Recommendations for USB hard drive

Biggles

I'm looking for a new USB hard drive for backup, 1TB should be enough.

That alone presumably rules out an SSD, are there any particular makes of HD that I should aim for or avoid?

Squire_Fulwood

I have several Samsung S2's and they have all performed perfectly since I bought them some time ago. They are also small and of pleasing appearance. I daresay other makes are also good but I cannot fault these ones.

A.Penny.Saved

How about a hard drive dock? They can often use both SSD's and hard drives and you can then buy the bare drives and dock them, backup and then store the hard drive. Startech make some good ones. I want one of their dual bay USB3.0 docks.
http://uk.startech.com/HDD/Docking/
I want one of these, ignore the prices on the startech site because they can be purchased for close to half the price online. CCL sell them for about £76 and a few other sites, which might not be trustworthy, for a few £ less. Single bay docks are around £50 and other makes for around £30 or so.

agrinnall

I use Transcend StoreJets as they are ruggedised so if you do happen to drop it then there's a better change of your data surviving - I speak from experience of having dropped a LaCie drive and losing everything on it.

John_Gray

The reliability of hard drives seems to vary from year to year, and sometimes from batch to batch, so it's just a matter of guesswork, IMHO. The WD "My Passport" series seems to be well thought of.

If you have USB3 ports on your computer, then you most definitely want to get a USB3 external hard drive. Life is too short to copy gigachunks of data via USB2, if you have a better option.

A.Penny.Saved

He could maybe add a USB3.0 PCI-e card if he does not already have them. There are cards with 4 ports, 2 external and a header for a two front USB ports.

enfield_freddy

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

How about a hard drive dock? They can often use both SSD's and hard drives and you can then buy the bare drives and dock them, backup and then store the hard drive. Startech make some good ones. I want one of their dual bay USB3.0 docks.
http://uk.startech.com/HDD/Docking/
I want one of these, ignore the prices on the startech site because they can be purchased for close to half the price online. CCL sell them for about £76 and a few other sites, which might not be trustworthy, for a few £ less. Single bay docks are around £50 and other makes for around £30 or so.

I have one of those http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00FSCR97W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 takes 2.5 and 3.5 drives , and is usb 3 ,

S0litaire

What ever external option you go with, make sure it uses USB3. Future proof it for a couple of extra £

Also SSD's are getting a bit better these days price and reliability.

As you are doing backups probably not a lot of data is getting changed, just written to, so a SSD is acceptable.



If you REALLY want a good Backup drive and have a £850 or so to spare!

How about a 8Gb Helium filled hard drive for data "cold storage"/archiving???

http://www.hgst.com/hard-drives/enterprise-hard-drives/enterprise-sas-drives/ultrastar-he8

Stick it in a USB3 caddy and off you go! ^_^

(Well until you run out of room and you just HAVE to really buy the 10Gb version of the drive when it's released early next year....)

**edit**
OK made a booboo due to general anaesthetic lol
Replace Gb with Tb to make more sense!

agrinnall

S0litaire wrote: »

What ever external option you go with, make sure it uses USB3. Future proof it for a couple of extra £

Also SSD's are getting a bit better these days price and reliability.

As you are doing backups probably not a lot of data is getting changed, just written to, so a SSD is acceptable.



If you REALLY want a good Backup drive and have a £850 or so to spare!

How about a 8Gb Helium filled hard drive for data "cold storage"/archiving???

http://www.hgst.com/hard-drives/enterprise-hard-drives/enterprise-sas-drives/ultrastar-he8

Stick it in a USB3 caddy and off you go! ^_^

(Well until you run out of room and you just HAVE to really buy the 10Gb version of the drive when it's released early next year....)

I was a bit worried at first that my £850 would disappear pretty quickly with only 8Gb to fill up, but luckily both drives you mention are TB not Gb (c. 8,000 times more space) so should last for a while .

Chrishazle

Look on Ebuyer - they're doing the Intenso 1Tb USB drive for £40, USB powered so no extra power point needed, BIL bought one, seems OK.

Edit and update - just had todays flyer from aria.co.uk, Samsung 1TB USB3 £45.

Biggles

Hmm, thanks for all those suggestions.

I hadn't considered (or even knew about) a hard drive dock. That could suit me better than a HD, as I already keep a regular 'full backup' on a USB HD but am looking for something to replace my separate 'generational' long-term backups, which are presently done on DVDs. The concept reminds me somewhat of the old Omega 'Zip Drives' of several years ago.

My PC dates from 2010, so doesn't have USB3, but I guess it would be useful in my new drive/dock.