# Suggestions & experiences on an External Hard Drive with thunderbolt capability?



## Carola (Dec 30, 2014)

Good morning, I am in the process of purchasing 2 EHDs on which I plan to store my photo library & Lightroom Catalog (EHD 1) and use the 2nd EHD for backup. I've been told the best way to go is to get one with both thunderbolt & usb connection.

I looked at EHDs last night at the apple store & best buy - LaCie, G drive & Seagate.  I was astonished at how heavy the LaCie and G drives 3 to 4TB are, vs the 2TB.  Seagate is much lighter but their BackupPlus lacked thunderbolt capability.  

I could store the LR catalog on my Mac but I use IMAC only 75% of the time and my MacBook Pro 25%.  Both Macs are recent purchases (i just migrated from slow PC) with the goal of cataloging a large photo collection (about 100 to 200k photos currently occupying about 1TB on a Seagate Drive.

Would be very interested to know what EHDs you use for your photo library or LR catalog - also backup - (brand? 4TB? 2TB?) and any experience you have vs the above.  Many thanks!


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## Tony Jay (Dec 30, 2014)

Hi Carola, welcome!

I am not sure that Thunderbolt connectivity is essential for you.
I use USB connections for my EHDD - I use four EHDD and use USB3 connections and these are plenty fast for the purpose.
I am aware of exactly how fast Thunderbolt 2 connections are but the prices are jolly steep currently.
Thunderbolt-connected devices will drop in price with time.

FWIW I backup both catalog and image collection on a single drive - it makes the backup process so much easier.
I have two internal drives and four external drives that are mirrors of the others and that only have the catalog and image collection on them.

Tony Jay


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 30, 2014)

I recently went through the same selection process when moving my image library and catalog from my Windows desktop, which has multiple internal drives (SSD and 7200rpm HDD), to my MBP with a single 500gb SSD. I considered dual interface (TB and USB3) external drives, but in the end decided that a 4gb G-Tech drive with single USB3 interface would be OK.....and so it has proved. I'm perfectly happy with the drive, but note that I currently keep my catalogs on the internal SSD (they're not that big, image-wise, so for now I can afford to keep them there). When/if I need to move them off the internal SSD I'll probably look again at the G-Tech Thunderbolt Raid drive, but that's likely a way off.

For backup, I have a variety of external devices: a Synology NAS, a set of portable USB3 drives which I cycle off-site, and a WD My Passport Pro. The latter is a portable Thunderbolt-only Raid0 drive which I keep permanently connected to my MBP via a Belkin Thunderbolt 2 dock station, and is the drive I would take with me should I need to go mobile with the MBP and need my full catalog with me. Being a portable drive means it's BUS-powered, so no bulky power adapter to carry with me.


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## clee01l (Dec 30, 2014)

Just to add to the plethora of decisions, I got an Apple Airport 3TB Time Capsule for one of my back up solutions.  It is a dedicated NAS that sits in your home network.  (not a portable solution, but a great backup solution, especially with two computers needing backup)

When I started looking at EHDs, Thunderbolt was very expensive, out of my budget and I did not own an iMac with USB3.  I got a firewire800 EHD for my first &  second EHDs.  I have 5 USB2 enclosures that house an assortment of old HDDs that are attached to my iMac for non critical storage (they are old and could fail unexpectedly).  

For portability I have a 1TB USB3 Seagate 2 1/2" portable drive.  I use this with my rMBP when on extended trips and I want two copies of my new images for safekeeping. 

My external disk collection is as follows:
*iMac*

3TB Firewire for Time Machine backups
2TB Firewire for LR Master images
3TB USB2(USB3 capable) for Crashplan local backup
3x1TB USB2 drive used for non critical data storage
2x500GB USB2 drives used as spares.
All of the are 3.5in. 7200rpm drives requiring a separate power supply.

*rMBP*

1TB USB3 2.5in portable for second copy images and on the road TimeMachine backup when the local network is unavailable.

*Network*

Netgear Stora NAS (500GB) for data transfer
Airport Time Capsule (3TB) Time Machine backup for iMac & rMBP

Note that not included in this are the internal drives for the iMac and the rMBP.


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## Carola (Dec 31, 2014)

Thank you Cletus, Jim and Tony! Wow, a plentiful array of options here!  Also a reminder that equipment can get old fast and in 3 years what's suitable now may have totally different sizes and answers and costs. I see I will have to give this some more careful thought.  I am however, leaning toward the LaCie w/thunderbolt-- just need to decide what size.  I've had enough years of slow crawling speeds with my old pc.  Since I'm just starting out I want to be adequately protect my data & have enough space but need to keep it fairly simple for now until I get further into the cataloging.  My current images total about 1 TB and that will probably not grow beyond 1.5 TB, given that some will be discarded, replaced by others that are edits,  Thank you guys again for taking the time to answer me!


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## Jack Henry (Jan 1, 2015)

Just another point in the debate about storage options, and I've mentioned this before. Photography is a small hobby, but my 'thing' is recording orchestral & choral performances. 

All but one of my external drives are Western Digital, the other 'one' is a Seagate. When editing audio, I turn the Seagate drive off as it's a LOT noisier in the room than the Western Digital drives are. So if it comes down to a coin toss between two drive brands, you may consider this a useful bit of information.

Regards
John


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## Carola (Jan 1, 2015)

Thank you much, Jack!


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## sallynewcomb (Feb 5, 2015)

Hi Carola
What did you purchase in the end? Any tips for someone trying to make the same decision?
Thanks
Sally


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## Ray Thompson (Mar 5, 2015)

I bought my first Apple computer in 1977—an Apple II; this year I'm moving into a brand new iMac5K! To add to the mix, I'm on my third generation Drobo drive but my first one equipped with Thunderbolt.  It is really fast and I have 16TB available in the Drobo, IF I EVER NEED IT!  I treat the Drobo as an "archive" drive, not a backup, BUT, in is backed up via Crash Plan as has been each of the previous two Drobos.  Yes, I have had drive failures in the Drobos, but the recovery process only involves pulling out the bad drive (red light) and pushing in a new one, and waiting 2-3 hours the the drive to be re-built.  In case you are wondering, a Drobo is a proprietary RAID, that some people really don't trust. However, I light the Drobo because you can put any mix of drives (manufacturers and sizes) in them, and there is no "set-up" except pushing in the drives.  Thanks!


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## clee01l (Mar 5, 2015)

Ray Thompson said:


> ... In case you are wondering, a Drobo is a proprietary RAID, that some people really don't trust. However, I light the Drobo because you can put any mix of drives (manufacturers and sizes) in them, and there is no "set-up" except pushing in the drives.  Thanks!


Welcome to the forum.

The problem with proprietary RAID files systems is not the drives failing but the RAID controller failing. You can not easily read the data on the drives if the RAID controller fails.  The solution to this is to have two identical RAID systems each with its own controller. If the RAID controller fails on one, you can put the otherwise bricked HDDs into the other RAID controller and read the data off them. 

Redundant backups is always a good ideal  I use TimeMachine and CrashPlan. I also keep a crash plan local EHD backup going for convenience.


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