External Usb Hd Which One?

[h90]

I have a 1 TB WD Passport with USB 3.

No problems with it (one died because an idiot taxi driver drove over it....not WD mistake).

But every 2-3 month one of my other WD harddisks on the desktop dies. So I start to wonder what happens if my backup has a problem and I notice it just when I want to play back critical data.

The solution would be another external USB 3 HD 1 GB. I am now scared of WD. Any other recommendations?

I thought to make 1 backup every 2 weeks alternating the drives. So in the worst case I loose only one month.

Any ideas/recommenations?

[happynthailand]

try "seagate freeAgent *Go 500GB, own 4 no trouble for almost 5 years of use

[khunron13]

I've got 5 WD External HDDs and never had a problem Seagate on the other hand has caused me nothing but problems! If you're not comfortable with WD any longer, then definitely try another brand, but there are no guarantees.

[sammycic]

I was using a warranty replacement seagate 1gb drive and it just quit as well. so that makes 2 now.

[Gary A]

I have four external drives. One is a 2 TB large drive that needs a separate power supply, the other three are an Acer, a Seagate and a Western Digital I have had no problem with any of them. They all came with crap programs on them that generally caused me problems. I formatted all three small drives and all work well. The small Seagate and the Western digital are USB 3 capable.

[givenall]

I was using a warranty replacement seagate 1gb drive and it just quit as well. so that makes 2 now.

I use a SSD drive, it is a bit expensive but at least no moving parts which tend to wear out and cause failure

[h90]

I was using a warranty replacement seagate 1gb drive and it just quit as well. so that makes 2 now.

I use a SSD drive, it is a bit expensive but at least no moving parts which tend to wear out and cause failure

For 1 TB a bit expensive for a backup drive :-)

[h90]

I've got 5 WD External HDDs and never had a problem Seagate on the other hand has caused me nothing but problems! If you're not comfortable with WD any longer, then definitely try another brand, but there are no guarantees.

Well maybe it is only the WD desktop hdd that tend to fail.....I had no problems with my external wd hdd, yet. But I own just 1 pcs...not really a large sample.

[topt]

I've got 5 WD External HDDs and never had a problem Seagate on the other hand has caused me nothing but problems! If you're not comfortable with WD any longer, then definitely try another brand, but there are no guarantees.

Well maybe it is only the WD desktop hdd that tend to fail.....I had no problems with my external wd hdd, yet. But I own just 1 pcs...not really a large sample.

I have had a 500GB WD for nearly 5 years and no problem and a more recent 1TB which up to now has been fine. As others have said if you are not sure try something else. As you will have a back up of your back up you will need to be really unlucky for all 3 sources to die at the same time - unless they are all in the same place and they are destroyed by fire or flood..........

[CharlieH]

They do larger versions than the 500, and have a 3 year warranty, never had any issues.

[KHR1010]

I picked up several of the ioSafe 1TB SSD external HD for myself and my staff on a recent business trip to NY, they were in the range of $250USD each. These HD's are excellent and a taxi can run them over with no problem, they have 5,000lbs. crush resistant casing. The speed and hugely decreased issues of failure with non moving parts makes them an easy choice for me. I will never go back to a spinner HD.

[negreanu]

Had 3 Western Digital failures all warranty replaced in 2 years in my NAS.

Moving slowly over to Samsung / Seagate not 1 problem.

[h90]

I picked up several of the ioSafe 1TB SSD external HD for myself and my staff on a recent business trip to NY, they were in the range of $250USD each. These HD's are excellent and a taxi can run them over with no problem, they have 5,000lbs. crush resistant casing. The speed and hugely decreased issues of failure with non moving parts makes them an easy choice for me. I will never go back to a spinner HD.

heck that sounds good! I have now 2 mechanical external but once they need replacement I'll buy a SSD considering that they are than below 100 USD

[astral]

I bought a Buffalo drive on a friend's recommendation

only to find it was a WD drive inside.

[davejones]

Bough a seagate proflex 500GB today. backing up now. It's very, very slow. Don't like the software at all. Doesn't tell you speed of backup and doesn't give estimated time remaining.

Do you think it would be ok to format the disk and just drag and drop instead. Or are there files on there that are needed. Software seems more of a hassle than a help.

[h90]

Bough a seagate proflex 500GB today. backing up now. It's very, very slow. Don't like the software at all. Doesn't tell you speed of backup and doesn't give estimated time remaining.

Do you think it would be ok to format the disk and just drag and drop instead. Or are there files on there that are needed. Software seems more of a hassle than a help.

I use Acronis an make a complete backup when the computer is in perfect conditions and than just drag and drop new files to keep my data up to date.

[Gary A]

Bough a seagate proflex 500GB today. backing up now. It's very, very slow. Don't like the software at all. Doesn't tell you speed of backup and doesn't give estimated time remaining.

Do you think it would be ok to format the disk and just drag and drop instead. Or are there files on there that are needed. Software seems more of a hassle than a help.

I have formatted the Acer, WD and the Seagate USB drives because of the crap programs that came with them. I drag and drop what I want to save with no problems.

[davejones]

Bough a seagate proflex 500GB today. backing up now. It's very, very slow. Don't like the software at all. Doesn't tell you speed of backup and doesn't give estimated time remaining.

Do you think it would be ok to format the disk and just drag and drop instead. Or are there files on there that are needed. Software seems more of a hassle than a help.

I have formatted the Acer, WD and the Seagate USB drives because of the crap programs that came with them. I drag and drop what I want to save with no problems.

