One TB HD

[dddave]

It's time for me to finally buy an external 1TB HD. I'm running windows 8.1 overlaid with Classic Shell on a HP notebook, mid range AMD processor, 6gb memory, USB-2 ports.

It appears that most of the Ex. HD's sold in Fortune, Bangkok are either Seagate or Western digital. I'd like to keep the price to around B2500. Doesn't really need to be portable.

Recommendations or warn-aways appreciated.

[crabdog]

Most people will tell you Western Digital before Seagate. I would agree.

[tolsti]

I have one of each and so far.. 18 months.... Not really seen any difference between either.

[nbm47]

Stick with Western Digital, only 2160 baht for 1 tb hard drive

[DogNo1]

Hard drives have become more reliable in recent years and I haven't lost one for 5-6 years. I use WD, Seagate and Toshiba. I always have lots of redundancy though so if I happen to drop one I'll have several other copies of everything. If you can't afford to buy more than one 1 TB drive, why not buy two 500 GB drives and have redundancy?

[Pib]

Western Digital Passport Ultra 1TB is a nice and fast external USB 3.0 drive. I've been using one for about 18 months as my backup drive. I bought it then for around Bt2500...it's a little cheaper now.

[VBF]

Western Digital Passport Ultra 1TB is a nice and fast external USB 3.0 drive. I've been using one for about 18 months as my backup drive. I bought it then for around Bt2500...it's a little cheaper now.

I agree with Pib about the WD Passports. I have 5 of these of various ages from 1 to 5 years , capacities 500gb, USB 2; 1tb and 2tb both USB 3. All good.

I bought mine from Amazon UK so can't help with prices in Thailand - what I CAN tell you is that if you buy WD, you can log on to their website, register the drives and extend your warranties for free.

Hopefully you'll never need the warranty (!) but it doesn't hurt.

Edited May 26, 2015 by VBF

[lostinisaan]

No idea, if Samsung external HD are all made by seagate, bought one TB about two year ago. 2,800 baht. Reliable and support. Please see their website:

http://samsunghdd.seagate.com/

P.S. I had bad luck with both companies.

Edited May 26, 2015 by lostinisaan

[dddave]

Thanks all. Looks like Western Digital is the consensus choice. Am I correct in assuming that if my computer lacks a USB 3 port, then a USB 3 drive gains no advantage?

[WhizBang]

I have both WD and Seagate USB drives. I prefer the WD mainly because it is somewhat smaller and because it has small rubber feet to prevent it from slipping. The Seagate is smooth plastic. Performance wise, they are the same.

Yes, if your computer is not USB3, then no advantage... except future compatability.

[Pib]

Thanks all. Looks like Western Digital is the consensus choice. Am I correct in assuming that if my computer lacks a USB 3 port, then a USB 3 drive gains no advantage?

Correct...USB 3 is just approx 3 to 4 times faster than USB 2 based on "real world" specs. But be sure to still buy a USB 3 drive as USB 3 is backwards compatible to USB 2. That way you can still use it on your current computer with only USB 2 ports, but when you do get a computer with USB 3 ports you will be able to take advantage of the increased speed. Remember, it makes a 3 to 4 times difference in how fast data is within to and from your backup drive...like instead of taking say 1.5 to 2 hours to do a back-up or load an backup image it will do it in around 30 minutes....the difference between 30 minutes and 2 hours when staring at a computer screen can seem like years.

[DogNo1]

You don't need to stare at the computer screen while you're doing a backup. There's nothing to see so you can get a cup of coffee or your preferred beverage while your machine is doing its thing. Be aware that there was a poster not so long ago who lost invaluable videos and pictures because he had only stored it on one external drive and suffered a connection/ power interruption while trying to copy it over. Redundancy is your friend. No amount of tears will bring back irreplaceable files if you don't have backup copies. You could Google for the thread and read it. You may decide to invest in two drives or a drive and online storage. Good luck.

[Ex Machina]

Western Digital Passport Ultra 1TB is a nice and fast external USB 3.0 drive. I've been using one for about 18 months as my backup drive. I bought it then for around Bt2500...it's a little cheaper now.

