Reliable external hard drive recommendations (Page 1/3)
2.5 APR 12, 04:44 PM
I'm sure technology has warped ahead since last I looked. The only one I ever had failed, but that was just a 2TB and was many years ago, cant remember the brand but it was popular.
But I haven't seemed to bring myself to trust that a cloud somewhere is the most advised reliable method of backup (or the only one).
Anyone have recommendations?

Seems like maybe some of them have multiple smaller hard drives in them and they get confused in their robo heads and thats why it fails?

Maybe "solid state" has fixed all the issues?

[This message has been edited by 2.5 (edited 04-12-2021).]

82-T/A [At Work] APR 12, 05:36 PM

quote
Originally posted by 2.5:

I'm sure technology has warped ahead since last I looked. The only one I ever had failed, but that was just a 2TB and was many years ago, cant remember the brand but it was popular.
But I haven't seemed to bring myself to trust that a cloud somewhere is the most advised reliable method of backup (or the only one).
Anyone have recommendations?

Seems like maybe some of them have multiple smaller hard drives in them and they get confused in their robo heads and thats why it fails?

Maybe "solid state" has fixed all the issues?





Solid state is as reliable, if not more, than magnetic platters now (for backup at least).

The limitation is that SSD cannot handle the same number of re-writes as a magnetic hard drive, but an SSD will not arbitrarily fail as frequently as a magnetic drive can. Either way... we're talking 0.01% chance of failure in either case as a back-up drive... depending on how often you back something up. Either one is fine... I'd just stick with a name brand for either.
randye APR 12, 06:06 PM
There is a little black box not much bigger than the size of a pack of cigarettes that sits atop my desktop PC.

It is an SSD device that has a 2TB capacity and has the name TOSHIBA on the case.

I call it my "private cloud storage".

That little box has been writing and rewriting the entire contents of my PC for approx. 5 years. It backs up the entire PC twice a week, so you do the math on rewrites.

The only thing that has changed in all that time is that the price for such a device has gone down dramatically.

As an aside, I have noted that the NTI Corp. backup software in the Toshiba SSD has excellent recovery and transfer / restore capability. I have already used it once to transfer everything, including OS and all programs, from one PC to another and to mirror everything from a PC to a new laptop. It worked easily and flawlessly.

[This message has been edited by randye (edited 04-12-2021).]

Hudini APR 12, 06:38 PM
I’ve switched to SSD exclusively. I bought a Samsung 860 EVO 1TB internal HD for my 10 yr old Toshiba laptop. Boot time went from minutes to 23 seconds. It’s been utterly flawless to date.
Lambo nut APR 12, 07:04 PM

quote
Originally posted by Hudini:

I’ve switched to SSD exclusively. I bought a Samsung 860 EVO 1TB internal HD for my 10 yr old Toshiba laptop. Boot time went from minutes to 23 seconds. It’s been utterly flawless to date.



Did the same (installed SSD) with an old HP laptop. Night and days difference!
TheDigitalAlchemist APR 12, 09:25 PM
SSDs do fail , they have a limited number of times they can be written to.

I prefer NAS (Redundant storage) if one or two drives fail, you just swap them out and you're good to go.

How much money is in yer budget?

I like the DROBO because it is super easy to set up accounts with permission sets (so the other accounts can't delete or infect my stuff)

a 12-14 TB drive is like 250 bucks. NAS is a couple of hundred bucks empty, and you can fill it with drives.

But for laptops and desktops, SSDs are just fantastic.

[This message has been edited by TheDigitalAlchemist (edited 04-12-2021).]

2.5 APR 12, 10:49 PM
Its for a desktop, more than 5 TB Im sure is overkill, but I don't mind bigger, a couple hundred bucks would be doable if necessary.

So " a limited number of times" you can back up, do they say how many so you know? Lol

Randye, any model or type I should look for like yours? It sounds so simply useful.

[This message has been edited by 2.5 (edited 04-13-2021).]

williegoat APR 12, 11:44 PM
I have always had good luck with Seagate and Western Digital drives. I have two external drives, both Seagate, one mechanical (1T) and one SSD (2T) which have been reliable.

My server has a pair of WD 2T mechanical drives in a RAID1 array which has been running 24/7 for the last eight years.

If you have an old desktop machine laying around and a little computer knowledge, you can build a NAS box for next to nothing. Hard drives are cheap, nowadays.

[This message has been edited by williegoat (edited 04-13-2021).]

randye APR 13, 12:27 AM

quote
Originally posted by 2.5:

Its for a desktop, more than 5 TB Im sure is overkill, but I don't mind bigger, a couple hundred bucks would be doable if necessary.

So " a limited number of times" you can back up, do they say how many so you know? Lol

Randye, and model or type I should look for like yours? It sounds so simply useful.




Look for "Toshiba Canvio" brand.

They come in 1TB and 2TB and possibly 4TB now. The 2TB ones are around $80 on Tiger Direct recently.

https://www.tigerdirect.com...+Canvio+external+SSD

Canvios come with the NTI backup / restore software already installed.

I think I had to buy the NTI transfer / mirror software separately for around $40 or so.

[This message has been edited by randye (edited 04-13-2021).]

Hudini APR 13, 05:37 AM

quote
Originally posted by 2.5:

Its for a desktop, more than 5 TB Im sure is overkill, but I don't mind bigger, a couple hundred bucks would be doable if necessary.

So " a limited number of times" you can back up, do they say how many so you know? Lol

Randye, and model or type I should look for like yours? It sounds so simply useful.




Using it as a backup drive only you are talking hundreds of years. I use mine as an everyday HD and it has millions of writes so far. Samsung guarantees 10 years use if you write less than the maximum amount of Terra bytes Per Day.