Any recommendations for external hard drives?

[james_tye1]

<p>I'm again out of space and need another pair of external hard drives (one to sit next to the computer and the other to hide away at the back of a cupboard).</p>

<p>What do people use? Brands, size etc. I'd prefer not to go the cloud route.</p>

<p>Previously I've used the WD 2TB bricks that require their own power source. These have always served me well and I've never had an issue but now that 2TB can fit into a drive the size of a pack of cigarettes I'm wondering if I should use the 2.5" drives from now on. Are they as hard wearing?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

[EricM]

<p>For the most part, the 2.5" drives are also slow 5400 rpm drives.</p>

<p>I used to do this as well. I had docking stations running bare drives and then I needed more and added dual docking stations beside the single one and this was on top of the the externals I maxed out...then I had to duplicate it...cords everywhere...what a mess on my desk and in my brain.</p>

<p>It's not as intimidating as it appears, but I'd look at a 3 or 5 hard drive bay NAS by Synology or Qnap, and run in raid 5. It will keep you out of trouble for years. I sure wish I did it a lot earlier. Now it's one box with a cat5 cable sitting next to my router. </p>

[steven_clark]

<p>Remember the biggest real danger in external drives is the risk of fall or tipping over that results from moving them and positioning them outside a fixed space. NAS devices solve that problem and give access to other devices as well.</p>

[eric_brody]

<p>You have many choices, from the small, but slow as noted, "My Passport" or similar drives, with USB connections to the larger "My Book" up to 8TB. I have no connection to WD except as a reasonably happy customer, just using theirs as an example. I have an OWC Thunderbay which holds 4 3.5" "internal" drives, currently mine has 2 6TB and 2 4TB, the details are irrelevant here. It's neat and tidy and connects via Thunderbolt to my Mac Pro (trashcan). You can get an empty Thunderbay and populate it with whatever size drives you'd like as well as set them up as a RAID. Hard drives frequently go on sale, e.g. I just got 2 more 6TB Toshiba drives for just over US$200 each. Another option is a single drive docking station such as the Voyager from Newer Tech (there are many variations on this as well). I use one with internal 3.5" drives and it's reasonably fast, connects via USB3.<br>

What's probably way more important than which brand, that can be a real morass of conflicting claims of reliability, is an overall backup strategy, admittedly not the topic here. Briefly, just make sure you have at least two backups, preferably bootable, of everything and ideally another one off site. I won't get into the plusses and minuses of using the cloud, you said you're not going that route. <br>

Whatever you choose, good luck.<br>

Eric (a different Eric than the above Eric ~)</p>

[john_wheeler6]

<p>Hi James<br>

I assume you want a basic hard drive for you Mac. What I have used are hte Seagate Expansion drives. No frills, good supplier, and less expensive than ones with built in backup software (which I do not trust). Once you have the drive, all you have to do is use the Disk Utility program and format the drive to the Mac OS Extended (journaled) format and you are good to go. Here is a link giving you prices on all the available prices. http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Expansion-Desktop-External-STEB5000100/dp/B00TKFEEBW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1450128065&sr=8-2&keywords=seagate+expansion<br>

Lots of choices as you can see from the other posts. Hope this helps.</p>

[Ed_Ingold]

<p>I used to use external drives with enclosures, but have evolved to using bare drives in an open base or multi drive enclosure.</p>

<p>I've had the best luck with Western Digital "Black" drives, up to 4 TB in size. I execute a lot of audio/video projects with drives as a consummable component. I run these drives bare, in a 4 slot box (Startech.com). They come with a variety of interface choices, including Firewire 400/800, USB3 and Thunderbolt. The advantage is one box with a built-in fan, one power supply, up to four drives. You must power down to add or remove drives. When the drives are full, I keep them on line for a while, then put them in hard plastic storage boxes by ZIPO, which I buy in bulk (you go through a LOT of drive space editing video).</p>

<p>For long term storage, I use a 16 TB DROBO drive, USB3 or Thunderbolt. A DROBO is sort of a RAID, but more flexible. You can hot swap drives to replace failed units or increase capacity. The new drive is automatically configured and populated with data. Data is spread between drives so a single failure is completely recoverable. A DROBO can be configured to tolerate two simultaneous drive failures. My photo album is on the DROBO drive, but I back up to Blu-Ray discs as I go along. It's not hard to do if you keep up.</p>

<p>My home base drives are all 3.5", but I use 2.5" drives for field work, mostly bus powered USB3 "Passpot" drives by Western Digital. (I'll do nearly anything to avoid external power supplies for mobile operation.</p>

[EricM]

<blockquote>

<p>A DROBO is sort of a RAID, but more flexible. You can hot swap drives to replace failed units or increase capacity. The new drive is automatically configured and populated with data. Data is spread between drives so a single failure is completely recoverable. </p>

</blockquote>

<p>All this is standard fair on NAS systems as well.<br>

</p>

<blockquote>

<p>but I back up to Blu-Ray discs as I go along. It's not hard to do if you keep up.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>I still burn discs as well. It's easy to keep up with considering the amount of time we sit at our desks.</p>