I have this too, paid 2,150 for it, or something like that.

It's great - very small, very fast. Only downside is that it suffers from an overly bright LED light but that is easily fixed with a bit of tape. I would recommend formatting it first thing, you don't need all the "extras" on there.

Edited May 27, 2015 by Ex Machina

[Pib]

You don't need to stare at the computer screen while you're doing a backup. There's nothing to see so you can get a cup of coffee or your preferred beverage while your machine is doing its thing. Be aware that there was a poster not so long ago who lost invaluable videos and pictures because he had only stored it on one external drive and suffered a connection/ power interruption while trying to copy it over. Redundancy is your friend. No amount of tears will bring back irreplaceable files if you don't have backup copies. You could Google for the thread and read it. You may decide to invest in two drives or a drive and online storage. Good luck.

Amen to redundant storage...I use the Western Digital 1TB Passport as my primary backup drive, then I occasionally put some backups on a 2nd external drive, and also a 256GB USB stick. Plus since I have three computers most of my data is also duplicated on all three computers. Oh yea, I've also got a backup of files on my NAS.

[Pib]

Western Digital Passport Ultra 1TB is a nice and fast external USB 3.0 drive. I've been using one for about 18 months as my backup drive. I bought it then for around Bt2500...it's a little cheaper now.

I have this too, paid 2,150 for it, or something like that.

It's great - very small, very fast. Only downside is that it suffers from an overly bright LED light but that is easily fixed with a bit of tape. I would recommend formatting it first thing, you don't need all the "extras" on there.

At JIB Stores they are currently Bt2,120.

https://www.jib.co.th/web/index.php/priceList/getPriceList/43

[JetsetBkk]

You don't need to stare at the computer screen while you're doing a backup. There's nothing to see so you can get a cup of coffee or your preferred beverage while your machine is doing its thing. Be aware that there was a poster not so long ago who lost invaluable videos and pictures because he had only stored it on one external drive and suffered a connection/ power interruption while trying to copy it over. Redundancy is your friend. No amount of tears will bring back irreplaceable files if you don't have backup copies. You could Google for the thread and read it. You may decide to invest in two drives or a drive and online storage. Good luck.

Amen to redundant storage...I use the Western Digital 1TB Passport as my primary backup drive, then I occasionally put some backups on a 2nd external drive, and also a 256GB USB stick. Plus since I have three computers most of my data is also duplicated on all three computers. Oh yea, I've also got a backup of files on my NAS.

Hi Pib - can you say which NAS you have as I have often thought about investing in one.

In my desktop PC, I have a 250 GB SSD system drive and 5 x 2 TB data drives.

To backup my 5 x 2 TB data drives, I regularly synchronise them with 5 x 2 TB external USB drives (using Beyond Compare utility). It is these drives that I was considering collecting/merging into a NAS.

[NeverSure]

Some laptop sized HDD's are much faster than others with RPM designations just one factor. When transferring data, the read/write speed of the external will be the bottleneck if using USB 3.0.

[Pib]

You don't need to stare at the computer screen while you're doing a backup. There's nothing to see so you can get a cup of coffee or your preferred beverage while your machine is doing its thing. Be aware that there was a poster not so long ago who lost invaluable videos and pictures because he had only stored it on one external drive and suffered a connection/ power interruption while trying to copy it over. Redundancy is your friend. No amount of tears will bring back irreplaceable files if you don't have backup copies. You could Google for the thread and read it. You may decide to invest in two drives or a drive and online storage. Good luck.

Amen to redundant storage...I use the Western Digital 1TB Passport as my primary backup drive, then I occasionally put some backups on a 2nd external drive, and also a 256GB USB stick. Plus since I have three computers most of my data is also duplicated on all three computers. Oh yea, I've also got a backup of files on my NAS.

Hi Pib - can you say which NAS you have as I have often thought about investing in one.

In my desktop PC, I have a 250 GB SSD system drive and 5 x 2 TB data drives.

