Are All External Hard Drives Created Equal?

[mikeleblanc413]

I have two WD external hard drives...dinosaur's by today's standards...they're large...like a big book...I notice that many of the newer ones are not much larger than a pack of cigarettes and run strictly from a USB port. My dinosaur's have to be plugged in electrically. I'm looking for a 500G device. Are they all created equal? What is working best for you? THANKS!

[1492]

Redundant RAIDS covers one from drive failures, but don't necessarily protect you from data corruption. So still need to back these RAIDS up.

[strollin]

Units with multiple drives are generally referred to as RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) enclosures. You'll also typically find multiple drives in NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices which are file servers for a network.

[mlts22]

There are some external hard drives that two internal disks and mirror the data between the two. That way, if one drive dies, the other still has your data. Not cheap, but might be worth looking into.

[strollin]

It makes sense that drives will keep getting smaller. The first disk drive, the IBM RAMAC 350 used 24" platters. In the 70's disk drives had 14" disks, next generation had 10" disks. When PC hard drives first started shipping they used 5.25" platters which eventually gave way to 3.5".

If, and when, ssd's or some other technology prove to be more cost effective and reliable the industry will gravitate in that direction.

[RayJayco]

8.1 Van wrote:

RayJayco wrote:
3.5" drives are being phased out for the most part as the 2.5" are typically more reliable, less prone to damage from vibration and use less power. This info is easy to find if you do some searches for enterprise hard drives.
You can buy an enclosure and install your hard drive of choice in it.

Looks like 3.5" is still bigger than 2.5" for datacenter drives.
enterprise hard drives

Take a good look at the info on your link... Note things such as MTBF (mean time between failure), workload, which is marked for mission critical, high performance, etc... As well as what they are designed for...
Yes, they still make 3.5" drives, however as I said, the manufacturers are moving towards 2.5" drives, especially for enterprise calibur drives. For home users, whatever...

If you want to know what features will be on "regular" cars in the future, look at the Mercedes "S" class. If you want to know where hard drives are going, look at the enterprise class...

Edit- As a note, the 3.5" drives have larger plates for more storage capacity, they also typically wear out quicker...

[8_1_Van]

RayJayco wrote:
3.5" drives are being phased out for the most part as the 2.5" are typically more reliable, less prone to damage from vibration and use less power. This info is easy to find if you do some searches for enterprise hard drives.
You can buy an enclosure and install your hard drive of choice in it.

Looks like 3.5" is still bigger than 2.5" for datacenter drives.
enterprise hard drives

[Heisenberg]

RayJayco wrote:
You can buy an enclosure and install your hard drive of choice in it.

This is the ticket.......

[RayJayco]

3.5" drives are being phased out for the most part as the 2.5" are typically more reliable, less prone to damage from vibration and use less power. This info is easy to find if you do some searches for enterprise hard drives.
You can buy an enclosure and install your hard drive of choice in it.

[8_1_Van]

I use a 4TB 7200rpm ext HDD for my PC and 2TB USB 3.0 ext HDD for my i7 MacBook Air.

[1492]

As mentioned, it depends on the HD. A typical desktop 3.5" drive requires 12v DC power, so will need an external power supply. However, 2.5" drives typically used in laptops only require 5v DC power, so can use a powered USB connection. But actual USB output power can vary, so may need to use 2 USB connections in some cases.

I use 3.5" HD external drives for my desktop, typically Western Digital or Hitachi, and carry Western Digital 1T 2.5" external drive in my notebook case, as my DELL Ultra and Apple MacBook only have internal SSD drives of limited space.

[Finally_Time]

I was looking for an external HD for backups. Cnet reviews listed WD-My Passport Ultra as the best followed by WD-My Passport Slim and Seagate Backup Plus. I have been using an old WD-My Passport for years. It has survived may RV trips. Seems to be pretty rugged but is now too small.

[MrWizard]

A few months back, before the Olympics
I bought an external buffalo drive 2tb for $ 89, bought it for my homeworx video recorder
I have two "acomdata" external drives 250gb and 750 gb, that are about four years old
They still work great, no errors, they are storage, and have been used with three different laptops
And they are almost full, I am not adding any more files too those drives but I do access then for retrieval purposes

[sue_t]

I have three of the Western Digital "My Book" drives, one an old 2TB USB 2.0, while the other two are newer 3TB USB 3.0

I also have two of the smaller 320GB WD Passport Essential drives, which travel with me, again to back up images while on the road. Actually, the backup My Books also travel with me in case something happens to my desktop at home while we're RVing.

The Passports and the 2TB My Book have survived much abuse. The My Book went for an unplanned flight about two years ago and landed hard on the ground. It continues to work flawlessly. One of the Passports has a cracked case, but some electrical tape has kept it together.

With thousands of high resolution RAW files to store and backup, these drives suit my purpose well. I don't use WD's SmartWare backup software though, finding it to be a resource hog. Instead I use a quick, easy and free program called SyncBackFree.

[aslakson]

I use both WD and Seagate USB "passport" type drives for video storage and have had no problems with either. I'm currently transitioning a from a bunch of 1tb Seagates to some 2tb WD drives just to reduce clutter. I use the WD drives because they're what Costco has at a good price. All are USB powered and because they are designed to be portable are presumably somewhat ruggedized. That said, I don't keep the drives powered while the motorhome is in motion.

At around $100 for a 2tb drive, the price is certainly right.

al