Reliable external hard drive recommendations (Page 3/3)
theogre APR 14, 03:03 AM

quote
Originally posted by williegoat:
Is there a data integrity problem with SMR drives or just a performance issue?

Depends just what you to with them.
Many have part of drive as SMR and rest is "Normal simple data tracks" and drive board control if/when data moves from fast tracks to SMR tracks.

People that treat HD as a WORM disk mostly never know data moves to SMR tracks. Most Programs and more never move unlike Temp files often get deleted in minute to days. So these "Mix Media" HD can work very well.
People that need to write edit and delete huge files like people working w/ GB to TB files for example HD and 4K Videos often have problems.

Restore a RAID set can take days to months longer then normal w/ SMR drives if the array even tries to restore.
I think Lawsuits are Consumer Fraud Class actions because WD and others sold "server drives" w/ SMR w/o telling buyers and then had failed disk in an array and failed to restore because new disk timed out repeatedly for thrashing to move data to SMR tracks.

Windows and other OS can have problems too. Don't Defrag SMR HD but Win10 and others default tries to do just that.
Schedule Defrag often has problems and most people never need this even on "simple" HDs. SSD Hates this but Win10 still does it because of many bugs. SMR HD hate it but won't damage the drive.
2.5 APR 14, 09:23 AM

quote
Originally posted by theogre:

HD is HD. I'm not looking up models etc above.





I guess I'm trying to determine how to differentiate what you are talking about. How do I identify what is and isnt "flash media".
theogre APR 14, 01:00 PM

quote
Originally posted by 2.5:
I guess I'm trying to determine how to differentiate what you are talking about. How do I identify what is and isnt "flash media".

Again, All SSD is Flash media. HD is HD aka "spinning rust" drives.

Look up whatever model @ maker's site to see HD or SSD.

Caution: Some "hybrid drives" exist combine the two but fairly rare to see. These often use software/drivers as well for windows etc to work. For system backups, you don't want them.
2.5 APR 14, 02:07 PM

quote
Originally posted by theogre:
Again, All SSD is Flash media. HD is HD aka "spinning rust" drives.

Look up whatever model @ maker's site to see HD or SSD.

Caution: Some "hybrid drives" exist combine the two but fairly rare to see. These often use software/drivers as well for windows etc to work. For system backups, you don't want them.



So you are saying as far as your opinion / warnings, is you don't reccommend a solid state drive for a "live" backup, but using it to back up data from time to time is fine. But also expect it to forget or get corrupted more easily?

[This message has been edited by 2.5 (edited 04-14-2021).]

theogre APR 14, 04:35 PM

quote
Originally posted by 2.5:
So you are saying as far as your opinion / warnings, is you don't reccommend a solid state drive for a "live" backup, but using it to back up data from time to time is fine. But also expect it to forget or get corrupted more easily?

I won't use SSD or any other Flash to backup important data for the long term.
For similar reason don't trust writable CD or DVD Even if you buy Best CD/DVD disks.

I have 15-20 year old IDE HD that still works and still have same data and often stored in very iffy places that see freezing and hot temps.
I have many old SATA HD just stuff in a drawer still work too.
for that matter still have DLT Mag Tape and drive that likely still works and have data except MS killing Tape Support in Win7 and up.

Any Good Magnetic Media keeps data nearly forever. Don't think all magnetic types are same as compact cassette and VHS that's often made very cheap and recorded poorly. DLT and other Data Backup Tape cost many times more then best cassette or VHS.

If really important, I keep 2 or more offline copies even tho HD keeps data.
Keep 1 at/near my desk and other in a cool dry place somewhere else.
This is an old habit for many doing backups for big business and using Iron Mountain etc to store offsite copies.

No doubt HD can be "killed" in different ways but most are cause by users like ID10t Formatting C: and related "issues..."
I have seen some HD die w/o a reason, some rare, some are defects from the factory. Example: Before Maxstore got sold, Thousands of Maxstore thin 3.5" HD had very short lifetimes. (HD's board died in many HP/Compaq and Dell PC's.) If you didn't use network drives or any other method to backup... bad luck to you.
That's 1 reason why you make 2 to several copies.

