Advice: reliable external harrdrive

[esteban]

So, I have been battling limited space for over a year and I finally accepted the fact that I need another external harddrive  (for video projects).

1TB+

Thank you for your help.

[Dicer]

Go bigger, I have an older model of this and it's been rock solid.

https://www.amazon.com/Book-Desktop-External-Drive-WDBFJK0040HBK-NESN/dp/B00E3RH61W

[xcrement5x]

I've had good success recently with Western Digital as well when it comes to traditional drives.  SSD route I went for a Samsung EVO though.

[BigusSchmuck]

Western Digital Black is the way to go. If you want redundancy (and have cash to spend) I suggest a NAS like a Synology. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822108237&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Network+-+Storage-_-N82E16822108237&gclid=CjwKCAjw2s_MBRA5EiwAmWIac6j8kVoXvmr_wBsoIXq3GaWV039y0n8l46qWHIL2xsGo5NjZo7n6fRoC-SUQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

[esteban]

Thank you kindly, folks.



I currently have WD MyBook 4TB for my backups... I have been very happy with it (for a year now.... I have an older WD as my second backup.

I wish I was in a position to go for the NAS... RAID... etc.

I spent so much time on Amazon.com belaboring this (all night), which was such a waste of time.



Thanks again.

[ClodBusted]

Don't go for a WD MyCloud 1 TB. I've got one with the Intent of using it as an MP3 music server for the devices in my home (PS3, Xbox 360, mobile phone, laptop...). It will not digest mp3 libraries well that are larger than 100 GB. Also, all the services that run on the MyCloud makes the browser interface sooo slooooow and unresponsive.

[esteban]

Don't go for a WD MyCloud 1 TB. I've got one with the Intent of using it as an MP3 music server for the devices in my home (PS3, Xbox 360, mobile phone, laptop...). It will not digest mp3 libraries well that are larger than 100 GB. Also, all the services that run on the MyCloud makes the browser interface sooo slooooow and unresponsive.

Thanks, I hear you.

I reformatted the drive and do not use the WD services for the "MyBook" line or their older model (name escapes me).

I think my 4TB drive is 5200rpm and data transfer isn't too impressive, but it's fine for backups.

Today I splurged and got a Samsung T3 500GB external SSD.

YES, a brand new model (T5) will be out in a few days, but I needed something today and it was available locally.

I only had a short time to play with it earlier today, but I rendered a movie (in ProRes) directly onto the drive and then played it back. It didn't hiccup. Next I played around with video editing and, again, no hiccups...so hopefully this  will be a viable tool for me.

We shall see...

[blueraven]

Wow so 3 ppl rec'd a WD. I would have rec'd a WD MyPassport 2TB (last years model, this years model looks too candyraver).

And you ignored it all. And bought a Samsung. I heard those are explodey.

[jtucci31]

I've been using WD for my PS4 and so far it's great. Advice to anyone who stumbles on this thread later (since the consensus right now is WD or gtfo) is to not go with Seagate brand HDs or External HDs. Their failure rate is much higher than others from what I've read (though I don't have a link currently to fully back that up).

[wildfruit]

I have a toshiba external 500GB on my Wii u. Does the job and fits nicely on top of it flat.

[xcrement5x]

Wow so 3 ppl rec'd a WD. I would have rec'd a WD MyPassport 2TB (last years model, this years model looks too candyraver).

And you ignored it all. And bought a Samsung. I heard those are explodey.

Samsung is probably the top choice in the SSD market though.  It's hard to mess up a SSD though at least in the sense that they're not platters so you can worry less about dropping issues.

[blueraven]

Ahh, Ok. still seems kind of strange, though. 

[BigusSchmuck]

2nd on the Samsung ssds. 850 evos rock and roll all day long.

[ClodBusted]

Other than the disappointment of trying to use the WD MyCloud as a poor man's NAS and media server, I have used several external WD hard drives over the years as simple backup devices, and they served that job well.

[bartre]

yeah, I've been rocking a Samsung SSD in my tower for 4 years now with now problems, they're great.
but if you're going traditional, spend the extra $10 and get a WD.
that's what my 2 storage drives in my tower and my external drive all are, and they're all older than the SSD.

when it comes to high capacity drives, stay away from Seagate, I've had nothing but bad experiences with anything over 250 GB

[xcrement5x]

I had actually picked up a nice Samsung SSD for my own new setup recently but my wife's laptop drive pretty much bit the dust over the weekend so I pulled it out and put it in her machine to tide her over until we can choose/purchase a replacement device. 

Thankfully I hadn't gotten that far on install/configuration so I didn't mind loosing the couple of hours on that compared to a weekend of complaints.  A SSD has given that machine a new lease on life though, so I may pick up a small SSD for that and use it myself if she purchases a new laptop. 

[esteban]

Wow so 3 ppl rec'd a WD. I would have rec'd a WD MyPassport 2TB (last years model, this years model looks too candyraver).

And you ignored it all. And bought a Samsung. I heard those are explodey.

I have two WD's already (4TB and 1TB), but the drives are 5200rpm and even if a 7200+rpm version was available, I still worry about spinning discs with video editing.

If it wasn't for video editing, I would have probably grabbed another traditional HD.



UPDATE: So far, so good with this drive. I really wish I could have waited a few days to get the upcoming T5 500gb SSD, but I'm still happy with performance of this T3.