Hard drive recommendation. Internal + External

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Tom
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Looks like its time I swapped my hard drive for a decent sized one as mines nearly full. While I'm at it I guess I ought to sort out my backup plans and get a portable drive as well.

Any recommendations folks? Looking at 2-4 TB for both. I'm guessing performance for the portable backup isn't that essential.
 
Is the internal one for a laptop or desktop PC?
I can highly recommend the Western Digital My Passport range for external backups.
 
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Desktop, I have an SSD for my OS so I'm hoping it will be a fairly straightforward swap.
 
Not had to buy a desktop hard drive for years, but always sworn by Western Digital, usually the Black models, not the green/blue. But my info might be out of date.
 
The 'Passport' ones are good, as above.
I have two 1 Tb ones. Last one I bought was £59.
 
Thanks for the recommendations, I'll be ordering the Passport drive for the backup then.
For the internal, the black Western Digital seem to be their highest spec. Is that overkill for RAW and TIFF storage?
 
I do have a portable USB hard drive which is used as a second back up, but my primary back up device is a hard drive connected to my WIFI router. It's always on-line to my home network and I can connect to it both at home or securely via the internet from anywhere else. I can live with the slower transfer times compared to an external USB drive as it is so convenient to use and access files from anywhere in the house without having to connect up each time. I have a Western Digital My Book Live drive, but all the main players seem to offer equivalent drives, albeit for a bit more money than a USB drive.
 
go usb3.
and for pure storage then wd greens are fine, I cant remember what brand 3tb drive I bought :/
 
Another vote for WD Blacks. I only use Greens as backup drives.
 
WD Green is more reliable for storage. Would only use a Black if it was my primary drive, but who doesnt use an SSD these days.
 
1GB SSDs are still too expensive. I have one in my M6700 as it does get moved around occasionally but wouldn't put one in a desktop PC; I'll stick to a smaller SSD for OS & applications plus a mirrored pair of 1GB WD Blacks for data for the moment.
 
Adam Wortman said:
Do you use the built in software when you back up using this? As far as I can tell it never deltes anything only re-writes new files that have been added, Or am I missing something?
Click to expand...

Yes to both questions.
Regarding SSDs, they are still too expensive for me and still not available at the capacities I'd be interested in.
 
As an IT guy with several rigs running 24/7 at home I've had lots of drive failures over the years.
WD Caviar Black are the only non SSD drives I have bought for the last few years based on reliability over all of my other drives.
I use the blacks for some boot drives, primary storage, and primary backup drives for critical files.
caviar greens and other drives (which I have experienced failures with) are for secondary backups.
I'd never again buy external drives like mybooks as a dodgy power supply took out one drive. I then had to invalidate the warranty to dismantle it and recover what data I could. Had I used the warranty, they would have just replaced the drive and left me without my data. Pointless really.
For external drives I now buy caviar blacks and insert them into third party cases.

Sure they are more expensive than greens, etc, but that 5 year warranty seems to count for something in how they are put together.
 
Deadlock said:
As an IT guy with several rigs running 24/7 at home I've had lots of drive failures over the years.
WD Caviar Black are the only non SSD drives I have bought for the last few years based on reliability over all of my other drives.
I use the blacks for some boot drives, primary storage, and primary backup drives for critical files.
caviar greens and other drives (which I have experienced failures with) are for secondary backups.
I'd never again buy external drives like mybooks as a dodgy power supply took out one drive. I then had to invalidate the warranty to dismantle it and recover what data I could. Had I used the warranty, they would have just replaced the drive and left me without my data. Pointless really.
For external drives I now buy caviar blacks and insert them into third party cases.

Sure they are more expensive than greens, etc, but that 5 year warranty seems to count for something in how they are put together.
Click to expand...

Deadlock, what third party cases do you recommend?
 
Longimanus said:
Deadlock, what third party cases do you recommend?
Click to expand...

I'd prioritise keeping it simple and reliable over any specific make of case as such.
Just make sure the case can handle all drive sizes around today that you will be likely to use and perhaps upgrade in the future.
esata is in my experience a fast and stable transfer mechanism and what I prefer to use. Then USB2 - (not 3).

I shop at novatech or ebuyer - although I've had some dire customer service at the latter.

The open slot style units where you slide drives in and out are easy to break.
The multi bay drive units with USB3 like the 4 bay icy docks have given me no end of problems. It took me a year to realise that the 16TB of backups on it were corrupted due to trying to use the manufacturers recommended port multiplier to communicate over USB3 to esata converter.
Also that particular icy dock caused so much electrical interference that my wireless mouse jitters when the icybox is on.
And the marketing material that says its quiet is lying.

So my advice if you want an external hd is to keep it simple and stick to tried and tested technology.

If you need multi bay, then look for a NAS or an old PC or a cheap server.
If NAS, I wouldn't touch drobo with a barge pole. Never use proprietary OS as you will not be able to retrieve your data when something fails. Cheaper NAS units have generally poor security. Investing in something like synology would be better.
 
Personally I'd use a WD Red or Black for internal, then a USB3 Mypassport for external.

In my opinion deadlocks concerns about external drives are a little OTT, After all it is only a backup. If you lose the backup then the priority is to make a new one from your 'master'

I have EVERYTHING Backed up like so:

Main PC - All Documents, Pictures, Music, Video
Laptop - All Documents
External HDD - All Documents, Pictures, Music, Video, TV & Film, Images of Boot Drives.
Microsoft Onedrive - All Documents, Pictures, Music, Video.

I plan (eventually) to get a NAS which will duplicate to the External HDD and hold what the external holds.
 
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