MS and others have Sync tools that works but had problems too.
1 problem is people setup syncing and never made other backups. So made a change or has other problems to a work copy, sync overnight and both copies had problems.
In Business World...
Excel is very well know to "break" sheets for different problems w/ iffy formulas etc. and very hard to fix unless you find an old copy before the sheet broke. Daily or Weakly Syncing to anything often won't help here. Why? Is common someone will change a excel sheet, never bothered to use it again for days to weeks and won't work. If you use store that on a Net Drive, you put in a order to Admin to restore an old to very old copy and expect a "bill" too. (Nearly all businesses won't backup local C: and other drives. Big reason is most "desktops" are off and Laptops left the building over night.)
2.5 APR 16, 02:28 PM
SO I'm looking at the Toshiba, or the Western Digital equivilents that were mentioned here, some reviews claim you should always format it before using it. True?
Also one mentions doing certain procedures to "burn it in".
Apparently these things helped it not fail within 6 mo....
I've never heard of that.
Also I thought you only formatted if you wanted to erase anything on an old drive, or you needed to switch platforms such as to MAC.

Did any of you do anything other than plug the USB in and use it? lol

[This message has been edited by 2.5 (edited 04-16-2021).]

williegoat APR 16, 03:26 PM

quote
Originally posted by 2.5:

SO I'm looking at the Toshiba, or the Western Digital equivilents that were mentioned here, some reviews claim you should always format it before using it. True?
Also one mentions doing certain procedures to "burn it in".
Apparently these things helped it not fail within 6 mo....
I've never heard of that.
Also I thought you only formatted if you wanted to quickly erase anything on it, or you needed to switch platforms such as to MAC.

Did any of you do anything other than plug the USB in and use it? lol


I have never heard of "burning in" a drive, but that doesn't mean it is not "a thing".

Any drive must be partitioned and formatted before it is used. Some may come already done, but the format is specific to the type of filesystem you want/need to use, and that depends of your OS.

I always partition my drives based on my needs and to maximize space, and usually format them to ext4 because I use Linux. A Windows user would probably format to NTFS or FAT. I think most SD cards come pre-formatted in FAT.

[This message has been edited by williegoat (edited 04-16-2021).]

theogre APR 16, 08:08 PM
TINY bit of truth in that bs...
No, You Don't have to do any "burn in" or formatting USB "drives." Should work out of the "box" w/o errors.

But...

If your backing up important data, likely a good idea to use windows disk check tool and turn on scan for bad sectors before trusting a drive. That can take a very long time. If has bad sectors that Windows sees, return as DOA. No drive built in last 25+ years should show any dead sectors to any OS. More so for a new drive.

Nearly all USB drives have FAT or FAT32 format because makers don't know what is doing to plug into them.
If your going to use a USB HD, SSD, even "Thumb Drives," only in WinXPsp3 and later then you have other options...
HD or SSD then use NTFS.
Thumb Drives can use NTFS or ExFAT.

This will use less "overhead"/"wasted" space then FAT and FAT32 plus both allow huge files > 4GB.
Most things don't have Exfat because MS License Fees.

SDcards...
Depend on side and version. SD is FAT, SDHD is FAT32, SDXC or SDUC is exFAT.
⚠️ Warning: Never Format using any OS format or partition tools.
Either...
Format in a device you bought them for. Some devices make you reformat depending on OE format and/or size of card.
Format using SDFormatter from SD Association @ https://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter/
Both prevents many problems w/ this media.

Use SDFormatter default settings unless have specific reasons to do otherwise.

SDFormatter can overwrite data w/ 0 for security reasons. Has support for "hardware" wiping/erasing but never found a writer that uses the feature.

Note: Many things Can Not use faster interface to access SDcards. Only the slow "Serial" (SPI) interface because of SD Association License Rules and Fees.
Linux, Arduino, Pi, and more likely will never get access to SDcards using the fast interface.
Licensing is also why many things won't support SDXC or SDUC because of exFAT. MS released exFAT data but still require License.

Side Note: SDcard isn't only Flash media that have Formatting tools.
Sony Memory Stick also have tools for windows. But Sony says even that may fail when use in some devices because doesn't create all files needed by them. IOW Windows tool isn't a "Factory Reset" for a stick and some devices need Factory Format.
Some Thumb Drives w/ U3 labels and others have tools too to reformat or reconfig.
"Locked" Thumb Drives used by Dell and other have nonstandard formatting. If you try to unlock them, you lose the data.