Reliable External HD
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- 46 Responses
- CincodeMayo0
So it pretty much sounds like whatever I get will probably fail at some point. But thanks for all the feedback.
I think I'll end up getting some standard 1TB drive from Best Buy and using that as often as possible, and then also sign up for something like Crashplan. I also like the idea of burning a DVD at the completion of each project. Seems like that might be the way to go for now.
- yo. don't fall for that shit. you need a HD with a fan. if you want it to last longer.akrok
- jamesjohnston0
- one of these burned out my logic board...showpony
- love these, still using one.doesnotexist
- i have these for different projects. They still work for me.inhaler97
- don't blame external for your logic board being a POSkota
- CincodeMayo0
Any thoughts on Backblaze vs. CrashPlan?
- jamesjohnston0
Use rsync
- johnny_wobble0
just get a quality drive and buy an external enclosure for it. *shrug*
- i got one of these cheap cases and haven't had a problem with it.
http://www.newegg.co…johnny_wobble
- i got one of these cheap cases and haven't had a problem with it.
- akrok0
i know you're in l.a. you can check out frys also.
- http://www.frys.com/…akrok
- True...they should have whatever I need. That store is a wonderland for nerd parts.CincodeMayo
- raf0
Stay away from WD My Book Studio. They're always hardware encrypted (without informing you abou it, manual only says you can set it up) and if your enclosure fails, your data is unreadable. Happened to me.
- pango0
yes buy a external enclosure + a decent drive.
i think the key is still have the same copy backed up on several different drive.
and try to avoid using it between PC and Mac. i find my hard drive which fails the soonest is always the one that has been using cross PC and Mac
- raf0
Every drive will fail—start with this assumption and build your backup strategy from here.
- benfal990
This is how I work:
Computer at home
> Back up on
External HD (LaCie) at home
>Back up on
External HD (LaCie) that I keep at work. Iam updating that backup every 6 weeks or so.If my computer's HD dies, I have a backup. If someone break into my house and steal my computer and my external HD, I have a backup at work. If my house burn down and/or explode, I have a backup at work.
I also have a Pro account on Dropbox and I have my portfolio over there in case my house AND my job get caught in a black hole...
- the CIA don't even have that nice set of backups. haha.akrok
- doesnotexist0
i have 3 external lacie's, never had a problem with them. i back up everything maybe once a month. one's nearing 6/7 yrs now, still working like a champ.
- randomname0
If a drive fails, do you lose your files? Every time?
- No, not always, I've lost a drive and used software to recover most of it, works really well actuallyformed
- imakethepictures0
^ @ randomname:
I had a 500 GB Lacie Quadra stop mounting up a year or so ago. I bought an enclosure and put the Lacie drive in there. It booted up fine and still works. Same thing happened to a friend of mine.
Sometimes a failed drive could just be the enclosure hardware crapping out.
- meffid0
Anything is good if you don't drop it.
- ZOOP0
Any word on when a comparable flash drive backup will be available? Back when the N64 came out, and we saw solid state 3D gaming at an affordable price, i thought "it has arrived", but then came the GameCube, and my hopes were dashed. The N64 was used as the benchmark for boot up comparison for years after it fell out of favor. Reliability and speed unsurpassed, this is what i had hoped the future would hold, fml. :(
- deathboy0
i recently was looking for some backup storage options. my WD books were getting full. With all the enclosure/included software opinions and crap i opted out for this. Figure it should be great for expansion. esata/usb3.0/fan/sync options. And now i dont need a bunch of singles all stacked.
put some samsung 2tb f4's in it. good drives that are like 75 dollars and get really great read/write speeds for a 5400rpm. i believe i was getting 110mb.
- only problem i found was the cables were a bit short. think 3ft usb and 6 ft power. power cable has that box adaptor in the middle so cant float, giving u less distancedeathboy
- the middle so cant hang in the air. so more liek 3 feetdeathboy
- why would you go with 5400rpm when there's 7200rpm?akrok
- its what they offered in the model and gets better performance than a lot of 7200 drivesdeathboy
- plus i think slower speed better for longevity and more stable writes but dont know the detailsdeathboy
- and for context my 2010 unibody mbp gets 85mb on a 7200 drivedeathboy
- formed0
Seagate - I've loved these and Maxtors, but the last one I bought did not come with backup software (the previous 20 drives I've had used Retrospect, which was simple and reliable).
It comes with Memeo and a bunch of useless other bloatware (other Memeo products). Reluctantly, I purchased it for $70 (making my drive overall price go from $120 to $190) as most will simply due to the convenience.
I hate Memeo, it won't let me schedule the backup times and you have to get the Pro version to even select the files/folders you want (there's a super expensive version that lets you choose the time of backups).
All of this Retrospect did for free, more intuitively.
So, for those reasons, I cannot recommend Seagate/Maxtor, even though I've been using them for 10 years with minimal problems.
I have WD and Lacie drives that work fine, also. All luck, I think.
Carbonite - I am a new member, so far it is very good. $50 or so for unlimited backup (I've got about 400 GBs backedup), great tech support (24/7 chat, that works). I had Mozy, but they cancelled the unlimited plan, making my $50/year cost go to about $1000/year.
God I hate it when companies change good policies/products to try to squeeze a few pennies out. They've lost me, surely they'll lose more.