To backup my 5 x 2 TB data drives, I regularly synchronise them with 5 x 2 TB external USB drives (using Beyond Compare utility). It is these drives that I was considering collecting/merging into a NAS.

I just use a simple WD MyCloud 2TB NAS I bought a JIB in Sep 14 for Bt4,650 and it has met my simple needs just fine. It's been turned on 24/7 since I got it with zero problems...and it automatically updates its software and firmware.

Before finally buying the WD NAS I almost decided to go with a Synology NAS like their DS214se or similar model which was fairly more expensive but with more capability with its DSM software...but it was capability I would probably never use and didn't feel like spending many brain cells on a more complicated NAS setup...so, I went with the WDMyCloud...happy I did.

[JetsetBkk]

You don't need to stare at the computer screen while you're doing a backup. There's nothing to see so you can get a cup of coffee or your preferred beverage while your machine is doing its thing. Be aware that there was a poster not so long ago who lost invaluable videos and pictures because he had only stored it on one external drive and suffered a connection/ power interruption while trying to copy it over. Redundancy is your friend. No amount of tears will bring back irreplaceable files if you don't have backup copies. You could Google for the thread and read it. You may decide to invest in two drives or a drive and online storage. Good luck.

Amen to redundant storage...I use the Western Digital 1TB Passport as my primary backup drive, then I occasionally put some backups on a 2nd external drive, and also a 256GB USB stick. Plus since I have three computers most of my data is also duplicated on all three computers. Oh yea, I've also got a backup of files on my NAS.

Hi Pib - can you say which NAS you have as I have often thought about investing in one.

In my desktop PC, I have a 250 GB SSD system drive and 5 x 2 TB data drives.

To backup my 5 x 2 TB data drives, I regularly synchronise them with 5 x 2 TB external USB drives (using Beyond Compare utility). It is these drives that I was considering collecting/merging into a NAS.

I just use a simple WD MyCloud 2TB NAS I bought a JIB in Sep 14 for Bt4,650 and it has met my simple needs just fine. It's been turned on 24/7 since I got it with zero problems...and it automatically updates its software and firmware.

Before finally buying the WD NAS I almost decided to go with a Synology NAS like their DS214se or similar model which was fairly more expensive but with more capability with its DSM software...but it was capability I would probably never use and didn't feel like spending many brain cells on a more complicated NAS setup...so, I went with the WDMyCloud...happy I did.

Sorry, Pib - didn't see your post. I'm a victim of the forum s/w bug that apparently stops sending notification emails when someone responds to my posts.

Thanks for the info. I'll look into the WD and Synology NASs.

I really need a 10TB+ NAS. Not cheap, methinks! (15-30k baht?)

[Pib]

Be sure to check out the Synology NASs because when I was doing my buying research something that really sets the Synology apart from the other NAS manufacturers is the capability, add-ons, and ease of use of their NAS Operating System (a.k.a., Disk Station Manager).

[astral]

My latest 2Tb Seagate is half the size of the old 1Tb

I had bad experiences with WD a few years ago,

replaced under guarantee then failed again

I never did trust the second replacement

I friend recommended a Buffalo disk, but when I got it home I found it was WD inside

[Banzai99]

My latest 2Tb Seagate is half the size of the old 1Tb

I had bad experiences with WD a few years ago,

replaced under guarantee then failed again

I never did trust the second replacement

I friend recommended a Buffalo disk, but when I got it home I found it was WD inside

I was just about to say the same thing about Buffalo, they use a variety of disks it appears, I had one go wonky, I'm sure mine was seagate inside, lol. Just had to replace the case, not the drive in that instance

.

But I have a lot of Buffalo, some bought in Thailand others in Japan, they are ok in general.

Big seller in Japan.

Edited May 29, 2015 by Banzai99

[Banzai99]

Thanks all. Looks like Western Digital is the consensus choice. Am I correct in assuming that if my computer lacks a USB 3 port, then a USB 3 drive gains no advantage?

