# Which external hard drive?



## Terryw (Jan 1, 2016)

Hi,
I am looking for an external hard drive to use as a backup for my LR photos.    A Which survey refers to Buffalo as one of the more reliable makes albeit not without some issues.    Is there any make out there that is generally thought to be more reliable than others?  
Cheers, Terry.


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## Replytoken (Jan 1, 2016)

It varies as to who you talk with, what size drive and when.  These days, HGST and some WD's red drives have been getting good reports of low failure rates, but I'm sure that now that I have said that, somebody will post a horror story with one.  Best to have multiple copies of backed up files.  More reading: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-q3-2015/ .

--Ken


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## clee01l (Jan 1, 2016)

Generally, I would opt for the 3.5" drives.  I think because of the construction requirements, the 2.5 drives are not as durable. 

 I have a Maxtor 500GB DiamondMax drive purchased in 2006 and 3 out of 4 500GB WD Caviar Drives purchased in 2008  That is 5 drives that have had one failure in 8-10 years.  None of these drives have been used regularly more than the first three years or so.  Since that time they have been used to store non critical information. And this is I think the key point. * Plan to replace any drive that stores critical information like backups every three years.*   You can't predict failure, but failure is a certainty.   All of the new EHD drives that I purchase now are WD and I usually buy a drive with a proprietary enclosure like a WD MyBook at the best price that I can find.  I have in the past made my own EHD by buying a good bare drive (~$100) and a generic drive enclosure (~$25).


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## Terryw (Jan 1, 2016)

Thanks for the replies.  I'll have a look at WD drives and will incorporate a replacement EHD cycle that Cletus mentions to my storage/backup procedure.    Interesting link Ken - I assumed that the only certainty in all this is that the HDD will fail but by having two backups I hope that when the worst happens I will have a useable backup.  I also save some of my more precious photos (e.g. family, special holidays etc.)  on dvds so that at least the original photos are tucked safely away.


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## Terryw (Jan 4, 2016)

Thanks for your replies.  I will have a look at WD drives and incorporate the suggested plan to periodically replace the back up drive(s).
Thanks for the link Ken - very interesting. 
Cheers,
Terry.


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## Replytoken (Jan 5, 2016)

Terryw said:


> Thanks for the replies.  I'll have a look at WD drives and will incorporate a replacement EHD cycle that Cletus mentions to my storage/backup procedure.    Interesting link Ken - I assumed that the only certainty in all this is that the HDD will fail but by having two backups I hope that when the worst happens I will have a useable backup.  I also save some of my more precious photos (e.g. family, special holidays etc.)  on dvds so that at least the original photos are tucked safely away.



You are quite welcome!  I hate to say, but burned CD's and DVD's can have their own issues, so it is good that you also have them on hard drives.  It seems that migration really has become a key component in archiving.

Good luck,

--Ken

P.S.  And do not forget to see about those HGST drives.  If they are still as well made as they were, they are worth consideration.


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## PhilBurton (Jan 5, 2016)

Replytoken said:


> You are quite welcome!  I hate to say, but burned CD's and DVD's can have their own issues, so it is good that you also have them on hard drives.  It seems that migration really has become a key component in archiving.
> 
> Good luck,
> 
> ...



I agree with the recommendation for HGST drives.  About two years ago, Western Digital bought part of HGST's business, but those drives are still being marketed under the HGST brand.  Whatever you do, stay away from Seagate.


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## babuja (Mar 20, 2016)




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## Jack Henry (Mar 20, 2016)

Here is another issue to be wary of with Seagate drives. 

Also, photography is a hobby for me. My 'thing' is choral and orchestral concert recording. I have 6 external HDD. Only one of them is a Seagate, the rest WD. When I edit the concert audio files, I turn the Seagate drive off due to the noise. The WD drives are a lot quieter.


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## Manuductor (May 18, 2016)

I have used Seagate, LaCie and WD and concur that WD drives are superior, as far as my experience is concerned, even though my mirrored 2TB MyBook Studio crashed both drives last year.  WD replaced it with a 4TB Thunderbolt Duo since it was within two weeks of warranty expiring.  I had to spend mucho buckos to have a computer guru recover the 65K photos before I returned the drives to WD, but he did and I am now super careful to handle the T'bolt more gingerly than eggs. I am quickly filling the 'bolt and expect to buy another with more TBs sometime in the next year.


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## clee01l (May 18, 2016)

Manuductor said:


> I have used Seagate, LaCie and WD...


LaCie is owned by Seagate...


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## babuja (Aug 28, 2017)

I use a laptop with a 500Gb SSD mainly  for OS and programs...no data on it. As my primary disc i use a seagate backup plus fast 4Tb (raid 0 and superfast disc)...maybe not that reliable. That's why i use a qnap 2 bay mirror with 2x4Tb WD red as backup 1 and a buffalo 4Tb as backup 2 (that a use to backup 2-3 times a year and is kept on a different location). 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk


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