That's go. I'll format mine and start again.

[thaicruze]

I was using a warranty replacement seagate 1gb drive and it just quit as well. so that makes 2 now.

I use a SSD drive, it is a bit expensive but at least no moving parts which tend to wear out and cause failure

For 1 TB a bit expensive for a backup drive :-)

http://www.livedrive.com/ForHome

[guzzi850m2]

http://www.livedrive.com/ForHome

Thanks for the link thaicruze, it's the best way to back-up in case of fire/burglary and so on.

[davejones]

http://www.livedrive.com/ForHome

Thanks for the link thaicruze, it's the best way to back-up in case of fire/burglary and so on.

ok if you have a few weeks to spare to get your data back. Also, mega expensive if you have lots of data.

I have my most important stuff backed up with Dropbox (free). Other stuff on hard drive. Perfect solution for me. No need to pay a monthly fee just in case of fire/burglary.

Another option is to back up files on your own online server if you have a website. No additional costs involved apart from what you already pay for hosting.

[Dork]

It's the WD Green drives that have issues. I have about 20 2TB greens in RAID5 sets and they crap out regularly. In my situation it is acceptable because they are cheap and (as long as only one dies at a time) WD has good warranty service and I can just send a messenger to swap it for a new one. But for backing up important data I don't think they are reliable enough.

I went to the WD service centre at Pantip myself once. They had cartons of those 2TB greens stacked to the ceiling and just took one out and swapped it immediately without checking anything. I asked one of the staff there if they are unreliable. She just said "yes".

[negreanu]

I have about 20 2TB greens in RAID5 sets

I have heard the greens have issues with RAID setup's something to do with the autopark/powerdown. Some firmware disable option fixes it. Google.

Having said that I use a synology in SHR-2 instead of raid and still get failures on the greens.

Agree their warranty is excellent swap no questions asked out the door in 5 mins every time. Almost as if they know they are crap.

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

Purchased a couple Seagate 3TB USB3 Hard drives about a month ago at Cosco in the US for $119 each, working fine so far. Have had several Seagate and Buffalo 2TB USB2 hard drives had one seagate fail but no problem exchanging it for a new one. USB 3 load about twice as fast as the USB2

[h90]

It's the WD Green drives that have issues. I have about 20 2TB greens in RAID5 sets and they crap out regularly. In my situation it is acceptable because they are cheap and (as long as only one dies at a time) WD has good warranty service and I can just send a messenger to swap it for a new one. But for backing up important data I don't think they are reliable enough.

I went to the WD service centre at Pantip myself once. They had cartons of those 2TB greens stacked to the ceiling and just took one out and swapped it immediately without checking anything. I asked one of the staff there if they are unreliable. She just said "yes".

not only the 2 TB Green.

We have various 500 GB, blue, green and black. Estimate 10 drives and every 2-3 month one drive fails.

All "lost sectors"

[Guest]

I picked up several of the ioSafe 1TB SSD external HD for myself and my staff on a recent business trip to NY, they were in the range of $250USD each. These HD's are excellent and a taxi can run them over with no problem, they have 5,000lbs. crush resistant casing. The speed and hugely decreased issues of failure with non moving parts makes them an easy choice for me. I will never go back to a spinner HD.

That sounds like an HDD price, not an SSD. It would be super cheap.

Do you have link to that specific model?

[h90]

I was using a warranty replacement seagate 1gb drive and it just quit as well. so that makes 2 now.

I use a SSD drive, it is a bit expensive but at least no moving parts which tend to wear out and cause failure

For 1 TB a bit expensive for a backup drive :-)

http://www.livedrive.com/ForHome

extreme expensive....giving your data out of hand, and how long does it need to up/download say 500 GB in Thailand and how many times does the ASDL line interrupt between?

[Guest]

http://www.livedrive.com/ForHome

extreme expensive....giving your data out of hand, and how long does it need to up/download say 500 GB in Thailand and how many times does the ASDL line interrupt between?

Expensive yes for really large data sets. But I think most use cloud services for only essential data. I'm hoping Google to get their act together and make their drive to be available for linux. After this I'll keep my most important data on the drive. 25GB should be enough.

I believe all the cloud disk service providers use rsync type of syncing methods. Connection interruptions don't matter so much. When the connection is restored the sync continues. For example if you are syncing 1GB file and the connection drops down for some reason at 900MB, that part is already downloaded / uploaded and there is no need to start over again.

[h90]

http://www.livedrive.com/ForHome

extreme expensive....giving your data out of hand, and how long does it need to up/download say 500 GB in Thailand and how many times does the ASDL line interrupt between?

Expensive yes for really large data sets. But I think most use cloud services for only essential data. I'm hoping Google to get their act together and make their drive to be available for linux. After this I'll keep my most important data on the drive. 25GB should be enough.

I believe all the cloud disk service providers use rsync type of syncing methods. Connection interruptions don't matter so much. When the connection is restored the sync continues. For example if you are syncing 1GB file and the connection drops down for some reason at 900MB, that part is already downloaded / uploaded and there is no need to start over again.

still it is slow (considering Thailands internet) and if it is only 25 GB, you might be better off buying 3 pcs 32 gb USB sticks (in case one burns with your office, one is faulty you still have the third)

[astral]

All these stories of regular failures are not encouraging for a "backup" disk solution.

It is all very well to say the disk can be swapped, but what about all the data that is lost??

Cloud solutions are all very well, if you have fast and infinite bandwidth,

and even clouds can blow away.