Correct...USB 3 is just approx 3 to 4 times faster than USB 2 based on "real world" specs. But be sure to still buy a USB 3 drive as USB 3 is backwards compatible to USB 2. That way you can still use it on your current computer with only USB 2 ports, but when you do get a computer with USB 3 ports you will be able to take advantage of the increased speed. Remember, it makes a 3 to 4 times difference in how fast data is within to and from your backup drive...like instead of taking say 1.5 to 2 hours to do a back-up or load an backup image it will do it in around 30 minutes....the difference between 30 minutes and 2 hours when staring at a computer screen can seem like years.

Or 90 minutes.

But I know what you mean.

[JetsetBkk]

My latest 2Tb Seagate is half the size of the old 1Tb

I had bad experiences with WD a few years ago,

replaced under guarantee then failed again

I never did trust the second replacement

I friend recommended a Buffalo disk, but when I got it home I found it was WD inside

I was just about to say the same thing about Buffalo, they use a variety of disks it appears, I had one go wonky, I'm sure mine was seagate inside, lol. Just had to replace the case, not the drive in that instance

.

But I have a lot of Buffalo, some bought in Thailand others in Japan, they are ok in general.

Big seller in Japan.

I've got 6 Buffalos. I managed to get a program to determine which drive was inside one of them, and it said it was a Seagate. But a lot of the time, the program can't tell what the drive is.

One old Buffalo failed so I took it apart and it was another Seagate inside.

The only good thing about WDs - of which I have another 5 or 6 in my desktop - is that WD and the retailers are so used to them failing, that you can just take them back to most computer shops and they'll send them off to be changed under warranty.

The real pain, though, is copying 1 or 2 TB of data to another free-under-warranty-but-liable-to-fail-soon WD drive.

Edited May 29, 2015 by JetsetBkk

[DogNo1]

Whoa! 10 TB of data is a lot to copy. Drive-to-drive copying is not labor intensive though. I just use Total Commander and tell it to overwrite all older files on the target drive. You can use the computer for other things while it's copying - or use another computer. I use external USB drives since I find my NAS to be a little slow. Cases for 5 USB drives are available if you don't mind the heat and power considerations. I've found it easier to just hook up five external USB drives to a hub. That way, you can just turn on the drive or drives that you're going to use. I turn them off when I'm not using them to save wear and tear (and accidental damage from bumping or kicking.) I do occasionally turn on the Windows Home Server and let it automatically backup all of my machines but once a week or so is enough for the systems. I routinely save all of my data files to 3-4 places so they're already protected. After my server has backed up my computers and backed itself up to its own little 2 TB drive, I turn it off. No use racking up hours of unproductive use of the machines.

I'm sure everybody has his own little backup routine. If not, there could be some heartbreaking loss in the future.

[JetsetBkk]

Whoa! 10 TB of data is a lot to copy. Drive-to-drive copying is not labor intensive though. I just use Total Commander and tell it to overwrite all older files on the target drive. You can use the computer for other things while it's copying - or use another computer. I use external USB drives since I find my NAS to be a little slow. Cases for 5 USB drives are available if you don't mind the heat and power considerations. I've found it easier to just hook up five external USB drives to a hub. That way, you can just turn on the drive or drives that you're going to use. I turn them off when I'm not using them to save wear and tear (and accidental damage from bumping or kicking.) I do occasionally turn on the Windows Home Server and let it automatically backup all of my machines but once a week or so is enough for the systems. I routinely save all of my data files to 3-4 places so they're already protected. After my server has backed up my computers and backed itself up to its own little 2 TB drive, I turn it off. No use racking up hours of unproductive use of the machines.

I'm sure everybody has his own little backup routine. If not, there could be some heartbreaking loss in the future.

I could've written this ^^ ! You do just about exactly what I do

I use "Beyond Compare" rather than "Total Commender" to synchronise my backup drives with my working drives.

I have a hub connected to some of my external USB drives, the others are connected directly to the PC's USB ports.

I turn them on only when I do a backup.

I backup special folders, e.g. my profile and emails, every time I turn the PC on - it's automatic.

I also do a System Image backup - usually when the football is on - once a week minimum.