Hard Drive Recommendations (Storage)

Forkbeard

Forkbeard

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Can anyone recommend a hard drive (well, two probably) for storing/backing up mainly raw files? It's been a while since I've bought any PC gear and I'm probably a little behind the times as to what's out there. I'm using a laptop at the moment, so something external. Not necessarily all that small/portable just something reliable.
 
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When you say reliable what do you mean? If this external hard drive is your backup, remember that all hard drives fail, though when they fail varies. Some manufacturers are worse than others. I personally don't like Seagate but they are one of the largest HD manufacturers and a lot of external drives have them inside. You might be better off buying an external USB 3.0 housing (caddy) and fitting a hard drive of your choice inside.
 
How big do you need? a couple of external drive such as WD or seagate would be fine. Best to have multiple copies stored in different places
 
as above, no matter what is recommended someone will come along and say they've had bad experiences.

but this is why you always have at least 2 copies of your data, because hard drives fail.

personally ive got 2x usb3 3tb seagate desktop drives (of different models) which I rotate as my off site backup. they've been fine so far.
 
Forkbeard said:
Can anyone recommend a hard drive (well, two probably) for storing/backing up mainly raw files? It's been a while since I've bought any PC gear and I'm probably a little behind the times as to what's out there. I'm using a laptop at the moment, so something external. Not necessarily all that small/portable just something reliable.
Click to expand...

Worth having a look at the Backblaze "failure" specs when buying HDDs

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard...drivestats-b&utm_campaign=Newsletter-20170606
 
Thanks for the replies, the plan is to have two hard drives, one a backup of the other for storage and just have the current images I'm working on the laptop, then back up and delete.

I think I'll go down the usb3 enclosure route with a couple of 3.5 Western Digitals. I have used them before and not had any problems. From what I remember there are different colour coded WDs, I'm not sure which one to get...
 
Forkbeard said:
From what I remember there are different colour coded WDs, I'm not sure which one to get...
Click to expand...
again pinch of salt time..

black - performance normally 7.2k rpm, high cache
blue - every day desktop use
gold - enterprise 7.2k rpm, high/higher cache, low power use
red - NAS 24/7, cooler running, longer warranty
purple - cctv 24/7 use

personally i dont put much stock in "nas specific" drives. other than the longer warranty.
 
myotis said:
Worth having a look at the Backblaze "failure" specs when buying HDDs
Click to expand...
They have only put those fake stats on their site to scare the gullible into buying their cloud backup.
 
This has reminded me I needed to purchase a second offsite portable hard drive so I can rotate off site backups. I've just found a 2TB WD ultra from the recertified store for £52 which isn't bad considering it will my third copy of backup data.
 
neil_g said:
again pinch of salt time..

black - performance normally 7.2k rpm, high cache
blue - every day desktop use
gold - enterprise 7.2k rpm, high/higher cache, low power use
red - NAS 24/7, cooler running, longer warranty
purple - cctv 24/7 use

personally i dont put much stock in "nas specific" drives. other than the longer warranty.
Click to expand...

Ah, thanks. Blue one it is.
 
redsnappa said:
They have only put those fake stats on their site to scare the gullible into buying their cloud backup.
Click to expand...

What's wrong with BackBlaze backup? And can you offer a source of reliable stats that refutes what they are suggesting.
 
neil_g said:
i see people banding these figures around a lot, worth taking with a pinch of salt due to the amount of use they will be getting at backblaze. not really your typical home use scenario.
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Yes, all data needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, but as you say BackBlaze will (or should be ) working these drives much harder than the average user, and indeed as most failures are meant to happen when HDDs are spun up and spun down, in a home situation HDDs may well be less reliable than this.

In terms of backup, i think you need to assume HDD failure and have files in multiple locations, but I still think these BackBlaze stats give some useful insights HDD failures.
 
I personally use Seagate Expansion Desk HDDs and over a few years have had no failures - but I never keep them plugged in, just do a backup and unplug and put them away until the next backup.

But for photos which are irreplaceable I burn them onto Blu-Ray - NOT the dye ones but the metal ones - onto 2 hard drives - and onto a free cloud backup (Mega)

And the Backblaze data may be good for them to find out which are the most reliable drives in their environment but home use is quite different.
 
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