'll buy 2 so I can have backup. I shoot RAW with a D800 Nikon, so the files are large. Thanks
Jan 21, 2015 10:28:27 #
blankmange wrote:
I have several external harddrives for storage for my Mac - I've used many different brands over the years, all the way back to when Connor drives were the 'performance' choice...
I prefer Western Digital harddrives - they seem to have fewer failures to me.... and I refuse to buy Seagate drives...
but this is a personal opinion and you're going to get as many answers as there are brands to choose from...
I prefer Western Digital harddrives - they seem to have fewer failures to me.... and I refuse to buy Seagate drives...
but this is a personal opinion and you're going to get as many answers as there are brands to choose from...
Be careful with WD. I had a "My Book" 2TB. Little did I know that it used "green" drives [green label] which only have a 1 year warranty. Both the USB interface and the drives died right on time. Make sure you know what comes bundled in the case!
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.